mre29

I was hoping for a trial, as well, but Dominion must've been more interested in the money. Oh well.

That said, doesn't this belong in the US Cable News forum?

So, are we taking bets as to which station (WBBM, WJZ, or KOVR) is the last to switch?*

*Asks the guy who does not have money to spare right now.

So, for those of you here in the US who get it, how is the "new" BBC (World) News, anyway?

2 hours ago, VHSgoodiesWA said:

Give me an old John Wayne or Perry Mason/Raymond Burr classic any day. Cheers, Seinfeld, Home Improvement too. The Conners is one of the few first-run sitcoms left that still follows a classic comedic format, not modernized and PC.

You do know The Conners isn't the only sitcom that has laugh tracks, right?

7 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

I hope design packages embrace black, browns, yellows and purples more instead of the general blue and white, breaking red, and morning orange looks. Not CBS but Nightly News woth Tom Brokaw used brown and purple effectively in the early 00s.

The Morgan Murphy stations use white, orange, and what looks like dark gray with a touch of blue. It's strikingly different from other packages.

I have to admit, this looks pretty good:

It also makes me want to see what the black box looks like with just the 3 in it. Anyone want to mock that up?

Oh, and is Morgan Freeman aware that he's apparently been cloned? Because that's who Ukee Washington's voice reminds me of -- in a good way, of course.

I've gone ahead and started a Speculatron thread for HLN. As Daleks would say, SPEC-U-LATE!!

2 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

Looks like we'll be hearing "Strive" in SW Florida now...

That's a bad thing?

Meanwhile, HLN, which has been showing older Warner Bros. TV dramas on weekends -- first The West Wing, now Fringe -- has expanded that to weeknights, with Third Watch now showing at a rate of four episodes per night (8:00pm to midnight, ET).

I mention it despite not being sure this is the correct thread anymore for discussing HLN. I mean, does the channel even fall under Licht's purview outside of simulcasting CNN This Morning? Do we have to move this discussion to the Breakroom?

9 hours ago, Recovering Producer said:

This is from 10+ years ago, but promos that taunt the other station for their perceived shortcomings, orders from management for field crews to go scorched earth with the competition when out on stories everyone was covering - block other stations from getting interviews that they happened on first (witnesses to car crashes, fires, and crimes and other things where there's really no meaningful reason to sandbag the competition), on one occasion WBBH deceived the widow of a murdered police officer saying they would share an interview they did with every other station but really used it as a heavily-promoted exclusive (to be fair, they did give WINK and FOX4 the video a few days later after it aired and other stations learned of the sketchy tactics they used to get the interview and possibly a chewing out from the police department PIO) And management where I work definitely frowned upon being friendly with people from the other stations socially.

 

All things that didn't happen in any other market I worked in. Healthy competition? Yes. But respect and understanding the biggest difference we all had with the people working at the other stations was the name of the company on our direct deposit. 

 

So, how did WFTX (Fox4, which hasn't been locally owned in decades) behave during all that?

4 hours ago, CircleWXYZ said:

Overall the feedback seems to be positive.  However, you have some crybabies from a particular site I shall keep nameless, who are not only refusing to give CBS News Detroit a fair chance, they are looking for any lame excuse to bash it.  It’s like they don’t want to like it.  Their complaints about it are so delusional and so ridiculous, it’s not even funny.  I know there are 2,4, and 7 fanboys in the Detroit market, but my goodness.

 

This is why I left that site, because all they do is whine and complain.  With each argument, they lose credibility.

Let me guess: Starts with a "t", ends with an "r", and normally has a blue bird in its logo?

Welp, there's Hearst's purchase for the decade.

2 hours ago, TheOneManHerd said:

I thought it was a late April Fool's joke at first, but I'm sure the staff there is breathing a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, I can just imagine the reaction from staffers at WVIR when they realize what they missed out on.

19 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

I just noticed that the overnight infomercials and religious programming are gone Monday-Friday, in favor of more reruns of their primetime shows. Not sure how long that's been the case, but I guess that's one step in the direction of the 24/5 schedule they plan on launching by the end of April (maybe on the 24th when The Hill launches).

I'm sure their viewer(s) in Alaska and Hawaii are grateful.

2 hours ago, dkipcl said:

It indicates how the market will react. The same thing applies for other things in Boston too--Route 128 hasn't been signed properly for ~20 years by federal requirement, and yet people are no closer to calling it I-95 than they were in 2000 (even on places that are officially not Rte. 128).

Speak for yourself. Most people I know up here in NH would call it 95. But, then, I also live near a completely different Route 128...

2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

NBC-WBTS was a nightmare mess of a station until they got to piggyback on the WGBX spectrum, and even then, they downgraded going from "NBC Boston" to "NBC 10 Boston" (10 of what?).

The brand confusion with WJAR hasn't help there. I still think they should have gone with "NBC 15" instead...

56 minutes ago, patsx3 said:

It’s strange, if the plan is to eventually rebrand all stations as CBS (city name) then I wonder why WBZ is now promoting their website as wbz.com. The bottom of the screen reads “The news is always on WBZ.com. It’s the first time their website has been promoted as anything but cbsboston.com in probably a decade.

I can see it coming down to which URL requires the fewest taps on a mobile browser.

"cbsboston.com": 13 characters

"cbsnews.com/boston": 18 characters

"wbz.com": 7 characters

"cbslosangeles.com": 17 characters

"cbsnews.com/losangeles": 22 characters

"kcal.com": 8 characters

It'd be hilarious if, after this mess is over, Standard General ends up bankrupt and sells off its stations...

...to Tegna.

2 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Of course, a better solution to repay the losses would be to try to divest stations to AMG or other groups with significant cap room and use the proceeds to lower its debt load.

On 3/26/2023 at 1:17 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

In a world where stations are adding newscasts left and right (with the decline of syndication and potential pullback by the networks in the coming years), a station like WPMI is doomed because of Sinclair's desire to "control" 4 stations  in a market, and is limited by what they can put on their station (the 15% rule).

Wait....what?

I don't know whether to applaud WAGA for such a strong showing or cringe on their behalf.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when WXIA is (eventually) acquired by a company that can turn it around.

18 hours ago, nickInRoseville said:

it looks like KDKA is in breaking news mode 24/7 with the yellow bug/ticker

Or just breakfast mode. Someone there must really like morning news.

8 hours ago, bixpchiphead said:

Take that up with Fans of the Stillers, Pirates  and Penguins, all the same black and gold...

I'm honestly surprised Sinclair hasn't started selling stations. That seems like a sure-fire way to recoup some losses.

2 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

If the online providers start with that garbage, I'm dropping them too, just like I dropped the cable company. And if they figure out a way to make me pay over the air using ATSC 3.0, I can live without TV. 

You consider retransmission disputes to be entirely the providers' (read: cable companies, Hulu, Fubo, etc.) fault?

7 minutes ago, JTT said:

Instead of cutting back on network programming, NBC should put more alternative programming or just put Dateline at 10pm hour.

An hour of true-crime investigation programming every night? Hard pass.

In fact, I doubt affiliates would like it, either.

2 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

That news person isn't all that tiny either. 

Maybe it's for a new TLC show:  Little People, Big Video Wall.