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On the off chance Nightline actually does expand, I'm bookmarking this. Just saying

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/bbc-news-channel-free-streaming-platforms-1235850872/

A recent interview in Newsday featured Katiy Tong: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/kaity-tong-wpix-qhg4zhj3 She reflected on her time at WABC (where there were protests in 1991 when she was dropped as anchor) and WPIX (where she reminisced about her time with Jim Watkins). She also mentioned that her recovery has not been easy. Hoping for the best for her.

Speaking of mishaps after the graphics change, here is a blooper from March 13. Someone hit the wrong button in the control room.

Oh they've been dropped Eyewitness News back in 2007, but WWL did dropped it under TEGNA but not WBNS-they were still family owned.

Today it was announced that Fox 5 and My 9 will air all of the New York Liberty’s locally televised games: https://liberty.wnba.com/news/wnyw-fox5-new-york-named-official-tv-partner-of-the-new-york-liberty/

Not all of them-- Dave Ward of KTRK in the 90s had one such incident (he was also driving without a license), and while the brass of that Houston ABC O&O were upset at what he did, all they had him to do was to write an apology and have him deliver it on all three afternoon and evening newscasts (5, 6 and 10); I think the reason why they were seemingly more lenient with him than any other station would be with talent of shorter tenure is because he had been quite an asset to that Bayou City of Texas to that point (one of the longest-serving talent that any TV station has had where news is concerned), and the good thing about it is that it caused him to reflect on what he did and change his ways where booze was concerned (all this is how I read it in his Good Evening Friends memoir).

TNT Sports Tonight launched; in an interesting move, it appears to actually be produced by CNN with long-time sports correspondent Coy Wire hosting.

Which is funny given I think Clark-Tyler was probably the best combo in that group. When it was Hsu-Grove | Hill-Rosenfield | Clark-Tyler it was fantastic. Ira Joe, Mark and Warner fit. (Of course Mark Danon did himself in)

WDSU Chief Meteorologist Margaret Orr is calling it a career after 40-plus years at the station. Her last broadcast will be the 6 pm show March 29.

Pulling a Jamie Yuccas.

KGBT-TV in the RGV market had one of the guy wires snap on their tower this week, and after an evacuation for a day or two it was safely taken down. It had already been stripped of its CBS affiliation in 2021, become an Antenna/My Net sub zombie, and its main and Estrella subchannels were bumped to KVEO's bandwidth while NX figures out next steps. I feel like they either move to KVEO's stick in the coming months with only the Nexstar classic nets returning in addition (the rest are Scripps networks and will likely see a contract rip-up), or it just goes silent after a year and it goes back up for bids; why rebuild a tower when you can just move its operations to the working one?

WBTV statement on Molly Grantham https://www.wbtv.com/2024/03/08/wbtv-statement-molly-grantham/ I hated how it went down. It appeared they might have had some sort of going away party for her off camera according to some pictures I saw last night on Facebook but she certainly deserved an on camera sendoff.

I really miss Sade. Hope she’s recovering well from her knee surgery.

EDIT: The NY Post article says "stepping down" which suggests Dana Tyler's move is voluntary. However, Andrea Grymes was just removed as weekend morning co-anchor and posted on IG: "The CBS bosses are making some changes, and that includes a new co-anchor for Doug." That being said, I'm skeptical about how voluntary Dana's reduction to fill in is. Next Tv says Dick Brennan will return to reporting, I also doubt that was voluntary: https://www.nexttv.com/news/wcbs-new-york-changes-6-pm-team Is there anywhere to find accurate updated ratings for NYC?

Big news from the Big Apple: after nearly 34 years as an anchor at WCBS-TV, Dana Tyler is leaving the desk at the end of March. But she will be staying on as a special correspondent, of sorts. In actuality, both she and co-anchor Dick Brennan are being moved off the 6:00 PM show in favor of the station's lead anchor team of Kristine Johnson and Maurice DuBois, who will now anchor all of WCBS-TV's evening newscasts. What role Brennan will have at CBS New York after the move is not yet known.

I think the sports block is the best plan for TruTV since the peak of its format as a comedy-based reality show network. I think it'll be hugely successful and I'd bet a rebrand will be imminent sometime after.

That's certainly possible. I think this is a very good thing for truTV. It makes the network worth watching, instead of it being just the network of Impractical Jokers reruns (and new episodes once a week, and those are moving to TBS in April).

Sorry to see Molly Grantham abruptly depart WBTV, as she was apparently forced out the door after she declined to renew her contract which expires at the end of the month. Rather than allowing her honorably finish 20 years of service, she was abruptly kicked to the curb wih no appropriate farewell or final broadcast. I would speculate Gray TV offered her an unsatisfactory contract, but whatever the case it is a shame to see her treated so disrespectfully. I hope to see her join WSOC or some other station if she so chooses and a contract is offered. WBTV continues to lose longtime legacy talent, incuding Paul Cameron, Maureen O'Boyle, Eric Thomas, Steve Ohnesorge, David Whisnant, and Steve Crump. Losing heritage credentials and class act reputation. More inclined to watch WSOC.

