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Frank Gari Productions 1989, The Diversified News Reel

After 25+ years, the new KUSI set is in service https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1338842107280213 https://www.instagram.com/p/DDBlmNZRvMC/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DDAFb8DvKXI/ I like the use of the header above to add some depth and the look fits KUSI. Camera blocking is still pretty bare bones - just straight on shots with the skyline in the background for the close ups, so you don't see much of the variety of the sides of the set on air unless they're doing a 4 shot. KSWB will move into the KUSI building when its studio is finished. No change to the graphics or music...would have thought that would happen along the new set. So maybe they'll keep the pre Nexstar look going that's comfortable to so many viewers. Recent promos have been doubling down on the star /red white and blue, classic KUSI look with a 'Putting You First' slogan, so that leans toward no big changes in the look. A few months ago they changed the typeface on the lower thirds and added a ticker, but that was the extent of it. https://www.instagram.com/p/DCsO2gESkMx/ Viewer feedback in the Facebook post is spicy, less about the set, more about shifts in the story selection and guests after Nexstar acquired. I think they're still #1 in the 10/11pm slot.

Metromedia owning an independent like WTCN. When I think of that time, I think of stations like KRIV, WTTG, WNEW (now WNYW), KTTV that became the original O&O stations with the then-new FOX network. As far as use of that news theme from 1984 (9 Country/11 Country), I'm more partial to the use on sister station 9NEWS KUSA in Denver from the Mike Landess/Ed Sardella years with the voice of Mr. ABC himself Ernie Anderson opening for 9NEWS About the Magers brothers: had Ron came back to the Twin Cities when his brother Paul came, these two brothers anchoring together would've made a splash in icy Minnesota. Sounded like Gannett back then had a boatload of money to spend on its stations, its equipment, its people and news production. Seems like they were a wealthy media group. Today, with all this standardization going on, that's just not the case.

I know its been several days past Christmas now, but I gotta say, it was a solid broadcast. And remember there are no newscasts for the entire day at WABC so I think its more than fair to have the broadcast. Solid broadcast non the less, thanks RolyPoly for posting this!

KUSA is temporarily in the former Daily Blast Live studio. Kyle Clark said there was some work being done on the main set. Aside from the atrocious white balancing on one camera and awful lighting in one shot, I actually don't think this looks that bad....

In Pittsburgh, Celina Pompeani Mathison, who gave birth to a son in September of last year and is also well known for her previous association with the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, has made the irreversible decision to leave KDKA's Pittsburgh Today Live and the entire television business to focus more on spending time with her family.

Say what you want about Fox News- Cavuto was always solid, and he persevered through a lot. I agree with what he said in his signoff about calling balls and strikes- he often had no problem bucking the consensus of many others in the lineup. Chris Wallace left CNN to do move over to the "new media environment"- A Wallace/Cavuto team-up might be interesting to see. Otherwise, his reporting style might have a place over at CBS... I'm excited to see what's next for him.

On days with more breaking news, WCBS has opted for a 2 anchor format at noon (Jessica Moore anchored with Cindy the day of the CEO murder, and Doug Williams joined her today).

Neil Cavuto is leaving.

I like this idea. They could also move Syfy's few remaining original series to USA, leave Syfy's mix of popular movies (only some of which are sci-fi or fantasy), and rebrand itas USA2 or even USA Movies.

The old WTBS now Peachtree TV, which if I'm not mistaken north of the border in Canada, is still being shown like it was back in the old SuperStation days getting similar treatment to WPIX, WGN, & KTLA.

USA is basically the general entertainment cable network, something that is considered a liability nowadays because streamers have eaten up much of their value proposition. But it's still one of the biggest cable networks and knowing that "USA Networks" has a history as a corporate moniker, I think using that for this company would be a good idea.

Considering the last package had their italic "23" looking goofy in the middle of the Peacock's torso this is actually a much better upgrade. I don't see how it's 'aged' really, or that graphics packages should be limited by network outside the looping background. It's not like they're downgrading to the last Quincy package that Allen will never move on from.

I prefer this package over the others that their stations are using, especially the newer ones. It seems the only one that has actual network elements in it is the NBC one with the peacock. The others are largely though association with large groups of their stations aside from a duopoly partner here and there.

Station Logo lapel pins. A sweet fashion accessory for every on-air talent. You gotta love em!!!

You know what? THIS news set - that was used by Daily Blast Live - is actually really awesome. Hope they NEVER leave this set in favor of the new one being built.

There's a LOT more depth in the DBL studio compared to the main studio. Talent over there just sit in front of a giant LED wall with close up shots of downtown which eliminate any depth.

