jero23

The beginning of the end for that branding...

19 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

The ignorance of these companies in regards to streaming is horrendous. When the cable companies go out of business, these companies will be in a lot of trouble. 

Proof that Nexstar is running this is failure is inevitable...

On 12/27/2021 at 9:53 AM, doublejman69 said:

The bulk of station revenue comes from local news, WJZY was getting hash marks for some newscast, you can’t sell that when no one is watching and you can see why Fox dump the station.

 

Fox gets a percentage of retrans revenue from local stations and they also sell ads regionally for sporting events and network programming. The network gets almost all of the ad time, local stations make very little during network programs or sporting events. there really isn’t a need for Fox to own a struggling station even in larger markets.

 

The only reason for Fox to return to Charlotte is if Nexstar turns the station around or if a stronger station wants the Fox affiliation (seems highly unlikely), and for someone to drop news. Fox dump a lot of money in the WJZY startup, they aren’t going to do it a second time.

I'm well aware of all of this. WJZY hasn't been that situation in ratings since 2016. The move was not because of the previous years. It's because they wanted back into Milwaukee and finally into Seattle.  I've said that Fox will come back as they see someone else building up WJZY then reap the benefits of that investment. 

Charlotte can support 5 news operations. That's not WJZY's problem. Similar sized and smaller markets such as Orlando have 5 news operations.  If they stick to something with branding and with proper investment then it will be fine. 

6 hours ago, doublejman69 said:

The problem in Charlotte is that there are too many stations producing news. There is only so much ad money in the market, the pie doesn’t get bigger the slices just get smaller. It takes several years for news startups to make a profit, WJZY is likely losing money and was definitely losing money when it was a O&O, WCCB is likely just barely turning a profit. With those issues Fox isn’t going to re-enter the market, it doesn’t matter with supposed growth or how many sports team the market has.

 

At some point either WCCB is going to have to drop news or WJZY is going have to do something completely different, I don’t think “Queen City News” is going to work out but they have nothing to lose.

Supposed growth? Charlotte is one of the top 10 fastest growing larger regions in the US. Its income has drastically increased and so has the highly educated population well. The major league sports franchises here as well.   It'll be a top 20 DMA in a few years. That translates into major revenue.

Fox only sold WJZY because they wanted into Seattle with KCPQ and get their hands back on the steady pennies associated with the Packers through WITI.  

I'll continue to say what I said about the Charlotte market regardless. 

5 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

Agreed. Despite Charlotte's strong points, they are not a market like Boston to be able to handle 5 newsrooms. While I'm all in favour of more competition, station owners need to put more news in markets that need it, especially in 2 newsroom markets like Toledo, Ohio.

Toledo? That is a no growth market like Detroit.

6 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

Except for the fact that KDVR's creative services department is a joke. They took a small-market graphics package that is a ripoff of a package that has crappy 3D glass effects and was first launched in 2013 (Tribune Fox).

That's cheap ass Nexstar for ya! 

7 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

WCCB is better than ever as an "independent". There's no way Fox will be convinced to buy Bahakel.

It's whatever to me with which one wind up as the Fox O&O again. The fact is likely to occur with Charlotte's rapid growth as a NFC, MLS, and NASCAR sports revenue market.  I bet Nexstar is going to regret these unnecessary moves with WJZY.  Ironically they have hardly done much with KTVI nor KDVR. 

On 8/30/2021 at 3:33 PM, jero23 said:

Yep, it makes the Fox affiliate of a major market looks small market.  NewsNation will continue to get nothing in constantly forcing stations to promote an out-of-date product in 2021. I don't agree with Fox's over-the-air antics with their O&Os nor the FNC, but Charlotte is a better fit for an O&O than Nexstar bs that belongs in any market that's below the top 50 ranking. Watch the ratings drop falter with the unnecessary changes forcing another rebranding...  WCCB might wind up as the O&O in the future.

I said everything that needs to be said back in August about Nexstar disasterous movements with WJZY & WMYT

On 11/2/2021 at 3:19 PM, JoseRM303 said:

Couple of updates out of Charlotte and WCNC:

 

Sarah French who has been filling in on the morning newscasts has been officially named co-anchor of the weekday morning and midday newscasts.

 

Carolyn Bruck who had been out on leave the past several months returns to the station today but this time as co-anchor of the 4 pm newscasts. No word on who succedes Sarah as co-anchor of the 5, 6 & 11 pm newscasts. 

Vanessa Ruffes is likely going to be the permanent 5, 6, & 11 co-anchor

I saw the new opening. Their News logo is not "News 4" logo anymore.  That logo says "4 NBC News" like WNBC's confusing News 4 New York logo basically. I see why they delayed the new graphics so long. 

