tyrannical bastard

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).

 

I'm thinking a national reporter may not want to do a piece like this where it could damage their credibility if they were to do this type of piece. Plus if it came from Hunt Valley, WBFF would have made the most sense because they are the closest. Second how many national reporters do they have? They only one I know of is Kai Jackson but he has yet to make an appearance on WBFF because of a (what seems to be a very long) non compete clause.

 

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.

 

 

Tyrannical Bastard, does WPMI still have their horrid "social media reporter" during the morning news?

 

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/

 

Even in a big market like Cleveland, THAT'S OVERKILL!!! I bet 2/3 of those weekend newscasts will have fluff just to fill the time.

 

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.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2014/07/18/fart-story-from-fox-in-charlotte-stinks/

 

Our favorite O&O from Charlotte is at it again....

 

It's not the story itself...but the snark is a total ripoff of WCCB, and to some extent WCNC. And what's the deal with this Jon Dick?

Duplicate post...please delete

WDHN is another station that has languished under Nexstar.....the signal barely reaches outside of Dothan, while WTVY is powerful enough to cover Panama City itself, and was their long-time CBS affiliate until Gray signed on WECP.

 

I would imagine some form of consolidation is imminent with WMBB...

Red also happens to be the "sports" color, so it's probably a coincidence seeing as how the Cavs' colors are Wine and Gold.

WKYC is taking some slight liberty with the Gannett graphics in their coverage of Lebron James. The color-coding has disappeared in favor of red lines (or wine since it's one of the Cavs' colors), and some supers have worked in some gradient images of Lebron on the right side of some of the lower thirds.

 

Have any other stations taken such liberty with the package, with all of its color-coding and uniformity?

 

Chuck Huebner is out at KLFY in Lafayette, LA CBS affiliate

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/chuck-huebner-out-at-klfy_b124233

 

And to add insult to injury....their twitter was hacked...

http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/18120-oh-klfy-you-just-can-t-catch-a-break

In Mobile/Pensacola, WKRG sweeps all of the time periods in May, followed by WALA, WEAR and WPMI.

 

WALA was 2nd for most time periods, except for 5pm where WEAR came in 2nd.

 

WEAR was 3rd for all time periods except for 5pm, and WPMI was dead last in all time periods, some by a WIDE margin.

 

http://lagniappemobile.com/may-sweeps-show-wkrg-looking-strong/

(It's not mentioned what demos these may be, but they're probably household numbers)

 

 

Also mentioned is that Blake Brown has left WKRG as a reporter, and elected not to renew his contract.

Serpentine was NBC's font of choice for their Nightly News back in the mid 80s, soon after Tom Brokaw became the sole anchor. Many affiliates at the time worked it into their local branding and on-air supers.

 

It was to NBC as CBS's extensive use of Serifa (or something like it) back in the 1980s that was heavily adopted by their O&Os and affiliates.

 

I'm thinking there was so much of this so-called standardization back in the days when CGs were more limited, and before TrueType fonts worked their way into daily life. Plus, if a network commissioned or licensed a font, it would make sense to deploy it to any willing affiliate at the time to cut down on costs, since it was a major ordeal to update character generators, instead of today using PCs for everything and having thousands of fonts bundled into software.

 

 

Switching gears, It does feel that Nexstar is slowly rebranding their acquisitions. I'll bet you that within a few months, WMBB will have a new logo and brand. I do not see them keeping an ex-Media General logo that's a decade old that Hoak kept alive through their ownership. (Same goes for Gray and KALB).

 

As for a brand....the news director who's been posting to their facebook page, has been really hyping LOCAL (by typing it in all caps).

For example..... asking on their page "A follow-up to our previous question, what does LOCAL mean to you?" and "We are 'Your LOCAL Elections Headquarters' and we are here for you."

 

Local 13, anyone?

Longtime feature reporter Darwin Singleton has been promoted to morning anchor at WPMI.

http://lagniappemobile.com/singleton-promoted-morning-anchor/

 

He replaces another WPMI veteran, Pat Greenwood, who is leaving WPMI at the end of the month to take a position with the University of South Alabama's athletics department.

 

They didn't, they've had this set since 2012. If you were watching the 11pm newscast, it could look different. They changed the format so they just stand in front of the TV screen, rather than sit at the desk. But still the same set.

 

It looks like they are not using the LEDs on the plexiglass walls. I don't know if I like this. If that's the case, I would at least change them to a different color, if they are capable of doing that.

Most LED's can change to pretty much anything, including white light.