WXmanTim

KRIV weekend reporter Maria Corrales is out the door. (http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/maria-corrales-out-at-kriv/146542). Station officials are being tight lipped, but a headline on Newsblues yesterday read "Houston reporter booted amid rumors of fabrication."

The Twitter-verse was quite abuzz over the name change. Both TVSpy (http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/the-best-tegna-twitter-reactions/146425) and FTVLive posted a sampling of the reactions (both had the nearly the exact same tweets, so I'll save a link). But I think my favorite is from @nswartsell: "The letters in the company name had to reapply for their jobs, and apparently only some made the cut."

Only the morning news and 10pm newscasts are simulcast. KBMT produces a noon, 4, and 6:30 newscast for the KJAC sub. 5 & 6 air only on the main signal.

That's because the area encompassing most of the Evansville DMA in southwest Indiana (aside from, I think, 2 counties to the north and northwest) are actually "zoned" to central time. IIRC, until 2005 the state allowed the individual counties to decide for themselves whether to observe daylight savings. That's why SW Indiana, and the counties that border metro Chicago in NW Indiana, followed it while the rest of the state did not.

I know how tv works. I sit next to my technical director 5 days a week when my show goes on the air. Never have I seen as quick a camera change as was displayed last night on WNT. When cutting back from the interview with Rob Marciano, she was in the middle of turning back to camera 1 when they cut to the tight shot and she was lined up, no continued movement. It was jarring and obviously pre-taped.

Watched WNT last night for the first time in...a decade, perhaps... If it's possible, I actually felt like I knew less about what is going on in "the world" than when I started watching. Cecilia Vargas, I believe, was anchoring. Can't stand her delivery. Every story began with "next" "Next" "Next" Dint know if she was inserting that on her own or if the writer did, but it was "next" to annoying. No wait, it was VERY annoying. At least she didn't use "switching gears" or "changing course" as segues. The other thing I found odd, it seemed some of the segments were pre-taped. After a story on winter weather, there was a segment with Rob Marciano at the desk. The switch back to her tight shot was to clean to quick to be live.

I seem to recall years ago a website that had photos of the minutes leading up to Ron Magers & Carol Marin's on-air resignation. Iirc, in one of the photos, was a shot into the newsroom with one of cityscape panels in place. It seemed to me they might be hidden in the half wall the separated the desk from the newsroom, or could be installed or un-installed between shows. I also recall at one point seeing the video of the on-air resignation at the end of the 10pm and the newsroom was open (and at the point they signed off - for good - people in the newsroom began clapping.

Did WFLD only run this open on nights WGN had a baseball game that pushed their news back?

KTRK anchor Dave Ward to cut back on newscasts starting in January. Last day on the 10pm will be December 23. He marks 50 years at the ABC-owned station in 2016. http://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2014/11/dave-ward-to-only-anchor-ktrk-abc13s-6pm-newscast.html?m=1

I find it interesting that WRC, especially, was late to the HD game considering they were experimenting with HD at the facility they share with NBCNews as early as 1996. The Tim Russert "Meet The Press" set was specifically designed with high definition in mind.

(Off-topic, so feel free to flame away) Ack. This kind of producing drives me absolutely batshit crazy. Why do a headlines bump in before and after the open? Ugh. Lazy lazy lazy producing.

My best guess is KECI-13 Missoula. They're the only station I can think of that would reference both Butte and Kalispell reporters in their credits. KECI operates a semi-satellite in both Butte (KTVM-6/42) and Kalispell (KCFW-9). KPAX-8 Missoula would likely have had reporters in Kalispell during that period, but sister-station KXLF-4 Butte operates independently of KPAX (and in fact pre-dates KPAX by several years). Additionally, there was not a full-time ABC affiliate in western Montana until 1991.

Now having seen the graphics first hand, I kinda see what everyone is complaining about. IMO they may as well not even play any music in the open, the bed is so low (aside from the stinger) that's it's almost unnoticeable. While the banner font is OK, when they add the personal identifier above it, it's too small and hard to read.