On 10/6/2021 at 1:59 PM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

There has been a lot of stuff stuff going on behind the scenes, I'm sure. All of what you are complaining about has been/will be addressed. However, when have you known Nexstar to keep a former group's package? I bet they switch to their own in-house Fox package, especially because we've already seen evidence of this in the weather block.

I really don't care what is going on behind the scenes. They spent years building up something that was overturned in less than 2 years.  It looks unstable. They should keep the FTS graphics until either the FTS gets a new package thus forcing them to change to Nexstar graphics or the station is reacquired by FOX.  They changed the weather radar font and they are still using the FTS package overall.

Yeah I said in the past Nexstar is a mess. They replaced a barely 4 year news set because it was built by FTS. Let a boatload of talent to leave more any other station in the market in the past 18 months after years of work establishing their on-air news talent. Unnecessarily changed the website domain from "fox46charlotte.com" to "fox46.com". Now confusing branding, they wasting time with this bullsh*t attempt with those whack a** Nexstar graphics & "Fox Charlotte" branding, which are both trash, because they want to attempt to "de-foxify" the station identity and appearance. When sports programming is on they use the FTS-style "FOX 46 CHARLOTTE" logo with the "WJZY-TV BELMONT-CHARLOTTE" station ID although the promos and top/bottom-of-the-hour. Nexstar management are idiots, point blank, period. Nexstar better realize this isn't one of their typical middle-sized markets, so they need to leave it all alone and just ride it out as "FOX46 Charlotte". 

I can bet it is going to remain "FOX46 Charlotte" branding and continuing the use of the barely 18-months old FTS graphics because they know their ratings depends on it. Otherwise, Nexstar isn't going to last long here...

4 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

Can Comcast pull evey NBC Station off the air in the entire country? Wouldn't it effect Station owners with NBC Affiliates?  Wouldn't Station owners bring this squabble up when they go into an an retransmission agreement of there own with Comcast? 

 

The O&Os I understand but the affiliates are different right?  If I was Google, I would mention that. 

Technically they are different because they are OTT broadcasters versus cable or paid TV channels. Unless Comcast wants to take over the broadcast licenses of all their OTT affiliates then it's not the same 

YouTube TV and NBC Universal are squabbling now. If it is not resolved by Thursday YouTubeTV is pulling all of their channels from the platform 

5 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Unreported in this thread up to this point.

 

But remember how they had a General Manager opening a few months ago? They now have one.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210914005878/en/Nexstar-Media-Inc.-Names-Lloyd-Bucher-as-Vice-President-and-General-Manager-of-Its-Broadcast-and-Digital-Operations-in-Charlotte-North-Carolina

 

So expect things to be status quo a little while longer.   Hopefully this is the last piece of the puzzle, and any transition into the new look and branding is well coordinated between Nexstar and the new GM.

 

Then again, his predecessor didn't last too long in Charlotte.  He was only hired in June of LAST YEAR...

https://tvnewscheck.com/business-revenue/article/ron-romines-new-vp-gm-of-wjzy-wmyt/

Why the short tenure?

Nexstar decided to bump him up to a SVP/regional manager.

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/nexstar-media-promotes-ron-romines-to-svp-and-regional-manager

 

I highly doubt that's why the attempt to change the branding has not been made. It's a market research reason.  

14 hours ago, tylerSC said:

They are still heavily running FOX46 news promos Sunday night. So we'll see if they indeed change to FOX Charlotte on Monday. Maybe they wised up and decided to stay FOX46 as they are well known. 

They're still using the FOX46 branding. They'll probably a hybrid branding in the interim.

For those that make these passive aggressive statements. I have my info from someone in the broadcast industry myself. The same source who predicted the new Fox O&O graphics launched in February 2020 on WJZY, the Orlando Fox & MyTV O&Os by Fox along with the aforementioned Sacramento, San Diego Fox affiliate properties for Nexstar as a future swap that has been seroiusly considered, to the fact that Charlotte still on the Fox network radar are known to those who work on this daily. I didn't make up anything, so if you disagree then go disagree with my source. 

4 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

I am hearing another delay…the set was going to debut this week but apparently they are having cold feet on what the news branding was going to be. They decided to abandon that. They are going with the Nexstar Fox graphics but might not be de-Foxifying their branding after all. This coming from a new employee. 

Smart move...it's a major branding problem 

3 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

Not after this week according to zap2it 

Go look it up on FOX46 website. It's listed on TitanTV via the FOX46 website. I never look up their or any Fox affiliates' schedule through Zap2it

On 9/4/2021 at 12:12 AM, Nelson R. said:

Jason Harper confirms that Good Day Charlotte expands to 4am to 10am starting Tuesday. Rachael Ray moves to 10am and 25 Words or Less moves to 11am and 11:30, but only 11:30 for three days. You Bet Your Life’s preview show airs Friday at 11:30 and the regular show airs starting the 13th in that time slot, with the secondary run at 12:30am. 25 Words Or Less secondary run moves to 1am starting Monday night the 13th/Tuesday morning the 14th. 
 

