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For anyone who remembers or is still interested in the work of TVbD (Television by Design), I can probably answer most questions. I was one of the original members that started the company after leaving WTBS. I've only just noticed your incoming links to the TVbD Vimeo page, so apologies for the late response. I'm recently retired and have been exploring the idea of producing a feature length documentary about the work of TVbD in particular, and/or the history of motion graphic design in general. I'd be curious to know what this community thinks of the idea, and if there might be potential collaborators here. Thanks for the mentions and the memories.

I’m not mad at Terry for keeping it real.

More Nexstar stations are adding "Plus" apps to Roku, Amazon and Apple TV including WKRG, WDTN, WJBF, WKBN, WTAJ, WHNT, WIAT, and other middle-market stations. Still some laggards like WGNO and KOLR. Even through the web sites still seem to indicate "delayed streams" of newscasts, they appear to be live now on the apps. About time! Now the question is, will Nexstar put their stations on another app like LocalNow, NewsON or Zeam? They're very much behind the curve in this regard. Sinclair is a little better with total reach on NewsON, and some reach on LocalNow and Stirr, the app they used to run but sold off last year The other groups and even the single stations / small companies like WFMJ, WRAL, WBRZ/KRGV, and KTVN/WRCB also have their stations on standalone apps and stream on sites. Nexstar is getting better but still has a ways to go. So many of the Tribune and Media General stations had better streaming options before Nexstar took over.

KTXS has gone anchorless so they can function just fine without a studio. Just stick the weather guy at another nearby Sinclair station like Amarillo. Now, the STL getting knocked down will be a little more complex to overcome. They should be able to pull off at least a cable-only feed with help from sister stations.

https://ktxs.com/news/local/ktxs-news-station-experiences-severe-damages-from-sunday-night-storms

It's a FOX thing. Other O&Os have taken a hatchet to their sports departments too. The preference is to have a single dedicated "sports reporter" who turns stories in the field about whatever the biggest sports story of the day is. The days of four male sports anchors in crisp suits above the waist taking turns reading highlights from the anchor desk and a bunch of sports producers are over.

Will they ever announce a replacement for Maurice? Schedule since he moved to network seems to be Jessica Monday thru Wednesday and then Allan/Dick/Alice on Thursday and Friday. I would hope something more permanent would go into place?

WNYT, Albany, (finally) got new graphics and music this week. The lower thirds look similar to what they had previously and it seems they created the graphic package at the station? They are using Ascend as their news music. Also, for the first time since I can recall the peacock isn’t a featured element in the graphics. And the music does not have the NBC chimes. As of now, they haven’t created matching weather graphics. This is a definite upgrade from what they had been using

Agreed, and it was announced in August 2024 that Maurice was moving to the Evening News. Meaning they’ve had 10 months or more to make a decision. Very odd.

Definitely weird for them not to have picked a replacement as it's been about five months. Such a long gap makes it seem like they're hiring from outside, otherwise it should be easy to promote someone from within. I wonder if all the uncertainty around CBS/Paramount and the new CBS Evening News has them keeping a seat warm for Maurice just in case.

Don’t be that surprised. WTTG in DC cut theirs years ago, even as the Nationals won the World Series and the Caps won the Stanley Cup. Now, they have a sports reporter who does a handful of sports feature stories a week and then beef up coverage when Washington plays on Fox, esp in the playoffs. But surprisingly, WRC followed through and did the same thing in cutting a regular sports segment. JP Findlay (formerly of NBC Sports Washington) does segments for them as warranted. He does more travel w/ the team, but the days of George Michael and the 5-minute sports block are long gone.

I’m wondering if we’ll see an “official” announcement about Pedro this week? Mike took over the 5 last Tuesday and Pedro was on vacation so it would make sense.

So he was suspended... for being right? If calling a Trump official a hater (the most lenient yet still accurate term to call them) is grounds for suspension, then that is embarrassing and disappointing. Well... ABC showed their hand. And you know Trump is going to force it any way he can/will.

