Weeters

The best-case scenario for the old Master Control space (it's a fairly large room) is converting it into a new control room. The existing control room was built in the 80's and has not been updated much. They did move things around a few years ago when they automated, but it's still pretty tight in there (especially since they simultaneously moved the robotics control from the studio floor into the control room). They might have to wait until Radio moves out, though. At some point, the control booth for the radio networks got moved into the TV MCR, in a small closet-sized booth partitioned off from the rest of the room. Transmissions is also in the MCR, but that could probably be moved elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure the reason they're relocating has more to do with space for people than equipment. Most stations technical cores are surprisingly empty these days - where you'd once have three racks filled with VTRs (which take up the space one 2" VTR took up 50 years ago) you now have one rack with two servers doing the same exact job as those tape decks. ParkerVision was a product of the time period in which equipment space needs were peaking. You can now fit multiple switchers and automation servers into a single rack.

They've indicated a few times that they intend to run the Ion stations separate from the rest of their portfolio. I'd be surprised if they tried to do news on them.

They've been using this music for a long time... It's been on the 11pm for a while. This probably has nothing to do with new graphics, and more to do with their News Director liking this particular style of music (I've heard that he wasn't a fan of Inergy at Scripps, and that's why KTNV didn't have proper news opens until he left for KOVR)

It's worth noting that Congress let STELA expire. They didn't care enough to renew it for the people that needed it. There is zero chance they would reimplement it with some provision to let cable/sat providers just pipe in whoever they felt like during a dispute. The station groups, networks, and NAB would absolutely not support that. Period. Syndex already prevents this from happening. The local station retains it's local rights even if it's not on the cable provider.

Piping in other stations is a dubious choice and would not hold up. If I owned the out of market station replacing a fellow affiliate, I would immediately order it pulled off. The whole reason the first station got pulled down was because the owners want something from the provider. I'm not going to let them use my station as some negotiation tactic for free, and I'd hope other stations would do the same if the same happened to me. Cable providers do not have some kind of free reign over just running whoever they want on their systems. Also, if Comcast piped in a O&O to replace an NBC affiliate, I can almost guarantee you that would nearly immediately be brought to the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission as an unfair, monopolistic business practice. Sorry folks, but this idea is right up there with the fantasy of another mass affiliation swap or ABC buying Scripps. Not. Happening.

That would be a violation of their affiliation agreement with KIRO.

There's nothing anywhere that says the copyright needs to reflect station ownership. It's a Nexstar-produced newscast, featuring people paid by Nexstar, airing on a station that Nexstar has a contract with to provide services for. There's not much difference between this and a news share agreement where one station provides news for another owned by a different party.

The ground floor lease that included the streetside studio also includes the current studio as well as the control room. There are floorplans on the site for the streetside studio space. Anyone leasing the old streetside studio would sublease it from CBS. From what I understand, they lease the ground floor studio space and the first two floors of space above it, plus the garage below. There are 12+ years left on the entire lease according to the streetside studio listing. Fun fact: The elephant doors to bring large items into the studios (i.e. set pieces) are actually in the mall entry immediately north of the streetside studio.

NewsCentral was before its time. Technology has changed so much that it's impossible to compare with what we can do today. We have meteorologists working from home covering severe weather. What's the difference if they're 30 miles from the station or 3000?

I'll summarize my thoughts from the Discord: I don't think this is an attempt at a new OTA weather channel or anything close to WeatherPlus. I think this is a vehicle to enable the hubbing of weather. The press release says "Fox Weather will feature local, regional and national updates... [Drawing] on more than 75 meteorologists across 17 stations and Fox News Channel’s news gathering teams." and makes no mention of affiliate stations. This is a project that involves only the O&O group. Rebrand all the local weather departments under the "Fox Weather" banner (Which would be similar to WeatherPlus) and now you have a unified brand that anyone can appear in front of. Do you really need weekend meteorologists at both WITI and WFLD? Or can you just "regionalize" these markets and do both out of one station from time to time? Oh no! A Tornado warning has been issued on a Sunday morning, and nobody's at the station! Not to worry, the Mothership in NYC has somebody on duty, and they were going to cover the Tornado warning anyways, so they might as well just simulcast Fox Weather on the local FOX O&O. I would not be the least bit surprised if midway through next year, they announce they're "streamlining" the O&O's and are taking advantage of "operational efficiencies" presented with a network of meteorologists and suddenly some stations lose their weekend/fill in mets. I've said for some time now that Weather and Sports were ripe for hubbing, and I think this might be the start of that.