To the surprise of nobody who doesn't want to stare at simulcasts of people who have faces for radio outside Piers Morgan (who ditched it last month) and isn't in the business of comparing LeBron to Johnny Unitas or Babe Ruth, TalkTV is going online-only.

On the one hand, I’ll admit there are worse ways to make cuts than by producing a Scrippscast. Given that Sinclair has resorted to shutting down entire newsrooms and pumping in a questionable product from DC, it’s not so bad by comparison. Better to have a station continue to cover local stories with less than ideal resources/production than to have a local newsroom shut down entirely. However, I still don’t think that this is good for broadcast journalism. IMO, a lot of these Scrippscasts (for example, see WTXL) look hastily put together, and it seems as though they do the bare minimum to cover local stories. The national content often has little to no relevance to the viewer in that market. I’m not totally against the idea of reducing the role of the anchor to save costs, but unless that money is going into more robust local journalism and providing greater context to local issues, it’s a bit disingenuous for Scripps to frame this as a positive evolution in local news. It’s just cost cutting. It certainly seems like this is the future of local news, but we don’t have to like it.

Understood, and I totally agree with you there. They should be transparent with viewers about this and shouldn’t pretend it didn’t happen.

I don't think there's a need to "fire/cancel the guy." If this was an honest mistake, treat it as such, and learn from it. But don't sweep it under the rug either. I doubt many people would have known about this if the NABJ didn't issue a statement. KMOV owes its audience an explanation of how and why this happened.

Yup, Kevin Adell screwed it why he needs Jesse Jackson to speak, although I'm surprised that Mission didn't drop the sale as of yet is Nexstar just running the clock out until May when the deal becomes dead?

I didn't find the video on their website. Someone else did and posted the video to TikTok. I searched KMOV's website and did not find the initial video or any subsequent apologies. However, from what I've read online, Cory Stark did apologize. "Poor word choices" is an understatement. Yes, mistakes happen, but we're talking about an outdated and racist term for Black people that somehow made it into a news broadcast in 2024.

The more I think about Dana getting demoted, the more it annoys me. I get if there are budget cuts to make, but to make her a fill-in anchor is such a classless move when she’s nearing the end of her career. If you want her off evenings, fine. However, why not just make her the official noon anchor at this point instead of having it rotate between Chris and Mary. Give that newscast some stability, similar to how ABC 7 has Sandra Bookman on at noon. Lighten their workload, give Dana her own newscast, and then if she has to fill in for the evening newscast it doesn’t appear as insulting, because we know she’s already there in the studio for the noon newscast. Just a thought. Or, they could also have her and Cindy do 9am and Noon so there could be some conversation, similar to how ABC 7 does their 10am show. Dana, Cindy, and John is a great pairing in my eyes at least. Plus it pairs up to two longest-tenured anchors, and they’re friends, so the chemistry is already there.

They did more what I expected with the Shawano bump-over; they've filled a CP modification to transmit from Scrays Hill south of Green Bay with a southward null to protect WITI, so I would still expect a future LP to get more of the market, but likely for Manitowoc/Cleveland or Oshkosh/Ripon to get Fox River Valley/southern lakeshore coverage.

Y'all are going to be very disappointed when Scrippscasts become the industry norm, not the exception. If there's one thing local television enjoys, it's xeroxing the heck out of each other.

Please keep the wishcasting for a sale to Hearst in the Speculation board, please. Most of the groups seem to have reported less-than-impressive recent business results. This isn't a Scripps problem. Returning newscasts to "traditional" shows vs. Scrippscast isn't going to drastically change how people consume media, nor will it change the political landscape to drive up political advertising.

Kaity Tong is back at 6pm today.

I was just wondering if this was a part of paramount global cuts? I know their cutting and firing people all across the organization. They should have let Dana bow out gracefully than throwing a bone and give her. Any changes that needed to be made would be the morning team. Chris and Mary are bland. Yes they are good anchors but bland for a morning news team.

I feel like a part of my soul just left knowing this news.

Terrible move, yet again by CBS 2. Ugh.

*Byron Allen has entered the chat*

Admittedly Dana isn't the strongest anchor these days (when solo) but this isn't is a solution at all. Maybe it's just me but don't viewers get tired of seeing the same faces on every newscast? That's Maurice and Christine at 5,6, (8 on WLNY?) and 11. I'd think you would want a veteran like Dana Tyler up against Chuck Scarborough and Bill Ritter in the same slot. Dick is great on air and deserves an anchor spot wether it's with Alice or Dana. If ratings ate behind this, Dana and Dick aren't the problem the dry CBS o&o format is. Devil's advocate, maybe this is for the better. There was pushback when Dana and Jim Rosenfield were booted from the 11 in favor of Maurice and Christine, but ratings improved. So we'll see.