I think the 25% opacity text across the screen in the opening is incredibly distracting. There's too much going on visually. Keep the C4D renders, the large text stroke, the names of the cities, and the background video.

Is this the NBC font they're using? NBC Futura?

It absolutely has. Those stations are permabroken and destined to be rumps of their former Gray competition. No one else is going to waste their money on properties Byron Allen squandered.

This makes me wonder if CBS regrets trading away WDCA and KTXH if anyone from that era is still at the company.

CBS is not in a buying mood. Blame the looming Skydance merger and the threats from the Trump administration. Plus, TV stations aren’t the license to print money like they once were. CBS is content to turn a small station it already owns into a CBS-branded O&O. Will it be a serious competitor in the Atlanta market? I doubt it. CBS gave up on being competitive in Atlanta after it lost longtime affiliate WAGA in the 1994 switch to Fox. As for WANF becoming a "WHDH-like juggernaut?" History would say otherwise. WHDH already had good ratings when it went independent. WANF and its predecessors never had good ratings, and the overall trend of fewer people watching TV in general doesn't bode well for the future -- no matter how much money Gray shovels into WANF.

A reminder for folks when it comes to cbs buying stations. 1. their finances aren’t exactly in the best shape right now. Buying a non appreciating asset like a broadcast station would not be a smart move financially 2. The current administration has a vendetta against Paramount. Even if cbs wanted to it’s likely to be held up by regulators for petty reasons

What incentive would CBS have to purchase WANF? Gray poured a lot of money and resources into WANF and would likely not sell unless it was for a LOT of money. CBS is also not in the mood or the shape to go on a buying spree right now.

I've stopped following the legal drama since it has become a game of pong. And I'm not talking about ping pong, I'm talking about Pong for the Atari 2600. I believe due to CBS's inability to focus on priorities that money could instead be invested in as well as the lack of money that parent company Paramount Global has, that Sony will be the victor. CBS should just walk away while they have the chance. Not only would it keep a shred of dignity in the relationship between Sony and CBS but it would also prevent a disaster involving those shows and CBS owned stations that carry said shows. But no, CBS will never walk and those shows will go to their competitors out of spite. I don't think any CBS owned stations who rely on those shows will ever have a ratings advantage again.

I second this as well. I don't think CBS would want to wait for an opportunity to buy WUSA when said opportunity also is tied to buying either all the other stations or other reasons that might not sit well with CBS. (I don't know what the various real life reasons could be, be gentle.) If I were CBS, I would either find a way to buy WJLA or failing that, any of the UHF stations. The UHF stations option is scary because it will set a precedent that networks no longer need reputable stations with news departments and a history of serving their community. If WWJ, WBTS and the pending move of CBS to WUPA has shown us anything, it shows that the networks are starting to come to that conclusion, even ABC has even started to follow CBS's lead and NBC's partial lead by taking the affiliation from WPLG and putting it on a subchannel of WSVN. When CBS decides to strip WUSA of it's affiliation for a station that nobody knows or cares about, anarchy will arise and it won't be good for the viewers of those TV stations of which the networks are starting to screw around with.

Gray has really put a lot of work into WANF to make it into a valuable station. Why CBS did not acquire WANF I do not know. Then again, I don't even know the logic behind taking the CBS affiliation and putting it on WUPA in the first place. I get that they own the station but they have to put money into WUPA to bring it to at least the bare minimum for a CBS affiliate like say... news department and such.

I'd probably feel it'd be more likely if it weren't for having WJZ in nearby Baltimore.

Local stations "bid" on the OTA rights of games that are otherwise streaming-only (Prime, Netflix, etc.) or on cable, no matter their affiliations. That said, the Falcons only have 2 such games, this season, so that obviously wouldn't be enough to prop up a station.

