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I may not live in Oklahoma, but man losing a weather legend like Gary England sucks. My condolences are with his family and everyone at KWTV.

Apologies for hijacking this post, but @bennettmonk, please stop with your irritating reactions; there was nothing funny about this post. You make no comments here. I don't know how else to bring sunlight to this, but these inappropriate reactions must stop, and I have all interactions with them blocked, but for some reason, their reactions cannot be blocked from view no matter what I try, and it's needless notification junk/noise if you're never going to do more than react and not contribute.

Update Abilene Christian University (ACU) has allowed KTXS to utilize its facilities to help set up a temporary newsroom on campus. https://ktxs.com/news/abilene/abilene-christian-university-opens-doors-to-ktxs-after-severe-storm-damages-station

The news broke during their 10pm newscast, so nothing was planned (but there will be tomorrow). This one hurts badly. The weather community will mourn greatly. He, Tom Skilling, and James Spann have changed the game forever, and Gary will be missed for generations to come.

The move from fully physical sets to video walls allows for more variation of looks and could be more cost-effective in the long run. And they give a sense of realism as opposed to a truly virtual setup with chroma keying.

They used to be massive draws for viewership. Both GMA and Today drew pretty big artists for the release of their albums, part of their tours, etc. That said, the shows have changed so much that the concert series feels somewhat out of place these days. I recognize 2-3 artists from GMA’s announced line up. Today’s line up is a ton of has-beens.

While I'm happy for the desk, oh man the rest looks low budget... I'm holding out hope that those cut outs are temporary just for this ad...

Love how gung-ho Crossing Broad is in this article, not wanting to recognize KYW's news as it is, sticking to Eyewitness News, much like the person who started this thread, not changing the title. Heck, it sure sounds better than generic CBS News Philadelphia or whatever other O&O city it is, outside of the ones using call letters to ID their news.

When you hear of OK weather, you think Gary England.... RIP to a weather legend

Looks like they started today! Nice to see this type of synergy and to see both stations WNBC/WNJU operate from one building. Kudos to them!

Veteran staffers offered buyout https://www.crossingbroad.com/news/trending/eyewitness-news-sends-buyout-offers-to-veteran-staffers/

That one is actually scheduled for tomorrow rather than Friday, but the rest are Friday concerts.

Not going to lie, I'm surprised by how good the set looks. Despite the carpet flooring, I like the design and flair of it and it looks like some thought was put into it. All for a small market like Cadillac. Frankly I'm impressed.

Update We now know what it will be... 10 News+. It will air at 6pm every Sunday-Friday and will begin on June 30th. https://www.facebook.com/10NewsFirst/posts/pfbid0yxkG8er3aVTpLtcCcjRYKieenvJ65XsYMpCuyv64hKLdF1qTe13oTjZQd5E9veVTl

I never understood the appeal of concert series. Even as news junkie kid/teen I thought they were weird. Honestly surprised they haven't been canned altogether by now.

Honestly, with ABC’s full capitulation including terminating reporters still dedicated to facts and truth due to criticism of this president smells of authoritarianism. How can ABC News maintain any trust? And worse, Shari Redstone seems intent on settling his bogus claim and destroying CBS News in the process.

It's not too often you see carpeting in a studio. Usually it was the news desk and stage pieces, but not the floor itself. That could be a maintenance headache unless they have a good cleaning crew. Usually the studio floor is concrete and either painted, tiled or veneered for easy cleanup and durability for movement of sets and equipment. But the sale of their "old" studio (only from 2018) is likely a cash infusion that can shelter the owners from the challenges of broadcasting, especially as an independent owner.

I believe Disney will sell it. It's prime real-estate. Concerts on GMA aren't doing well, they were having difficulty finding sponsors over the past few years. Suspect that the series would be trimmed down.

I'd think so considering how KPIX has handled this with Jessica Burch & she also doing stuff for the CBS News streaming service.

Snow coverage from January 6, 2025

This is part of a larger effort to build a weather reporting network. CBS News and Stations announces weather unit changes 'CBS News and Stations has announced the next stage in building its weather reporting network that includes adding a rotating cast of forecasters to “CBS Mornings.” CBS News national weather correspondent Rob Marciano kicked off the new effort, appearing on “Mornings” Jan. 6, 2024, reporting from Washington, D.C. amid the winter storm that hit the region. The network also plans to use Jessica Burch from KPIX in San Fransisco and Kate Bilo from KYW in Philadelphia as part of the mix on its morning show. Segments will also leverage the network’s existing mixed reality technology when appropriate.'