They've been on the same tower for years, and WDJT relays them on 58.3. Problem is Weigel has so many channels relaying on WDJT's main signal that none of them have a decent picture quality.

WTMJ "News Force 4" promo (An apparently short lived designation for their ENG teams) from 1980 WTMJ News Open from the same era as the above promo: And last but not least, a complete WTMJ 10pm newscast, with commercials... from 1968! Includes a few minutes of The Tonight Show at the end.

Please keep set discussion in the set update thread:

CBS and Fox News Channel have had a content share agreement for a while. It's just not very often used, and when it is, it's usually transparent to the end viewer. For example, a Fox News satellite truck may uplink live signals for both FOX and CBS. Additionally, WFLD, WBBM, WGN, and WMAQ have had a news share agreement in place since 2009. I know everyone on here likes to think there's all this in-fighting behind the scenes between stations like a scene out of Anchorman. That couldn't be further from reality. Stations share content with each other all the time and work together frequently, regardless of affiliation or ownership groups, and this has been going on since TV started.

That's their Investigative unit package. They've had it for a while. From what I've heard from people "in the know": -The weather graphics were only changed to the CBSN local package because most stations don't have the resources to maintain two looks. -Any plans for new graphics are indefinitely on hold due to the Viacom takeover and COVID. I'm considering closing this thread, it's becoming a "graphics speculation" thread where people just point out any random oddity as a "sign" of new graphics.

KTVA itself no longer has a news department. Everything but the license and transmitter now belongs to Gray. More than likely, the KTVA signal will go dark once it's fully integrated into KYES. KYES is essentially airing a news product named "KTVA 11 News" right now and simulcasting on Channel 11, from the way it's described in the announcement.

The NMSA isn't some magic site that is 100% accurate. It's more than likely someone sent in a wild assumption and the operators just put it up since they are unable to verify it.

What this part says is that Sinclair cannot apply for "assignment or transfer of control" (broad enough to include any purchase or divestiture of a station) without the applications being approved by Sinclair's legal team, and that any such application must also be accompanied by a certification from the designated Compliance Officer enforcing compliance of this order, stating that the application is accurate and that it's following all applicable laws. They must also submit an explanation as to why it was certified accurate and lawful. So, in other words, for the next few years, any time they buy or sell a station, they will need to certify that they are following the rules and not trying to pull a fast one on the FCC. The text applicable to the retransmission agreements is:

This is a bunch of nothing, really. The two largest parts of the Consent Decree deals with sponsorship identification and retransmission negotiations. Basically: Sinclair must have their lawyers review all applications to the FCC, and said lawyers must certify them to be compliant with all communication laws. Sinclair must set up policies to ensure sponsored content is properly labeled as sponsored (they are not the first broadcaster to end up with an FCC Consent Decree with this included) Sinclair is not allowed to see, or be involved with, retransmission negotiations for stations they do not outright own (i.e. they are not allowed to see or know about the agreements negotiated by Deerfield Media stations)

Some of these sets were likely built in-house. Lots of stations still had their own carpenters through the 80's.

Nothing new. The current graphics package was supposed to launch with Aerial. That didn't happen for some reason, but they apparently paid SAM for the rights to the package, so it pops up randomly.

That's just one of NBC's chime sound effects provided to affiliates, played on top of C-Clarity.

A tour of WPXI's old building a few months after they moved out, before they demolished everything but the transmitter/engineering portion (the video comments actually indicate the new exterior wall was built through one of the old studios)

Everyone has been so caught up with Coronavirus and Tegna speculation that this slipped under the radar. Disney CEO Bob Iger has stepped down (though will continue to serve as Chairman through the end of the year) and he has been replaced with Bob Chapek, who previously served as Chairman of Parks, Experiences, and Products for Disney. https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/bob-chapek-named-chief-executive-officer-of-the-walt-disney-company/ Having moved up from production assistant at ABC, Iger was very strongly connected to the TV side of things. The new guy is not. Chapek comes from a marketing and advertising background, and has bounced around Disney since he joined in 2011, but never with the TV side of the company. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly losing $30 million dollars a day due to park closures and theatrical releases being suspended. Back in 2010, Disney explored spinning off ABC because it didn't "add value" to their other properties, and that was when it was being run by someone who has basically worked for ABC his entire adult life. Now, Disney is rapidly losing market value, and is being run by the guy who was previously in charge of the "other properties". Buckle up, folks. This could get interesting.