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From what I have heard, Hearst and Graham run their stations well. Also they don't own as many stations when compared to Gray, Nexstar, or Sinclair, which allows them to invest in the quality of their stations.

And that's why it's the perfect thing to watch during work or out in public. Very few talking heads, you can jump in and jump out, the graphics aren't complicated or flashy, and it's a show without MorningSave '82,000% off this Bluey toothbrush trimmer' spots. I'm happy with it, though I wish NBC News Now had control over breaking news rather than having to hand off to the Today or Nightly teams; when they do have to cover it they are much better at it than when the 1A control room and correspondent egos get in the way. GMA3 was fine for awhile, but then the 8am hour team seemed to get more say and once that certain couple got forced out, they were able to get the show they wanted for the most part where it's all about selling and harmless news at noontime.

The Advocate is reporting that WVUE is talking with the New Orleans Pelicans to air a small selection of games. This is apparently a result of a one-year deal Diamond Sports signed with the NBA to allow teams to offer up to ten games on over the air stations in exchange for staying with Bally Sports for the season. Basically testing the waters that the Suns and Jazz are already swimming in (along with the NHL's Golden Knights and Coyotes).

They could give the News at noon to Cindy, so her hours would be 9am and 12pm, and Mary and Chris 4:30-8:30 (although that still is long)

I think it’s been on at least a month. I saw it the one day randomly while waiting for the news at 9am to begin. Honestly, the morning crew works the worst hours. At this point they really need to be excused altogether from the news at noon because their day is too long—I mean, unless they enjoy doing it. They really could just replay the morning news instead of the 7/8am news because it’s all the same information, unless something serious breaks after the morning news is over.

I suppose my issue with News Daily is that it's yet another newscast on station lineups that are already saturated with heavy and repetitive local news output. Then again, the syndication options are dry. What could NBC have put there? They've been reduced to airing Dateline on o&o stations.

Especially with Sinclair and Nexstar, the amount of control the top management forces on the lower ranks. While many of the stations they acquired had great ideas from veterans that could have been implemented throughout, instead you have the same management who ended up acquiring these stations, imposing their will, and turning them into mindless drones. The industry is poorer because of it and the great stations they have collectively run into the ground.

Conspiracy: they did that on purpose during high parade viewership, hoping it would go unnoticed.

What a waste of space. As if the world needs MORE cable channels...and more cable channels to not watch and be forced to pay for...

Agreed. I'm definitely not saying we are perfect by any means and there will always be more work to do, but I am proud of where we have come, with limited resources. Thank you!

Lots of improvement, the reporters teasing their stories adds a lot of authenticity. The lighting on the main anchor is another area to work on - it's faded compared to the high resolution and brightness of the graphics, as well as compared to the quality of the field reports.

Weigel is definitely not an afterthought in the market and they've long left their 90s era struggles at this point. They definitely have the more powerful schedule and good overall lead-ins outside mornings, and they (along with the other four ops in town) hire good people from everywhere rather than MMJs who are hamstrung from the get-go. WTMJ is just in a fugue state where they're still stuck trying to recapture their 90s peak, but with Carole Meekins about to depart they no longer have any of those people in the newsroom and it's mainly either personnel with no connection to the area, or those who came on to try to salvage things, or those who are just there because they sucked up to management still living as if Journal hasn't fully ceased to exist. There's just no encouragement there, or any management that wants it to be unique; their GM did absolutely nothing with WGBA and somehow got promoted, and their 'no comment' in that Next TV article says it all; it's a station that wants to do the bare minimum without Cincy catching onto them.

That is surprising, usually from 7-9 am, and 9am afterwards, the content outside of the top and bottom of the hour gets lighter with lots of banter, "roving reporter" content and some stations like WGN making it all their own. I like their "9 at 9" countdown of stuff at 9am. Smaller markets, especially those that are duopoly partners tend to keep it more newsy if they're counter programming the national shows.

Finally switching to the new logo, during a parade, 2 years after network's initial rebrand rollout isn't really a sign of anything.

This is the same show that just did a full blown out celebration of an anchor’s bachelorette party and wedding. Michael is entitled to his privacy but you can’t stop people from asking questions. Sadly there are different expectations of “privacy” for someone in a public profession.

Interesting. This was a year before Media General sold WDEF to Morris, who basically maintained the Media General style at the time, well into their transition into HD. That look at the time was originally done by VDO, and later brought in house by Media General, with some additions from other stations, mainly WFLA. Perhaps the look was done "in-house" by a former employee who left Media General?

