Samantha

At Scripps, nothing is trapped in amber. It's a virtue and sometimes a vice.

Television stations are like any other business, especially given that they are facing the biggest change in consumption habits in their history. Scripps knows this. Their hometown headquarters station is feeling it. John Kiesewetter got these figures from Cincinnati:

Quote

My analysis of May TV ratings from 2018 to 2023 showed that the 11 p.m. local news audience dropped 45%, the 6-7 a.m. local news audience fell 42% and the 6 p.m. local news audience dropped 36%.

Scripps has very good values, usually, in journalism. They probably have the most value-driven approach to news operations of any major operator (aside from Sinclair, where the values are not beliefs about journalism but often about national politics). The broader problem is that tools originally conceived to make the process of assembling newscasts, or building out news extensions, are turning into tools to reduce headcount, which seems to be causing morale issues at some stations.

Ion Media has done okay, but national advertising has been soft. There's a story there. Scripps has higher exposure to the national advertising sector than its peers, and that has been an underperformer because digital has been cleaning TV's clock as advertisers that are not political rethink and retrench their budgets.

A decision this big is not done without studying the market. At some point, TV news cannot go on doing the same old things. You would have to assume, and I'd want to hear about this, that research was conducted. Perhaps people identified the Action News brand with an older style of newscast or one that didn't appeal to them. Perhaps adding "Detroit" was seen as necessary for SEO reasons.

That said, if "7 News Detroit" is installed without a brand proposition or other points of differentiation from its competitors, then it will get lost in the sea.

3 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

So does KNOP have any local North Platte newscasts left?

 

Since Glendive hasn't done any local news for years, this could be the smallest market that produces a local newscast of any kind.

 

Alpena's WBKB only does a 6:30 morning show and newscasts at 6:00 and 11:00.  They reintroduced local weather but relied on NewsNet for a while (probably due to staffing shortages).

All they did was cut mornings; they are still producing their midday and evening news.

18 hours ago, sfomspphl said:

 

Yeah they mislabled it. Makes more sense.

The NMSA made this same mistake when they put up MCTYW — turns out it wasn't even originally Stroud's error.

We've been inching toward this moment for years, and today, the lines finally converged over Tyler, Texas, with this clip:

KSL 1989 == KTRE 1989 (really 88) == KXGN 2004 =?= Non-Stop Music USA News

A Timeline

• 1985: Colorado USA is debuted as an image package only by KUSA in Denver.
• By March 1987: WAFF begins using the package including news music and pairs it with the then-new "Squares" syndicated graphics package from Digital Images. The station has "Colorado USA" resung as "Alabama and 48 / People Who Care".
• February 8, 1988: KLTV and KTRE debut new openings using the package. KTRE is using close music that WAFF is using in a sports promo.
• By July 1988: KSL begins using the package.
• 1990: WSAV in Savannah is using the package. The community service promo to which the link is cued up was also used by KXGN Glendive, Montana, in 2004, and by WAFF in a sign-off.
• 1991: KLTV uses a different open cut at 10pm which matches the Non-Stop USA Music cuts.

USA News is listed in ASCAP as a Non-Stop production with alternate titles indicating it was used by KLTV, KTRE, KOAM (extant), KJCT (1993–95, not extant), WUSA (in promos in 1998, maybe?), WAWS (July 1996–98, but they debuted with WWL News at the end of 1996, so they might have changed themes before going on the air).

KPNX picks up Ginger Jeffries for evening weather: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2023/10/12/ginger-jeffries-weather-12-news-phoenix/71154019007/

20 hours ago, CTrey98 said:

First Rockets telecast on Space City Home Network and they are apparently carrying over the AT&T graphics package with them. Highly doubt this is permanent since the logo doesn't fit the scorebug very well. Maybe they are just buying themselves time until the regular season or at least until next baseball season. 

 

 

With the old Root Sports insert typeface. AT&TSN used AT&T's corporate typeface, AT&T Aleck.

I suspect that AT&T required them to cease using AT&T marks and branding on short notice. Even the moribund AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain got a SportsNet Rocky Mountain bug without AT&T.

A full 11pm from WCPX Orlando in October 1994. This very short-lived look had to have debuted no earlier than June and was out no later than early 1995.

There is a very strong current of KPNX, particularly in the talent open which has both some script items and animations that are redolent of the News Station-era graphics. There also appears to be stylistic influence from the CBS News and CBS Sports looks in use then. The unusual tandem voiceover is Lisa Malay (who did KPNX — this was her second open set for 6) and the guy who voiced KTVK during this time. This is an interesting era: the station had a very CityPulse-esque appearance just a year and change prior, and there are elements in place of it (mostly the set), but the anchors (Bud Hedinger and Mary Hamill; David Wittman gets equal billing but way less air time) are much more anchored to their desk.