Also it appears Access Hollywood is being dropped and not sure any other Charlotte station is picking it up. It was listed on WMYT at 1:30am on zap2it, but then changed to an informercial.

 

Access Hollywood will remain in WJZY & WMYT in the overnights

On 8/30/2021 at 11:49 PM, carolinanews4 said:

foxcharlotte.com already redirects to WJZY's website. So evidently Bahakel sold the domain to Nexstar. I personally don't care much for the Fox Charlotte branding since it seems to ignore the other 21 counties in the market. Granted the lion's share of population - and ad revenue - is in Charlotte, so that's where you can make headway. The branding made sense for WCCB because they historically did well in the city itself and had limited viewership in the suburbs and mountain counties. WCCB's news product all but ignored anything outside of the city limits. It looked like Nexstar was going for a more regional approach like WSOC and WBTV have utilized to their advantage, but now it seems like the will focus on the core of the market. 

Charlotte is too large and prominent of a city to have the "Carolinas" branding in the market. The 3 of the 4 South Carolina counties in their DMA are aligned with and apart of the Charlotte metro area. The Unifour is basically an extension of Charlotte these days and will covered, so the mountain counties outside of Watauga are really left out.  However, they're not really populated outside of Watauga. The thought processes of Nexstar is why failure with this is imminent upon launching. Charlotte is not the Triangle nor the Triad, nor as it was 25+ years ago when the transient population was much lower. Most people especially Millennials and Gen Z don't care except for the political news from each state capitols & governors in Raleigh and Columbia as the remainder is unnecessary regional fluff. Conducting Charlotte as so will always lead to failure in this time or the future. 

Yep, it makes the Fox affiliate of a major market looks small market.  NewsNation will continue to get nothing in constantly forcing stations to promote an out-of-date product in 2021. I don't agree with Fox's over-the-air antics with their O&Os nor the FNC, but Charlotte is a better fit for an O&O than Nexstar bs that belongs in any market that's below the top 50 ranking. Watch the ratings drop falter with the unnecessary changes forcing another rebranding...  WCCB might wind up as the O&O in the future.

Iisha Scott left WCNC Charlotte to go to NBC 5 Chicago WMAQ

https://twitter.com/wxbrad/status/1427391614041866241?s=19

WCNC did gain KJ Jacobs from WTRK

https://www.wcnc.com/article/about-us/team-bios/kj-jacobs/275-27f75e2b-99c9-4636-8ddb-54e5fa594ab6

12 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

Rachael Ray will be back on WJZY for another year. Just saw a promo for the new season starting September 13. But it didn’t mention a time. Hmmm…could GDC finally be expanding into the 9am hour?

They should add a 9AM hour and move that Dateline and 25 Words or Less back to WMYT while bringing back the Real and Dr Oz to WJZY

I standby what I said earlier, WJZY & WMYT will be sold again is why what is going on with on-air talent departures. Nexstar only wants the stations because FTS was willing to pawn off for Seattle and Milwaukee Fox affiliates. Nexstar is cheap and bad for business in a rapidly growing, major market like Charlotte. It's why Nexstar is dismantling great locally recognized talent by ending or not renewing all of this valuable talent. You also going to continue seeing this newsroom set...

I tried to download the WJZY news app again and its full of glitches and doesn't stream properly again. According to most reviewers on the Google Play store, they agree that WJZY news app is crap a year later still. Another disaster after another with this switch over from the FTS maintained to this Nexstar maintained app... 

4 hours ago, SFTV said:

Or did they pull a WNBC and had to scrap it because they didn’t like how it turned out and it’s back to square one...

 

then again it took KGO almost 6 months to debut their set.

You're comparing cheapskate Nexstar to Disney/ABC and NBC Universal O&Os? Uh no, as a matter fact hell no... 

4 hours ago, carolinanews4 said:

It has been a little over three months. I really don't see how the timetable of a new set could possibly portend the sale of a station. I also think it is unfair to say that this is a product of poor planning because it doesn't fit someone's personal timetable. Plus what are these supposed "weird issues" WJZY is having with this rebuild? Just because people on this board think the studio should have launched by now, doesn't mean that it was ever the station's timetable. I think it is fine to wonder when it will be debuting but to travel down the path that this set timetable means the station is for sale, that people didn't plan, or that something has gone wrong is conjecture that is unwarranted. 

It doesn't take long to rebuild a newscast set... Half the time Nexstar is so cheap they'll already bring in another deconstructed old set from another property with minor alterations like the city skyline, etc. If you want to believe otherwise, okay...