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Things are getting a little off track here... Hearst rarely buys stations, and just blew $220 million on a station in a market where $220 million is a... questionable amount to pay for a TV station. I'm not so sure they'd still be in a buying mood, and I'm also not sure why people see this as the golden opportunity for Hearst to enter the market... This company has had operations in New York City since long before anyone even thought of the concept of television. I feel like they have had numerous better opportunities in much better market conditions to make that happen. In all likelihood, a forced sale of WPIX would probably result in Nexstar dumping some underperforming stations (I'm sure they have a few) to get them back under the cap to own WPIX outright. They've invested far too much in WPIX to let it go elsewhere.

WVTM was an easy fixer upper that Media General squandered. As soon as Media General saw the opportunity to get WIAT back (which had been fixed by others), they jumped at the chance to sell off WVTM. Hearst immediately turned the station around. Not entirely sure about WJCL but I'm pretty sure there was an upside after Hearst took over. The only downside is They couldn't take on WTGS which became another half-station Sinclair runs in the market with news piped in from elsewhere. Bottom line, if Hearst can easily make a station work, then they'll buy when the opportunity arises.

There is a very good chance that, because Nexstar is not interested in selling any stations because of simple greed and hubris, WPIX is ordered by the FCC to be sold to a chain hostile to the CW. Should that happen, the CW will be totally without a flagship station, and Nexstar will have only themselves to blame. Nexstar will not be shutting down WPIX. They will only lose control of it, and Uncle Perry's nepo baby who plays make-believe sportscaster will need to update his resume.

You're right. Valid points, @24994J Yeah overall the new look is amazing for KABC the graphics are stellar and spectacular there are still some kinks they gotta fix like the audio in some of the closes and opens also the transitions can be a bit too fast but i'm sure they'll work those out over the coming weeks. I guess when it come to the music theme, on the flipside, when I visit LA, I won't feel too homesick since I'll hear the familiar theme there too. And the Angelinos can feel the same when they visit us here in New York ;). In summary from the colors which can't be changed per the mandate as suggested, and the wild choice to adopt WABC's music, it doesn't change their product and who they are, along with the amazing talent that both stations employ to deliver an excellent news product making them the top news stations in the country. Al Primo is a pioneer in this format of local news delivery and to this date remains successful. In a way it goes back to the old days when all of the ABC O&O stations were using the Cool Hand Luke and News Series 2000+ theme, in retrospect that is what it is now low-key reminiscent of with KABC/WABC now on the same theme. The two stations in a way are now united and their tenacious spirit can now be felt coast to coast. I've even seen WABC use the "Eyewitness News" titular wordmark that KABC/WLS uses in some of their promos so it is all a shared resource and the days of being unique and individual are behind, as the world becomes more and more connected. Bravo to all the O&Os, overall I think out of all of them, the ABC look is the best!

The problem is young people watch shows on streaming. Young Sheldon actually had changing demos when reruns went to Netflix. From the New York Times: The show also struck a chord with viewers under the age of 34, according to Nielsen. Mr. Molaro, the show’s co-creator, said the Netflix bump became apparent to him when the crew was shooting a scene recently near a church in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. “Young Sheldon” had filmed in that location dozens of times without incident. But this time, roughly five months after the show began streaming on Netflix, it was a vastly different situation. “There were hundreds of kids at the fence screaming for Wallace Shawn,” he said, referring to the 80-year-old cast member. “We were like, ‘What is happening?’” So yeah, linear television is in a very bad state right now, and the last thing the affiliates need is for the networks to give up on them, because they have no Plan B. And contrary to the sentiments of a few people in this fandom, MOAR NEWS is not, I repeat NOT, an acceptable Plan B.

Back to Nexstar..... Basically, this is Perry Sook's show. He made 29.2 MILLION DOLLARS in 2023. https://www1.salary.com/Perry-A-Sook-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-NEXSTAR-MEDIA-GROUP.html All while his stations are stuck in a 2000s mindset of "pay TV first" and the employees are making scrappy wages and being nickled and dimed on top of that. Even if Nexstar goes under, he'll be fine. By comparison, Chris Ripley of Sinclair made a fraction of that....a paltry 9.6 million in 2022.

