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I don't think it's a coincidence that this move happened shortly after a new GM came to town. While there's no doubt that Elex is hard working, his problem is that he ends up making everything about himself, whether it's intentional or not. He has gotten used to getting his way with everything at KTTV through the years of a revolving carousel of news managers, and I'm guessing that is coming to an end. I heard that his China Newsom trip a few years ago cost 40k! That's an insane amount of money to throw around for a last place station and at a company that values frugality above all. I'm sure the inauguration trip cost a fair amount of money too. I don't think the new management was going to put up with his behavior for very long. While I admired his attempts to elevate California politics, I personally found his style to be somewhat sycophantic, and for what was ostensibly a statewide political show, he sure spent a lot of time dwelling on LA city politics. I doubt he's staying within the company. It would have been announced in a corporate press release if he were. He also wouldn't be leaking stuff to the LA Times. That "Look at how NICE Elex Michaelsen is" story the day before his own announcement didn't come out of nowhere. As for his replacement, I think it's a question of whether he's replaced at all, or to what degree. Seattle just blew up their PM lineup to basically be a Headline News style newswheel with taped news blocks. The Bay Area has gone to a solo anchor format for most shows.

Well, it wouldn't work under their current naming protocols... it's cbsnews.com/MARKETNAMEHERE... it would never have been cbsatlanta.com

Never say never, but it would be very challenging for CBS to prevail over Gray in court. Cyber or domain squatting requires one party to prove that another party has acted in bad faith, which, on its face, is notoriously difficult to prove. Now, consider that Gray has had a legitimate business reason to own and promote cbsatlanta.com and domain squatting becomes almost a non-starter from a legal perspective. Gray could also argue that forcing them to sell the URL would harm their business, as it would eliminate their ability to redirect traffic to their new URL automatically. This would reduce traffic to their website, impairing their ability to sell advertising and thus harming their business. Meanwhile, CBS would have a strong copyright case against the use of its intellectual property. Is Gray participating in copyright infringement by owning, but not actively using or promoting, a domain with CBS in the name? Perhaps. But I suspect the devil is in the distinction between owning and promoting/using. Ultimately, I think you will see an agreement between the two parties where Gray retains ownership of the domain for a set period of time before having to sell to CBS at a fair market price. WCCB in Charlotte retained foxcharlotte.com after they lost their Fox affiliation, causing Fox O&O WJZY to use myfoxcarolinas.com. This grace period allowed consumers time to switch from foxcharlotte.com to wccbcharlotte.com. Later, WCCB would sell the domain to Fox, which still retains ownership of the domain today despite having sold WJZY years ago. Today, the URL redirects to Nexstar's qcnews.com. I suspect a similar delayed domain sale will play out in Atlanta.

Could be tough under Skydance, CBS can’t just disaffiliate stations and build new news departments from scratch all the time. CBS is gonna have to learn it can’t do that they might get away with that 2 more times with Tampa and Seattle but after that they gonna have to deal with Gray, and Nexstar and everyone else all over again.

Business Atlanta’s new CBS station names new leaders ahead of launch As the national network transforms WUPA-TV into its Atlanta affiliate, it is building out a newsroom from scratch. By Savannah Sicurella 9 hours ago Less than two weeks from launching its Atlanta news station on WUPA-TV (Channel 69), CBS has named three senior executives with ties to the city to lead the venture. Tom Canedo, who has worked in various capacities across WUPA for more than two decades, will continue to lead the station as its president and general manager. Shawn Hoder will serve as news director and vice president. Hoder currently sits in the same role at CBS’ owned and operated station in Pittsburgh and spent about seven years in the Atlanta market at 11 Alive (WXIA-TV) more than a decade ago. Barbara Roeder has been tapped as the vice president of sales, returning to the station after more than 10 years on the sales team at FanDuel Sports Network. She previously worked with WUPA for about 15 years. Earlier this summer, longtime Atlanta CBS affiliate Atlanta News First (WANF) announced it would go independent after more than two decades. CBS then announced that WUPA, one of its owned-and-operated stations in the city, would become its Atlanta affiliate, delivering the network’s national entertainment, news and sports programming, as well as local news. CBS Atlanta is now building a newsroom from scratch, and several newsroom positions remain publicly listed online. The station’s news operation will debut in September, and its live linear feed will be available on Paramount+. Hoder and Roeder will begin Aug. 18. Canedo, who in his role will also oversee CBS’ independent stations in Tampa and Seattle, will report to Jennifer Mitchell, the president of CBS Stations and CBS News and Stations Digital. “Launching CBS Atlanta represents a significant investment in local journalism and community connection,” Mitchell said in the announcement. “Tom, Shawn and Barbara each bring deep experience and strong ties to the Atlanta market. Their leadership will be essential as we build a station that reflects the voices of the community and delivers trusted, impactful news and content.”