By 2009, Rob Johnson was anchoring evenings solo, and ratings were rising. That fall, Bill was brought in to shoot some promos and feature some of his cold case investigations. At some point, Walter returned to do his commentaries. In November '09, Rob was off, and the station heavily promoted a one night only reunion of the legends on the 10pm news. It was well-received, and they were installed as 6pm co-anchors by September of 2010. Once their contracts ran out in (I think) February '13, they were "retired." Given a full farewell, but it wasn't really their choice.

Boy, it's been a long time since we had someone start a good old fashioned list thread.

Second that, especially with the offer he made in the fall(?).

Realistically, the network isn't giving up that real estate to NBC and CBS. The benefits, hypothetical at that, of stations like WPVI for example doing an hour of news are more than offset by the lost revenue of abandoning the genre. Of course, there is the money to be made from those who view later in clips or on-demand, et al. Non-owned stations making more cash does nothing for Disney directly. Keeping something competitive in that slot does. They may try and fail with an initial replacement. Such is life. But if, and it's a big if based on one comment at this point, he leaves after this contract, that slot is going to remain in ABC's control. Personally, I'd love to see Nightline reclaim the spot, but I know that isn't the smart business play here. It's just a personal preference from someone with no skin in the game.

Look, before this topic gets put to rest (and let it do so soon), I love both packages and contrary to how we blow over about these things on this forum but your average viewer who knows nothing about station groups and graphics packages could care less on localization of graphics packages, music, the actual graphics, and even the reporting. Sure, something slow and European wouldn't work in Chicago or Philly, and viewers would be more comfortable with the style they know but in the end of the day, it's still going to ring in money and viewership!

The thing is, when I travel to another market, it doesn’t matter to the bottom line. I’m not measured, I’m not sold as an audience to the advertisers unless I happen to be in an AirBnB or something similar with a set-top box sending metrics. Even then, it’s near microscopic levels that don’t move the needle. Maybe in a market like Honolulu you can get enough as buys from tourism related businesses to get a revenue stream by being the most popular news program for tourists checking the weather. Or they just use their phones. Likewise, moving among two markets that both have a group with a similar graphics package is going to be a fraction of a fraction. The cost savings are going to be your driver, and an opportunity if desired to connect to the parent brand more deeply…while saving some cash along the way. I totally get brand consistency as a corporate value. And if we’re talking McDonald’s, heck yeah that gets a direct benefit since your cash spends the same. And that Target bullseye logo is going to draw shoppers everywhere. If anything, it’s mostly a net win for the groups to be consistent because of the cost savings. Of course there are potential pitfalls—like, I don’t know, messing with WPVI’s theme music. That might be the third rail you don’t touch, lol. I loathe that color green KYW has adopted (and the slogan) but hey, if it works for them, great. Can’t please everyone, and I recognize it as a personal taste issue. I like blue shades, others may want to barf at them. All good in the end.

The thing is: who actually notices? For all the complaints about common elements, how many viewers are actually going to be in two markets with common designs, and happen to watch the stations in question, and happen to pay that kind of attention, and actually care? Effectively no one. Nobody cares if WABC and KABC, for instance, have common design elements. A few people like us on message boards aren’t representative of the public at large.

I just hope under this change, the O&O stations continue to keep their individuality and local news branding instead of making them all look alike. There is a charm to that indivualistic aspect of a news station versus them all looking alike and sounding the same.

Shocked they’re being her back. That was a high-profile, well-covered DWI with shocking video. Stations have dumped talent arrested for DWIs far less severe.

I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with some of the points Rosanna made. But, she (as usual) drifts into editorialization. Sanctuary "Trap" for example is a loaded title. "This is coming to a city near you, unfortunately" which she said, is also another iffy statement. That's fine for Fox News Channel, but very slippery for her already compromised 'neutral image' role on GDNY.

New hire from WESH Orlando:

And they're even using Antenna TV's Facebook page to plug their latest washed-up host. Last I checked, Geraldo was not a classic sitcom. An 80s and 90s talk show, but not something Antenna TV carries. Good old Nexstar....

"NewsNation: Where One Of These Retreads Will Get Us Eyeballs, Right?"

Wow, if only they posted all their newscasts online, after they air. Oh, wait... https://abc7ny.com/tag/wabc-newscasts/

Not even kidding, first all-male, co-anchored, weeknight evening newscast on 7 in...at least 35 years? "The newsroom is calling the Bro Show." "All you need is a glass of scotch, and you're right back to the good ol' days." All that's missing is the circle 7 jackets.