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This is off-topic, but wow. Such a beautiful home, all destroyed. Ugh. I feel for the folks who lived there.

Well, this just happened… The tornado touched down near Lake Mary around 9:40 a.m. EDT (with a debris signature visible on radar), and approached the vicinity of WOFL/WRBW’s studios, where debris was reported falling from the sky onto the studio grounds.

she said she filling in for him, not replacing him.

I warned y'all a month ago. I knew we were being duped. Don't be surprised if more stations do this because Allen was planning to do this all along.

This is a general thread for the Fox O&Os since there isn't one yet... I figured I'd create a thread for Fox due to the continuing developments at Fox News and the O&O station group since the Ailes sexual harassment scandal began in July of 2016. Former O&Os (WJW, WHBQ, WFXT, WDAF, etc.) can also be covered under this thread. You're encouraged to create a new thread for major events such as Fox purchasing or selling a station, a new graphics package being adopted, etc.

Yes, I'm just systematically making threads for all the locals every time they do something noteworthy or funny. So, it's CBS 3's turn! And ahhh. Sweeps. No, not just sweeps, CBS 3 during sweeps. See, while 6 does consumer reports and investigative pieces that are sort of dumb, 29 gives us as much Jeff Cole as humanly possible, and 10 just does newscasts with actual relevant stories that matter to people like they do outside of sweeps... CBS 3 just goes the extra mile. Last sweeps, you'll recall, they asked the eternal question: WHY IS ERICA VON TIEHL DRIVING A TANK? This year, the burning question is thus: WHY IS CHRIS MAY WEARING A FIREFIGHTER SUIT? Oh, 3. I never know whether to laugh, cry, or... ...excuse me a minute... --- Sweeps stupidity aside... I'm finding myself enjoying CBS 3 a hell of a lot more than in the last couple of years. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the graphics. They're much more of an improvement than I expected, since I actually thought the Big Glass Eye, Arial font and all, was a pretty decent look for the O&Os. They keep the good stuff from that look while modernizing them to be far cleaner, sharper, and nicer than before. Maybe it's the music. I'm not as nostalgic for the KYW signature as a lot of people are, simply because, well, they got News In Focus and News In Focus is great. But for some reason, all of the themes since they switched to Enforcer proper have been, well, lacking to me. This theme is easily the best one since News in Focus, and it continues the streak of Gari's latest work being pretty good. Or... maybe, just maybe, it's the talent. I was skeptical about Jessica Dean when the hiring was announced - especially since 10 announced they were getting Jim Rosenfield a week before, and since the pairing of Rosenfield with Jacqueline London at 11 is working astoundingly well. And when she debuted, I wasn't exactly impressed. But since then, I've become a fan. Yes, she definitely is raw and green... but she's likeable. She seems genuine in a way that I wasn't expecting. Maybe part of that is the decision to do Dean's Digital Briefs on CBSPhilly.com - she does a good job of teasing the 11 without sounding like an announcer. In any event, CBS 3 needed a breath of fresh air - and I'm starting to think Jessica is that breath of fresh air. I'm definitely digging her more than I ever did Susan Barnett. I also want to note about Nicole Brewer. Yeah, that clip went viral, and yeah, everyone thinks she's a bitch who hates Carol Erickson. I wish those people who think that could have seen her about a month ago, when she filled in for Ukee alongside Erika Von Tiehl. The entire morning team was fast, loose, and extremely entertaining, moreso than I usually expect out of 3. Nicole really has, well, a "messing around" sort of humor. That doesn't always translate well to television... but I could tell that Nicole and Erika were having a really good time. So basically yeah. CBS 3 has facepalmy sweeps stunts... but they seem fresher than they have in a long time.

Just like when Beutel began his transition away from the anchor desk.. at the end of the 6pm news, he and Diana Williams would toss to Ritter in the newsroom for a look at what’s coming up at 11pm.

They definitely didn’t. After populating the advance schedule with specific infomercials—by name, not just paid programming — for multiple weeks, it reverted back. Good for them.

“Replacing” or “in for” cause there’s a big difference. Who knows maybe we’ll see someone we least expect. Again, I thought they said Mike officially takes over on Tuesday, we may see him tomorrow morning, who knows if an official decision is even made but if it is I guess we’ll find out.