Good evening, how come live vans/trucks have phones? What are they typically used for? Thanks.

Good afternoon, How do TV stations handle things when a reporter goes out of town for an assignment? For example when NBC stations send there people to cover the Olympics. Thanks.

My thoughts exactly. To me, local stations sending reporters to national stories with no market ties are a stunt move to flex their resources on the competition. Personally, I don't care about seeing my local anchors at the presidential debate if none of the candidates are tied to the DMA. I'll watch the national news for that. Sending local reporters to national events were more commonplace back in the day when stations had more resources, and weren't part of large station groups.In today's era of mass ownership and budget cuts, it wouldn't make sense for a Nexstar station in Vermont to send a reporter to a California wildfire since the company has stations in 200 markets including Cali, plus they can get a package from network. I understand wanting to control how the story is presented, but as @C Blocksaid is it worth the cost? On the flip side I've wondered... Why do networks spend money to fly correspondents all across the country when they can just take a package from, or ask for a live shot from, one of their hundreds of local affiliates who are right next to the matter. Quality control I suppose? A fresh out of college reporter in market 100 won't turn a package of Nightly News quality?

In Chicago the TV station unions are: WLS (ABC) NABET-CWA WMAQ (NBC) NABET-CWA WFLD (Fox) NABET-CWA WBBM (CBS) IBEW WGN(9) IBEW I think the reporters and anchors at WGN and WLS are in SAG-AFTRA

It varies by state. You typically will not find unions at TV stations in states that ban union membership as a condition of employment, aka “right to work” states. Larger markets are typically unionized in part or whole, but even small markets can have a union presence, i.e. Erie, Pennsylvania. Union representation usually, but not always, breaks down as follows: SAG-AFTRA: On-air reporters and anchors NABET-CWA: Photographers, editors, directors, engineers, producers (sometimes), assignment editors (sometimes) IBEW: Photographers, editors, engineers WGA: Producers IATSE: Directors, photographers, editors, engineers

No wonder why they must've been delayed so many times since announcing their return to news. They wanted everything right and they didn't launch until the full quality was perfect. Take it like a company that was releasing a new product. You see something wrong with one of the new features. Do you release that product with the flaw, or just delay it until you fix it? A quality company would delay it, and that's the case with CBS News Detroit. By the way...you don't see many companies doing that nowadays

I think you guys are on to something about Atlanta. If you go to their website, not a single mention of CBS that I can see, at least not on the home page. https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com Titan TV (through their website) shows the ANF Logo and not CBS.

It’s refreshing to see a network like CBS no less who had a history of making their O&Os fairly cookie cutter take the time to do their research, spend time in communities, and really execute a brand new product that is a product of the city that it’s in, right down to the set design. It speaks volumes that they’re in this to win this finally with WWJ, even though the station has been the red headed stepchild of the group for nearly three decades. But leadership currently in place at the O&O division finally see a chance to make waves, and they’re blossoming something truly unique and exciting. Whether that translates into ratings and will unseat the market leaders WDIV, WJBK, and WXYZ will remain to be seen, however I think CBS will be okay with whatever comes out of it regardless. They seem to be focused less on trying to unseat the others and more focused on setting their own course in our growing streaming world. WWJ might be setting a trend for the next decade of local news here, which is something I never thought I’d ever say. The streaming-first community-first focus makes me feel like this is this decade’s WSVN-tabloid style in terms of trendsetting. I hope I’m right, because local news in general needs a revamp and badly.

I think CBS News Detroit is doing way better than what anyone anticipated. WWJ is obviously targeting a whole new audience and a lot of people are tuning in. That interview from TVnews.net really spoke volumes. https://tvnewscheck.com/journalism/article/talking-tv-cbs-goes-live-with-news-at-wwj-detroit/?no_cache=1675554224&fbclid=IwAR3hARN5O_Io7MOlA7oQvGfVGLxgsmeu_dJpcBN6La-CF-HwsQHQLrWAL2Y&mibextid=tejx2t

You may say that... but at least so far, WWJ has debuted one new newscast every week. First... launch on January 23rd with weeknight 6 and 11pm news, then exactly a week later on January 30th with hour-long weeknight 5pm news. Now, the February 6th launch of hour-long 4pm news. I wouldn't be surprised if Noon launches the week after that, then weekend evenings after that, then weekday mornings and finally weekend mornings. Also, if this is done within a four-week span, then they would have its full schedule by March, if that one post that said about that timeline is true.

