Weeters

This is a fine set for Spokane and market 73. Folks, I think we need to collectively come to the terms with the fact that the money is gone, everything is more expensive, and design trends are different than they were 20 years ago.

If you're wondering the "why" for this project... Mainly why it took this long... The exact thing I expected they were waiting for happened. Early last year, plans were released for a major redevelopment of the area surrounding the current building. Of course, they were released before the move was announced, and the current building is notched out of the development, but that means their property suddenly became a lot more valuable. WFAA will likely be next, the city of Dallas just bought the old Dallas Morning News building (after the proposed redevelopment fell apart) to secure more land for a $3.7 billion redevelopment of the convention center, which is heavily focused on redeveloping the exact area that WFAA occupies.

So, I actually think there might be something here. Maybe. It's a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong! But, allow me to speculate for a moment. WSVN is in a very unique situation right now. They have plans to build a brand new facility, and their current owners are developing the real estate for both the current facility and the future one. They own the land at both sites, in fact, the future facility is on empty land they've held for years, and the current facility is on land they want to develop into expensive condos. The condo development wouldn't be planned if they didn't think it would make money, and it will probably make enough to pay for the new WSVN facility several times over. This whole new facility project has always had the underlying motive of Sunbeam wanting the station off the current land because they see the value in it, and they have a lot of empty land in Miramar that they can plop it on, to get it out of the way. The common saying is "Disney doesn't buy stations", but there should be an asterisk there. Disney doesn't buy stations because Bob Iger is convinced most are overpriced. Sunbeam has a very interesting position here. Their primary business is, at this point, property development. Building a building just to lease it out is what they do. It seems to me, like they could be in a position to sell WSVN at a "discount", with the remainder being more or less made up via a long-term lease on the new facility. This would be a huge win for Sunbeam. They can develop land that has sat idle for years, and have it immediately start making money, from a tenant that you really wouldn't have to worry about going bankrupt. They'd still make money off the station for years to come, and best of all, it'd be a predictable amount. It is notable that, despite the project being announced some time ago, the parcel the new facility will sit on was untouched as late as October of last year, over a year after it was announced and approved by the city. What's the delay? The fact we're hearing about this now means there's probably been talks about this for months. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that Sunbeam put the brakes on the project in order to provide the ability to any possible future owner (I think FOX is also in play here) to make changes before the construction begins. I'm not sure we're done hearing about this "deal"... I don't think Disney would settle for a .2, if there weren't other things in the works. I've been saying since the new facility was announced that this seems ripe for them to sell the station and make money off the lease, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

The whole point of streaming/digital outlets is to reach people who are not watching traditional, OTA TV.

I skimmed the thread too fast! There wasn't any discussion so I suppose it was still overlooked... That said I've updated the post. It sure does seem like that. I believe the big studios where Springer and them taped were also on the second floor? The third floor listing shows that part of the building as "Open to Below".

An update to the previous report that NBC was downsizing their space in NBC Tower... Not sure when it went up, but the landlord for NBC Tower has begun to advertise what seem to be the spaces WMAQ will be leaving. Curiously, is the Loopnet listing description for Suite 100. Additionally, space on the third floor and fifth floor is being advertised. A number of building permits were issued last summer/fall for the 2nd-4th floors as well. Universal has ceased advertising the production studios within the tower. I'm pretty certain it is, but Is someone more familiar with WMAQ's space able to explain if the space being advertised is the current newsroom?

It probably will. It's mostly just all the Morning Blend people, and they'd still be in the building at that time anyways. Same goes for staffing. They had a 3PM news before because the PM production crew is already in the building by that point (and god forbid they have any time during their workday where they're not producing live television). It's a sunk cost on the production side, in the studio at least. The added costs to produce What's Brewing Wisconsin will probably be another producer and the additional host, and maybe paying for part of a photographer's day. The real question is whether or not "Morning Blend but in the afternoon" is a viable product. Morning Blend prints money, but I'm not sure if you can have lightning strike twice four hours later.

Similar to the WABC set, it might be best to hold judgement until we see it with the lights on!!! N4 was also partially recycled from a set that existed before the fire. Most of the current set is video wall, including the main background.

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Those are part of the LED wall.

Something I realized reading this is that this is really kind of the first complete building in NYC built for television (at this scale at least.) ABC's current facility is a mishmash of buildings, including one over 100 years old and formerly used as a horse riding facility (similar to WBBM's old facility.) NBC is in old radio studios, CBS is in an old dairy, WNYW is in an old opera house. WPIX is in an office tower. ABC had no real constraints designing the studio spaces here. This is about as good as it can get in NYC.

The website and live stream has been shut down, with the website displaying the following message:

The WGTA one is still on the station's schedule, unless someone else is producing it now.

The Coastal Alaska agreement seems to have ended some time in 2023. They were also producing "Georgia News at Nine" on WGTA and I'd be curious to know what happened there last night.

A TwitterX post from a former freelancer has some ideas about why this happened.