Samantha

It's Inergy, no less. Though I suspect KHON commissioned the alternate instrumentation. Stephen Arnold has done some interesting regional variations on his packages before—the KABB mariachi variant of the Sinclair package and the come to mind. Speaking of which, unfortunately the latter seems to no longer be in use.

KHON has at last debuted HD news, as well as a set that incorporates lots of blue-greens and new music with traditional Hawaiian instruments (!). If that music stands up to their 1995 theme—one of the best ever—it is certainly worth a listen.

Gray Television has a wild new logo. Gone is the conservative oval and in is...well, click the link. Unfortunately I can't post the image here because of image extension restrictions. Meanwhile, without Fox, WCCB is turning its attention toward local sports. They secured a contract to show UNC Charlotte football games (the team started up this year) and could soon be the TV home of Charlotte Knights baseball. The football games apparently have attracted four times the projected viewership.

At one time KLAS was KTUD's newscast partner. It didn't help that Sinclair's station, with its far deeper leverage, was able to get the CW affiliation over KTUD, nor did it help that the recession probably hurt Las Vegas the worst of any major media market.

WISH's Debby Knox has announced her retirement, scheduled for next month, after 33 years at the station. Meanwhile, Rod Grams, who anchored at KMSP and also was a U.S. senator for Minnesota from 1995 to 2001, died after a battle with cancer at the age of 65.

Another part of the NewsActive3 collection which has two WKXT closes that are probably production music from a period when their music is a big question mark, the mid-90s:

It's the first brand-new package with that signature since 2000 (!), when WKRG commissioned a version.

Another new newscast, this time at Univision outlet KUTH Salt Lake City. This one seems to be a low-effort job. Notice they've hubbed out weather. Anchor Irene Caso has come full-circle: she started at KUTH when it was owned by Equity then moved to Little Rock to anchor a centrally-produced newscast for Equity's Univision outlets.

At least the KGET one ties into their calls a bit.

It is gorgeous.

What a strange transaction. Is Journal strapped for cash? Are they going to make some sort of acquisition?

Is it a Stephen Arnold version of Enforcer perhaps? Also, it's the first time since the early/mid 90s that 47 will be using the Eyewitness News name. When they were using it they were still KJEO!

NTV and the rights to program its associated Fox outlet KFXL are probably up for sale and have been for a year plus if KSWT is any indication. Perhaps some of the money from the sale of the other stations will be used to invest in KLKN or WLNE or to buy NTV.

An intriguing KPNX blog piece on how stations get their ratings and how Local People Meters work. Lots of intriguing facts I didn't know before.

Could Cowles also make a bid for Beartooth NBC under an SSA?

More WISH-TV: 1987 NewsCenter II close, clean!: 1994 "The Best Gets Better" 40th anniversary promo: Not much else of note that was added.

That 90s logo was designed by TVbD. Needless to say, anything designed by TVbD in the 90s is better than that.

And if the Palm Springs situation is any indicator, the two stations will have separate anchor teams and presentation but share a website, reporters and studio space. Did I just see that KION has no morning newscast? How does that happen?

If this is true it'd be a messy acquisition. It'd also spark some questions as to whether Cowles would be interested in selling off its other television arm—KHQ, Incorporated.

Consolidation, here we come! The Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/SLO market is going to look a lot like Palm Springs, down to the network affiliations. I think the KION-KCBA/KCOY-KKFX operations are tightly integrated with each other, too. KCBA is owned by Seal Rock Broadcasters and SSA'd out. Seal Rock, which appears to mostly be the vehicle of a George V. Kriste, apparently also entered into a JSA with Entravision back in June for marketing and sales services of KCBA. Entravision owns Univision outlet KSMS. Unfortunately I am mixing these markets up seeing as they both are known as the Central Coast.

Get a look at some of the channel numbers they got in other markets. One of them, Palm Springs, requires station rebrands! KMIR, branded as channel 6, is now channel 13: KPSE goes from 13 to 20. KMTV Omaha is now channel...99. That said, they kept the HD channel numbers the same, but what do you do if you are KMIR?

Wow. It was introduced in the 1970s. The logos that went with it lasted until around 1993 for KTVQ and longer in quite a few cases. (See John in Montana's website: he has a bunch of videos from KTVQ demonstrating their version of this look into the 90s. Three of those are news opens with new themes, which have already been submitted by yours truly.) Also see KPAX (the 18 is for Kalispell and that is now separate), (now KXLF/KBZK) and KRTV (somewhere in the NewsActive3 collection, don't have time to go digging).

A KPNX news van was involved in an accident in central Phoenix after an SUV failed to heed a stop sign, sending the KPNX vehicle rolling into oncoming traffic and crashing into another car. Anchor Kim Covington and photojournalist Michael Falvo were injured; Covington was taken to a local hospital. Also... What's up with the 70s/80s-look mic flags with this KBZK newscast? The Montana Television Network hasn't looked like that in a good 20 years. It's not just a one-off either. They look like new mic flags. Is this the logo used on their mic flags for statewide news stories?

Hearst probably couldn't have owned WCVB and WLNE together under the old laws. Also, mrtraveler01, perhaps you'll get the site names dead-on like I did that one time!

Looks like Brian Brady sold out in Binghamton to focus on his new station properties. The Binghamton situation should be a major concern. Nexstar may not be able to buy Granite now as it develops a chokehold on Binghamton television around WBNG (which is a towering market leader). Also, KLKN will now probably be up for sale, and the NTV cluster has probably been as well for some time if the KSWT situation is any indication. I wonder if a bidder would be able to combine the two outlets which would probably help the very disjointed market that now has major spillover into North Platte. (The markets need to be combined and redrawn, but the presence of a distinct Fox affiliate in North Platte probably prevents that.)