Time for the annual tradition known as the LNT NFL Preseason Graphics Roundup! Ravens: no change from last year.

GMA Miami Tour: Day 4. This time, its WSVN Entertainment reporter and Deco Drive co-host Alex Miranda and boy, he knows his Miami.

I think you did a good job explaining what we were all thinking. Local stations don’t really do news trips anymore lol that the best way I can name it, but you’re right I’ve barely seen a news station send a reporter or anchor on assignment to another city or another country for that matter. I remember he covered both political conventions in Milwaukee and Chicago respectively yes he covered the inaugurations, and yes went to China no other LA station did that they could’ve just used a FOX News correspondent to cover all of that. As for him making think about himself a lot yeah I noticed that a lot too but there no denying he a hard worker. I don’t think they’ll be a replacement I’ll be Christine, Marla and Susan Hirisuna.

CBSAtlanta.net now redirects to an Atlanta landing page on cbsnews.com cbsatlanta.com continues to redirect to Atlantanewsfirst.com

I guess your right Univision just got lucky, and quiet honestly Telemundo was bought by NBC when I was born before that it was in the dumps and was on life support your are right. But still there a very popular networks. Jorge Ramos was created by you’re they invested in him he was propped up by them so was his long time co anchor who shall remain unnamed they both essentially went up the ladder. Don’t get me started on the failed MundoFox, Mundo Max disaster.

Well there’s still a lot of confusion for one, number 2 WPLG is the one and only

Most likely he’s joining FOX News Bill Melugin who good friends with him congratula,Ted him on his departure post.

No cited numbers (of course), but WPLG is spinning that they won most timeslots against 7.2 on the 4th (of course it's easy with J! And Wheel to still win 7 p.m.).

I thought about posting this in the Sports Section, but this may get more traction here--the NFL is also acquiring a stake in another broadcaster, this time CBS, according to Yahoo Sports (via the Wall Street Journal)... The actual information is in WSJ's story regarding the ESPN-NFL transaction (in the fourth paragraph)...

It wouldn't surprise me to farm it out to another of their markets for the time being just to get it on the air. Their prior effort was largely non-local and even resorted to simulcasting news from places like Boston during the height of COVID-19.

If WFOR is sold to Nexstar I will personally fly to New York and have the bosses at CBS get there heads checked.

WFOR? Probably hoping Skydance doesn't sell them to Nexstar (or worse).

Must be an even swap, because WITI is getting the Dateline repeats they previously aired (probably for the 1pm slot vacated by Pictionary).

As long as it remains a simulcast in terms of news, there's no way that would happen.

CBS has announced the leadership team for Atlanta. Also, newscasts will indeed launch in September.

KTVQ Billings has announced that Hailey Monaco is their new morning anchor. That line alone is not necessarily newsworthy around here. However, this time is different because Hailey's director inside the control room during the morning newscast is the one who launched the show and knows her personally... 39-year KTVQ veteran and more importantly, her father: Rob Monaco. https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-news/new-anchor-joins-montana-this-morning-and-shes-keeping-it-in-the-family

Not sure why we're collectively shitting on the World News broadcast... It's pretty impressive for a local station. I'm usually quick to denounce the "more news" mindset that has infected local television, but I understand what the goal is here. Yes, it's "more news", but it's replacing a network newscast and going up against network news. They're trying something that's not just the same local stories from 30 minutes ago run on a loop. It's different, and we should be celebrating that.

Existing newsrooms struggle to hire talent and keep them away from public relations and corporate communications. I'm not sure why CBS thought they could pursue such an aggressive timeline.

YES. This one (attached) is one of the arrangements (over a number of years) I did for my original 'WTNCF' theme that I composed for KCRA-TV Kelly Broadcasting in late 83 ... Thanks.

Isn't Hulu totally available through Disney+ as well? Hulu content appears to be available through Disney+ but not the other way around. Not to mention a large number of subscribers probably get or pay for the Disney Bundle, which includes Hulu, Disney+ and Espn+. I wonder if this will be a stand-alone option for non-cable subscribers, and can be authenticated for free with a cable/satellite subscription...

They lost some of their studio lighting? (Watch this video and you'll understand. That's a ridiculous number of lighted panels and surfaces.)

WSVN is a station atypical of the norm, in every way possible. That's all that needs to be said. That they are a solid #2 among English-language outlets in Miami—in spite of the lack of any synergy opportunities or not being in any larger chain—speaks to how well they read the market and shaped it in a way to also be heavily atypical of the norm. You don't have to be a cheerleader of the station to realize that.

