tyrannical bastard

Over the last several weeks, WCHS and WEAR have moved to the latest website templates. WEAR's was a step up, while WCHS made a giant leap from their ancient site layout. Sister station WVAH upgraded as well, but not WEAR's counterpart, WFGX. WEAR has yet to upgrade to the new graphics, but I'm thinking it could happen by November. Over in Mobile, WPMI and WJTC are still the same.

You might remember a few months back when Kurt Ludlow was unceremoniously dumped from 10TV in Columbus. Well, he was thisclose to accepting another offer at another station, when the lawyers for Dispatch would "move swiftly" against this attempt to make a living, even though his contract was not renewed. So now, Kurt (and his good friend Dr. Bill Adrian) have launched a GoFundMe account to raise up to 20k to cover his "legal fees" since he "can't work in Columbus".... He's already raised almost $5,000 as of this posting. ...and here's the link. http://www.gofundme.com/HelpKurtLudlow It almost pains me to say that WSYX and Sinclair seem to be the only station with their act together in Columbus anymore. Media General is driving WCMH into the ground further and further, and things just keep getting worse for "Central Ohio's News Leader". Now they're stiffing DirecTV for retrans $$$$. If things keep getting worse, perhaps it's time for the Wolfe family to cash out while they're still afloat...

Directv is FAR better than Dish, who has had multiple spats with companies like LIN, and poorly handled the Media General blackout a few months back. Aside from TWC and the Viacom / Tribune blackout, their potential spats have either fizzled out, resolved quickly, or have been with smaller broadcasters. The match made in HELL has been any group dealing with Mediacom, and any pay tv provider dealing with LIN..... Then there's Comcast, who just caves in and jacks up the rates by adding surcharges...but maybe they'll have a spat with the NBC O&Os....right?

Pretty pathetic that Sinclair can't even cover a story in the market it's happening in because their station has been an also-ran that refuses to compete. How difficult is it to pre-empt some Family Feud reruns to carry a town hall (or even acknowledge it in ANY form) by THEIR station in the market it's happening in? :bang: :bang: :bang: On the other hand, it's like they're trying to exploit a national issue because it's a national issue thanks to the media. Double fail. End rant.

So Sinclair decided to do a townhall on Ferguson, MO....from BALTIMORE. So did KDNL have any involvement...perhaps even AIRING it...since they're a ST. LOUIS STATION?

Just as I suspected....as I posted in the other thread about WXYZ's version, this version is much more refined, using better (and the intended) fonts, and took it a step further by adding the Cleveland shots to it. This would have to be some kind of template that's being circulated to the stations, and its up to the individual creative service departments to localize it.

Jeff Barnd used to host the "American Crossroads" magazine show Sinclair put on until around 2009....this was the last remaining vestige of their prior push into news with NewsCentral and Mark Hyman's original commentaries. They retrenched after the economic crisis and came back with a vengeance around 2011 when they started expanding again.

It finally dawned on me....but you beat me to it. There's got to be more to the story on why KDNL is dragging their feet with restarting news. The ABC affiliation is up next year, and the way Tribune swooped in and swiped CBS from WISH, it makes total sense to do the same thing with KPLR. Sinclair could be just dragging out the inevitable while the cards are in their hand. KDNL is far better suited to be a CW / MyNetworkTV or independent station than it is with ABC. Now the question would be, IF KDNL was actually covering this story, how would it be covered? The cavalcade from Baltimore could come in to do one of their "Town Hall" meetings...

Base it out of Wimington, and you also have close proximity to Cincinnati and WKRC.

WKRC was a Clear Channel station that was part of their spinoff to Newport in 2008. Sinclair later bought some of the Newport stations (including WKRC) in 2012 when Providence Equity wanted to sell off Newport. Since the Newport deal wasn't a total sale (along with the divested Cox stations), they have been integrated in more ways than the other stations acquired in total group deals.

I was checking around Toledo to see what was going on with their water issues, and I went to WNWO's site. Since it was a former Barrington station, all of the former Barrington Stations have essentially kept things the way they've been, including their websites. Same can be said for Fisher. I remember in the initial news that Barrington was going to be purchased, that the HQ and their employees would be kept. It looks like the same is true in Seattle, with Fisher's former HQ functioning in a similar capacity, aside from some layoffs. I'm wondering now, since these companies were purchased whole, if Sinclair will be keeping these operations status quo (for now), and given Allbritton's proximity to Baltimore (from Alexandria, VA) if the same can be true? Absorbing this many stations, this approach seems to make sense, the only difference is that they still report to Sinclair, but can carry out their duties as they've always done due to Sinclair's explosive growth (and likely inability to perform such tasks from Baltimore, necessitating the load to be picked up by the former HQs).

