Leaderboard

Its been nearly 25 years, but KHQ is finally getting some new digs at their studios on West Sprague Avenue. Dan Kleckner and Stephanie Vigil were there when the then-new studio (and new building) was unveiled in 2001, and they've used it ever since... until Monday. https://www.khq.com/news/nonstop-local-studio-to-undergo-major-makeover/article_38b5598a-fddf-11ef-b2e2-973c2ed914e3.html

CBS and CW will share rights to AVP Volleyball.

Feels like there aren't a lot of legacy Nexstar stations that have their own choppers to begin with. Most of the ones that do have them came from Tribune or Media General purchases. Of those: KTLA for car chases and fires and KFOR for tornadoes stand out as the two biggest examples of their stations in markets that have helicopter coverage as a viewer expectation and would put a station at a significant competitive disadvantage without one. The other question is, does this include ending their participation in multi-station helicopter shares like Denver?

Same. In fact, I'm gonna miss the studio itself too as it's been in use throughout it's entire local run and national run up until this point; and even though I went in only three times, it still is so legendary that I get goosebumps every time I enter. And despite its size compared to the last , it is my set of them all.

WJW has had theirs (SkyFox) for well over 30 years, but it is a leased one (Helicopters, Inc.) I think at one point they stopped using it but resumed using it shortly after. Around 2008-09 after Fox unloaded them to LocalTV.

The weekend 11pm broadcasts have talent opens. The M-F shows haven’t.

The last time they did a talent open was for the Giant Octopus designed graphics package (2012-2016) those were another set of amazing graphics for WABC at the time. When they switched to their preceding graphics package, they stopped doing the talent intros for the weekday 11 pm broadcasts, I guess they need more airtime to deliver more stories in the 35 min window. But I believe on the weekends they do the talent opens as those broadcasts are longer. Those graphics were quite stunning at the time. And honestly they could still work today. Obviously what they have now is better but at the time those were pretty nice!

I'm hoping someone records tonight's 10 p.m. newscast at WOWT as it will be John Knicely's last newscast. Today is retirement day for the man who spent 50 years in broadcasting, 47 of that at WOWT in two separate stints. https://www.wowt.com/2025/03/12/knicely-done-wowt-bids-farewell-longtime-anchor-john-knicely/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI-b75leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdtixFgnQK0rghGPkIsPhOiUTsGtaMuE8RdKVCdv1beQTNZ4ZY6EYHSkyw_aem_Fdr0lEmJjRQGsNgA8uaM3A

It’ll be Sade and then Mike. They usually list the most senior anchor first.

I assume it be Mike and Sade though if it were Sade and Mike that isn’t bad either when Bill Ritter took over in 1999 it was Diana and Bill.

You are 100% correct, and corporate has been made aware of that, but will not be budging. I think they’re more concerned about possible liabilities than any competitive advantage or profit. They understand they will effectively be losing money on this, but seem okay with that

I'm really going to miss that opening zoom-out that just shows how absurdly tiny that studio is for a network-quality live show, even after the studio-sharing with EWN ended. It's always night and day to see their yearly Dolby show or other on-location weeks such as the recent Palm Springs week where they can spread out. I'm hoping at least that the GMA set is less clashy with all that metal and those goofy frosted panels and so much blue. I'm hopeful everything with the lighting and display on the new set is temporary and a new network-wide scheme is introduced with GMA's move, which I can still see happen. The big problem with ABC News is that set is heavily-used so they may have to keep it darker to hide marks and not expose too much to an average viewer about its overuse.

I guess Im in the minority. I hate everything about ABC News. Its like they are broadcasting from a darkened cave. I hate the lighting, when there is some its harsh and the talent is shadowy and the graphics are dark so it feels sinister. The sound is always echo-ey and the use of the metal on the set, such as around the screens and desk, always has hotspots. Everything is badly designed. I feel since they were moving to a new space they could have experimented. They didnt even get new graphics but recreated their old ones. But since audiences for network news is drying up...this exemplifies they are truly scare of losing more of their audience. I was hoping we would see something different. But to to rebuild the same thing. Yawn. I was suprised ABC News Live got new graphics. I like the channel, but sometimes I find the streaming channels dont always carry live events. NBC News Now is a big culprit. ABC is OK. CBS News is a bit hit or miss. I have to say Im not impressed with any of the big 3 network news sets. NBC gave up and retreated to the Today set and CBS is just screens and ABC went deeper into their news cave.