Wasn’t local production of Detroit Now already switched over to 62/50? I’m not sure most people would be able to see the difference anyway. The timeline for buildout appears to be: add the 4pm, then the noon (and 7pm?) and then weekend evenings… then buildout weekday mornings, with weekend mornings as the last piece. Going by the original “40 hours a week” projection for CBS News Detroit simulcasts on 62, WWJ stands to have local news from 4:30–7am, 9–9:30am, noon—12:30pm, 4–6:30pm, 7–7:30pm and 11–11:35pm on weekdays, two hours on Saturday and Sunday morning and the 6 and 11 on weekends.

Yeah, I should have thought of that. WJXX was full force at news launch, but the caveat was that the newscasts launched 10 months after the station. Allbritton had its launch priorities all the wrong way with that station (having had to get it on the air much sooner than anticipated at ABC's behest).

I used staggered wrongly… WWJ is going quicker than all of them. It crazy WPTY took a decade. But you forgot Jax and WJXX they did a full-slate of newscasts on the first day they were not in a new world market but you know what I mean. KEYE did so also.

That’s just a dress rehearsal for the eventual weekend newscasts. They did this last week for the special edition of the 4pm newscast when they were reporting on the snow storm. The 4pm newscast debuts on Monday.

This could be a one-off to audition talent or work out logistics, but WWJ just added a newscast for next Sunday night right after the Grammys… ATM there's no newscast scheduled for the following Sunday night@Samantha

WWJ expanded to a 5pm newscast on Monday. Noon and 4pm are coming soon, as are the morning newscasts.

Having recently done extensive research into the histories of a number of the biggest post-New World station builds, they mostly were staggered over a period of months. KSHB had an existing 9pm news which moved to 10 at the time of switch. A 5 was added in October 1994, a 6 in March 1995, but mornings had to wait until the summer of 1996. WDJT added two newscasts at the same time in its March 1996 news debut and then a third shortly thereafter. Weekend news was added the next year. Took them until 2001 to compete in mornings. KNXV started news at 10 on August 1, 1994. They added a 6 in about October, 5 in December, and mornings and middays in January 1995 when the remainder of the ABC programming moved over. WFTS aired its first news on December 12, 1994, but only at 6 and 11. The remaining newscasts showed up in the first four months of 1995. WGNX was not like many of the others. They were not producing a full line of newscasts until the new millennium: just noon, 6, and 11. It was not until Meredith took over that they added morning and 5 p.m. newscasts. WPTY went in all at once in evenings. When they debuted, they had 5, 6, 9 (WLMT) and 10. It took them at LEAST a decade to start a morning newscast! WWJ started with 6 and 11 (not including streaming hours) and has added a newscast in each of the two following weeks. Mornings do seem like they will take a little longer, and I'd expect that because of the time slot. Evening news additions tend to be more incremental, while mornings require a whole other team of on- and off-camera personnel.

They might not be THAT quick—mornings feel like it’ll fall in place by May at the latest—but they’re building this out at a rather steady pace and experimenting with likely talent pairings.

That would be news as Kris just left KARE 11 all together. Seems he may have landed a lot quicker than most thought he would, good for Kris. https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/kris-laudien-leaving-kare-11-after-four-years-on-sunrise

One more thing. I have four TVs in my house and none of them are smart tvs. One has a Roku box, another one is a small kitchen TV, and two tube tvs, one in the office and one in my garage. Three of those four TVs are exclusively OTA.

I think it’s safe to say that CBS Detroit falls into the “fewer legacy viewers at risk” category. Not only is channel 62 hard to get to for OTA viewers; that station (in its current form) doesn’t have much of a legacy to speak of. I generally agree, but it depends on how much CBS is invested in attracting OTA viewers in Detroit. Moving their virtual channel would only impact people who don’t have cable or streaming. I’m not sure if the number of antenna-only viewers in the Detroit viewing area would make that a big enough concern. Plus, CBS is putting a big emphasis on their streaming news networks anyway, so their Detroit OTA channel probably isn’t their highest priority right now.

