Leaderboard

Children's programming on OTA was dying well before KidsClick happened. As far back as 2002, Fox - having sold Fox Family and basically all of the Fox Kids program library to Disney - scrapped Fox Kids's weekday afternoon block and decided to lease out the Saturday morning block. 4Kids won that contract, of course. (I know 4Kids has never had a good reputation given their butchering, but the alternative was DIC! ) CBS and ABC's kids' blocks became rerun farms for corporate siblings around that time - I believe that CBS used the Viacom merger as an excuse to break off the deal it had with Nelvana for the CBS Kidshow and replace that with Nick Jr. reruns. But somehow, Kids' WB! managed to straggle into the year 2008...on The CW! There was hardly any cross-pollination with Cartoon Network either! Local stations don't want children's programming other than what they're federally mandated to run anymore. They can only run twelve minutes of ads per hour, they can't run ads during the shows featuring characters from the shows (the cereal-hawking past of many cartoon stars wouldn't fly now!), and they probably wouldn't be able to get good-quality product anyway. As I've said before, 90% of the worthwhile content is owned by Disney, WarnerMedia, Viacom, and NBCUniversal. I can't imagine any of those companies are too eager to open up the vaults to over-the-air broadcasters they don't own - although the arrival of The Flintstones to MeTV indicates that attitudes might be changing. That show is a traditional all-ages bedrock, yes, but it's a highly valuable property owned by a company that long preferred to keep it "in the family," going back to when Turner controlled it. But as pay TV continues to erode, and even the future of the Boomerang streaming service seems cloudy, the childrens'/family entertainment behemoths may be looking into alternatives. I can't imagine Sinclair gets along with other station owners very well anyway. They strike me as blustering, selfish, and not particularly amenable to collaboration.

I hear they will be increasing the number of live reports... ...as soon as mom puts more minutes on the cellphones...

Don't you know you NEVER tell a man with an ugly dog...that his dog is ugly. Yes it's bush, rough and unpolished, but it's not trying to be anything but a startup all news operation, that has to start somewhere. I'm totally rooting for these kids and every single crappy cheap Chinese tv transmitters they occupy. These guys KNOW what a budget is because they don't have one.... They trade aluminum cans for satellite time... They eat Cheerios out of ziplock bags that mom packs for them...She still has to cut up their meat into little squares, and trim the crust off the bread... They all get naps... ...and I bet the news director can't even buy cigarettes or a dirty mag until he turns 18. Besides, It's fun to watch! At least some still get an allowance for doing the chores.

It doesn't help that all of the shows out of Washington seem like they're taped in off-hours to only to air on WJLA as if they're covering their 1982 Sunday morning public affairs obligations. They're using people used to producing local shows that still produce them as if they're local shows (and if Armstrong is taping at WEYI or WPDE, it's public access quality). At this point, those stations are competing with kid's phones and tablets for their overnight social check-in. The KidsClick lineup was all Euro rejects (look up "Playmobil movie"...they aired the Playmobil show to an audience of crickets, and the distributor is desperate to make that film work in the States), and the cereal manufacturers have long adjusted to all-ages marketing. The days of kid's ads as they were in the 90s are long over.

Not to go totally off topic since this is a Sinclair thread, but it does appear that they're in the midst of expanding their operations: https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/newsnet-breaks-ground-on-new-studio. They're scrappy, but it's an endearing effort and I think they're making good use of the resources they have.

In Montgomery, Alabama, the mayor's office is up for grabs after the longtime mayor decided not to run for re-election. They just had a runoff, and one of the finalists is David Woods, owner of WCOV Fox 20. He is the son of Charles Woods, who also dabbled in politics and owned WTVY in Dothan until 2000. Being a station owner, that frees him from the conflict of interest that many companies have when someone runs for office, but if he wins, the station may have to be put in a trust or sold. At least they contract their news out to Bahakel's WAKA/WNCF so that's out of the way (they disclose this in their coverage)

There is something about the production value of their in-house stuff that strikes me as cheesy. I don't know if it's the graphics, the lighting, the intro or what, but there is something about these bits they produce that really get under my skin and it has nothing to do with the content. It just looks small market to me for some reason and Sharyl Atkinson is a pro so her show shouldn't look like this. (Just my opinion.)

See, this is important to get screened for cancer and get checked. Steve Eagar (KDFW), Dallas Raines (KABC) have beaten prostate cancer because of early detection. And I'm praying for Henry and hopefully be more than a 100% healthy. Let's pray for ones who beaten cancer, and let's pray for the ones are no longer with us who fought cancer, one of them is Gary Papa (WPVI). Please remember, Almost 175,000 men get diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and about 30,000 die every year. Black men have A 60% increased risk. Getting a PSA test means early discovery. If you are 45+ and haven’t had a PSA test, get one. It’s a blood test. Easy. No pain. Do it! Pray for Steve Eagar and for Henry DeCarlo. Hugs and Prayers, Steve and Henry. God Bless.

Personally I was hoping for a rename to GMA3: Return of the Jedi. We also would've accepted GMA3: G With a Vengeance.

WCYB-TV in Bristol, VA just became the 1st former Bonten station to switch to the new gfx package...

Full traffic reports returned this morning as CBS2 brought back "Traffic & Weather On The 2s". Another change was Alex and Elise did the "CBSNewYork.com Top Trending Stories" and "2 Talkers" segments. "CBSNewYork.com Top Trending Stories" had been Alex, Chris and Mary and "2 Talkers" was Alex, Chris, Mary and Elise.

Up next: "Legends and Legacies with Steve Sanders". In all seriousness, the more original programming, the better. They need something to fill in those slots when sports telecasts disappear for good after baseball season ends.

Speaking of Antena 3... they're kicking ass right now. More people watch them for news than Telediario (La 1), La 2 Noticias (La 2), Noticias Cuatro (Cuatro), Informativos Telecinco (Telecinco) and LaSexta Noticias (LaSexta). Now, Antena 3 Noticias is home to one of Spain's top 10 most visited websites. 24.5 million unique visitors to Antena3.com/Noticias. DISCLAIMER: I'm a massive fan of Antena 3 Noticias. I prefer them over Telediario in a close battle. https://www.antena3.com/noticias/cultura/record-historico-de-atresmedia-en-internet-al-los-245-millones-de-visitantes-unicos_201908215d5d17200cf29f7bb64bef95.html

They are essentially the old package just made flatter, with a different font, and adding a dash... ...and lemme tell you, I am here for it.

Here's the new Premier League scoreboard.