I wonder how this GOCOM ties into the GOCOM that eventually became Piedmont Television. Because in Youngstown in 2007, GOCOM sold WKBN to New Vision Television while WYTV was sold by Chelsey Television (post-Benedek instead of Gray) to Parkin Media. Seems more like a shell game to me...

Closing the circle on local broadcasters (love that they have the home opener); WITI has broadcast Brewers games of course, but only as part of Fox telecasts. Now every commercial station in the market (not counting WVCY of course) has at least had one year airing games locally since the team came to town in 1970.

WVTV is very likely going to be the lighthouse 3.0 station for Milwaukee by default (they stepped on a rake selling WCGV for the Sinclair/Tribune deal that failed and the only other station, WMLW, is sharing with low-power WBME-CD), so in technicality Sinclair is just waiting to make all the deals to get their subchannels on other stations and Rincon is de facto just holding a license and submitting FCC paperwork for the station's issues.

They really need to have a consistent Monday-Friday schedule. The inconsistency only serves to confuse viewers. If Rachael wants to work a one day a week schedule, let it be on Sunday night.

Columnist Catherine Rampell will be a co-host on The Weekend hosts' new primetime show. https://deadline.com/2025/03/catherine-rampell-msnbc-the-weekend-1236323106/

WRSP (Fox, Springfield), WCCU (Fox, Urbana), and WBUI (CW, Decatur) are all owned by GOCOM Media with an JSA/SSA by Sinclair. Unless that gets tossed out, not much will happen.

I'm still in the Live audience for a taped show to air on the 31st. During the taping, Kelly and Mark reveal that the next day's taping (April 1) will be the very last in the studio on W 67fh Street/UWS. So from that, it's very clear the move is for April, May or later.

Sinclair gets to run a station without having to deal with the FCC. That's the new owner's problem. Not to mention getting some cold hard cash they may need... Plus, it frees up more opportunities to buy stations even though this new FCC could give them a free pass to go nuts.

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

"New" set looks good. I miss the video wall columns from the old set though. It gave the side angle some depth.

Yeah this looks like the UWS set. 20/20 is prerecorded right? Could’ve been filmed earlier in the week before the move.

Looks good. Is 2020 still being broadcast from the old building? The lighting on David and Deborah last night looked awful. The YouTube channel screenshot makes it worse but it was bad when I saw it on TV.

Lighting is much better!

World News Tonight has made the move. Did we want more? Yes, but it still looks so much better on-air, than the old. No new graphics, thought they finally lowered and widened the banners.

This is the WNYW thread.

They can leave every days report on millions impacted by a sprinkle in their old digs too while they are at it.

There are good but underutilized elements of the current set. For a change, It would be nice to see Muir stand next to this giant monitor BBC style going forward.

Longtime WBAY anchor Bill Jartz has announced that he will be leaving the desk on May 23rd. Don't worry, Packer fans - he *will* be remaining at the mic for Lambeau home games. https://www.wbay.com/2025/03/03/bill-jartz-announces-retirement-wbay-tv/

I'm in the minority but I like the current WNT studio. I think its lighting could be improved but I like the dark aesthetic. IMO it looks better than studio 1A on NNN. My main issue is the graphics and lower thirds could use updating. I agree, it would be great to see David move around the set instead of staying static and being on one shot for the whole broadcast. When I realized this this look has been in place for a decade, I was thinking the exact same thing. They must think nothing major needs tweaking if they've been on top for so long.

Similar to the WABC set, it might be best to hold judgement until we see it with the lights on!!! N4 was also partially recycled from a set that existed before the fire. Most of the current set is video wall, including the main background.

