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For what it's worth, I was told the weather talent did not like the original desk, and that's why it was changed (notice the uplighting all over the new desk). The standalone circle 7 motif is all over that set, so I wouldn't read too much into that part of the design here.

Judging by that, the second desk is much better. Like the curve up front, love the Circle 7 on the side. A nice touch.

Maybe KABC goes back to being called "Channel 7 Eyewitness News". Doubt it though, just as I doubt WABC will rebrand to "ABC7 Eyewitness News". As it was from 1999-2004.

I feel like they’d be foolish to “force” any changes on WPVI, that station is an unrivaled powerhouse. Don’t they consistently pull in more viewership than the other stations combined? Don’t shoot me for this but I actually like the WABC-ification of KABC and KGO. The music fits KABC way better than I would’ve expected. ABC should mandate KTRK and WTVD to use the theme as well. The mandated graphics has been a net positive especially for WABC.

We all oughta agree that WPVI; WABC and KABC's sister station is more the wild child , especially now in these circumstances haha. They are most resistant to changing their identity especially their music, because of how strict their viewers are. The 6ABC identity has embodied themselves in Philadelphia culture. Philly locals literally love WPVI's identity to the point where the music itself has become the defacto anthem for the region. They tried to deviate from their iconic Move Closer to Your World Theme with a more orchestral modern format in 1996, which was extensively discussed here, and we all knew they had a lot of issues and backlash from the public so they quickly went back to their original theme within less than 24 hours so I don't see them really changing much when it comes to their on air branding and theme. So there are unique times where the public gets involved and expresses their concerns greatly but this is not the case all the time. WPVI's theme, format, and presentation, arguably is the best in the business and has worked for them. Thats what I wish we could see more of for the rest of the O&O stations. An established brand and identity that really captures the region that they are serving in addition to retaining the overall O&O look which WPVI exemplifies. The Eyewitness News Dispatch (Series 4) theme to me is very New York and it should be exclusive to New York in the same way that Move Closer To Your World is Philly and should be exclusive to them, but I digress now haha. Now, regarding WABC adopting "ABC 7" instead of "Channel 7". I guess they can do that, makes sense since they are known as "ABC 7 NY" for their digital platforms, so its only fitting for them to switch to "ABC 7" Eyewitness News, but its been widely discussed and understood that New Yorkers refer to the station as Channel 7 rather than ABC 7. In the same way WPVI says "Channel 6" instead of "Six-ABC". But time will tell, im really interested in seeing what KGO does.

Tonight's Bruins-Panthers game ran long, AEW was on TBS, and College Basketball was on TruTV, so when the late NHL game started where did they turn? Yes, that's right. They turned to HLN, which erroneously showed the "CNN on HLN LIVE" bug and at one point after a commercial break aired the wrong game. I think you're technically watching "NHL on TNT Sports on CNN on HLN."

Well keep in mind WLS dropped "Eyewitness News" in 1997, and brought it back in 2013. I never thought in my lifetime they bring that back either.

A little of back to the future...Cool Hand Luke which has the urgency of Dispatch was the signature of KABC for the 70s and much of the 80s into 95. Also these O&Os go through phases of coordinated consistency. Pretty much all Cool Hand Luke in the 70s, some strays in the early 80s, then back to the Gari updated version plus Tar Sequence opens for some for the mid to late 80s. Graphics went through a somewhat consistent phase in the mid to late 80s with helvetica and red stripes. The 70s KABC set had a renaissance in the mid 80s at KGO, WABC, WLS simultaneously. KGO more of a wild child with graphics. I wonder how NY explained the changes to the local staff in LA and SF. Especially the EWN name to the SF staffers. Wasn't that long ago they had generic newscast names for Chicago and SF and it seemed the whole group might go the 'ABC 7 News' route. Maybe it helped to distinguish local from national news as well which these days the national newscasts carry the weight of perceived bias by some audience segments and local may be more trusted. Or maybe they're prepping for a sale and downplaying the network identify a bit. Also could have been some consumer research done on the branding and also on Dispatch as recognizable with the teletype or a sense of call to the TV when it's on.

Dispatch is great for New York, I'd even accept it in Chicago, but tonally, it's absolutely a downgrade in LA. And While WABC's font works for them, they're more likely to fall in line with the 3 others than for New York's to roll out to the rest, which was the plan at the package's launch.

This also makes having the city/region name in their graphics all the more important. ABC 7 Eyewitness News Los Angeles, Chicago, and now the Bay Area. WABC doesn't follow the same route, thankfully, but you can probably see it as the same there, too, depending on how you view it.

I think we're overthinking this here. WLS's is still abc7chicago.com despite having Eyewitness News. Just my two cents but I don't think websites need to change just because of switching to the Eyewitness News branding. They're still ABC 7's...

Here are some additional parts to that promo. The voiceover, who is Roger Rose, says here that “Everywhere News Breaks, We’re There Monday to Friday with Marc Brown and Michelle Fisher, David Ono and Jovana Lara, and Weekends with Liz Nagy and Jory Rand, Covering SoCal 7 Days a Week, ABC 7 Eyewitness News” (with a Southern California’s News Leader end tag of course) This shows viewers that all of the evening teams are stable again across the entire week and that the coverage we expect from Southern California’s News Leader will remain top notch and to the point. The station is gearing up for its next chapter and no other LA station besides maybe KTLA, will come close to the same level of talent stability and set execution. I like what I see so far but we will see what happens in March, when all the new stuff debuts.

Multiple Market Main Anchor Wes Sarginson passed away yesterday February 4th at the age of 82. Sarginson anchored in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington DC (twice), Tampa, and Atlanta again before retiring in 2007. This comes from someone’s private FB page.