channel2

I think KFMB commissioned the image, if not the news too - it's possible that 615 was syndicating it before KFMB started using it.

God, the first- and second-generation Hearst(-Argyle) stuff has aged so badly. I'm sure it looked worse than what it replaced in a lot of cases too. WBAL had to junk their perfectly good Cordova package after, what, a year?

Would Nexstar value a presence in market #4 that highly even if WPHL is a laggard?

KMGH didn't have news at 6PM for a while from about 2006 to 2014, whenever it was they lost J! and WOF.

Oh my god, the Kroffts made some wild shit. They never really reran it when I was growing up though. Also the good Hanna-Barbera stuff was mostly syndicated in the '50s and '60s anyway.

What about original stuff? Having a base of recognizable - or even decent - shows feels crucial but relying on established IP forever doesn't feel doable either. (Also, on that front, DreamWorks Animation likely would have been happy to loan out the DreamWorks Classics trove but of course Comcast owns that now - and the syndie rights to stuff like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Underdog were with the Program Exchange anyway)

With regards to KidsClick, it really doesn't help that WarnerMedia, Disney, Viacom, and Comcast own about 90% of the worthwhile stuff aimed at that demographic anyway and probably won't let them touch most of it. (Though Warner Bros., because Time Warner was a dysfunctional mess, has long shown a willingness/obligation to loan out the Ruegger and Timm/Dini shows, I am not sure they'd loan out their Looney Tunes/MGM/Hanna-Barbera crown jewels to anybody, or if that stuff is "too old" or what)

Oh yeah, you were the one who made the "Graycom" quip!

And those are the Weigel Broadcasting Weigels, right?

I feel like the industry can't take much more consolidation. We've already seen the likes of Belo, LIN, and Media General vanish into the maws of other groups - not to mention all the private equity groups cashing out (e.g. Four Points, Newport, Barrington, Local TV). If Scripps (and of course Tribune) did so too that might be a breaking point.

Or private equity might step out of the shadows...a long shot, admittedly, but they have money and cap space. I am guessing a sale is Gabelli's endgame, which, if he pulled it off, would be interesting since Scripps has two classes of stock.

Mario Gabelli is rattling sabers with Scripps now. If you remember, he was the one who pushed Fisher to sell itself.

Maybe that wouldn't be an issue if their syndie shows weren't overwhelmingly such tripe.

Scripps has basically dumped everything that gave it any renown. HGTV, Food Network, Peanuts...

Have the ratings for any of these homegrown shows been good, at any of the station groups? They feel like cheap filler.

I feel like local TV design in general is kind of circling the drain. Between standardization sucking the creativity out of everything (though somehow the new Hearst graphics are amazing) and the fact that the trend towards flat design has inspired everything to look pretty bland or similar, I am not sure what stations ought to do. At least the new TEGNA graphics have some inspired color choices though.

Outlaw News was Arnold.

X-2 is quite good, but so are the 2000s WNYW packages by Andy Zulla, and Stephen Arnold's really-underused Fusion and Fox '95. NewsEdge was also excellent. The Rampage Gannett pack is an odd spiritual update to Image News with mixed results.

The morning themes sound like they want to be A New Wish... It was always junky and I'm glad it's going away.

It sounds like it's been digitally altered.

Part of me wonders if they wanted to rename WCMH back to WLWC and this was the easiest way to do it?

Do they care? They'd be getting the retrans without having to split it with a middleman. That being said, I don't believe this unless something confirms this surfaces elsewhere. Not sure why they would go for Boston over DFW or DC, unless ESPN somehow plays a role.

ABC is very fortunate that the Circle 7 and the network logo were designed to work together.

I was always struck at how much that logo looked like the one WFAA uses now...

Let me guess, they're gonna load up on the DHX/Cookie Jar library crap?