This is one of their studios in DC - N4. They have three main studios in their Capitol Hill - one for MTP, one primarily used by MSNBC, and this one. It’s by far the smallest of the three.

Looks like they migrated from a rear projection display to a seamless video wall. Is that a vinyl image over a white plexiglass facia on the front of the anchor desk or did they finally put animation on it. I will say that this anchor desk looks more local news than network. It's huge for 1 person. I would much rather have a counter-height desk and and several stand-ups around the studio, than the anchor staying in one place during the entire show. From what I could see in the video and from the image, it looks like they're testing the levels on these chairs to determine which would work well on camera. The problem with chrome is the reflectivity. Isn't Nightly News still using Studio 1A? That's a bright set and has windows. I really like this use.

We say often on here if it's not broken, don't fix it. I get that, WNT is number 1 and all, regardless about the quality but there has to be an exception to everything. This look, graphics and set, is approaching it's initial 10th birthday and it's only gotten worse with age. Also worth noting that now no main evening Newscast (unless you count PBS) has a light aired look, all dark and ominous, though ABC pulls it off the worst. I'll give them credit for the tweaks they did do, and who knows, maybe you can't really tell all the changes and uniqueness because it's the same graphics! Now seeing this, I'm not very confident that we're getting new graphics with this new set, the set barley changed, so why would they want to change graphics?

This is underwhelming & familiar.

Wanted to bring this up CW released the layout of their graphics for the NASCAR coverage.

Just saw pics of the new Wheel of Fortune set on my Twitter feed... I get with having your first new host in decades, you usually want to go with a redesign, but this just feels devoid, cold, and cheap.

Seems like they might be going for a classic game show vibe with this art deco or streamline moderne aesthetic.

Nearly anything would be an improvement over the pimping out of the set and the tacky theme week gimmicks.

Variety reports.

Yeah, this would be a major change! When KUSI picked-up LIV Golf from Tegna's KFMB a couple months back, I knew something was up. This article suspects that KUSI will be a CW station when the affiliation becomes available: https://www.nexttv.com/news/nexstar-media-agrees-to-acquire-kusi-tv-san-diego-for-dollar35-million It will be interesting how news operations will merge. Both stations have completely different narratives; KUSI is more conservative-bent and has a news set from 1990s while KSWB's Fox 5 News has built up a cool, So San Diego vibe and has one of the best news sets in the area in my opinion. Will the stations adopt one news brand? Will there be simulcasts? So many questions.

KSWB seemed to operate like a KUSI style without the political leaning, but will miss the hyper local issues coverage from KUSI with local ownership. And will miss the folksy, non corporate personalities. Won't miss the extended coverage of random Trump 'campaign' speeches.

Given this little bit in the article... ...it sounds like a matter of when, not if. That said, when might not be for a while; KFMB's affiliation agreement doesn't end until 2026 according to files on the FCC's website.

Even though I haven't been Talking here more or less, I'm not Surprised given the Rumors that have been going around recently about the CW getting acquired by Nexstar Still I don't know what is going to happen with WPSG's CW Affiliation, I'm hopeful they'll be able to keep it but if it comes to it and WPHL gets the CW Affiliation, but again that's Speculation.

How should the "little guys" (i.e. smaller companies) be treated? Since they will garner far fewer posts and less frequently but may get some attention - as long as they don't sell.

44 years in the business, the last 15 years at WPTV, and at WTVJ for a good chunk before that... Michael Williams is finally hanging it up and retiring on Friday. One of the true great anchors and guys in all of broadcasting. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1206938464130401&id=100044427759775 CORRECTION: I said a dozen years at WPTV, but actually joined in 2010 so 15 years.

Didn't realize she was pregnant!

Their construction permit is perfectly adequate for covering Sioux Falls and maybe 50 miles out unless it's some weird directional pattern they have to use. What they don't have is a 2000 ft tall super tower, so they can't get way-way out like the other stations. But how important is that anyway? You can probably get a lot accomplished using translators. And who knows? Maybe Forum will put up the money for a new tower or lease space on one. Or maybe buy one of the existing towers.