Leaderboard

It only took them 30 years.

Losing a network affiliate and becoming an independent isn't as hard of a downfall as it used to be... I mean look at the news-intensive independents that have popped up recently. Now we'll have WPLG Miami and WANF Atlanta as the latest such examples.

Side note.. for those in the atlanta market who know.. I am curious.. has the rebrand to WANF and all the investment there made a dent in the ratings? Where do they stand? That news operation still seems to have a lot of turnover for all the money pumped in. The CBS Atlanta of the mid 2000s rocked. The tough questions era.

Well there is the WHDH/WLVI duo as an example of an indie/CW pairing. Since Gray made a big deal over airing some Braves games you might as well go for all of it on the old WTBS.

Long predicted, interesting to see this come into fruition. Top market Atlanta will now have another O&O besides WAGA. Hopefully whatever newscast they produce isn't as generic and lifeless as their former CBS "Nowcasts". I don't anticipate CBS News Atlanta will perform any better than WXIA or WANF but let's see.

Yeah I predicted this when they rebranded. There’s a reason Gray is removing all the network logos on their station logos…. Watch for more of this.

And WJXT/WCWJ…

Wow. Wooow. Woooooooow. Gray is going to take serious advantage now of WANF and its new status as a news-intensive Independent. I wonder how they'll use WPCH now since they'll use WANF to air more news.

The least surprised person has to be @Weeters, he suggested to me privately that WUPA easily could become CBS-owned after WWJ-TV finally got a news service. Or that they'd be used as a bargaining tool with the other groups. Now it's a matter of when WTOG and KSTW become CBS-owned, not if. As KIRO is already for sale; things could get spicy...

Before the piecemeal sale to operators who aren't buying speculation posts start, repeat after me: Byron Allen is going to want to sell to a single operator, structure it as a merger, and the buyer will divest assets they can't retain to minimize his tax costs and maximize the money made on the sale.

In an explosive announcement, CBS is moving their affiliation to WUPA in Atlanta, making it an O&O.

I don't believe there's no real loss for WANF when it comes down to the wire. The station has always been the underdog ranging from the initial affiliation swap in 1994 when WAGA became Fox and CBS moved to 46 after buying 69 just in case. Throughout WGNX/WGCL/WANF's history has been several attempts to beef up the news department to get viewers away from top dogs WAGA, WSB and even WXIA when all three stations were competitive in the market. Gray has been nothing but supportive of WANF to the point where the ratings were higher than WXIA which suffered from both lack of investment and a lack of care when it came down to not only it's news product but how the station was treated. CBS' intention to move to a station they own was solely for monetary reasons. CBS' investment in WUPA will also be significantly lower than WANF, WXIA, WSB and WAGA combined. What CBS did was a real slap in the face to Gray who owns several key CBS affiliates, a lot of them the top dogs in the market. I'm lucky that Gray and CBS managed to keep those stations affiliated but for how long? We're really reaching the point of no return where the affiliates/ownership groups are not treated with compassion, both WPLG and now WANF can attest. There's nobody to blame but companies who focused on getting rid of regulations in the broadcasting market, I doubt any of them recognize the damage that occurred under their watch and are basically laughing their way to the bank as we speak. WANF has more positives than negatives when it comes to the situation they're in, I have full faith that WANF will come out stronger without CBS.

WHDH has always been a powerhouse with popular talent and a winning formula. Same with WPLG. WANF has none of that. So cant compare success. As for CBS, they just did this in Detroit. Launched a whole operation. Its not the central cast thing.

Effective tomorrow Mike Marza takes over the 5:00 with Sade. Bill stays on the 6 with Liz. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AhpnvNR1h/?mibextid=wwXIfr

As I have said many of times Byron Cheap Skate Allen had no business to buy TV stations and should've just stayed in his lane with his cheap syndication dreck, he was always a Wannabe Media Mogle, and his empire is about to crash. I'm sure those that work for Allen Media at the local level are happy their being sold sometime soon.