I like that they are wearing 9 pins. Reminds me of the Circle 7 pins the ABC affiliates used to wear. I think only KABC still does this

I know they haven't yet announced what will happen to the names, but I don't think it's ideal for Comcast to allow the NBC brand to be used by another company that will basically become a competitor to NBC News programs & NBC News Now. They aren't renewing the Sky News licensing deal in Australia and Comcast doesn't even operate in Australia, so licensing the NBC brand to direct competitors in the same country seems like something they wouldn't be interested in doing.

Long term who knows how successful any cable network will be, but right now the NBCU cable networks part of the spin-off are profitable with billions in revenue, so shutting them down doesn't really make a lot of sense. Not to mention, shutting everything down and moving all the shows to the currently unprofitable peacock just increases expenses for peacock. If a show is successful on E! or Oxygen, it makes sense to keep the show on that network and have that network cover the majority of the costs instead of shifting the cost of the show exclusively to peacock where the show might not even perform as well. Same goes for moving Bravo shows exclusively to peacock. It makes more sense for NBC to keep Bravo and have the profitable network finance shows which can then perform well on peacock, and peacock doesn't have to cover the majority of the costs. I don't see how it makes sense for MSNBC & CNBC to merge into one channel. Both networks are highly profitable on their own and target different audiences. Besides weekend marathons of Lockup, left wing opinion programming is the only thing MSNBC has had success with. While I as a news junkie like them to cover news, I accept that there are so many news channels out there covering news, and MSNBC is the 2nd most watched news channel because it focuses on left wing opinion. Whenever they do focus on non-political news their ratings fall behind CNN, I still think they need to cover non-political news as a news channel and I'm disappointed with their lack of coverage for major international news stories over the past few years, but it's hard to deny how successful they have become focusing on politics with the left leaning view.

I don't understand why they would want to sell USA network. It's still one of the most watched cable networks and profitable. Instead of keeping bravo, why not move the programs that are on that network to peacock or combine it with the programming on USA network. I could imagine them combining cnbc & msnbc into one channel. They should remove some of the opinionated programs and just focus on reporting on the news & more in depth coverage or reporting of the days top stories. With the other channels / networks, I think they should have just shut them down and move the successful programs on those networks to peacock. I don't think the new company will be successful.

Nexstar's WPRI has picked up the WPIX package

These look the same as any other modern newscast's lower third. Same stock rectangular look, same generic font.

With election season behind us, some of the bold and innovative newscasts local stations eagerly announced are starting to be cut. For example, WISN is dropping their 9 p.m. newscast on their True Crime subchannel… a smart move, considering the newscast seemed like a misallocation of time and resources. https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/television-radio/2024/12/16/wisn-tv-channel-12-is-dropping-9-p-m-newscast-on-sister-station/77009461007/?tbref=hp

The Kelly Clarkson Show will be back for Season 7. https://deadline.com/2024/12/the-kelly-clarkson-show-renewed-season-7-nbcuniversal-1236204701/

Saturdays for both shows run one season back so it won't be until next year.

KPIX also dropped their 5am newscast for sometime. they now broadcast at 6am then 7am on KPIX+ 8am was also dropped and shows a replay of the 7am, recently found out during daylight savings when wondering why it’s still dark outside behind the anchors when it’s sunny outside instead of saying “previously recorded” like you see on the stream, they cover the timestamp with a grey box

It's like local news design firms unanimously decided for a Microsoft Paint/PowerPoint look. (Example, Nexstar's lower thirds and the current abc logo). Much of news graphics today is uninspiring and cheap looking. It's amazing that packages from the late '90s look more lively than today's work. I really do appreciate that Nexstar doesn't have a standard look across all stations, so there can be some individuality. My contention with modern set design is the overuse of video walls. Large screens look good coupled with furniture so that sets doesn't look barren like KPRC or the Today Show.

Yes 3D motion and use of light effects take full advantage of big screen video tech to create a larger than life emotional connection and distinctiveness that cements an identity. Doesn’t belong everywhere and needs to have design thought and storyboarding to be done well. Overuse of white background fields is the crime in video graphics. It’s too much contrast on a lit screen.

Joining the growing list of stations with their chief on air in the mornings …

The primary role of local news design is to support editorial content while creating a cohesive brand experience. At its core, design needs to prioritize clear, legible information for audiences, whether they’re watching on large screens or smaller devices across different platforms. A strong, well-defined hierarchy is essential to guide attention and ensure key details can be understood at a glance. While I absolutely agree that design should also be visually engaging, it has to stick to basic principles of layout and typography to do its job: enhancing and clarifying the content, not just chasing trends for the sake of being flashy. This is where I think some broadcast designers—and foamers—lose the thread. There needs to be real intention behind design decisions. In this case, I don’t see that intention, either from an information perspective or even in the overall design. That said, if you’re just into big, shiny 3D shapes, that’s awesome! I’m glad there are still designers out there who can create that for you.

oh, yeah i watched chuck scarborough's final newscast, and it was a great closing speech he gave, but, it's disappointing that sue simmons did not appear.