From the shores of the Atlantic to the frontiers of space to the heart of Central Florida... Live and local, this is 6 News.

38 minutes ago, mre29 said:

 

I would imagine Scripps is the obvious buyer of KXGN as they already own the rest of the MTN stations. They could also buy KYUS and just maintain the time brokerage deal with Cowles. Or Cowles could just buy the station itself.

 

Counterpoint: KXGN is, logistically, a radio operation with a TV appendage. Morgan Murphy has radio properties—that's probably what drew them to the Michigan operation. But either the Montana/Dakota stations are being structured as a separate M&A from the Michigan ones or MMM didn't want them.

Morgan Murphy makes its Marks in Michigan with a $13.375 million purchase of the Marks family's Michigan broadcasting operation. WBKB, WBKP, and WBUP are included along with radio stations in Houghton and Iron River.

The Marks family has been slowly divesting the properties the late Stephen owned, though this is the first TV M&A:

• An AM-FM pair in Park Falls, Wisconsin ($210K to Civic Media)
• WOWZ-FM Accomac, Virginia, to its LMA operator

What's left? The famous KXGN and KYUS in Montana plus the Montana–North Dakota radio cluster with stations in Glendive, Sidney, Forsyth, Miles City, and Williston, and Belfield (near Dickinson).

Nexstar has a real challenge on its hands with KUSI, and it's not just an integration and construction challenge.

KUSI was the most unabashedly conservative TV newsroom in a major market anywhere. Embarrassingly so. And they will be dealing with angry viewers of that persuasion. But anyone external to the McKinnons and right-wing politics probably looks at KUSI and goes "yikes". Heck, I think even someone who came to KUSI from a Sinclair station would be shocked.

There is a difference between a conservative lean, justifiable in San Diego, and just being a peddler of conservative disinformation. KUSI was frequently the latter. And Nexstar is only a "left-wing" operation if you're so far off to the right that NewsNation is radically left.

51 minutes ago, SFTV said:

KPIX was producing local news inserts for its short lived 10pm Seattle News Now. I guess it wasn’t attracting much viewership to launch a news dept.

 

I guess it’s back to square one producing only weather reports for Seattle with the previous CBSN block weather graphics on its website.

The problem is that they have virtually no physical plant in Seattle. The nominal main studio is the transmitter site; there was a sales office somewhere (don't have the address), but it closed in 2020. WUPA has insufficient space—it has not moved since it began broadcasting in 1981. (Nor has WTOG, though that building did once house a news department.)

Paramount moved KSTW in August 2001 from Tacoma to 602 Oakesdale Ave. SW in Renton. The station had a sales office in Seattle (which it closed at that time) and its 1976-vintage Tacoma plant, which now is a Bates Technical College facility (KBTC is there, and there is an adjoining building built by the college). It seems they were not in Renton long. They then wound up at 1000 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle (South Lake Union area), home to the CBS Radio cluster. (There is a 21-photo tour of CBS Radio Seattle on Flickr from 2006!) That facility is long-gone as well, with the now-Audacy stations being elsewhere.

KSTW's X/Twitter account is @Seattle11TV as of today. They are writing the name "Seattle11", no space.

34 minutes ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

That must’ve been a hell of a lot of research on your part to track this stuff down. I get the feeling that promoting your anchor team as a bunch of people from out of town probably got a very different reaction from the one the geniuses (/s) in management had in mind. It sounds like the station was a mess before Fox entered the picture.

Very much so. The next management was able to put the station back on sound news footing (they also hired Dave Murray at about the time Stu Klitenic left for WSB).

26 minutes ago, lanman said:

The domains pittsburgh19.com and kdkaplus.com were recently purchased by CBS (6/20 and 7/28, respectively), and are currently pointed to a MarkMonitor parking page.

kpixplus.com was registered July 28 as well. Notably, wforplus and kywplus (among others) were not taken.

The KTVI piece is fascinating. Let me shed some light on what KTVI was like at the time, and you might understand how this one never saw the light of day.

KTVI had adopted Hello in 1984 alongside the other "major" Times-Mirror stations (KDFW and KTBC). They all had similar open animations. All three of those stations (KDFW, KTBC, KTVI) plus WVTM Birmingham then adopted the same look in mid-late 1987: JAM's Yours Truly and the diagonal stripe bar graphics. I believe this comes from that time period. The ND of KTVI from 1986 to 1989 was Sue Kawalerski.

Times-Mirror tended to make a lot of decisions at the level of corporate. (A corporate graphics package of the kind the Times-Mirror stations rolled out in late 1987 was not common then!) And they made some disastrous ones at KTVI, the market's third-rated news station (with KMOV and KSDK, two goliaths, in front of them). In November 1986, Lloyd Immel was hired to be one of the lead anchors. Then, just months after the Yours Truly look debuted at KTVI, it was gone. And so too were all the news presenters.