Well, knock me over with a feather with this one...(sarcasm) It begs some real estate questions too. Surely CBS (assuming they'll start producing local newscasts) won't be operating a WUPA from that cramped Northeast Expressway studio once this shift happens. I could see Gray building new studios for WANF/WPCH on the Assembly Studios campus and Gray simply sells their 14th Street studios to CBS for them to use. Or, I could see either party relocating to some of the space that CNN just vacated downtown at what's now known as "The Center".

About time.

IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME. The sooner it is off Allen's hands, the better. This means all of Allen's dumb moves will be reversed immediately. Stations like WJRT, KVOA, and WTHI must be rejoicing at this news.

I can see Gray doing just that. I could also see it being a regional superstation that becomes a sub on Gray's other Georgia stations (although they'd probably want to go from 95% coverage to 100% coverage as they are missing Chattanooga and Jacksonville in the corners of the state).

Just move the CW to 46 and put sports PBP on 17. Simple enough and it would make WANF a news-intensive CW station just like WPIX, KRON, KTLA and WGN.

Wow. Wonder what the path forward is for WANF/WPCH at this point? Not sure what the benefit is of having an independent primary/secondary pairing. Shows how much I watch linear TV here in ATL. Completely forgot CW was on WPCH now.

For that matter, is there an off chance of Weigel buying the chain in general.

Tegna is a non-factor in Tucson as KMSB-KTTU are fully shelled out to Gray. They wouldn't waste money on an unfixable station like KVOA. Think about it. Who else would want KVOA or any of the other Allen stations? Coastal? Marquee? NP&G? Gray is IMO the prohibitive favorite and the only buyer who would continue to operate the stations with any semblance of locality.

They're all Gray's to lose. KVOA can be a subchannel of KOLD, WJRT can be a subchannel of WNEM and the OW stations can be rumps of WSAW and WMTV. It's a perfect test case for the NAB begging for full dereg, especially with how much Byron completely destroyed the viability of each and every one of those stations.

I'm actually waiting for the point where I can buy Nexstar stock. Right now it's too expensive. I don't know if anybody really wants a linear broadcast TV network anymore, doesn't stop a man from dreaming right?

WNBC has long been housed on the 7th floor, mainly on the 49th Street side of the building. The new space is on the 2nd floor and spans the entire width from 49th to 50th Street. NBC gutted the whole space and created a purpose-built home for WNBC and WNJU. What is particularly impressive is that the massive newsroom is completely open-concept. To make that much square footage open in a building that is almost a hundred years old is amazing. The elevators serving the studio portion of 30 Rock and the studios themselves make this feat more challenging as you go higher in the building.

Yeah after my little stint working for KMSG MY53 News at 8pm in Fresno I figured out I don’t like this industry too much. Yeah I was fortunate to get a job and I have a reel so if I want to comeback into I can get hired. But it funny how easy you can backdoor this profession. Shoot my mom is teaching me AP format. But I lost my passion for this industry and the Reddit forum I was in was full of Debbie downers and honestly I accepted that, I just looked at myself in the mirror and said screw this. Though I enjoy talking about it that’s why I’m in this fandom. But the thing I will say is my boss Austin Reed who now in Yakima-Tri Cities market really taught me a lot he taught me how to put together a package what is a vsot is, he taught me how to pitch stories he even gave me the freedom to do whatever news story I wanted. I did a story on the NH primaries, he told me everything about local news answered all my questions. I’ll be forever grateful for that. We don’t talk as much anymore but he was a blessing. He was also very defensive of the broadcast as a lot of people including some people on this forum who I won’t name constantly demonized the broadcast, criticism was alright we had a lot to improve but some weren’t nice we did the best with what we had we had cheap owners that really didn’t want to invest in the product and abruptly fired us for no reason shoot I was on vacation when I got laid off but we managed to put out a good product every day Monday-Friday for an hour. We even bested a competitor newscast. Btw one of my colleagues Eric Walker who also had no education background and also worked for Austin is now doing news in Boise, Idaho, now I considered applying to some news jobs and putting my reel after I saw him get that job but honestly I don’t really wanna leave home. I tried finding jobs in my states small markets, not the major city markets but they weren’t hiring. So currently I’m back in university to study something else. But that job was a dream come true. If you have any questions about the experience message me.