KELOLand is reairing Captain 11 once again. The longtime local children's show from 1955-1996 is getting a Sunday marathon on KELO Xtra. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.keloland.com/news/local-news/captain-11-day-in-sioux-falls/amp/

WDJT has their replacement for Sam Kuffel; JD Rudd, who recently left Spectrum News WIsconsin, popped up on this evening's newscasts and the temperature was appropriate enough to note.

Is there a story behind that?

It's not Hearst, they're good until 01/2028. It's also not any of the other big names like Gray/Nexstar/Scripps/Sinclair/Hubbard/Graham/Cox/Tegna/Allen, etc. They all either had recent renewals or aren't expiring until the end of 2025 You can usually find the expiration dates in their public files on the FCC site, either as part of their biennial ownership reports or a seperate filing under contracts and agreements. It's probably someone who expired at the end of 2024 and is running out of short term extensions.

WGAL has been an NBC affiliate since it's inception. Them not being NBC would be insane. Matt

You can rest assured that Sinclair and NBC are locked into a multi-year agreement, according to the link below. I didn't hear anything regarding The Hearst Corporation and their NBC affiliates, though I'm guessing they could be the ones involved in the potential dispute. Sinclair Announces Renewals of NBC Affiliation Agreements | Business Wire

Here's something that I missed from last month... KOIN and KRCW are carrying 20 Oregon State Beavers baseball home games this season. One is airing now as we speak on KOIN but the majority of the games will be on KRCW. https://www.koin.com/sports/all-20-oregon-state-home-baseball-games-airing-on-koin-6-portlands-cw/

Chapter 7 liquidation is always a last resort. Nothing is impossible. But that's an disastrous outcome for everyone - even creditors. If there is a bankruptcy filing, Chapter 11 reorganization is the path they will try to negotiate with creditors - even if the end goal of the reorganization is reduced debt and a better balance sheet to make the company more attractive to prospective buyers. Think the final decade of Tribune's existence. Everything they did from bankruptcy until the deal closed with Nexstar (minus the whole Sinclair debacle) was done with the intention of getting the most money out of a merger. The print spinoff unloaded a financial problem, the LocalTV LLC Merger gave them scale. Scripps will just need to move at an accelerated pace because they don't have money to grow, they already spun off print, and the clock is ticking with the imminent ownership deregulation. There are considerable financial benefits to a seller with a sale structured as a merger with one company (and the buyer spins off any properties that regulators won't allow them to keep) rather than parts of the company being sold to multiple businesses.

Say it with me... I won't this time. It's Gray, KMOV, and the St. Louis Cardinals. For the first time since KSDK had longtime OTA rights to them before giving it up in 2010 (KPLR before that), KMOV will be carrying a select few telecasts of the birds this upcoming season, whether it's Channel 4 or Matrix Midwest. KFVS, KYTV, KSPR or KYCW; WMC, KAIT, WIFR or WSLN; WEEK, WGEM, WFIE, KTIV, KCRG, KYOU, KWQC, and KTTC or KXLT (either on their main channels or on a digitnet) will carry these games as well. https://tvnewscheck.com/programming/article/st-louis-cardinals-partner-with-gray-media-kmov-matrix-midwest/?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=St.+Louis+Cardinals+Partner+With+Gray+Media%2c+KMOV+%26amp%3b+Matrix+Midwest&utm_campaign=Less+Hype%2c+More+Hybridity+For+Cloud+Vendors+In+2025

Allen making weather changes at WEVV-Evansville as The Weather Channel moves in: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AwJdv2HZP/ From Griffin Glasscock, Chief Met: "Good morning, friends! I have an update to share about my new schedule. Starting Monday, I will be forecasting weather for our early evening news: 4, 5 & 6PM. 44News is partnering with the Weather Channel. They will be doing weather for our morning news moving forward. I truly love the mornings, which makes this change extremely hard. I may not miss the 2:30AM alarm clock, but I will miss waking up with each of you every morning and working next to my best friends (Tommy & Megan). I look forward to spending my mornings with my sweet boy and husband. I hope you’ll continue welcoming me into your homes as you settle down for the night. Thank you for the constant support and kindness! Love y’all❤"

Plus their stock prices keep plummeting... Definitely something amiss

According to a post on Reddit, the layoffs affect every station in the Scripps group. Some worse than others. No details on exact layoffs just yet. This sounds like Scripps is desperately trying to make its upcoming quarterly report look good or at least not entirely terrible. The fact the company delayed its earnings report alone is a sign of trouble.

