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And WCVB is pushing the "Ben and Emily went to Ithaca College together" angle.

John Kucko's Excessively Large String of Mic Flags is probably the best new Super Bowl tradition of the decade: Last year: [MEDIA=twitter]697656255108685824[/MEDIA] And now, consolidation is weighing him down even more this year. [MEDIA=twitter]826093988524470272[/MEDIA]

I had a friend who worked a short time at KLFY, and she had nothing but praise for Blue. And this comes from a time period where stations were often bringing in youngsters to displace the "senior" news anchors (cough, KPRC Dominique Sachse, cough). Best of luck in retirement, Blue! J

As your weekend is about to come to an end, here are some rare clips I am sharing with all of you. We start in 1977 where WOAY-4 in Beckley, West Virginia had just signed back on the air after a devastating fire hit the station. Here are a few video clips of WOAY's news from that year. At 2:16 into the video, it includes an ID with newscast open. The audio is very low, but you get to see a vintage KFVS newscast from 1989 featuring a different open used during that period. News open with ID can be seen at 0:33. Here is a WSAZ news close from 1977 with NBC Nightly News intro. WSAZ used "Part of Your Life" at the time.

A little more detail from KUSA's GM about the drawdown of the traditional sports block. Also, Drew Soicher has been hired by KPNX. http://www.westword.com/news/sports-anchors-like-drew-soicher-will-be-a-thing-of-the-past-for-9news-8785144

They also air an hour-long church service at 11am on Sundays, preempting the 11:30 edition of NBA Countdown (although the game itself is still shown). No NBA games on ABC today or next Sunday, but we'll see come March 5. BTW, any other Big 3 Central Time stations air church services at 11am?

I'm thinking it's an ad grab. I've seen a barrage of 5 second billboards running on WKRG (bookending MANY of their breaks) with local sponsor logos plastered on them. They ran a package at 10pm by some reporter I've never heard of that gave a VERY generic overview of the behind-the-scenes of Super Bowl...i mean "Big Game" operations in Houston. Very generic and of little news value, IMHO. Mobile-Pensacola has little vested interest in this game, ESPECIALLY since WKRG and WFNA will not be airing it. FTVLive chronicles the poor crew having to use a mic flag for EVERY station that's taking part....which is probably everyone. http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/2/2/super-bowl-nexstar-style

After 26 years at ABC 7, and the last 8 as political reporter, Charles Thomas is retiring from television on March 3rd. He soon join an African American community-focused digital venture. http://abc7chicago.com/careers/veteran-broadcast-journalist-and-abc-7-political-reporter-charles-thomas-to-retire/1734264/ http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wls-political-reporter-retiring-after-4-decades/185240

Actually there is some real news here. It was sold to a real estate developer... Who presumably will develop the site for a profit...and NOT lease out an almost 60 year old plant for the long term. You can move WGN(and friends) into a 50,000 sqf state of the art plant for a fraction of the cost over the long term. WGN= Future HOA? I do not believe the WGN press release stating they are there for the "long term"...not for 1 second. Developers don't sit on 60yo TV stations, I give WGN 3-5 yrs before they move.

I'm kind of surprised Signature is still offered. A lot of other Arnold packages of the era have unfortunately been retired (Finale originated in the same year as Signature and has held up better in my view), but somehow, that overly-sentimental old package keeps going. It doesn't help that a lot of the newer-sounding cuts don't sound like they fit in, beyond the musical logo. When Arnold updated the ancient Wall to Wall News, they at least added brass that was meant to help the newer cuts blend in with the older ones.