It's becoming obvious that the Gannett budget ax had fallen *hard* at KHOU. Fewer live shots from reporters, especially in the early afternoon shows. Instead, they doing more in-studio fronts. This is likely to save on photog/live truck operator overtime. Supers are showing up more often with misspellings. This likely means they cut some writers and associate producers in the newsroom and that line producers are now responsible for not only stacking, but writing, the majority of their own shows (at least that's what it means at KRIV). The dawn of automation is becoming more obvious too. Lots of technical glitches. Still no new graphics, though.

I'm trying to see where in the article it says they plan on terminating the LMA with WTVA. Or is that your supposition? According to this article (http://djournal.com/news/wtvas-spain-era-ends-station-sold-heartland-media/) in the North Mississippi Daily Journal, the new owners plan on retaining the LMA.

I noticed the change a couple weeks ago. Hopefully that means their current logo will be used when the on air graphics premiere

Sounds like the "Norman Number" KHOU had during Gene Norman's tenure as Chief Met. Even though he was at WGCL, he must have brought the idea back with him from Atlanta.

Oh lord... Is that where the wheel of weather comes from? That's got to be the tackiest, most comical weather element I've ever seen. Hate hate hate it!!

So every TV station should carry a newscast, regardless if the advertising is there to support it? How, pray tell, should salaries for anchors, reporters, photogs, directors, producers, etc be paid? Or are they supposed to work out of the goodness of their heart For the "love of the craft?" Or should TV station owners simply never turn a profit or break even?

I don't know why you think WEVV is a joke. Because it doesn't have news? There's a dozen other stations across the country in the same boat. Are they jokes to? The market is just to small to support 4 stations doing news. Especially when you have established powerhouses like WFIE and WEHT (pre-merger with WTVW).

If WEVV was going to do news, they would. They tried for a while, and although I thought their product was good, they couldn't make a dent in the ratings against the 3 established stations. As for simulcasting a nearby CBS station, the closest one is Terre Haute's WTHI. No one in Evansville cares what goes on in Terre Haute. The next closest is Louisville's WLKY -same deal. There's also the time zone difference to consider. News isn't likely coming back to WEVV no matter who the owner is.

I guess I should disambiguate what I mean by "chyron.". This isn't the big bulky machine with a separate operator that is traditionally meant by the word. To be sure that still exists (and some smaller stations may actually still use it) even at FOX, but rarely is it used. The chyron I talking about is an interface for our newsroom computer system. It's a window I can open (within Inews) that shows me all of the available templates for our package, images (for secondary bugs, fullscreens and OTS elements), and pdr clips. It also allows me to create any image as needed. Once I'm done creating the banner (or fullscreen, etc), I drag and drop the thumbnail image into the script, which allows the director to see it and key it over the video. There are also drop down menus that allow me to select the scrolling banner and "upper bugs" (such as the live bug and courtesy banner). Gannett uses the same software (in the training module, it actually uses Gannett's previous gfx package as training examples). I would imagine at the Gannett stations, one of those drop down menus controls the "segment" color scheme. But if/when you're the only person assigned to a show (producing, writing & boothing it) and your on deadline or there's a breaking news adder, it's difficult to remember all those little things when your just trying to get it on the air.

It likely exists in their system, but the producer failed to swap it out in the rundown as summer approached. At least in my shop, opens, transitions, etc are run off a server (we call then pdr files) and is generally in the master rundown automatically. And unless the producer changes it, it will lurk there forever. That's why occasionally after a graphics update, an open won't play or the old version does instead. It's because the show producer didn't update that item in the master. If it won't play period, it's because the item has been deleted out of the system by IT or the TD in charge of maintaining those files.

As a producer, I can't even imagine the extra time/forethought it takes to make sure the segment colors match. It's hard enough in my shop, which is perpetually understaffed, to remember to click the drop down menu to add one of the scrolling banners (breaking news, developing news, weather alert, etc) when creating a super on the fly, much less have to remember which segment belongs under which color.

According to a promo that just aired during "The Price Is Right", KHOU's Gannett website goes live tomorrow.