Samantha

Yesterday FTVLive reported the layoffs of several employees at KTVK/KPHO. Now the Business Journal reports that there were 14 layoffs and confirms that the move to the KTVK studios is happening in the next couple of weeks.

I have nothing but respect for KOCO right now. I honestly cried reading this news the first time and I think I'm going to cry again:

People are crying over the Cubs game, but WGN is doing the right thing. Weather is definitely the priority.

Kudos to the uploader of that video for making it available in 60fps.

Boston cable news "Neighborhood Network News", 1985:

Well, Channel was the smallest ITV franchise, and WVTX was, uh, cheap... ...Someone will have to look. DeWolfe is the library I would suspect.

You just made my day, and probably my week. This is the highest quality of all the KTVK opens I've ever seen. Ever. There's also another Arizona-specific story that will likely interest you at 8:36. St. Louis news, 1993: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XFaDmHFV4A (KPLR close at 3:45...?)

Finally!

Television stations are navigating something that is very important in the history of the medium. The Internet has brought about an unusual convergence of technology and print, combined with the strength of social. As a whole, the industry is not used to being multiplatform news outlets instead of just television stations that produce newscasts, where presenters come in front of a camera and read people the news. Convergence is just not written in a lot of stations' DNA. Exceptions are the few print-TV combos that exist (WHIO which is also a radio operation, WBNS) and radio-TV combos such as WBAL or KOMO. What is happening is that television is no longer central to the production and compilation of news content. While I don't know if getting rid of the assignment desk was a wise idea, Scripps is trying something. And given the company's urgent need to finally capitalize on and monetize digital. News demos are typically 25-54 for English-language stations (though Spanish-language outlets use 18-34 and 18-49 as their main metrics). Going for an 18-34 focus on a station like KNXV is guaranteed to alienate a lot of older viewers. I understand what they are trying to do, but sometimes "innovation" just goes nowhere.

A radio package called "Listen Up". The full ad makes it clear that it was for radio.

And speaking of rarities... WCBS February 1997, News Force!: WBAL 1993, with an opening based off the CBS News graphics of the period: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zPNug5-_2I

A joint venture fight means that a Spanish-language network gets a court-appointed receiver. A Florida court relieved Omar Romay of his duties as CEO of the joint venture América CV, appointing a receiver to run the América TeVe unit, according to Media Moves. Pedro Roig, former attorney and director of Radio/TV Martí, will replace Romay as the court sifts through a lawsuit filed by Caribevisión, one half of the JV. The suit accuses Romay of mishandling funds, giving the JV unauthorized, undocumented loans of $5 million, excluding shareholders from meetings and appointing his wife, son and two daughters to the board of directors. The court has said Romay can be in charge of programming and production but not operations or finances of the joint venture, which owns four Puerto Rico television transmitters with spectrum potentially worth $130m. Romay, saddled by debt, has said that he fully intends on cashing out at the spectrum auction; the plaintiff contends that Romay ran the JV into the ground to spur losses in the millions of dollars. A trial is set for October; Roig may step down as receiver if the parties settle out of court. The four television stations are WJPX (21, V24) in San Juan, WIRS (41, V42) in Yauco, WKPV (19, V20) in Ponce and WJWN (39, V38) in San Sebastián. They carry MundoFox and América TeVe.

But wait, there's more! KIVI c1988/89: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_yjy27a00 (...! Whoa! This is the WBNS 1983/Roger Tallman "People You Can Count On" theme. They even used the slogan!) WJZ 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UwQjM5bWzk (Have you heard this cut before...?) WKYT 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6BDhXV7uvI (lending even more credence to my belief that the Network Music track was a one-off, as this is from that generation of opens. Copeland theme) WPCQ 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOJ1dVp4Iu0 (better quality) WWTV 5:30pm 1988: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_dix27a00 (also with a WJBK open in there, but the new cut of this theme is the highlight) WZZM 12pm 1986: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0If0UNuQjF4 (News Series 2000!)

