T.L. Hughes

Given that the FCC's tighter oversight of SSAs and the fact they've dismissed some SSA attempts recently (see previous couple pages), I'm not sure if that's possible. Unless Tribune uses a failing station waiver...? They did acquire KXNW using an existing FSW it had when Local TV bought that station a couple years back, and I'm not sure KDMI could survive in the longterm as a standalone given that it's not a Big Four affiliate.

Back to KCWI, whether the Pappas' suit goes in their favor or doesn't, what happens to KDMI? Do they keep it in the interim and wait to sell the spectrum in the incentive auction, or do they sell it to one of the other three existing network affiliate owners in Iowa's state capitol (Tribune, Hearst or Sinclair)? Given it's a This TV affiliate already, I could see Tribune buying KDMI... create a duopoly with WHO-DT, shove This TV to a subchannel and add syndicated shows to KDMI's main channel.

WBIN appears to be moving fast on its local news return. As it prepares to launch its latest attempt at a news department in mid-September, "The Concord Monitor" reports that WBIN has plans to adopt a fully news-intensive format sometime in 2015, with the additions of a four-hour morning newscast and an hour-long noon newscast; until then, WBIN will start out with newscasts from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. weeknights and at 10:00 p.m. nightly. http://mobile.concordmonitor.com/news/13190578-108/concord-based-nh1-hires-kevin-landrigan-in-its-aim-to-own-politics-in-new-hampshire

Interesting. This still means that XETV is the only San Diego station without early evening news, I wonder when the Azcarragas (the family who runs XETV owner Grupo Televisa) will ever decide to debut a 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. newscast on that station or even a 4:00 p.m.

Yes, that's how it's been since the morning show launched in 2007. They do five hours in the morning, and 90 minutes starting at 9:00 p.m. on weeknights, and only an hour at 9:00 on weekends. In a market like OKC where news happens quite a bit, it's a bit weird that KOKH hasn't expanded to other timeslots sooner. Especially when this market is close to two others where the Fox stations have news-intensive formats (KOKI in Tulsa to the northeast, and KDFW across the state line (and to the south of the Ada-Sherman market) in Dallas). This is a news-producing Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair, let's get that out there. That company's been well behind other Fox station owners (especially Fox Television Stations and Tribune) in expanding news programming on its Fox affiliates. The only stations that Sinclair owns that are affiliated with Fox that have early evening news at present are WBFF (5:00 p.m.), KFOX (5:00 p.m.) and KXRM (6:30 p.m.). None of the Fox stations with news departments that Sinclair runs other than those three, either those owned before or after their buying spree of 2011-present, have newscasts at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., just morning and primetime newscasts (and in the case of KOKH and WZTV, a newscast in the traditional late news slot).

Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate KOKH has announced in a new station promo that it will enter into early evening news for the first time, with the launch of a 5:00 p.m. newscast that will premiere on September 1. The program will replace episodes of "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory" that have been airing in the timeslot (the former of which will move to sister station KOCB, which already airs "Two and a Half Men"'s weekend runs, on that same date). This is the second local programming expansion on KOKH this year; in June, the station quietly launched a Sunday morning local public affairs program called "The Middle Ground".

Honolulu's KHON has announced that it is launching a 9 p.m. newscast on September 8, and has hired Howard Dashefsky (who had left the station in 2009) to be its anchor. KHON has aired its late newscast solely at 10 p.m. since joining Fox in January 1996, instead of airing newscasts at 9 and 10 p.m. like a few of the Big Three affiliates that joined Fox between 1994 and 1996 (not sure whether this had to do with the fact that KHON delays Fox's Sunday night lineup by one hour, but its probably one reason). http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/howard-dashefsky-returns-to-khon_b125895

I've always wondered who composed the theme music for All News Channel, particularly the music package it used from c. 1995 to 2002. I also read that this about the music used on ANC (this excerpt from Wikipedia isn't referenced, so I need confirmation on this): "In addition, since ANC's newscasts never contained any copyrighted music (by design), stations broadcasting the ANC feed could stay on the air longer without increasing their ASCAP, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), and/or SESAC fees."

Serpentine/Serentino was also used by KOCO for its "5 Alive" logo that was introduced probably close to the time WETM introduced theirs and used until about 1993. The new logo looks quite like a stylized version of another logo used by an NBC affiliate on channel 18. Compare the one seen on WETM's Facebook with WLEX's, there are subtle differences but you can tell.

It's a variant name of the typeface used in Gannett's graphics, as well as Sinclair's new graphics package.