My schedule means the 4:30 is the portion I watch, and Pellman does fine with that weather segment. Seems a good way to handle it.

It's good money if you can get it, I guess even if HD radio is barely a thing

Wonder if they were using the old SR video intro/outro as well. Usually, if this happens, it's probably because of tech issues & having this as backup.

I don’t know that they really needed to go all out with new music and graphics and it’s not as if they had a lot of time.

ESPN is reporting today that the Guardians, Brewers, and Twins will have their telecasts produced by Major League Baseball's local division starting next season. They'll join the Padres, Diamondbacks, and Rockies as teams that will have their local telecasts handled by MLB. More to @tyrannical bastard's point, this likely spells the end of Bally Sports Great Lakes.

The interesting part about the article (besides the major errors in initially reporting that Diamond was dropping all but one of its MLB team deals, rather than offering to do so as a leverage point, and suggesting all of its MLB broadcast deals, instead of just four of them, expired after the recently concluded season) is this quote: Ummm, MLB basically telegraphed it might dump Diamond and acquire their team contracts (even potentially moving them to an in-house streaming platform similar to MLB.tv) because it didn’t have faith they would come out of their bankruptcy reorganization as a viable business. So, it seems odd they’d be shocked Diamond was willing to walk away from all of its team contracts (sans the Braves), or that it chose to discuss new contractual terms with the teams themselves instead of the Commissioner’s Office. That said, given MLB’s position on its viability as a broadcast partner, Diamond offering to walk away from its team contracts if it can’t get more favorable terms seems akin to when David Zaslav said that TNT Sports “doesn’t have to have the NBA”, only to end up suing the league two years later after WBD’s offer to match the financial terms of Amazon’s NBA contract framework was rejected. It might sound like a means to ensure leverage in contract talks, but could readily backfire with the league leaving its offer, rather than taking it.

I don't think there is a thread for WFMZ yet, but I want to discuss them, so here it is. A few weeks ago Rob Vaughan posted on Facebook that people at the station told him more people in the Lehigh Valley watch 69 News at 5 pm than "any other channel on TV" - I commented asking for the actual rating/share, and he said he would ask those in the know if they wanted that info public. Apparently they didn't since he never responded. They appear to have a new reporter/anchor - someone I never saw before anchored the 6 pm news tonight. It's not uncommon - their talent comes and goes pretty frequently - but they don't usually make it to the anchor chair right away. She had sort of a "big market" vibe about her - at least more so than being on WFMZ. She's obviously not local since she butchered common place names like Schylkill and Nesquehoning. Also - more interestingly - 69 News at 5 tomorrow night is broadcasting from their new street side studio at 7th & Hamilton Streets in downtown Allentown. Allentown is on the verge of reinventing itself, and a $200 million minor league hockey arena is nearing completion with the first event being held this Friday. Downtown Allentown has been on a downhill climb since Hess's closed and without this arena it would have continued getting worse. There's been all kinds of other buildings constructed and they are hoping to attract lots of offices. Several large companies have already moved their headquarters to the new "City Center" buildings as they're being called. What I'm not sure of is if WFMZ hopes to moves it studio permanently to the new arena (the studio is actually contained within the building), or just use it for reports on hockey games and occasional newscasts. It seems odd to me to build an entire street side studio - complete with full pane windows - just to anchor the occasional newscast. But, I'm not sure what other purpose it may have, because their current studios are a good 10 miles and 20-25 minute drive from the downtown site.

The station has been showing KTTV Fox 11 News at 5 weekdays for a while now at the same time with KTTV. KCOP is also airing news at 11am and 11pm. They're showing highlights of Good Day LA as well as repeats of West Coast Wrap during middle of the day. Why are they airing repeats and highlights of old news when they can just continue with the 11am crew throughout the afternoon until 2:30 or 3pm and try to compete with KTLA?

WPLG News Clip 2024. Definately some essence of WSVN's tabloid feel. I wonder if the studio cameras are either low level HD, or the set is just badly lit. The anchors can come off sharp and grainy sometimes.

