TSSZNews

They were a top affiliate going back to their WB days; how do you mess that up?

I suppose one could maintain the stick without needing the studio, especially with the recent FCC rules passed about not needing a studio presence. Apologies if I get a bit speculative, but aside from that there are two easy ways this goes if the license/IP/stick needs to be sold: In the hands of TEGNA if they're still in a buying mood (KYC could bring local news back to Akron!), or this is the way Sinclair maintains a presence in the Cleveland DMA without needing WJW.

Angley definitely could make a buck on those two scenarios if he acted now, rather than wait for an auction to horrendously devalue his real assets.

Guess they're quietly launching it Monday? Only thing I can think of if they're running promos over the weekend.

Northeast US, October 1994

Jim

I'm not one to make requests, but I wonder if you could share any more from WNYW's 1994 era. I am a sucker for that theme and I'm so glad I got to hear a little more of the sax close version.

Also a big sucker for Total News-era WCBS--in large part because a lot of the cuts they used never made it to the syndicated work!

This extremely Arnold-sounding bump/stinger has been in use on KSAZ's news lately...

 

http://jmp.sh/9xsQHTk

KSAZ is definitely using Arnold cuts and definitely using a form of Beyond--but they managed to sneak in the "Just You Watch the Best" notes for opens instead.

It sounds like it's been digitally altered.

It definitely was--they cut every frame of dead air they could out of Chapin's VO to fit the open.

https://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?threads/rumor-tegna-and-nexstar-merger.16065/page-3#post-191501 I posted that in the Speculatron.

Shoot I forgot about WDSU! They're probably Sinclair/Nexstar bait too then.

Nexstar is a prime candidate for Tegna by default just because, though they definitely have conflicts (Portland OR, Tampa, Jax, a good chunk of Texas, WDVM/DC may also be a problem)--but given they're based in Texas, I could definitely see them wanting WFAA and KHOU as a crown jewel. They'd also have a footprint in Austin again, and they'd get San Antonio--basically all of Texas's major metros. If Sinclair/Trib gets FCC approval, it may be worth the risk for Nexstar to sidecar some of those conflicts.

Hearst would be a good candidate too. They have a couple conflicts too, but I think selling WMTW, WHAS, WFMY and KXTV to a Nexstar or Scripps basically takes care of it. They get a powerhouse in Portland ME so they don't have to middle with WMTW anymore, they'd get a presence in DC beyond office space with WUSA, and they'd get some amazing Belo legacy stations that need help in return, and I have no doubt Hearst could rehab a lot, if not all of them back to their one-time dominance.

(Mods feel free to move to speculation if I'm getting too deep in the weeds here)

My point is that new ownership of WPHL (be it Sinclair, Fox, or whoever) would likely spell the end of 6abc's production of it.

No it won't.

See: WPXI's 10PM News on WPGH.

Sinclair, for all its faults, doesn't want to mess with a good thing.

I'm sure the folks over at WTKR and WAVY are thanking them.

 

Though...you never know. With all the downbeat "if it bleeds, it leads" stories that usually topped, buffered and filled the shows when I lived there, maybe a WTSP/KXTV approach is exactly the sort of thing the market needs. Guess we'll find out when the ratings come...

As I understand ratings at 13 have tanked in a lot of dayparts since TEGNA assumed control—so they may have nothing to lose trying this.

A part of me hopes this isn’t the WTSP format, but the Next / KUSA format, which the promo feels more indicative of. That I’d watch.

A KSDK promo from October 1996 with a graphics package I haven't seen, just try and guess what it's inspired by! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=tCai5tOsOuI;m=4;s=39

That would have been early enough where I wonder if One80 (who designed the original Hearst GFX) was willing to customize and syndicate it out to other non-competing stations before Hearst started mass-producing it for their stations. Certainly it was way more difficult to rip off entire looks like that in the mid 90s than it is today.

This has The One For All's signature, but it's too early to be the WMGM pack. I think this is an update to the original package that we've just never seen before.

This is definitely from that golden Gari era where they were basically applying the Allegro orchestra instrumentation to just about everything in its suite save for Advantage (and, now with this discovery, likely because WVIT was using this arrangement of One for All at the same time.)

