PhillyWatch

Not that I watch a great deal of Antenna, but this may be a positive move in that Antenna could bring back more pre-80’s programming that hasn’t been seen in a while. More shows, now spread across two channels. I don’t know what Nexstar’s national diginet contracts are, but here in Philly WPHL carries Antenna, CourtTV and Comet. Both court AND comet are also carried on other stations in the market, so I could see either easily dropped to launch this (no, not that This channel, this channel…)

They could split the difference between Holt and Muir and go with Maurice DuBois from WCBS. But there’s no way Norah walks away willingly. Perhaps the return of the dual-anchor format ABC tried some years ago?

What were they airing up until now? And do we know whereabouts that shot of Jan is from? That backdrop is very reminiscent of the CBSN Local sets...

In Philadelphia, ABC O&O WPVI has dropped their Laff broadcast on 6.3 and replaced it with “this”, while also adding a 6.4 for what I believe is the first time to carry QVC. Maybe WPPX will be gaining Newsy soon now that QVC has found a new Philly OTA home. Here’s hoping!

Here's hoping the classic logo sticks around. It breaks up the rectangular monotony of the current gfx and I appreciate them using it for the bug today.

That white "brick" wall looks like some of their sister station's "CBSN" sets. Here's hoping after the studio is finished that this area gets spruced up and can become the CBSN Philly set.

I believe there was also a “Drew Year’s Eve” marathon when they acquired Drew Carey show reruns around a decade ago. I’m still wondering when and where Newsy factors into this all. You’d think it would have been one of the networks they’d add right off the bat, especially since there aren’t any huge carriage agreements already in existence (unlike Laff, etc.). Is there some long term agreement with QVC? While everything else was quick to get the boot, they’re still hanging around.

The entire reason Scripps gobbled up ion was to get signals to put their diginets on, not to launch (from scratch!) a bunch of news operations. Maybe you'll see a half hour of Newsy on the main signal at some point during the day. Maybe you'll see a new newscast from any new Scripps-owned sister stations in the market. But we're not getting any new news departments out of this.

It's a testament to the modern trend of out-of-market suits running homogenized station groups with no regard to market needs (I.E. iHeartRadio), although in this case we have the cherry-on-top of the suit being a blatant bigot I also see this as a testament to the local management at KYW and how they wanted the station to be competitive and succeed. They had plans, they made changes, they were excited. But all Dunn and Friend could do was rain on their parades and snuff out any sparks of hope. I had never heard the "white-whitness news" nickname before, then again, I come from a white household. We also weren't watching KYW either...

Butchering local town & landmark names while a tornado bears down on the viewing public. Anybody wanna take a crack at pronouncing "Schuylkill River"? Yes, 3000 miles away they will still be able to harness the technology to pinpoint the path of a storm and give viewers pertinent information, but when they can't pronounce your town, I get the feeling that some folks will turn the channel. And this is even IF they actually start hubbing weather. I see it more from the angle of "well, there's CBSN, ABC News Live, NBC News Now... what news-y angle ISN'T someone taking a stab at?"

The Class-h room pits two teams from local schools against each other in trivia with a small audience from the schools, all taped on the FOX29 evening set. Pretty much every aspect of that sentence has been upended since the start of the pandemic, which is unfortunate. I appreciate the fact that WTXF has been willing to try out so many locally-produced programs, particularly a game show. I'm a BIG fan of "The Final 5" on sister station WTTG in DC. It airs weeknights at 11:30 with a single host riffing on news stories of the day (typically political) with an interview or two from relevant experts. The FOX29 show sounds like it will be more pop-culture based, but again, I appreciate them trying something local in that slot as opposed to another run of Judge Judy.

Caught a commercial promoting a new digital-only hour of Action News mornings from 7-8. The spot was mainly pushing their new smart TV device apps as a means of watching it but I’m guessing it’ll be available through their website as well.

I believe it. I saw the commercial a few weeks back but whenever I checked listings they were still listing it in the 7am hour (until now)

I caught a spot promoting this on one of the off Saturday/Sundays I was up early enough to catch “Good Day Weekend” but just now have found TV listings to verify- they’re axing the 7am hour from #GDW. Two episodes of “The Classh-room” will take it’s place on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Doubling down on the "morning" theme with what appears to be a sunny-side up egg floating in a mug of coffee

Starting back in February, the NYC studios began producing a 10pm show for CW-affiliate WUPA in Atlanta. Since the shutdown, WUPA has been broadcasting WBZ's 10pm show- Boston stories, Boston weather, in Atlanta. No other O&O with a news department has been tasked with producing the show. They're not airing CBSN. They're just airing an entirely Boston-focused broadcast in Atlanta for almost 3 months now. I don't know if this falls on the shoulders of WCBS, CBS News management, or CBS O&O management, but it's really... not a good look.

This old Google Groups posting also has some (limited) insight, including the potential that the cheery 5pm chemistry on-air wasn't the same off-air https://groups.google.com/g/phl.media/c/NSUGsdXDBMQ

Big bummer. After Natasha Brown was moved to weekdays on KYW, I switched over to Denise on weekend evenings. At least (from the sound of things) it was a buyout situation and not a mass axe-swinging like there was at KYW. Who fills that chair next?

Logo design aside (though I am a fan), props have to be given for any station willing to go with a color scheme that isn't the tired "dominant blue, red/yellow accents". WPSG had a fantastic set of green/blue graphics when they were producing their own morning show (separate from KYW). They also had a great red variant of the early CBS O&O graphics.

Came across this on Youtube and it's... interesting, to say the VERY least. Anybody have any clue as to what this could be about? I'm guessing COVID coverage, possibly on the CBSNs but this would be an absolute trip to see on-air. Has this been used at any time already?

Only if One America doesn't snatch her up first!

Just caught a report at 4 from Wendy Saltzman, formerly of WPVI who left back in 2018 to launch her own media training & consulting. company

6 ran a short promo before tonight’s 10pm on WPHL promoting the fact that they’re now the most watched 10pm newscast. Anybody have any info on how long this has been the case?

While the CBSNNY feeds on the website and the CBS app were still showing the temporary CBSN feeds, I was able to stream the KCBS produced WCBS 5pm and 6pm shows yesterday here - https://newyork.cbslocal.com/live/channel/wcbs-live-311/ Unfortunate circumstances, but it’s pretty incredible to watch them pull this all off.

They appear to now be running a crawl during the 10pm on WPHL. I capped It during a Coronavirus scroll but a minute beforehand it was scrolling local temperatures with "AccuWeather" in place of the "covid 19" title. I'm not a fan, particularly of how it bumps up on the time/temp.