Rather than just shut it down, how come Disney-ABC didn't just retool Live Well in the same manner that NBCUniversal did with Cozi TV (which originated as the local Nonstop services)? Disney (much like Warner Bros.) is a major holdout in the content space on subchannels, and haven't bothered to seek content deals with other networks since they struck a deal with .2 Network that never got realized; putting its film and television library on a rebranded Live Well would have wooed more affiliates.

Actually, the CTA was passed in 1990, just over a decade before ABC and CBS ran the programs you mentioned on Saturdays. It's just been revised multiple times to add or change provisions.

Emphasis on most in both cases, if you're a child whose parent doesn't subscribe to cable or satellite, unless you have the internet, PBS or maybe one of the religious networks like TBN or Daystar are your only options for children's programs that aren't the entertainment equivalent of drinking cough syrup. Also, 21st Century Fox has no kids' cable presence (at least, here in the U.S.), yet Fox dropped out of the children's television business altogether five years ago. It doesn't have that issue of trying to compete with one of its own stablemates, but Fox and MyNetworkTV leave it up to their O&Os and affiliates to carry children's programming compliant with the E/I guidelines. The Children's Television Act may have sounded good on paper, but they loaded it with too many provisions unfavorable to broadcasters and a couple that just don't make sense (like not factoring a subchannel's programming format in regards to the carriage of E/I programming, since kids aren't likely to watch a program geared toward them on a local weather channel, Movies! or Me-TV), making it an extremely flawed law.

Really, a lot of people blame cable television and the internet in part for making children's programming on broadcast television a bad business proposition, but that isn't the case. While I like Recipe Rehab and used to watch Food for Thought with Claire Thomas before it got canned, Litton's programs aren't really children's programs (not that they market them that way) so they're really borderline on E/I compliance, since that was the whole reason of the Children's Television Act, for E/I shows to target kids. The advertising restrictions in the Act as well as the fact that the producers of these shows are rather milquetoast in what they consider children would want that would also allow stations to comply with the guidelines are what really killed network children's TV. With this, PBS is the only one striking said balance (making educational shows enjoyable and entertaining for kids) well. If only there were Peter Engel-types that made shows like those on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and the like that entertained as well as educated that kids/teens would want to watch, maybe Saturday morning TV would still be as interesting as it was 10+ years ago. Although the Children's Television Act is to blame mostly, rather than be repealed, the whole thing just needs to be rewritten to make it more palatable for broadcasters to air and produce better kids' programming and make it less of a profit loser. Address the issues that resulted in the overly strict advertising clauses, but restructure it to allow broadcasters to be able to compete in the children's programming marketplace. Repealing it would just make Saturday morning broadcast TV here in the U.S. look more like it does in Canada.

KPTV is also adding news, to its MyNetworkTV-affiliated sister station KPDX; that station will begin airing an hour-long 9:00 p.m. newscast in September (as a result, KPDX will run two hours of news in primetime; KPDX delays MyNetworkTV programming until 9:00 p.m. currently, so it's likely to be moved at least to 10:00 when the new newscast launches). http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/kptv-kpdx-launching-9-p-m-newscast_b121435 Interesting to point out that WXMI will air the new 11:00 p.m. newscast seven nights a week. I've only heard that Fox is doing away with its Animation Domination High-Def block next month, I'm not sure if this is a sign that Fox is giving the hour back to its affiliates or if WXMI is delaying the skeleton that will be the network's Saturday late night lineup.

It's a fairly good ripoff, though. The only thing missing is the moving text behind the logo and names, as well as the absence of the fast-moving (what I think is?) traffic lights that is featured at the start of the WBBM intro.

Chase Thomason has announced that he is leaving KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City to join CBS affiliate KUTV in Salt Lake City (where he grew up), where he will start in early June. Thomason currently serves as KFOR's weekend morning meteorologist and also serves as a fill-in on the weekday morning newscasts on KFOR and sister station KAUT-TV. He joined the station in August 2012 from Lubbock Fox affiliate KJTV and is married to KFOR web editor and on-air contributor Ashton Edwards (daughter of the station's late longtime investigative reporter Brad Edwards). @TexasTVNews had it right on the money. Albert Flores has been promoted to chief meteorologist at San Antonio's WOAI. He will shift his duties from the weekday morning newscast to the 5, 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m. newscasts starting May 27.

Not to mention, what happens to his show Sunday Edition, assuming it's still on (based on looking at the program listings)?