...we have some breaking news in to our newsroom...lets go to the EZPawn breaking news desk...... Ok...lets not give them any more ideas...:-)

Remember the news director who was completely fine with one his reporters' side career as a shill for products on Vine? Well...he's out of a job now. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/news-director-out-at-wway_b125920

I'm surprised they haven't sold the naming rights, like what's been done in radio. They do have a knack for weird sponsorships....

From the clips I've seen thus far, i'm impreseed. It's a major improvement over the previous package, and even the Belo graphics that preceded them. I like how they go back and forth on the bug from WCNC to CHARLOTTE, but my only critique is that the peacock is slightly off between the two graphics; they don't line up. It's a breath of fresh air that brings them on a higher level with WBTV and WSOC, and with their new look, really ties in with their set. WBTV and WSOC look very cheap in comparison with their sets (and WSOC's aging graphics).

Other than Kai Jackson, there's Kristine Frazao, their other "national correspondent"; and Sheila Gray, who does ther "Family 411" reports. In Sheila Gray's case, she had to ride out a non-compete when she left WXIX in Cincinnati, by working out of WKEF/WRGT in Dayton for an interim period. As soon as it was up, she went to WKRC and is now their morning anchor in addition to doing her reports. There's Mark Hyman as well, but since he's more of a host/commentator, I don't think he's done any stories outside of Town Halls and his "Behind the Headlines" commentary. I wonder when Sharyl Atkisson will start doing reports?

I believe WSYX, and a few other stations have run the story as well. The ATVA has weighed in on this claiming the stories are one-sided towards Sinclair because it is self-serving towards their needs. http://www.multichannel.com/news/carriage-deals/atva-slams-sinclair-retrans-story/382763 Now if Conan wants something to bash....THIS is one of those rip-and-read stories, and DOES show the agenda-pushing side of Sinclair that has been debated for years.

The current WCNC / NBC Charlotte look is just cheap looking. Century Gothic is a lousy font to use for television, and I have a problem with stations using fonts that are readily available on virtually EVERY PC in existence. Same goes for Tahoma / Verdana, Arial and Times New Roman. I'm partial to Helvetica, since it's a more refined and less PC-oriented font with lots of variations (like the Neue series) Gotham and the DIN fonts are growing on me, as well...

New graphics are up and running in Charleston/Huntington! AND on WKEF/WRGT in Dayton! I guess we've all been blindsided by the Allbritton hoopla, that these launches slipped by....

It looks like it's already launched, especially since these look like excerpts from either last night's WVAH or WCHS news. I guess the next opportunity to find out is tonight at 6pm on WCHS streaming live!

...and a quick check of Twitter has Jordan Early (JEarlyNews) working in Pittsburgh at KDKA.

It looks like Jordan Early is no longer there, as her bio and facebook page are missing. I figured her days were numbered as an on-air person. But yes, they still have social media reports by "web content specialist" Taren Reed, who contributes segments for their morning and noon shows.

Some happenings in Mobile/Pensacola thanks to Lagniappe.... - Simone Eli, who recently disappeared from WALA as their sole sports reporter, has accepted a reporter/anchor position at KPRC in Houston. - WEAR general manager Terry Cole, retired from the station earlier in July. Bobby Totsch, the general manager of WPMI/WJTC (in a role as Market Manager overseeing WEAR/WFGX as well) is currently overseeing all 4 stations until Sinclair announces otherwise.... Here's the story.... http://lagniappemobile.com/local-media-see-high-profile-staffing-changes/

Based on my memories, WKYC's weekend morning shows were filled with some news, weather, and a LOT of time on live shots with feature reporters at events (usually the weather person doing the forecast on location....)

Here's a question....what's the largest market with the least amount of weekend morning shows (or none at all?) Mobile/Pensacola is pretty high up there since WEAR is the only station in the market to do a 6-7am show on Saturday and Sunday. WALA and WKRG did shows back in the 1990s, but later pulled them.