That boom you just heard was the Internet Archive going HAM: KVAL 1989, 5pm: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_hky27a00 WAKC 1988, 11pm: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_jux27a00 (new theme) KPNX 1988, 5pm (yo Phoenix friends, look at the traffic report!, also commercials): https://archive.org/details/tobacco_eux27a00 WIFR late 1980s: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_hjx27a00 (MCTYW) KGGM 1988: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_gux27a00 (completely unknown news theme, "A Sign of the Spirit") WBTV 1988: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_wjx27a00 (Palmer News Package) KTVI 1988: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_iux27a00 (PNP) WSYX + WBNS, 1988: https://archive.org/details/tobacco_rfx27a00 (a WSYX Spirit of Ohio ID?) WKOW, 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZC2brEbI3U KZTV, 1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsyY4tRLVB4 (whoa, the CBS Newsnet animation from 1989 on an actual news open!!!)

He (as in Bruce Fixman, founder of WeatheRate) does indeed have a patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US7107152 The patent seems to describe a system that uses Microsoft Excel to compare weather data from the stations with actual data from the NWS for a 30-day period. WeatheRate scores each day based on... -The absolute value between the predicted high and low and the actual high and low -The weather conditions observed -"Additional weather" (not sure what that means) Then it's averaged, compared across stations, etc. There seems to be some actual methodology but the part of the business model where the winners have to pay is a racket.

More likely is that Scripps decided it finally wanted to do it for KGTV.

Re/code says Apple's TV subscription plans have been delayed for now because of problems striking deals with networks and especially local stations. Financial terms and technology have apparently been the sticking points.

...!

WCCO, "The Scene Tonight", January 1968 (!!!): http://tcmedianow.com/video/wcco-tv-the-scene-tonight-january-17-1968-dave-moore-skip-loescher-bud-kraehling-hal-scott/

A total head-scratcher in some ways as Sinclair's Ring of Honor promotion is going national next week with an hour a week on Destination America. (This actually got "Destination America" trending on Twitter worldwide earlier today.) It's a major upgrade for the promotion, giving them the 8pm EST slot, but it's also kind of odd. For starters, TNA airs at 9pm EST on the same night. And the article mentions Discovery has had trouble luring advertisers to TNA — which might be going away from the network in September. So why buy more wrestling? Who knows, but even TNA's own talent sound confused. And it's a definite win for Sinclair. Apparently the episodes will be the same ones seen several days earlier on Sinclair's own stations, too. I think this is the most coverage wrestling has ever received on this forum.

Our condolences as Dave Benton of WCIA has sadly lost his battle with cancer. He died this morning at his home surrounded by friends.

More college TV news with a taste of WEIU-TV's "News Scan" from 1990:

KPHO morning anchor Pat McReynolds has gone missing, likely gone, and sources tell FTVLive that the morning newscast could be blown up in favor of a simulcast of Good Morning Arizona.

It's now occupied by the Parsons Center for Health and Wellness, which conducted an extensive renovation. As Phoenix's light rail now goes down Central Avenue, the property value soared and it would have been very hard to get the space. For Tegna to build something comparable now in that area may come at too high a cost. KPHO's studio facilities will soon be available, but they are small (when the station became a CBS affiliate the increased program needs strained their studio space) and not in a good part of town either. KSAZ is also downtown in its original 1950s facilities. KTVK is closer to Camelback Mountain. KNXV's studios are near the airport. KTVW built in south Phoenix, a rather heavily Hispanic/African-American area, and KTAZ is in the old KNXV studios in an airport industrial park. I don't see KPNX building in a suburb because television stations here really need to be centrally located in downtown/central/south Phoenix.

There's so much material in the Internet Archive from the Piedmont (like this) that it's amazing. There's a channel I follow that's promising a KIRO open from March 1994 (News Channel 7 era) soon. That should be interesting.