In February 1988, KTVI debuted a new anchor team (see the very laughable promo above), which gained the nickname "Gang of Four" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They all came from elsewhere: Kevin Cokely was working for Storer in Washington, Iola Johnson was in radio in Dallas (previously of WFAA), Stu Klitenic came from WXYZ, and Miles Muzio had been a journeyman weatherman already by this point (I believe his last posting was KOIN prior to this). The existing look was blown up (this is when they switched to the Great Prospect track from Bruton, then to Palmer, then to News Central, all in about two years). Apparently their installation had been in the works since August 1987 when a new promotions director came to KTVI. (There's a sign of something.)

St. Louis viewers—famous for their resistance to change, as KDNL would later learn—never took to the Gang of Four, all of whom left the market within two years. Kawalerski was evidently forced out, not long after Times-Mirror broadcasting president John McCrory was replaced. In the KTVI newsroom, the news she was out was met with "jubilation" and "euphoria". (She landed at WCIX.) But the hiring of the Gang of Four was a corporate decision, beyond Kawalerski. McCrory was known for his intense involvement in KTVI's affairs. It took Bud Carey, the new T-M broadcasting head; Wayne Thomas, the new GM; and a salvage operation to return them to respectability. Losing ABC for Fox helped; ABC was never much watched in St. Louis, something else for KDNL to learn.

Clearly In Touch was far along. It was finished work from Gari, the same company that had already done resings of Hello for them. But the change in promotions director and possibly other factors (the Times Mirror stations graphics package of 1987), and likely the forthcoming revamp of news anchors, likely left this to sit on a shelf.

Forgot to post this originally, but some words from Kim Hindrew, who left for WMC in August 1988 when they took away her anchor duties:

"They're still wondering what they did wrong. The fact that they would think the people of St. Louis had to accept what they were giving them ... it's an arrogance I don't understand. Then viewers did the only thing they could do: They stopped watching."

On 7/15/2023 at 5:47 PM, JimScott said:

Something tells me that I believe Editel and Century III used the same vocalists from KTXL 1986 on WVIT 1987. 

 

Am I right or was that a plain rumor?

I have not come across anything to indicate they did this package. I also doubt it would have been done in Boston, especially back then; CIII's clients, except for things DI was actively syndicating like Window on the World (apparently tied to a 1986 station image package they introduced at the BPME show in Dallas, wondering if this is the KXAS etc. look of that era), generally came from New England. Not unthinkable but not my first guess.

Ben Atkins is at it again.

There is a lot here, so it's worth unpacking — I had to go deep diving into Back Stage once more!

Editel/Boston was established in 1988 when Scanline (which had Editel studio companies in other cities) acquired Century III Teleproductions, which had offices in Boston and Orlando. Century III was a prolific producer of music, animation (through its Digital Images division), and other design/media services in New England. The fact that Ben has labeled this Editel tells me the tape was possibly compiled in 1988, but the material in it seems to be more 1987.

The notable things on here are:

• An image package for WVIT, "Connecticut's NBC Station", and (at 10:07) the WVIT 1987 theme from when they rebranded as Connecticut News, titled here as "The News". I believe the actual launch date for both of these is in 1986; the image and logo debuted in June, and the news theme debuted when Toby Moffett joined WVIT in November.
• An image package for WGOT in New Hampshire, which would be from its launch in August 1987.
• A syndicated news package titled Window on the World, better known in the NMSA as WDEF 1987. This is credited to "CIII Audio" (took a fair amount of digging to realize why C3 turned up no hits).
• A sung image set for WCVB, titled "Tune to the Ears, Tune to the Eyes".
• The open music adopted by the Boston Red Sox on WSBK in 1987, dubbed here as "Target". Digital Images produced this open.
• "Latitudes", a syndicated music and graphics package for independent stations produced for WXIN in 1987. WGNT, KMSS, KWKT, and other stations used elements from this.

We know that in 1987, CIII Audio launched syndicated music packages through Digital Images to sell to stations, first shown at the BPME/BDA conference in Atlanta, and that they did customs for WVIT, WLVI, WCVB, and WNEV in just that time period. (This opens up some really unusual Pandora's boxes: WCVB 87? WNEV 87 + KCBS?) Their staff composer was an Evie Nelson.

Digital Images was no slouch. They did work for WCVB, WBTV (the 1986 city map flyover open), WTTG (Forty Years Together, Channel 5 and You), WHCT (their Right Now image from the 1985 relaunch), and the animation for WTVJ's 1988 overhaul, and for Showtime and the Discovery Channel.

On 7/3/2023 at 6:41 PM, DENDude said:

Stupid question....

Is Steve Pontius retiring? And is N/D Darrel Adams retiring? 

Pontius retired on June 30. Adams stays.