Was thinking this myself. Journalism has a broad enough skill set where one can study adjacent subjects like English or law, and enter the field. I suppose that broad skill set is why the industry pays so low. Writing articles or conducting interviews are perhaps not considered specialized enough for high pay versus medicine, law or skilled trade jobs. Furthermore, a lot of journalistic training happens on the job, the emphasizing the necessity for a formal education. Many "j-schools" do not teach broadcast skills like teleprompter reading, voice modulation or how to edit packages. They simply teach standards of journalism, writing structure and how to write articles. Journalism is also a field where attending a big name college, or a masters degree is unnecessary. The degree simply gets you an interview (on the local level, because national and cable broadcast will hire talent who didn't study journalism). Pitching stories, having robust contacts, and your on camera personality appearance/sound, is what carries you furthest.

Lowkey starting to think and I talked about this in a Reddit forum but I got my first tv job when I was in college and I dropped out. I’m starting to think you don’t need a degree for journalism or at least you don’t have to study it, some of the best journalist didn’t even study it they studied another genre than went into journalism. For example Tom Brokaw studied political science not journalism, I’m not saying going to school for journalism is important I’m not saying that but obviously people have back doored their way into TV News. Another example people have back doored there way into tv weather apparently you can get a metrology certificate (which is a degree without the Gen Eds) from Miss State and do the AMS exam and become a metrologist I’d didn’t know that I thought you had to get the 4 year degree. Even Al Roker didn’t go to school for metrology he majored in communications to be a journalist, he in a way back doored his way to weather. Again not saying j-school isn’t important that of course that’s traditional way but some journalist I’ve watched didn’t take that route.

Great retrospective of Lester’s NN tenure, it’s hard to believe 10 years has flown by since he was elevated from weekends. He’s always been one of my favorites.

I’ll offer my piece: CBS is probably in even worse shape than even the Tisch years. It seems like whatever plagued Viacom in the 2010s has finally claimed CBS (and to an extent, Showtime). As someone said, other than the NFL and college football and basketball, what sports does CBS have to hang its hat on? The Big Ten deal is a massive downgrade compared to those SEC years. They have golf, but post-Tiger Woods, it’s not really popular. Outside of that, it’s mostly stuff that would’ve been on CBS Sports Network a decade ago. Say what you will about the other networks, but they have a robust slate of sports like NBC with the NFL, the NBA, and likely the MLB. Or ABC with the NHL, NFL, college football, etc, all via ESPN. And then there’s the news division. Dear God, the news division. Between wondering who is anchoring CBS Evening News this week, the scandals with 60 minutes, and the curse of Captain Kangaroo that permeates the 7-9am timeslot, CBS News has been a joke post-Cronkite, but especially since Scott Pelley left Evening News and CBS had to revamp its morning show for the 5000th time. Oh, and primetime! Jumping Jesus, primetime! What is primetime on CBS like in 2025? Ten different versions of NCIS, FBI, and Blue Bloods, few if any comedies, and an excuse to give away Chevy Traxs and Hyundai Accents before the 11pm news. Yes, I’ve long accepted that broadcast TV is on life support. However, watching CBS is the equivalent of watching your elderly family member on life support and in pain. It’s that unbearable.