It should also be pointed out that Hearst is a private company, so if it was a waste of money, we'll never know or need to care and obviously the Watermans wanted a steward, not a repeat of Jim Rogers's wishes being completely disregarded by his family for some quick Sinclair cash. I tend to put Hearst in a completely different container than most of the public broadcast groups simply because they do quality things that would be shot down by shareholders and seem to still think of the public as their actual customers as far as television and print, along with online.

How in the Florida was WBBH an 'waste of money' for Hearst? Hearst acquired it and WZVN because Waterman Broadcasting wanted to sell the stations off before Edith Waterman turned 100. And plus, it isn't an 'waste of money'. it's in 2nd place behind WINK-TV (Channel 11), ONWED by the family of the founder of the ORIGINAL CLEVELAND BROWNS, Mickey McBride. Also, I like how no-one even notices that WZVN, albeit owned by Montclair Communications, is operated by Hearst.

That's essentially how it is with any station group outside of O&Os as well-- Sinclair and Tegna are the worst offenders.

KYW picked up the new morning cut of Dimensional that KPIX and now WCBS are using:

Update: Mission Broadcasting just said, "nope" to acquiring WADL-TV

Here are some more clips from FATV, posted on YouTube. The graphics are stellar, as expected, but the only gripe I have is just the music.. I'm grieving the loss of the NG Eyewitness News music, their adoption of the WABC theme and signature is just so unsettling for me I don't know why. I feel like it doesn't fit for them, because the theme is so New York and its been used here for all of these years (20+ years) doesn't seem right for KABC to adopt it. The graphics are awesome, as we all know, but the only thing for me is the theme and music. It's essentially a carbon copy of WABC. The Series 4 theme just theme doesn't suit LA. Did anyone see the morning show? Is it the same Series 4 cut and bumper as well? Here's WABC's so we can compare. Notice how WABC's opening cut is a bit different. Same theme but different variation.

Locally in Kansas City, if any and I will repeat this literally ANY Television station tries to put an 9pm newscast on thier main channel or if they are in a duopoly, the secondary channel, it WILL get defeated by WDAF-TV (A FOX AFFILIATE) because Channel 4 just have the experience with an 9pm newscast SINCE 1994. It doesn't even care if it's Channel 9, 5, or 41, it will lose against Channel 4. That's an local, but important example why the Plan B wouldn't be an More News situation.

They should bring back Megan Glaros

I’m going to miss the “California Look.” KABC was polished and bright, KFSN got the discount look since the font styles never matched, then later adopted the KGO “LIVE” bug by making it bigger than KABC’s version. KGO had the best color execution keeping it neutral (Royal Blue, Grey and Black) it was simple package that I wished that rolled out to the station group, it was pretty much nothing extravagant, easy to read and just a plain wallpaper with diagonal lines that would revolve looking like a cash register belt, no flashy animations and sweeping effects that we see now with all these boxes and large lower thirds that they adapted from WPVI and WABC. the weather graphics varied with KABC, KGO and KFSN, they could’ve done better but I do like the new weather graphics now that they are using.

No offense, but looks like WABC. I personally liked the previous package colors making the station more unique.

After a long delay… the (reimagined) street side studio will be unveiled soon (tentatively scheduled for July). Not sure if it’s just a state-of-the-art weather center (as previously reported) or something more. Nevertheless, glad to see the studio fully back up and running.

Where exactly would he go at the network? It’s not like they have an obvious open vacancy and he’s likely just fine in his current role.

Longtime KELO-TV anchor (and voiceover person post anchoring retirement) Doug Lund has died. https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/doug-lund-longtime-tv-anchor-dies-at-78/

Former KUSA, KCNC & KMGH Anchor John Rayburn has passed away at the age of 96. He worked at KCNC (then KOA-TV / NBC) from 1959-1963 as a sports anchor, KMGH (then KLZ-TV / CBS) as an anchor from 1963-1970 & then KUSA (then KBTV / ABC) from 1970-1980. Up until his death on Sunday he was doing some radio broadcasting, he was the first person to anchor the news at all 3 network stations in Denver. https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/john-rayburn-tv-anchor-denver-obituary/73-9d256c9b-b574-46bd-8158-b9a8c7d236d5

Longtime CNN political commentator Alice Stewart was found dead this morning. She had just appeared on CNN yesterday. She was always smart and respectful. Colleagues in politics and media are sharing reflections all over Twitter. Rest in peace. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/18/politics/alice-stewart-cnn-commentator-dies/index.html