I'm sorry, but this is "one step forward, two steps back" for Nexstar and DirecTV. The "Mission Broadcasting owned" stations have been dark on DirecTV (satellite and stream) for almost a year now, when it's obvious that Nexstar "operates" these stations. Nexstar is clearly double-dipping with TV providers when it comes to retransmission fees, and the FCC should really do something about it.

I think that a long-form news magazine would actually be significantly better than a regular newscast at this point, because it would allow the operation to develop while also having a greater potential to attract a viewership. As it goes on, a more complete newscast could evolve naturally from there.

He's worked at other "major" stations before so the question must be asked why is he doing this? Didn't make it there so trying to do it on his own? I know his health may have been a factor at one point. But making a TV newscast on your own isn't gonna happen. I get the feeling he just likes being on TV or thinks it's impressive to others that he puts out videos....but anyone can do that nowadays with the internet. It was impressive what he did when he was young but why does it seem like he is doing the same type of thing? As others have said, many Youtubers with basic equipment can put out compelling high quality content. Why doesn't he try that instead? He needs to put himself in the shoes of potential viewers and what would be interesting to them. Low quality stolen clips from competitor newscasts is not it. The ratings may never be great, but you could do some interesting stuff. I saw a "drone 53" in one of his videos. If he actually has one, why not take it out daily and broadcast a 5-10 minute flight over an area. That's 10 minutes right there of unique local content which beats out what he's currently doing. That's just one of many ideas I'm randomly thinking of as I write this. If "news" is what he wants to stick to though, why not go to an event of the day and do a 15 minute story on it, even if it's just a long straight interview. At least it'd be on-site and not in "the basement". Use a smartphone to record HD, an external mic, and stabilizer, and the quality right there should be quite good. Wouldn't be too hard to edit in some b-roll, etc to elevate it. I can root for him like others want to, but there are also expectations that someone with his "experience" level (if we can call it that?), should be able to put out better content than this at this point in his career. Which brings us back to the question of....why is he doing this?

Completely agree. I will probably post a follow-up video on Friday to show my audience the improvements he has made, and to be fair. I don't want people to just see the first show, think I was there just to post it because it was bad, and move on. If he's making a true effort, which he is, I will spotlight that. For a one-person operation he is trying. I believe in being fair and equitable in my uploads (as the person who brought attention to this - I doubt we'd all be here talking about this if I didn't make that upload, and to be honest I almost passed on it, so I'm glad I did end up going for it). Not every station is going to be WPVI or WRC — conversely not every station is going to be WBKB or The Delta News. It's important to provide as wide of a variety as possible. Is this product better than what KFSN was providing them? No, but nobody is claiming that either (I don't even like KFSN's product to begin with - too tabloidy for me). This is the same market who has bestowed the world with TikTok/IG stars Caroline Collins and Liv Johnson (KSEE/KGPE), remember. Fresno is not exactly the mecca of quality storytelling. I think Austin is making a legitimate effort to provide a serious newscast. Like I said, he is looking around for a graphics package and so it will start to look more polished with time. If you want to blame anybody here, blame Cocola. They are a notoriously cheap company and have been since day one (they are still using outdated EAS equipment in 2022). I'm surprised they even picked up the KAIL lineup to begin with. I'm not surprised they didn't renew the KFSN agreement. I will give them credit for at least wanting to keep some type of 8pm newscast going when they could've just plugged in syndicated or paid programming (and the Cocola stations air a lot of that). I have seen much, much worse, and I will defend Austin because he is at least taking people's concerns to heart and trying to improve. He is more than aware that his product doesn't look like the O&O in town, but I'm sure if he had the money, he would. I don't think he is doing this for ratings or to make money, but doing it because he is truly passionate about it. And in this day and age when many people are exiting the industry and not missing it one bit, Austin should be commended for continuing to truly have a burning passion for journalism and local news.

Thank you, @ABC 7 Denver. One thing I noticed is how absolutely hyper-critical this fandom tends to be without actually taking a step back and trying to understand the "How"s & "Why"s behind changes in news products. Are some graphics actually bad? Yes. Some are. Is EVERY SINGLE aspect of a graphics package bad simply because you personally don't like one aspect of it? No. That's absolutely not the case. These absolute statements and severe judgements based on a few minutes of witnessing something new just leads to drama, and I'm personally getting kind of sick of it. It's not everybody, but I just find the irony kind of amazing that the whole thing behind news is being objective, yet we let our personal feelings dictate definitively that something is "bad". Not everything is 100% "Bad" MY53's news department is a one-man-band with the budget of $12 and a ham sandwich. The product will get better over time. There will be a lot of testing & figuring it out, and he deserves our support for taking on a project like this. Bottom line is, Austin is one of us. He's a total news nerd just like we are, and he's a damn good journalist. He has a challenge ahead of him that he willingly took on. We really should, as a community, be in his corner to support him, and not completely rip apart his product on the first night. In fact, we really need to learn how to sit back and observe things for a few nights before we draw our conclusions, weighing all pros & cons of certain things instead of just crapping on something the first time we see it just because it's different. TLDR: Guys, we really need to step it up and do better, instead of turning everything into a bitch-fest.

