caliwxdude

Living in Tulsa as a kid in the 90s, KOTV had a pretty sizable following on 87.7 FM as people drove around town during news timeslots. I'm not sure many other Channel 6 stations promoted it as heavily as they did, especially during severe weather outbreaks. So I'm not entirely surprised by this... I guess since Griffin has owned a Tulsa radio cluster for a while I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. Using the 50,000-watt Class A 1170 AM signal for a straight all-news TV simulcast is a bit curious though, so I do kinda wonder if this is more of a frequency parking move until they figure out what to do with 1170 long term.

Again, really impressive for the DMA size. By far and away the leader in the Reno/Northern Nevada market.

KTVN is one of those DMA #100+ stations that just refuses to behave like one. Great look for them. Sounds like they got a new set, too?

Well, this is big... and something you'd expect from Sinclair in small markets, but now it's coming to the middle markets too. Sinclair is consolidating KTUL news production with KOKH in Oklahoma City. Sounds like a few on-air folks have already been let go, but the axe will likely continue to swing as KTUL's Tulsa facility basically becomes a newsroom only with broadcasts originating from OKC beginning December 11. From the Tulsa World article: I can't find anything about this on the KTUL site, so it sounds like it's being kept sortof quiet. Given the fast developments, I'm guessing the KTUL and KOKH shows will become something like "Oklahoma News Now" statewide shows, and not truly local to either market. What a shame, and a sad end for one of the foundational TV and journalism brands in the state.

Since ESPN is running the technical production for these games, I think you'll be seeing the ESPN look for the foreseeable future.

Pretty sure the Raiders produce these games and syndicates it to KVVU in the Las Vegas market.

Nah, I think the primary "West Coast edition" feed of the national shows is still at 5:30pm PT. For a long time, only the LA market aired the national shows in the East Coast-style 6:30pm timeslot, but it's kindof all over the place now. However, if you look around markets out West, the hour-long 6:00pm show (with national news at 5:30) is still pretty commonplace.

Makes sense in the Bay Area, especially if KRON dumps most of the primetime news block for CW network programming. Not sure how the numbers have been doing as of late, but the 9:00pm hour was usually faring pretty well. Back when KRON first scrapped 9:00pm news for MyNetworkTV in 2006 (a huge mistake) KGO was pretty fast to pick it up over on KOFY.

Basically the same arrangement in Fresno, with KSEE and KGPE under one roof but maintaining separate brands and competing in the same time slots. However – KSEE/KGPE have one news director over both brands; if the Times article above is to be believed, KUSI's ND Steve Cohen doesn't have plans to go anywhere and I'm sure KSWB's ND Rich Goldner feels the same. Going to be a fascinating integration between the two, especially if they fully merge the newsrooms as was done in Fresno.

I've been to Fairbanks... and if I'm one of the rare new college grads these days with a broadcast journalism degree and my only option is KTVF, I'm probably going to either stay in school or go get a job at my local Starbucks. I'm surprised they just aren't simulcasting stuff from KTUU.

Always a bummer to see local ownership selling to a larger corporation, but the economics of it just don't work anymore. The press release also mentions Hearst will be taking over the existing SSA for WZVN as well. It'll be interesting to see if Hearst continues to operate WZVN as its own distinct news operation, or if we'll start to see more cross pollination between the two newsrooms.

Yes, that's what they're doing, titled "KCAL News on CBS Los Angeles." The primetime news on KCAL remains: KCAL and KCBS have always been one news operation since 2003, but with separate on-air brands (visual identities were basically the same). So nothing has changed with who "produces" the news, but now it's just all unified under the KCAL News brand.

Ugh, I saw this too and was afraid this might be the case. Not sure why they didn't just put "Afternoon Edition" or "Evening Edition" in there, but guessing it's a hard-coded element that can't be easily changed on the fly. It's a total waste and looks terrible. This graphics package is highly templatized, and every other O&O will have the "CBS News [City]" lockup in that blue rectangle, a la KPIX. But since the CBS LA duo wanted to do their own thing and adopt the "KCAL News Los Angeles" brand, they had to put something in that spot. Creative director: "...so that blue box can't go away? Should we just stick 'LOS ANGELES' there?" Designer: "Yeah, sure, that'll work. Done."

If they're producing promos for a "new KCAL" with the existing KCAL9 lockup, doesn't seem like they're moving away from the KCAL9 brand anytime soon. Also who launches new stuff on a Thursday?

Just adding in that it's a really nice rebrand. The overall downturn in local TV news has hit KPIX especially hard over the last few years, and the product has really fallen into the cellar of the Bay Area market. Yeah we'll miss the old Group W-style 5 (however it was starting to look really old), but I can't tell you the last time I used the channel number buttons on my remote now that almost all of my linear TV viewing is via streaming services. All in all a nice step up for PIX.

Awesome to see the great Ian Darke back calling World Cup games on US TV. Missed him for the 2018 World Cup coverage, glad Fox was able to pick him up for 2022. Now I just hope we get to hear more of the Pete Calandra soccer theme that Fox inexplicably shelved for the boring and uninspiring custom composition they used in 2018.

Tucked away in some cabinet at my parents house is a stack of 35mm film photos of me sitting on this set in 1997 when I was a 9 year old obsessed with TV weather. Got to hang with then-weekend met Jon Slater for the afternoon and 5pm news. Good memories.

99% of stations don't own the choppers, they lease them (or have other sharing agreements) from helicopter operators that provide the maintenance, pilots and photographers. Helicopters Inc. is one of the main players in the US ENG market—in the SF Bay Area for example, they own/operate all helicopters. These days only KTVU's N62TV and KGO's N7QY carry station branding but the feeds are shared among all affiliates in the market. They also have a couple generic birds based at the Hayward airport—for example, N42SL (KTRK's former chopper before Helicopters Inc. upgraded them to a next-gen Bell 505/JetRanger X) flies around occasionally and shares video among everyone in the market. AFAIK, these contracts are usually billed hourly. Here's another example: SKY Helicopters provides aerial coverage for Dallas/Ft. Worth stations with a couple Robinson R44 Newscopters based out of their own facility in Garland, TX. They list aerial videography at $1750/hour (all in), so that should give you a baseline price for the R44, which is among the cheapest helicopters to operate. I'm sure the station groups have negotiated something cheaper. The only stations I know of that actually own helicopters outright are Griffin's N9TV at KWTV in Oklahoma City and N196TV at KOTV in Tulsa. Griffin built a heliport/hangar for N196TV at KOTV's new(ish) facilities in downtown Tulsa, but it seems like the chopper is based at Jones-Riverside Airport in South Tulsa these days.

I mean, last night NBCSN was showing a night full of drone racing... which (even as a drone pilot) seems to me like it belongs on YouTube or another streaming service and not on linear cable.

If that's the case, it's time to figure out how to differentiate graphics feeds for mobile app streaming vs. TV. This sucks.

I'd be willing to bet that was stringer footage. Amusing to see this top story since I live a few blocks from this spot (which is still a taqueria); a good reminder of how much the hood has changed since the early 90s.

Strong beard game on Kent. Too bad @SuitSnob isn't around here these days to comment.

Huh, you'd have to think this a temporary look. Also surprised they didn't just use the existing license for Icon News to get away from the NBC chimes of The Tower. Weird and sad at the same time.

Apparently someone in the KPIX graphics department reads TVNT. Now roll this out across the O&Os!

The few times I've watched CBSN (mostly back when the 10pm show on KBCW was still a thing), the slight misalignment between the bug and lower-third bar drives me crazy. Can't believe no one has fixed this yet.