Samantha

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.

Pontius retired on June 30. Adams stays.

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...

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

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

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.

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.

Apparently they began broadcasting in HD today, but Cox is not carrying the service in HD. Gray is probably gonna want that to change...

Sorry about not seeing this until now. On March 1, Gray launched the Arizona Family Sports and Entertainment Network on KPHE-LD here in Phoenix. It airs almost all of the KTVK/KPHO newscasts as well as sports programming from Gray's library and the rights to Phoenix Rising FC (USL) soccer and Arizona Interscholastic Association high school championships (PRFC was announced alongside the launch of the channel). KPHE-LD had spent most of the last 15 years as a Spanish-language station. It was the last TV station owned by Lotus—which is primarily a radio operator in the West and has clusters in Las Vegas and Tucson, but not Phoenix. They had intended to sell to Phil Falcone's Sovryn Holdings, but the deal fell through. Gray then spent $1.75 million. Gray also secured a low cable position (13) for it, though it is still broadcast in SD. When Gray filed paperwork in re: what's now KAZF, they went out of their way to note that the station has no contour overlap with KTVK or KPHO—in other words, that it can be programmed separately. I expected them to illuminate at least Flagstaff with this new service, and Yuma is very possible now that I see the content on it. Also worth noting they added a subchannel to KPHE-LD containing Fido TV, which is a niche cable channel about dogs. This must be their first OTA exposure. They also still have two subchannels of infomercials. LATV has disappeared.

I think those call signs explain the intended programming in Flagstaff and Yuma... And I think at this point with the WPGA-TV swap (which will likely give them WPGA-LD too, as that was hived off in the same "Marquee Broadcasting West" subsidiary for the purposes of the trade), we have to start thinking about what a Georgia Sports and Entertainment Network may look like...

It's interesting to see the website URL evolution. Pre-MyFox, KSAZ was fox10.com and still owns that domain. I was baffled when they decided to become fox10phoenix.com post-MyFox. It then occurred to me that it was probably an SEO move.

Yeah, I should have thought of that. WJXX was full force at news launch, but the caveat was that the newscasts launched 10 months after the station. Allbritton had its launch priorities all the wrong way with that station (having had to get it on the air much sooner than anticipated at ABC's behest).

Having recently done extensive research into the histories of a number of the biggest post-New World station builds, they mostly were staggered over a period of months. KSHB had an existing 9pm news which moved to 10 at the time of switch. A 5 was added in October 1994, a 6 in March 1995, but mornings had to wait until the summer of 1996. WDJT added two newscasts at the same time in its March 1996 news debut and then a third shortly thereafter. Weekend news was added the next year. Took them until 2001 to compete in mornings. KNXV started news at 10 on August 1, 1994. They added a 6 in about October, 5 in December, and mornings and middays in January 1995 when the remainder of the ABC programming moved over. WFTS aired its first news on December 12, 1994, but only at 6 and 11. The remaining newscasts showed up in the first four months of 1995. WGNX was not like many of the others. They were not producing a full line of newscasts until the new millennium: just noon, 6, and 11. It was not until Meredith took over that they added morning and 5 p.m. newscasts. WPTY went in all at once in evenings. When they debuted, they had 5, 6, 9 (WLMT) and 10. It took them at LEAST a decade to start a morning newscast! WWJ started with 6 and 11 (not including streaming hours) and has added a newscast in each of the two following weeks. Mornings do seem like they will take a little longer, and I'd expect that because of the time slot. Evening news additions tend to be more incremental, while mornings require a whole other team of on- and off-camera personnel.

Then-WBTI's Dayton translator was more about increasing the coverage area of their subscription TV service. WXIX never had one, as far as I know.

KTAS in San Luis Obispo, California, is being sold by the Palazuelos family to International Communications Network, Inc. for $4 million. ICN owns KSDY-LD in San Diego. Worth noting: the Telemundo affiliation agreement is excluded from the sale! There is a message on their site stating Telemundo Costa Central is moving to KCOY 12.1 + KKFX-CD 24.2 on February 1. These channels carry Dabl. Some years ago KCOY (VistaWest Media) was replaced with a KEYT-CBS subchannel.

If I went to a focus group and played them the Enforcer theme, I bet only one person at most would recognize that as "the theme for my local newscast" or know that it (in most of the country) has anything to do with CBS. I said in Discord on March 8, 2021, "honestly? I bet Average Joe Viewer couldn't make the connection between Enforcer, CBS Local and...CBS." I later called it "some ditty that most people don't even realize is associated with CBS local news for reasons far from them in time and space". And I stand by those words. Shelly Palmer and later Frank Gari sold that theme mostly to CBS affiliates because of the use of the theme at the CBS O&Os. (Of course, non-CBS affiliates have used the mnemonic—including WVIT and KRIV, O&Os of other networks—and even in some cases had their own versions made, like WHTM's Sheldon Elias-done remix.) The whole point of a brand mnemonic is to provide that familiarity across platforms and expressions. It's really fitting for the News and Stations structure of CBS. This is the same network where the background of the CBS Evening News lists bureaus in Rome, Johannesburg, London...Sacramento and Baltimore. By doing this overhaul in the way they have, CBS has Built on one of its few strengths in the area of local news, the streaming channels. Recognized (at least here with San Francisco) that the newscasts have been titled to be replayable in a loop on CBS News. Executed a brand hierarchy that is forward-thinking and geared to the content-flowing-like-water mantra of Adrienne Roark etc. At the same time, the call letters are being used to reassure viewers in certain markets with especially entrenched or viewed CBS local news brands that this is the same newscast they're used to watching. Brought the local stations news in line with the network news and the network as a whole. If the goal is to improve the reputation of the local product based on CBS News, this will help. Provided a much-needed visual rejuvenation to the local news product. Created an up-to-date look that should help the stations to at least some extent in ratings combined with other improvements to the news product. Broken with the look and feel that stagnated around the CBS stations chain in the Dunn–Friend era.