Chuck's last newscast was good, and he had a poignant commentary at the end. Especially loved his speech from his 50th anniversary dinner in which he challenged his coworkers to absorb the gravity of where they work. There was a distinct lack of Sue Simmons in tonight's newscast. I was hoping for a pre-taped tribute, or an in-person appearance like she did for Gabe Pressman's death. At least we got a full conversation between the pair during his 50th Anniversary Special.

The CNN Tonight version she anchored was simply the best format I've ever seen on a news channel both in Europe and in the US. People got the time to express their ideas, it was welcoming guests from anywhere in the political spectrum but rather in an intellectual perspective (not so much a partisan talk which NewsNight obviously is), and talked about a wide range of political subjects. During a short period of time, the 11pm-12am segment was a bit different but fitted very well next to the 10am-11am "opinion" style debate, as it welcomed only the journalists from the newsroom to talk in depth about the subjects they were working on (on a white sofa, in an Outnumbered style). This segment was called "tomorrow's news tonight", and this whole version of CNN Tonight deserved a really longer run!

And it looks like it debuted in 2010..... Can't wait to see when the next one in 2056, sources that's when the new graphics will debut!

Its official and it will happen on New Year's Day. First gone was the historic news/talk format which led to a lackluster sports betting format. Now, the call letters are going away with it after nearly 101 years. 560 will be KZAC. https://www.insideradio.com/free/so-long-kgo-historic-call-letters-to-vanish-from-bay-area-radio-dial/article_4f902a52-c6fa-11ef-be92-4bcc08318652.html

Netflix gets some creativity points for actually having a dedicated graphics package built around their logo (with CBS producing, I thought it was going to be just a rebranding of their graphics per the precedent of the Yahoo games from earlier). Though this scoreboard looks a bit iffy, almost like it's a preseason game on a Gray station. Not to mention the preseason-like errors (such as the Steelers somehow starting the game with only two timeouts)

the angled peacock logos are awful. it seems like it would be in violation of the NBC Style guide to use the NBC peacock that way. Those sets are nothing much to begin with but it guess they could only work with what they had. Bit of meh makeover to me.

More of a refresh than I was expecting, though it's still pretty minor. The angled peacocks everywhere are a little odd.

I get fire code... But that Exit sign behind the 3x3 distracts the heck out of me. If they use this for anything long term, I would hope they can reframe the shot to eliminate that.

ABC has settled with President-Elect Trump in the defamation case tied to the George Stephanopoulos/Nancy Mace interview where Mr. Stephanopoulos misstated the verdicts in two civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump. $15 million donation to a non-profit established for a Donald Trump Presidential Library Publish a note of regret on the story in question on the ABC News website An additional $1 Million to Mr. Trump's lawyers https://apnews.com/article/abc-trump-lawsuit-defamation-stephanopoulos-04aea8663310af39ae2a85f4c1a56d68

Quite a low moment for ABC News and a bleak sign of where media is heading under this administration.

On top of that, the station also modified its news branding to NBC 23 News Now. It’s odd to me that Nexstar allows non-ABC stations to use a package meant for the group’s ABC affiliates. The irony to this change is that, in Fresno, KGPE (one of the package’s other non-ABC clients) uses “ABC-01” while KSEE uses the “NBC-01” package that KVEO just switched from.

No. They don't. Rey Rodriguez is all they got. So it's his mediocrity or nothing. Nexstar won't spend the money on anything else. The fact that they don't have a group-wide package like Sinclair does (which feels incredibly dated and boring) is impressive, given where the business is at the moment. Assuming that you mean a network owned & operated station, there's only one that used a Linear Drift package and that's CBS. I liked their 2013 package better than their 2016. My contention is that 3D can look great, if it's subtly used to highlight certain information, context, etc. Completely flat looks terrible and completely 3D looks gaudy. There's is a design balance which I think works across multiple platforms and devices. This is why I want to see sets with multiple moving components so that they can be reconfigured for new and different standups, interview sets, news, weather, etc. Why have set designs that have statically designated areas these days?

These lower graphics are bland. Its basic and rectangular. ESPN and other *sports networks continually trump news graphics both local and national.

Linear Drift has absolutely no idea how to design a lower third.

She and Victor Blackwell were a really good pairing in the afternoons but that was ultimately short-lived once they switched to CNN News Central

At bare minimum, it looks like it belongs to a small-market Texas station, not Southern CA