For Fox or CNN they never had the memory of on air channel number branding visual or audio. There’s also no local vs national programming distinction. For a WPVI they’ve heard and seen “Channel 6” or “ABC 6” with that iconic “6” for decades. What would an older person using voice command remote say by instinct? “ABC Philadelphia” or “Channel 6”? Maybe “Action News” In Denver it’s “9” through and through. Then there is the Fox decision to de emphasize Fox and emphasize the KTVU 2 in the most digital forward market. TEGNA has emphasized iconic channel logos in recent years. Lots of puts and takes unique to each station and market not all of them related to digital program guides. Hard to make a blanket decision unless you have fewer legacy viewers at risk. It’s an easier one for the also rans or newer entrants to make. Like KUSI that ditched the attempt at 9 branding (they started as a hidden 51 emphasizing KUSI at the start)

For some stations, a chunk of the large legacy audience is older and still familiar with the channel numbers as the 'brand.' Probably less so or close to none with some of these 4th place CBS stations, or a new one like CBS DETROIT. And certainly a lot less so than 20+ years ago, and as you note fading further. Think WPVI or KTRK for example. FWIW my Hulu screen shows channel logos but it's alphabetical (including cable nets) - and for the local stations uses the network name as the first letter for(so ABC 10 before CBS sorting

Since they added WDJT to my cable system, it's been just either '9' or '605' in the Roledex of my mind so I knew where to tune, and now it's just 'CBS 58' because that's what they've been every day since December 1994 and never changed the branding. Their first priority was to get established, then build a news division; on that front they've been very successful and now you nearly forget that CBS bounced around 6, 12 and 18 for so many decades, and they've got a good syndicated schedule. Meanwhile, WWJ has just...kinda existed. They just pass through CBS-owned content in syndication and outside of a few Lions games here and there and watching CBS, there's really been nothing to keep you there because 2, 4 and 7 are always there in their niches. Same when they purchased WKBD and made it just another bland UPN/CW station. And it's either 62 CBS, CBS Detroit, CBS, WWJ, CBS 62...never any consistent branding. And it didn't help that CBSNS had old guard management at the Westinghouse stations that wasn't changing a thing any time soon, or dysfunctional idiots with battling egos who bought stations to get into a golf club, and in Detroit, just never really tried. Still ended up a better result than getting WADL as an affiliate, though; that entire station is a headache and a half as it is now. Imagine having to fight them every few years on affiliation terms.

15 isn't too bad of a number. You're still in the general vicinity of everybody else with 4 and 5 (and 25). But Channel numbers like 46 and 62 are problematic IMO, from the standpoint of making it easier for the viewer. Right, but we're talking about OTA here as well as branding.

Like I said, it's real estate. Mcdonald's, Wendy's and Burger King all tend to be close to each other. If Hardee's is a couple of streets away, it falls off the map. You don't think about it. Same with the FM dial. Everything that's worth listening to around here is under 99.9. I don't even know what stations are on 100.1 and above for the most part. I simply don't get to that part of town. Also, just look around the country. Stations with the high UHF Channel numbers beating stations with VHF Channel numbers is still more the exception and not the rule. And if dial position doesn't mean anything, why do media companies still fight with cable companies to get lower channel numbers? Yes, people stream. But the thing about streaming is that you can't really flip through channels a lot. You're basically stuck with whatever you're watching. There's still value in a low channel number both from the standpoint of real estate, and simply from a marketing and image standpoint that you're not one of those UHF stations in the nosebleed section of the dial where all the crappy channels are.

And ABC7 I’ll be New York and LA all over again.

I remember Ronnie Duncan from his WSYX days. He seems to be a lot smoother and low-key these days. The weather guy is also decent, I like his voice. Can't say the same about the anchors. They both have very annoying voices. Go out and hire a couple of smokers. The weather center is kind of clunky. They're going to have to do a better job with that. Otherwise, looks good.

He’s also the father of CBS Weekend News anchor/senior correspondent Jericka Duncan.