12 minutes ago, AKA said:

I’ve noticed the past week or so that KSKN now brands itself on air as “KSKN 22” instead of the “CW 22” moniker they’ve used the past 17 years. Is there trouble in paradise between the network and Tegna over their refusal to air LIV Golf?

Tegna's CW agreement runs through the end of August 2026. It does not contain any clauses about removal because the network has bought a station (other affiliation agreements I have read do have such provisions).

The CW can only terminate the agreement:

• If the station's technical parameters change so drastically that "the Affiliate becomes of materially less value to The CW"
• If the station owner is bankrupt, or if the network is bankrupt
• In the event of breach of contract
• If the network announces it is ceasing operations, six months' notice required
• If the station enters into or terminates an SSA or LMA without network approval

I believe it will be three years before KUSI becomes The CW in San Diego, unless the agreement is amended.

But you are right to point out that the call letters are newly prominent as of May 24...

On 7/31/2020 at 11:19 AM, TServo2049 said:

Correction from a post I did some weeks back theorizing about the possible origins of the KTXL/WRAL early 80s music package: Cascom most certainly did not do the WRAL 1982 animations. I was re-reading a Millimeter back issue in my personal collection, and was reminded that I had already seen stills from the WRAL '82 animation package in an ad for Bill Feigenbaum's studio (which was based in NYC). Just wanted to put that here.

 

As to that WTVX package, I still think it could have been done in Dallas. (KHTV's music image package in the "39 Gold" period - which, as you say, didn't have corresponding news music - also sounds to have been done in Dallas. I swear it sounds like the late Chris Kershaw on solo vocals, but whether it was done by JAM, or he did it independently, I have no idea. Also I don't think I've heard a version that wasn't camcorded off a TV, as most of the YT clips I've seen of that period were.)

You called it. It's a JAM custom for WJAR.

's a

On 5/23/2023 at 11:31 AM, CubsFan79 said:

Is WZVN TV included.

The best way to phrase that is that the license is not, but Hearst replaces Waterman as its service provider and will handle all the operations under (an amended version of) the original 1994 LMA.

It looks like the ax came for Macon, where the news output is being reduced. Spotted this Wikipedia edit, and I have confirmed at least the 10 p.m. part...

Quote

In April 2023, the 5 P.M. newscast was shorten from a full-hour newscast to a half-hour newscast and canceled the Sunday-Thursday 10 P.M. newscast, replacing it with ''[[The National Desk]]''. Nine of WGXA's production staff were laid off as a result.

They are also losing one of their meteorologists, Eric Garlick, to a destination unknown.

3 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

I know KTIV is the ratings leader there, and I believe KCAU is well ahead of KMEG/KPTM as well.

KMEG was a third-wheel station in the worst way. It was a UHF in a part of the country with very few UHF network affiliates. It only was a CBS affiliate because KCAU correctly judged that it could serve Sioux Falls and Sioux City by going to ABC (a decision that proved to be the right one as the station then had its best 15 years ever). It had no local news for quite some time until 1999.

On 4/10/2023 at 7:43 AM, WWUpdate said:

Here's a rarity---a 1983 newscast from KTVK in Phoenix during the Phil Allen/Jim Scoutten period of the Eyewitness News era. Apparently, the station was on the verge of becoming competitive at the time, but personnel changes would later once again doom it to runner-up status. It  took a management overhaul and the adoption of the NewsChannel 3 brand for the station to reverse its fortunes for good in the late 1980s:

Holy mooing cake, it's Ernie Anderson voicing a KTVK news open. I never thought I'd hear that. I figured Tony Evans did it.

4 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

Meanwhile in Denver, Rockies games will be televised on AT&T SportsNet — for now

 

I wonder whether Altitude will get to acquire the Rockies and Jazz.

The Jazz are not in their circulation area. The Rockies are, but with Altitude still blanked out from Comcast after several years... I don't think a team would want to enter that scenario.

On 3/7/2023 at 10:39 AM, GoldenShine9 said:

They did nothing to solve the 2 critical issues:

 

1) Apollo is bankrolling both companies and essentially has Cox and Tegna as subsidiaries of the same company. As a result, there are five markets where both companies are in place, and no effort was made to adjust for such. Graham made that clear last year in a petition to deny.

 

2) There is too much foreign money involved, coming from the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos (I believe). As a result, it is illegal on that alone. In addition, they failed to disclose such.

I am far from a Standard General defender, but Team Telecom reviewed the deal on the foreign investment/ownership issue and found no national security risks. It's become routine at the FCC for details involving Caribbean foreign capital (and from other countries with which the US has good trade relationship) to receive approval. Some large radio companies had to ask for declaratory rulings on foreign ownership because of actions outside its control (e.g. iHeartMedia when US-based OppenheimerFunds was acquired by Bermuda-organized Invesco in 2019).