Dave Lampstein

Some changes at WUSA9 - Annie Yu moved from the AM news to the noon and 4p show, Simone De Alba moves back to mornings. The Get Up DC brand has been officially retired, back to a basic WUSA9 News at 5am/6am. A shame, the show was not great but the logo looked cool.

Another thought... Meredith consolidated creative ops before the sale to Gray, then had to rebuild local creative teams across their stations. TEGNA consolidated creative ops in January... will they have to rebuild local creative teams post-merger? Does Nexstar decide to consolidate creative across their stations into regional hubs like TEGNA? Should be interesting.

I’m impressed — the CNBC host (kinda) did his homework. As a former TEGNA employee, I’m not sure how to feel about this. It wasn’t corporate ‘dictating the news’ like Sinclair, but their attempts to reimagine local stations and micromanage operations mostly flopped in market after market. My friends at mid- and small-market Nexstar stations seem relatively content, while those in bigger markets are less so, though that usually comes down to local management more than corporate. I'm curious how they're going to mesh together two somewhat unstable news operations in DC...

WSJ is reporting Sinclair has approached TEGNA with a merger offer. https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/tv-station-owner-sinclair-proposes-merger-with-tegna-4bd3bb86 Let the speculation commence!

Update: Current.org reports this morning that PBS’ board has voted to cut its budget by 21% and reduce station dues by $35 million in FY26, following Congress’ decision to rescind CPB funding for FY26 and FY27. To ease the impact, PBS is lowering dues for all stations and spreading out payments over three installments, and it’s giving bigger funding credits to national content producers like WETA, WNET, and GBH.

Stations pay dues to PBS. They’re recalculating the formula now for future fiscal years.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tv-broadcaster-nexstar-advanced-talks-213019553.html

I'm trying to make sense of your ramblings best I can, bear with me. I remember the Watercooler too... but let's ignore the fact that you're citing all of your knowledge from conversations in a toxic cesspool 15+ years ago... there's a reason why that message board isn't around anymore (and why this website was created). Public media has absolutely had layoffs, even during 2008. That said, when a beloved 50+ year old institution gets attacked and defunded, of course it's going to make the headlines. If you think public media doesn't report on the local media industry, you're wrong. Just because you didn't see it, and let's be real... you probably aren't a viewer/listener, doesn't mean it didn't happen. CPB's looming shutdown this fall is akin to Scripps closing up shop overnight and leaving all of their stations out in the cold scrambling to survive without any infrastructure support. If that actually happened, public media newsrooms would absolutely report on it. But that hasn't happened. Scripps, Allen, TEGNA... they're all still alive. Commercial media has been slowly bleeding out these past 15+ years like numerous other industries that public media newsrooms are also reporting on. The media industry across the board, public and commercial, is in a tailspin. Public media isn't immune to the changing landscape and has been doing what it can to reinvent itself, just like local news has been trying and both have been doing this as financial resources and viewership numbers drop. With PBS moving into streaming via Passport and NPR getting into the podcast game, their viewer/listener/donor base's average age is trending downward. If you think there aren't public media stations that have staffers doing the work of 2-3 people or that positions haven't been reduced for consolidated/centralization efforts like in commercial media, well, I really don't know what to tell you. Has your local NBC affiliate been reporting on that during the last 15+ years prior to the federal funding fight? Saying that no one is interested in public media and that people are flocking to local television news in droves is the most nonsensical thing you've included in your diatribe. One of the great things about public media is that it is for everyone. If you think an independent press and educational programming aren't worth fighting for or funding, I totally understand that. Not everyone values facts, nuance, or public service. Some people just want noise that confirms their biases. Please, just don't confuse your personal disinterest with the facts. Some of us still care about democracy and the truth. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/26/americans-more-likely-to-support-than-oppose-continuing-federal-funding-for-npr-and-pbs/ https://current.org/2017/02/farewell-tote-bags-pbs-passport-draws-younger-donors-as-membership-reward/ https://current.org/2021/06/how-to-build-the-next-generation-of-public-radio-listeners/ https://www.npr.org/2008/12/10/98098442/npr-cuts-jobs-cancels-programs https://current.org/2009/06/fiscal-year-end-layoffs-include-10-of-pbs-staff/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gannett-journalists-across-the-nation-walk-out-over-pay-management-issues https://www.pbs.org/video/how-sinclair-broadcasting-puts-a-partisan-tilt-on-local-news-1507678399/

You have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.

Half of mine were control room, half were inserted by master control. Fun fact: Hearst has/had a heavily modded version of Vizrt. They developed the original diagrid package that when the first lower third in a block would trigger from the control room, it would auto-trigger the bug in master control. (If I remember that correctly). Some CBS stations back in the day ran their newscast bugs out of LIDIA which was usually kept in master.

Article from Variety https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/fcc-approves-paramount-skydance-merger-deal-conditions-1236459974/

FCC has signed off on Skydance/Paramount deal… expected to close in a few weeks https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/fcc-approves-paramount-skydance-merger-deal-conditions-1236459974/

I’m sure TEGNA will welcome them all back…

No one told the weekend PM director.

Fox Weather is bringing in WITI’s chief to supplement their holiday vacay schedules again.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/wireStory/lalo-schifrin-composer-mission-impossible-theme-dies-93-123252064 Lalo Schifrin, the legendary Argentine–American composer, passed away today at age 93. Among his many influential scores, the “Tar Sequence” from Cool Hand Luke (1967) found a second life far beyond the silver screen—it was adopted as the signature news theme by numerous ABC-owned stations (and some affiliates) from the late 1960s into the 1990s, and even inspired later Eyewitness News packages—a testament to its driving rhythm and broadcast-ready punch.

Kind of an interesting idea. I really didn't care for the entirely AI-written article about their own endeavor though... it has hallmarks of ChatGPT throughout which feels really lazy.

Yup. Some very lame advice from Magid.

Listened to the demo on their press release… This sounds like the result of asking ChatGPT to make you a music package.

I understand there might be an “increased demand” for more local news… but this definitely isn’t what anyone was asking for.

ABC News needs some new creative directors...

As was already said, it’s leased by Disney, not owned. A private investment group owns it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500_Broadway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamares_Group

The White House has officially sent the rescission package to Congress and now begins a 45-day clock for them to consider clawing back $9.4 billion in approved spending, including $1.1 billion to fund CPB for FY26 and 27. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-formally-asks-congress-to-claw-back-approved-spending-targeted-by-doge This news comes a day after GBH in Boston made the announcement they've laid off 45 staffers.

Scripps' graphics hub is in the same building as WFTS.

Didn't they do this already?