According to Deadline, CBS has abandoned the 12:30am slot. The news comes after “After Midnight” host Taylor Tomlinson decided to end her time hosting the program and move on to other comedic projects, resulting in the show's cancellation. That means NBC is the only network with two late-night programs. Not that ABC ever had a second late-night program, but this is notable in terms of the late-night landscape's direction. It's not dying yet, but it is bleeding a bit more.

I agree with all of this. He’s such an underwhelming anchor and presenter that it’s hard to believe he’s the flagship anchor for NBC News. Maybe we’ll feel different about him when he’s had the role for a few years but then again I’ve always thought this of him. It seems like NBC just wanted to find a Muir answer.

They will have a hard time.

Will they hire, build and launch a newsroom and product in just 10 weeks? If it is outsourced again to WCBS, WFOR, KTVT, WBZ or other O&O, I just can't see how they will have an actual local presence and build viewership. Because there is a large Gray affiliation agreement part of all this, I wonder who pushed whom? It puts a little different light on this.

Wow. Didn’t see that coming. The new station launches newscast it definitely gonna struggle in the ratings. Like some have said this is purely money related I don’t think CBS knows how hard it is yeah they have newscasts but it’s produced somewhere else. You’re talking about moving production in-house and starting an entire news department from scratch, in a market with 3 established stations and one station that losing it affiliation struggling to keep up now you add another newsroom in the picture. I think CBS is gonna have a very weak prescene in Atlanta. This was money based not ratings based and it will hurt CBS.

That's exactly what I just said on a private message with two of these people on this site!!!! Get outta my head, dude.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. It always seemed like they were just temporarily "parking" CW on WPCH until CBS' eventual exit from WANF.

Oh boy...

It's good to see a sign of life from Scripps, especially over the last two years. Has the industry declined so far that I'm actually excited to see this package? So many of the group packages introduced over the past few years are well past their prime already, and groups like Gray haven't even finished yet....

Now thats some extreme pettiness there. I rate NY1 over News 12 anyways especially nowadays since News12 is barely a newschannel now. I feel for the Cablevision subbers...

The old newsroom & the new newsroom at NBC4 & Telemundo47.

The Pacers won tonight and won the series in six. This means that the last-ever Inside the NBA episode (on TNT proper before its move to ESPN/ABC next season) is airing now.

Warner-Chappell, which owns the rights to the original Hello package, composed this new series of themes, effectively Hello News v.2 (or Series 5, if you want to go by how Gari called their theme updates). Chris Majka composed a custom theme using the Hello signature that debuted last year, alongside selected cuts from Gari’s first three Hello series (the ones KWQC brought back in 2023 for their 75th anniversary).

The full video of final day of Lester Holt anchoring NBC Nightly News: For specific segment:

EDIT: Also adding Jean Jadhon's final newscast at WDBJ 7 after 33 years. Its "retirement" season, y'all.

FOX Weather has brought back Night Light but in a whole new way. Its in a new 24/7 weather stream on YouTube called FOX Weather Chill.

This is really the year CBS is being starved; we're getting yet another Yellowstone spin-off too and they already cut 2/3rds of the FBI's to allow another one to start up. But this is on Paramount for instead of contracting with someone you know will stay in Hollywood for several seasons, hiring a comedian at the height of her career who makes much more in touring host the show. I can't blame her for walking away when it seems like the format and limitations of broadcast TV just never worked for a show that started on cable, a very hands-on management trying to file every edge of their network down to satisfy the FCC to get the Skydance merger closed, and a certain heiress that needs to have her nose in everything who just needs to be given FU money and told to go away already. I already sense that Taylor and the writing team was getting network-noted to death to not comment about current political events (which they sadly won't do for Colbert, who I've just stopped watching because it's NOTHING but that) and just had no further appetite for the show. As for the timeslot and local stations, it'll either be sitcoms, tabloid news shows, CBS's cheapo syndicated game shows, or infomercials. Nothing new or creative is going there.

News 12 is the only local New York station not covering the 9/11 memorial. Surprising and disappointing.