By 2009, Rob Johnson was anchoring evenings solo, and ratings were rising. That fall, Bill was brought in to shoot some promos and feature some of his cold case investigations. At some point, Walter returned to do his commentaries. In November '09, Rob was off, and the station heavily promoted a one night only reunion of the legends on the 10pm news. It was well-received, and they were installed as 6pm co-anchors by September of 2010. Once their contracts ran out in (I think) February '13, they were "retired." Given a full farewell, but it wasn't really their choice.

(Skip to 2:32) My knowledge of the Chicago market is still growing so I was surprised to see the legendary Bill Curtis/Walter Jacobson pairing still intact as late as 2013. I wish stations weren't so averse to do male pairings these days.

In this age of being connected all the time, I'm sure there's a plan in place to get a hold of the big 3 anchors. I believe in the last decade, NBCs Lester Holt was out of the country on vacation and flew back to NY to cover the story. Unfortunately, I can't recall which "big" story is was. Most network anchors will usually end their vacation and come back to ensure they are the face of the network's coverage.

Newscaststudio coverage: New set: https://www.newscaststudio.com/2020/09/09/abc-world-news-tonight-studio/ New music: https://www.newscaststudio.com/2020/09/09/world-news-tonight-new-theme-music/

Sadly, this doesn't seem like an updated version. Although the audio fidelity may not be good and therefore it betrays me ears, this is in fact the 2002 commission that went unused. Not exactly a modern take.

YES! YES! YEEEEEEAAAASSSSS!!!! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! For bringing back that familiar melody (with the ABC News signature of course) from the Peter Jennings era! AND, for getting rid of that Damn Hans Zimmer crap you used since 2012, when Diane Sawyer was at the helm. What a relief and a blessing to hear that Score Productions/Edd Kalehoff theme again.

I noticed how it's now referred to as "World News Tonight" rather than "ABC World News Tonight", as it used to be years ago.

Nice. So the desk will be moved back and forth for election coverage?

The 2012 theme remains for the headline cue, but gels very well with the GORGEOUS open. All other graphics are the largely the same and 4:3 safe, but they've moved the old desk out of the closest and they're finally on the new set. The environment looks so similar to the old look, the untrained eye wouldn't know it's TV3.

The teaser graphics are no longer 4:3 safe, there's a new open, and they brought back the old Peter Jennings theme!

Actually, there is. Here you go:

KRIV has it now. there's no clip of it yet.

Confirmed. EDIT: The new music package, according to NMSA, is called “Beyond”.

So here's another KSAZ halftime promo pack, featuring the mysterious Aerial as well as the current KSAZ primary theme (during the Monday news teaser): This one does have the matching *open* as a sample:

Could be that their doing what KMSP and KSAZ is doing differently since WNYW, WTTG, KTTV, KTVU, WTVT, WJZY, KDFW, KRIV, WJBK, WTXF and WFLD is still using the OSI Music.

#MeanwhileInOrlando... Obviously, with big Billi making himself at home here, Fox 35 has gone whole hog with with being WSVN Central Florida, slogan, teases, studio setup and all. But with transforming into "The News Station" of Orlando comes a different sound. This is today's 5:00 open; you can hear the bumper cut with a peculiar SoFla influence. But if you listen closely to the open... SOUNDS like Inergy. But it isn’t. And the 6:00 open has that unmistakable rock sound. Could this be the long-rumored Stephen Arnold Fox package everyone's been talking about? (As you can also hear, they still use the OSI pack. On a related note, I messaged Big 13 today about them possibly going back to Impact. From what they tell me, they have to toe the line, Skytower and Phoenix be damned)

Surprised not something with ABC in it, like @ABCWNTonight or @WNTabc. Both are available at the moment.

It isn't a new thing. I remember it happening when Peter Jennings was anchoring somewhere other than NYC or an ABC News bureau (and IIRC NBC used to do it even for big events like the Olympics). I feel like it made more sense back in the 80s and 90s because it probably was easier to gather the rest of the news out of New York back before the internet and cell phone data plans than it was to try to do that wherever they happened to be.

I just heard it straight from Mike and Sheinelle: Starting tomorrow, FOX 29 will expand its morning news broadcast to 4AM and name it The FOX29 Morning News. It will air from 4-7 before Good Day, and will probably feature the same anchors and reporters as before. This isn't a test or special airing for the snowstorm coverage. This is permanent. So let me be first to say this: 4:25 was a stupid idea.