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Hagerstown is in the Washington, DC market, so DirecTV carried the station throughout the spot beam, essentially serving as an alternate for WRC.

They are not dead last or next-to-dead-last across the board like they were five years ago, but they're still not doing great. I'm not sure what the monthly averages are, but they're probably a ~#3 overall. Their bright spots are probably their 6 and 7pm newscasts. The format is fresh, Juliette Goodrich is a good and popular anchor, and those shows are in between the Evening News at 6:30, which also helps. I can see why other O&Os like WCBS are more or less copying that format. Otherwise, they're still basically last place in the morning, and the 8/9pm news block on PIX Plus gets hashmarks most nights.

Katie (Katherine then) was the Pentagon correspondent for NBC and was co-anchor of the much more buttoned up Sunday Today program. She also commanded hours of NBC’s coverage during Columbine, 9/11, London subway bombings, Hurricane Katrina, etc. She also held an impromptu interview with Bush senior that was well regarded. CBSEN didn’t work out for her but she has the chops for serious news. Statements like this might give her comments on sexism a bit of credence. In my opinion, David Muir is one of the worst anchors to grace any of the evening newscasts but you seldom hear criticism that he’s better suited for GMA, which he arguably was when Diane retired.

It is even more complicated than that. DirecTV agreed to pay Nexstar a fee even though they were not retransmitting what was then NBC affiliate WHAG starting in 2015. The $10.5 million is what DirecTV paid to not carry that station from when it lost NBC on July 1, 2016, to November 2018, when DirecTV learned it was no longer an NBC affiliate. Because I am a nerd... all the filings in the case are here.

Looks like just the 5pm is moving to the virtual studio. The other shows will still most likely be in the new KCAL copied set.

Weekend weather people used to do the entire weekend back to as late as the 90s. There are plenty of fill-in options for them with 5 full-time meteoroligists. No need for a part-timer. Disagree on the demotion part. He is still on weekday afternoons/evenings. Additionally, the 10 PM is on another channel. You say you’re adding another show to Cecily, but she’s got the least amount of airtime currently: Cecily: 1.5 daily, 7.5 weekly Adam: 2.5 daily, 12.5 weekly Karen: 4.0 daily, 20.0 weekly Brittany: 3.5 daily, 7.0 weekly (that does not include the average 3 noon shows she does which would make it 10.0 hours weekly) Chris: 4.0/4.5 daily, 8.5 weekly (that does not include the average 2 noon shows he does which would make it 10.5 hours weekly) Still makes more sense to have the weekend people split the noon shift if they don’t wanna add Adam there, as opposed to adding a sixth person. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this one.

The irony is that it may work - in the other direction...mentioned on Speculatron.

Alix Kendall is leaving KMSP (Minneapolis-St. Paul) in September after 25 years of anchoring the Morning News. Says it's not a retirement but focusing on "a new chapter" which will include screenwriting. https://www.fox9.com/news/alix-kendall-retirement-fox-9-morning-news?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawEm995leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZCao4ih4crmkgCmyGwoOJZ3xQMw3m9LNZufoWS-CLU691tU6-o2HOaUDA_aem_UoJYZOJWDdJPTHBwI46fqQ

Sean O'Flaherty, WTMJ (and Scripps') longest-tenured employee, passed away on Friday, at the age of 74. He had been with the station for 53 years, holding the position of Newsroom Operations Manager for the last several decades. https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/longtime-tmj4-news-employee-sean-oflaherty-dies-at-74 Sean had started out as a reporter at the station, some of his packages are available online on UW Milwaukee's digital archives of WTMJ's film collection. One package that's not on there is coverage of a failed hot air balloon race in 1975, the crew of which coincidentally included the balloon pilot from WITI's "Look up to TV6" promo from a few years prior. A sad loss not only for WTMJ, but the entire Milwaukee market. Sean also moonlit (literally) as the station's weekend overnight photographer, and was well known at the other stations in town, even by those who never worked at WTMJ.

In addition to transitioning to the CBS News Chicago brand on air, WBBM has returned to the streetside studio after 7 years, along with a KCAL-style set to boot.

WGNO sports director Ed Daniels has passed away. He was 67.