Phillippines DZMM Radyo Patrol 630 and DZMM TeleRadyo are back on the air in the Philippines. After a five-year absence because ex-President Rodrigo Duterte wanted to get his way and pull ABS-CBN's licenses from broadcasting, ABS-CBN has been finding ways and loopholes to bring their content back on the air. Thanks to the Media Serbisyo Production Corporation (MSPC), a joint venture of the Philippine Collective Media Corporation (PCMC) and ABS-CBN Corporation, both Radyo Patrol and TeleRadyo are back.

Yes, this is a real YouTube video, but I didn't have this on my bingo card. Days ago, CBS News released a YouTube video of... Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News from June 1971, set to ASMR on a rainy night in New York City. The video is nearly 3 hours and 20 minutes long.

I don't see CBS buying KIRO (they couldn't for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with Brendan Carr). At the very least it heavily influences Apollo's attempt to sell off Cox Media and makes it very very hard to sell a station that might be stripped of a network affiliation. Especially if CBS extorts the buyer to make massive reverse compensation payments in order to keep the affiliation, that would make KIRO radioactive to anyone not a competing network. And since Nexstar can't legally buy into Seattle at this time...

I wonder how WWJ is doing in the ratings lately.

It's a little too late for Byron Allen to recoup what he spent for those stations. Even if the FCC totally deregulates TV broadcasting, Allen's stations are about as appealing to purchase as a rusted-out Ford Pinto. Plus, Allen Media gutted its stations to absolute bare minimums, and in some cases, the company doesn't even own the physical property. Anyone who's crazy enough to buy an Allen Media station will have to effectively un-Allen the stations by undoing the damages caused by hubbing master control, weather, etc. Kind of like what Gray had to do when it bought the Meredith stations and had to undo Meredith's dumb decisions.

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.

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.

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".

More proof that CBS is following the money, regardless of ratings or market share. They must really be hard off thinking they can do better on their own station rather than having to extort be paid by Gray in Atlanta. Had they waited a little longer, they could have made a deal with WSB or WXIA when their deals were up. But yay! another soul-less CBS (insert city here) newscast. Maybe this time it will actually come out of Atlanta. Gray has probably seen this coming since the last renewal. And it may have been the reason they have stripped affiliate logos from many of their stations. At least they're making the effort to make something out of WANF. As for Tampa, it looks like WTSP (and all of Tegna's CBS affiliations) are locked in through 2028. Since "Coxpollo" is private, this information is not available through their annual report, so there's no word on KIRO's contract.

The other headline in this is CBS/Gray renewed their deal with every other CBS affiliate in the Gray group. So, no other shoes to drop with CBS/Gray, at least for now.

Seems that KCTV under Gray is still a mess that no one can fix from the Meredith days maybe it has been that way for decades at KCTV.

EGAD! I found this folder in an about-to-be tossed bankers box at the station.

Liking the visiuals on the top video, but the gum drop music

I think you mean KWES.

They were one of the only things left untouched since the last update, so I wouldn't be surprised.

WMAZ in Macon is using new weather banners that incorporate more colors. Wonder if these are coming to other tegna stations

I don't think having separate L3's for anchors is the problem if it's done right. It's definitely the design in Tegna's case, as this is bordering on looking like KMSG's original set of overblown lower thirds. Hearst has used separate L3's for anchors since the first diagrid look, and they work very well. It also helps that they actually look decent. (They still do this with the current look, but it's been consolidated onto the same L3 background) Examples of separate L3's from the 2012 diagrid look: Regular L3: Anchor L3:

Seems like The Tank or stations has been given some creative runway lately, but I don't understand why there need to be special supers just for talent.

KARE has switched to that. Also not sure when, but the TV panel wall behind the anchors is one big screen now as well

Don't know if these rolled out at the same as the rest of the update, but I've noticed that some stations are using a different L3 for anchors/reporters with white on whatever accent color is being used for the rest of the graphics.

Wow, I like that a lot. Much better than the "old" open.

That open is radically different - I haven't seen that before. Looks good and adds a bit of excitement.

It's not a complete overhaul. Non-news junkies wouldn't immediately notice a difference. It's just an evolved look for some various graphic elements. I've already seen some of the "updated" look on KGW.