It looks like Gray's L3s with Arthouse Owned type for the Telemundo newscasts. (Arthouse Owned incidentally was based on Barlow) Also worth noting: the open lists W33EU-D Athens, which was licensed to cover in August. RabbitEars lacks full info. Unsure if they're broadcasting the WKTB mux or the WANF–WPCH mux.

This was the image that was used when the call sign change happened in 1986. Looks like the whole thing was being phased in...the channel has a bump that's from May 16 (not 26) with this slogan and the KMOX-TV calls!

There is mounting evidence that this has been in the works for the better part of a year. On November 1, 2021, Gray parked the WANF call sign by changing an LPTV in Tennessee to WANF-LD. On April 25, 2022, Rick Folbaum welcomed a new employee with this tweet: "Welcome to the team! Let's get to work. @cbs46 @GrayTelevision #Atlanta #News #First"

There's a rumble in them there Rockies... https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/cbs-news-colorado-announces-new-community-journalism-initiative KCNC CBS News Colorado is: * Shifting to the community journalism model (as is being implemented in Detroit and hinted at in New York) * Adding a 9am and a 4pm news hour (the 9am is a half-hour on TV plus an extra streaming half-hour) * Starting September 12 https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/cbs-news-colorado-announces-new-initiative-additional-newscasts/?fbclid=IwAR1fZUYQHbzc1nUCY5vuxQqHsJiPJmpCvUTeEAaDL8qg5mPbYRydlSgM2sk

This is a large rearchitecture. The reason it has taken this long is simply because of how comprehensive it is. Of the four O&O chains, CBS has the most problems ailing its. Most of the stations are ratings fixer-uppers and have spent two decades or more in such a condition. There was no news in Detroit. Post-Dunn and Friend, something radical needed to be done. And the investment in News and the fact that there is actual innovation and renewal in News are all to be hailed. If you watched the first night of the new Evening News look, you might have noticed the text elements listing places where CBS News has bureaus. There's London...Rome...Johannesburg...Atlanta...oh yeah, and Sacramento and Baltimore. News and Stations in a nutshell. There is a lot going on. A visual overhaul, the first top-to-bottom one at Stations in nearly a decade; a restructuring internally; the continued effects of the Paramount Global merger, etc.; the launch of news in Detroit; and the shift to a streaming-first or -co-first mentality at every outpost in Stations. This does not happen overnight. Why are we so excited? Because there is a sense of renewal at CBS that is long-deserved and needed. Because they are fixing, finally on a comprehensive level, a historic inequity in Detroit, and they are making the right moves in doing it. Because there is a pathbreaking branding approach. ABC has too many successful news franchises in its markets to do this. NBC has too many, and it also has Telemundo; it's hard to have that sort of fusion of national and local news when there are two separate networks (with separate teams) to feed and all of the NBC newsrooms it runs are bilingual. Fox fundamentally cannot do this without compromising and tainting its local news product to a significant portion of the audience.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-22-659A2.pdf We have Auction 112 results. Weigel takes 6 stations: Ely, Tonopah, Carlsbad, Silver City (x2!), and Wittenberg Gray nabs 5: Freeport, Winnemucca, Eagle River, Flagstaff, and Yuma Marquee gets on the board with 3: Price, Walla Walla, and Sheridan Radiant Life takes Alexandria Sinclair wins Syracuse BEK wins Grand Forks Ventura Media nabs Vernal

They've filed to do this again as of June 1 after dropping the idea last year. https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff37f8fa68f017fb2ee03ad295e&id=25076ff37f8fa68f017fb2ee03ad295e&goBack=N Meanwhile, WMEB Orono ME seeks to move from VHF 9 to UHF 22.

Renard is clearly in the game for Syracuse and nothing else. Similarly, BEK Sports Network probably only has eyes for Grand Forks. Really curious what Estrella wants. I see only two channels they'd want: 11 Yuma and 32 Flagstaff. Maybe 9 Walla Walla. The Flagstaff station could be paired with KVPA-LD in Phoenix to force must-carry for Estrella TV. Not much else in this list that has a lot of Hispanics. Weigel will want stations that attribute to large markets as part of its national mux growth strategy. Alexandria MN 7 sticks out to me here, as do the Silver City channels. They could also go for Eagle River 26 or Wittenberg 31, which are in the Wausau area. Tonopah 9 also could be used with them to get into Las Vegas, though Rxdio is clearly gunning for Tonopah. The other Nevada sticks would go into Reno (Winnemucca) and Salt Lake (Ely) DMAs. Eagle River 26 is one of a handful of brand new allocations. It was sought by Gray shortly before Gray bought Quincy; it onsold WAOW but not WYOW, which gave it the Rhinelander-area transmitter it desired. (WMOW provides much the same service, thus why Gray hived WYOW off.) So there really isn't an obvious local bidder for it. Freeport IL 9 could and probably should be used to revive WIFR as a full-power station. This allotment was also requested by Gray. You might recall WIFR was sold for spectrum and converted to an LPTV. Not much of this list coincides with Gray's portfolio of stations, though Sun Valley ID could be used to expand the service area of KMVT. Sinclair's participation here is intriguing. Walla Walla 9 would not provide that much additional benefit to KEPR. Of the Montana stations on offer, one is in the NBC Montana service area (Butte 24) and the other two in the Great Falls DMA which has KTGF-LD as its NBC affiliate. Would they want to build high-power satellites in Price or Vernal, Utah?