I truly believe first-gen One and Only energized Gari's clientel and THAT became the flavor of the year/next few years to the point where it became as saturated, and One for All got that WMGM/O and O update. I even wonder if it happened before WMGM picked it up.

ASCAP called.

 

[ATTACH=full]4475[/ATTACH]

 

Also, KJRH with News One (!) in 1996 (!!).

 

The other cuts are definitely 615, but I question whether that open is--sounds more like Chris Crane put his spin on it (I hear a WHDH style synth hit in there), which would be even more exciting if so.

Huh. I didn't think WFMZ's set was all that dated. All they really needed to do was update the RPs in the back. I hope the new set is more than just another monitor wall.

My guess is the graphics get updated in September too.

*Cough*

[MEDIA=twitter]889144116197588995[/MEDIA]

WGN America isn't going to exist in a year, is it?

Sinclair is bragging about the "ratings growth" it has made by its must-run Sunday series "Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson" (and some of the numbers they boast are hilariously bad!):

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2017/07/11/sinclairs-full-measure-gaining-viewers/

In all fairness to Sinclair, a 0.8 rating at midnight on a Sunday in a sleeper market is nothing to sneeze at--and the numbers it's getting in Vegas and Austin, of all places, are quite good.

So...um...WHAG is bringing back the WDVM calls to the DC market...

New graphics better be coming with it!

Unless the creative in the set mockup is just that--a mockup--it definitely looks like they're doubling down on the cylinder design they have now and evolving it.

From what few shots there are of the set, it looks like a mesh between KTRK and WFLD.

Sinclair is dumping Nielsen for audience measurement in all its markets and going with comScore

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/104783/sinclair-turns-to-comscore-for-all-tv-ratings

Remember in the Sinclair / Tribune merger thread a few weeks back where I lamented 3rd party vendors stand to lose a lot if the merger goes through?

This could break Nielsen. I'm serious.

Since nobody can read the fine print under the bug, that's a 25-54 demo win. I'd be curious to know the margin of victory.

Someone jog my memory--when Mendte/Chenault beat 6 that one other time in the 2000s at 11, was it in HHs or demo? Or both?

The weird thing about those opens is that the photography in all of them is beautiful. Like, major market beautiful.

They could have worked around the graphic shortfalls by making all their opens in the vein of the Today one and it'd have been fine. I don't get it.

Beginning April 17th, WOFL will air NewsEdge 11@11, that will feature news & weather for 11 minutes commercial-free. Then at 11:15, the station will air a 15-regional sports highlight show Fox 35 SportsZone.

I think other FOX stations with 90 minutes of news at night would do well to adopt this format. They could even highlight college and high school sports to fill the time.

One small thing...

The clip in question was from MONDAY. And nobody cared until it went viral on Tuesday morning. Had FTVLive not posted it, I bet he'd have been fine.

Sinclair was at the brink of bankruptcy a few years ago, but I'm not getting the feeling that they're at that point now. For one thing, the FCC-imposed TV ownership limit tends to prevent even large group owners for getting leveraged to the point of an iHeart Radio, which can't seem to get below $20 billion or so in debt.

First, that limit probably dies under a Trump administration and a Republican controlled FCC. Give it time.

Second, EVERYONE will feel it. Trump has proven you don't have to spend money on TV ads to become President of the United States. Political spending as we know it is about to change and I've long felt local TV is too dependent on it. I hope all Sinclair is doing is future-proofing itself, because with all the stations they have in swing states, if they can't balance the books, who can?

Okay, so by this reasoning, if I am the 5pm/11pm meteorologist at WNBC (#2 station in DMA 1 New York) and I take a job as morning meteorologist at WWL (#1 station in DMA 51 New Orleans), that's not a demotion. Get real!!! If it looks like a demotion and smells like a demotion .... it's a demotion!

Honestly, for some mets...yes. That would be a step up. Especially if it were WWL. Literally anywhere else in NOLA...probably not. Guess it depends on what floats your boat--tornadoes and hurricanes vs. blizzards and extreme cold in the winter!

I also think that, for better or worse, a lot of viewers in Philly (and Tampa, where she was before, for that matter) focused on Sheena's...style, rather than substance. DC doesn't work like that. This is a chance to show off her forecasting skills and not be ogled on TV. Doug Kammerer, who I imagine also fit into that "style over substance" category in Philly, did the same move, and it's worked out just fine for him.