With all due respect to the phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” here’s two more salient phrases that more appropriately apply here, and they run hand-in-hand: 1. You will never get a second chance to make a great first impression. 2. Perception is reality. If you live in Fresno, and you stumbled upon that debut newscast and saw it looked no-budget with stories lifted from other stations, a Podcaster doing sports, and a setup that sure as hell lent credence to Scott Jones’s slam (which, considering Scott’s irrationally absurd hatred of Dave Lougee, sure doesn’t mean much), you’re likely not going to tune back to that newscast ever again. If the perception is that it’s an cheap newscast with no effort or care put into it whatsoever, then good luck changing that. Other options exist in the Fresno market, including a freaking O&O. Watch them instead. The fact this debut newscast already went viral is a testament to both sayings. Few will watch that second newscast in comparison to the debut. It’s how things work.

Not saying I agree with that comment to begin with, but in the interest of fairness: csreedabc is Chris Reed, owner of Newsmusic Central and also a copyright lawyer in his day job. So I can see why he said what he said.

I feel like... 10% bad for him. News seems to be his passion and I wish the guy luck, but he's been in the biz for decades now. He started in his teens with public access "news" programs. Which for being a teen, was impressive. He even got his show posted on NMSA under "Rose City News". But...he's not a teen anymore and he's since had multiple stints at professional stations in various positions. So he's more than had enough time to bring his skills up to snuff. If this is what he's putting out, the criticism is deserved.

In the interest of fairness, as the person responsible for posting the video that went "viral".... Austin Reed did post tonight's newscast and he did take everyone's concerns to heart. He has replaced all of the various music lifted off of News Music Now with proper News One tracks that he is authorized to use, downloaded directly from WCPM, and only that package. I think he did read the FTVLIve piece that was published this morning and got rid of the podcaster-hosted sports segment in favor of an extended interview. He also put a disclaimer at the end that it was recorded at CentralValleyTalk.com studios (an obvious swipe at FTVLive for claiming that it was shot in his basement). He actually did license it — he sent my friend the contract he has with WCPM, so it is legal. Mark Agent is a legitimate person, the licensing director for WCPM. Apparently he had difficulties downloading the audio tracks and resorted to NMN for the first show. Should he have done that? No, but give him credit for getting that rectified quickly. News Music Now is very much aware. He commented on my video: They are licensed, so nothing is going to come of this. At the end of the day, I do feel kind of bad that Austin has received some of the hate he's gotten. Some of it is rightfully so and well deserved: lifting others' news video (even if he gave a YouTube credit) is not acceptable, and is not fair use if he's profiting off of it (which he is, there's advertising, it's all direct response ads, but there's ads) and he does seem to be making some strides to getting things right. There was a fair amount of lifted video this evening so I think it'll take him a while, but nowhere near the amount that there was Friday. The presentation could use a lot of work, and he knows that. He is actively shopping around for a graphics package and has had interest from a couple of designers. Given the fact that is a one person operation, I will give him credit and I think this product is only going to improve over time. He had a week to launch (they were airing NewsNet in the timeslot the past three months after they declined to renew their outsourcing arrangement with KFSN at the end of 2021) and I guess they had to have NewsNet gone by the end of March. So I will give him a lot of props for stringing together what he could on such short notice.

WPKD’s upcoming 8:00 p.m. newscast now has a premiere date and a title: Primetime News on KDKA+ will replace the interim 8:00 and 8:30 runs of Family Feud on January 8.

The half-hour gap between the 8am and 9am newscast is weird. They should just make the 8am a full hour and go nonstop from 4:30-10am between WCBS, WLNY and streaming.

Don’t know when it premiered, but WCBS has added an 8am half-hour streaming newscast. It is also simulcast on WLNY and repeats at 8:30am.

Probably could’ve made like the CBS O&Os and shortened the 9am newscast to a half-hour and put Drew at 9:30.