Having watched WSVN 7 as my preferred news station for 19 years now, this is exactly true. Also, they RARELY run FOX News packages from FOX NewsEdge, if ever. And when they do, they make them use custom tagouts so that its 7 News and not FOX News (for example, for Madeline Rivera, a correspondent for FOX News Edge, she would say... in Washington, Madeline Rivera, 7 News. She would never say FOX News on reports sent for WSVN.). And yes, WSVN mainly does their own coverage for national news stories, including the Biden presser from yesterday. They rarely take anything national from FOX News.

Fair points. It is interesting though when stations completely de-emphasize network branding. It's like they want the benefits of a network affiliation such as primetime programming and live sports, but they want to have the guise of an independent operation. Now for Fox stations, it's obvious why they would want to distance themselves from the brand.

I happened to be watching WHDH last Saturday night and noticed this. Their 10:30 lead was an anchor tracked pkg about a police chase caught on video from Texas that happened several days prior. Wasn’t sure if that was typical for them or not, but I got the sense that maybe it was.

If I remember correctly, it was the entire day with the worst in the morning.

Out of curiosity, during which time period was this?

I assume that's so that WHDH's anchors and reporters are who viewers see on-screen. Did they have to bring their own equipment (cameras, mics, vehicle, etc.)?

Nope. It’s their own coverage.

I noticed that WHDH is covering Trump's arraignment in Miami. Anyone know if it's a straight simulcast of WSVN?

You know what, that’s a good point actually; I’m sorry it skipped my mind. To be fair though, WSVN does air a repeat of the late news during that time, so those viewers do still get relatively (depending on the story) up to-date news, even if it isn’t live.

People who work nights? I know if I was working nights, I'd prefer early morning news over infomercials any day.

IMO it's better they don't start the newscast at 4 AM, at least from the talent's point of view. I like that they rerun the 11pm broadcast at that hour. If this pushes Sherri Shepherd down one hour hopefully it knocks Byron Allen's fake Justice with Judge Mablean off the schedule---(even though I love her). It's strange that a market with such leisure and culture as Miami/Ft Lauderdale doesn't have a lightweight morning newscast. Even the 9am hour on WPLG and WFOR are straight news. (Not counting Deco Drive or 6 in the Mix). Looking at the quieter overlapping market West Palm, Fox 29 is straight news from 7-9. WPEC and WPBF are also strictly news at nine. Thats five hard newscasts at 9am in South Florida.

KGO starts at 5am. Plus WFXT moved from 4-10 to 5-11 during the pandemic (they've since restored 4:30).

Funny you mentioned that; my first thought was “thank God it’s 10am and not 4am.” I know it’s become conventional for stations to start at 4 or 4:30am, but is there really that much of an audience there? Granted, most people are at work by 10am, but you can at least get stay at home moms/workers and people in waiting rooms to watch you.

Getting off-track a bit, I would not be surprised if more stations diverted 4:00 a.m. resources to middle-of-the-day newscasts instead. Sunbeam has much more flexibility, of course, with one station independent and one station only giving up two hours a day to FOX.

When I first read this, I thought, "they should really be expanding their morning newscasts into the 4:00 a.m. hour, not the 10:00 a.m. hour." It doesn't make sense for a top-50-market station to not have their morning news start before 5:00 a.m. these days. (I still think it's weird KOKH is the only English-language news operation in OKC that starts its morning news at 5:00, while the Big Three affiliates start theirs at 4:00 or 4:30 a.m.)

That's what I figured. Heck, Sunbeam probably doesn't have much of a corporate office beyond an office for Andrew Ansin.

That has to be a typo or something. Magnes is WSVN’s GM. 12 hours a day is certainly overkill, but if any stations are going to follow the KVVU model of filling up more than half the day’s schedule with news, it’s these two.

KTBS, KFMB and WDAY+Z are also on the list.

WFMJ, for one. I wouldn't be surprised if Gray or Nexstar buys them next year.

So what "independent" Big Three stations are still out there?

And then hopefully, WRDW can put up their 24-hour local weather channel again on 12.2

Now "KVTV/KYLX"'s website and it's Facebook is down. What will Gray do next for "KVTV/KYLX"? (Yeah, now I don't know how should I call for this station.)

Gray purchased 3 LPs in Casper, WY back in February. One of them now has a new call sign. K41MD-D is now KSBF-LD. I wonder if Gray is going to bring CBS back into the fold in Casper. The affiliation agreement between Mark III Media and CBS for KGWC expired in June. I don't know if they have signed a new deal.