CircleSeven

Janet Davies.

11am weather anchor. Also, early morning traffic. No weekends. Actually, I remember Ono & Leyva (currently @ 4 & 6pm) anchored the early mornings together, while Phillip & Leslie anchored weekend evenings until about 2002, when Phillip moved to mornings with Ellen. You know I just thought of something. Reading Phillip's mention of a "new initiative", I strongly thought of the sister station to the north's "Building A Better Bay Area" series, which talks about an array of issues (homelessness, housing, public safety, transportation, etc.) I wouldn't be surprised if see a "Building a Better SoCal" or something along the lines.

Looks like Phillip Palmer is becoming the new Gene Gleeson. He's moving away from early mornings and returning the midday show with Jovana. No word on who will replace him in the early mornings.

So follow-up regarding a possible radio sale. It's happening. Paperwork posted tonight shows that the two radio stations (KFMB-AM & FM) will be sold to a licensee Local Media San Diego Acquisition, LLC for $5M. The licensee will be ran by a consortium of owners (including Mel Wheeler Inc., Trivest Investment Partners & Tantara Capital Partners).

Small follow-up. Looks like some of the other stations that haven't carried the second hour, will carry it beginning January 4th. KABC will air the second hour at 9am (the first hour is aired twice at 4am (LIVE) & 7am/PT). KGO will carry the full two hours straight through from 7-9am (they're bumping the 8am local news to 9am/PT). WSB will carry the two hours from 9-11am (right after their 6-9am/ET local news). WFAA will carry the two hours from 6-8am (LIVE) (bumping the local news by one hour from 8-10am). WISN will carry the second hour at 9am (they already carry the first hour at 6am/CT (LIVE)).

In the meantime, the station commemorated its 65th anniversary on Christmas Day yesterday.

This was also the reason why George anchored the Impeachment coverage from the GMA set at TSS (instead of TV3) last week too.

WWNY, WECT, WTVM, WBRC, WSFA, WAFF, KSLA, KPLC, WVUE, WFIE, KFVS, KAIT, KEYC, KCBD, KSWO, KAUZ, KOLD, KGMB/KHNL. I'm probably missing a couple. WSFA will most likely get new gfx once they move to downtown Montgomery sometime in the new year.

Another out of market O&O weather anchor is filling in tonight. WTVD weekend meteorologist Steve Stewart is filling in for Jeff Smith.

I see Weekend GMA is at the Times Square Studios this morning. I wonder if its because of the continued maintenance work at TV3.

Follow up. Marshall has now filed for Chapter 11.

I do have a gripe. At the end of the open, I don't like how that music gets abruptly cut off like that. That's really tacky. Video Courtesy of "DADOSUPERMARIO 2" from YT

That second one HAS to be FAKE. Don't tell me they use that second one on the air........

WPIX is expanding its morning broadcasts again. They're adding a 9am hour beginning January 6th. They're also adding Ben Aaron (from Pickler & Ben) & Marysol Castro as feature reporters. This will be the third time for Marysol on this show, as she was the traffic anchor in the early 2000s. Then in the Fall of 2013, she was the early morning anchor, until the station cut that 4am hour that following summer.

It's certainly a different looking ticker. Not the black one most stations are carrying.

Love the use of purple on the L3s when mentioning LSU. Overture is still in use.

New station. WTOC. Looks like they got the same package their sister station up the road got (WCSC).

WALB implemented those graphics last month.

Sources told Indy Star that "as many as 27-30 employees were let go" at WXIN/WTTV.

In Toledo, ion was bumped to 13.5. And since Ion is carried on a bunch of Gray outlets, It'll likely be moved down to another created subchannel.

January 1st will be the launch date. Some CBS O&Os will also be carrying the diginet. Damn. With 16 original shows, ratings better be through the roof.

New M&A. I should call this a small M&A because it doesn't involve a major TV station. But the price tag is "somewhat" big. RNN National (owners of WRNN-TV) is acquiring eight NRJ TV stations for $81.2M. The stations they're acquire are as follows: KSCI Long Beach - (NRJ will continue to own sister station KNLA-CD) KCNS San Francisco - (NRJ will continue to own sister station KTNC-TV) KIKU Honolulu WMFP Foxborough - (will duopoly with WWDP) WTVE Willow Grove, PA - (will duopoly with WMCN) WPHY-CD Trenton KUBE Baytown, TX KFWD Dallas I don't know what RNN is going to do with these stations other than keeping the "Revenue Frontiers" alive. Their parent station (WRNN) run infomercials most of the day. And if NRJ Is cashing out, they might as well give up KTNC & KNLA to RNN as well.

New York sister station did this same practice, I believe last year. They got rid of its branded "10/55 News at 9" for a CBSN NY-produced news at that timeslot.

They've now closed down the Nexstar site and the yourphx url redirected to the new CW 61 site. The old site was still up yesterday.

KICU's hourly 7pm show says hi. ......Oh and KPIX too (aibeit half hour).