News regarding two Fox affiliates: * Another Fox affiliate accidentally plays a commercial over a segment dealing with the topic of evolution in the network's Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey. WVUE in New Orleans covered one minute and 24 seconds of such a segment dealing with the correlation between climate change and the evolution of primates into humans featured in Sunday night (May 4)'s episode of Cosmos, with a news promo, a PSA on seatbelt safety and other commercials. The station has apologized for the blunder, and has rescheduled the episode in question to air this coming Thursday (May 8) at 10:35, after WVUE's 10 p.m. newscast. Oklahoma City's KOKH had this same error occur during the premiere broadcast of Cosmos back in March; only in that case, an excerpt that referenced evolution was covered just by a promo for that night's 9 p.m. newscast, which the station apologized for. * WDRB in Louisville will be expanding news in the early evenings this fall. On September 14, the station will debut a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast, which will bear the WDRB Local Evening News title currently used on the station's existing 6:30 p.m. newscast and the 7 p.m. newscast it produces for CW-affiliated sister station WBKI. This is a bit of a change for WDRB, whose current evening newscasts (airing from 4-5, 6:30-7 and 10-11 p.m.) on the station itself do not compete with local newscasts on rivals WAVE, WLKY-TV and WHAS-TV (the only times in which it does compete with those stations is in the morning, its weekday and weekend morning newscasts compete with those aired on those three stations, and its 11:30 a.m. newscast competes with the hour-long midday newscast on WAVE). No anchors have been announced for the program as of yet.

What made WJZ's previous (pre-2014) news opens illegal in regards to IDs is the fact that it used the layout "this is WJZ-TV, WJZ-HD and WJZ.com, Baltimore". The inclusion of the website domain and the mention of "WJZ-HD" constitutes a violation of the FCC's rules for station identifications. A more compliant ID would be "this is WJZ-TV, Baltimore" or "this is WJZ-TV/DT, Baltimore".

Them, too. A five-hour morning newscast, hour-long newscasts at noon and 10 p.m., three hours in the late afternoon and a half-hour 11 p.m. newscast; on weekends, it has a three-hour Saturday morning newscast, 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts and unusual for a Fox affiliate (even for one that carries early evening newscasts), 5, 6 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays. The only daypart WSVN doesn't carry newscasts in is Sunday mornings (nor do they run Fox News Sunday at that time, it airs during Sunday night/early Monday mornings; E/I shows and religious programs air then).

It seems as if about half of the 10 highest newscast outputs in the country (and probably, North America) belong to Tribune-owned stations: WJW, WXIN and WDAF are among them. I think KTLA or WGN also fall in there somewhere. If anyone knows which stations have the 10 highest local news outputs are, please post here or create another thread.

WXIN is adding more local newscasts. The Indianapolis Fox affiliate is adding a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast in the fall (adding to the 3½ hours it already carries in the late afternoon/early evening. 6 and 10 p.m. anchors Bob Donaldson and Fanchon Stinger will serve as anchors of the new 7 p.m. newscast as well. The station is also launching an 11 p.m. newscast on June 30, called Fox 59 NewsPoint, and has hired former WTHR weekend morning anchor Nicole Pence as its anchor. The program will be structured as a standalone newscast featuring “a concise wrap-up of the day’s events, plus a quick look forward to tomorrow’s weather” and will have “a distinct look and feel from the rest of FOX59’s newscasts seen throughout the day.” In total, by the time the 7 p.m. newscast is added, WXIN will carry 66 hours of local newscasts each week (surpassing sister station WJW in Cleveland, which ironically supplanted WXIN as the highest news output among Tribune Broadcasting's stations when Tribune's acquisition of former WJW owner Local TV was finalized in December, for the highest local newscast output of any U.S. television station by a half-hour). http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wxin-adds-nicole-pence-expands-evening-newscasts_b120080 http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/75906/wxin-adds-7-and-11-pm-newscasts?utm_source=NetNewsCheck-rss&utm_medium=latest-news-feed&utm_campaign=latest-news-feed-WXIN-Adds-7-And-11-P-M-Newscasts

CBS News anchor/reporter Terrell Brown is joining WLS as a reporter and contributing anchor. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/terrell-brown-to-join-wls-as-reporter_b118434

Longtime KSDK morning anchor Jennifer Blome has announced that she will be retiring from broadcasting, to take a position as director of humane education at the Animal Protective Association of Missouri. Blome's last day on-air will be March 28. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ksdk-s-jennifer-blome-retiring/article_69155ef4-3dd9-5d65-8e29-e02cc586c713.html