Rusty Muck

1 hour ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

Correlation does not imply causation. Nearly every media company’s stock price has been dragging for the last month. The local TV business in general isn’t doing great right now. While this move definitely makes it easier for CBS to move the network in house in Atlanta and Seattle if it wanted to, I highly doubt that’s happening this fall. The Deadline article would’ve mentioned it, and CBS has affiliation contracts to fulfill.

This is also a situation that is highly in flux. Long term, I just can’t exactly see Paramount operating stand-alone indies in markets like Tampa and Seattle.

It IS possible that Paramount conducts an asset swap or two to better align things… say, giving WTOG and WBXI-LD to Tegna, Tegna gives CBS KHOU/KTBU and gives WFAA and KVUE to Cox, while Cox gives CBS KIRO-TV… or some level of horse trading to that effect. Simply selling them feels like a non-starter because taxes, plus Atlanta and Seattle are not easy to find a buyer for.

1 hour ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

EDIT: If those agreements expire in 2024, I suppose things could potentially get interesting. Stay tuned, I guess.

Even if they run out this fall, for the short term, plugging in movies in primetime and reruns of Paramount Network and Paramount+ shows seems like a good enough concept. Supplement it with sports play-by-play, the CBS News Now hybrid and local renditions of KMAX’s Good Day.

This can include Atlanta, even if CBS takes the affiliation in-house at channel 69. Nothing stopping them from buying a WTBS-LD and moving the new indie format to 6.1 and 69.2

9 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Sinclair is clearly leading the charge of downsizing and eliminating local newscasts.  No other company is doing this.....yet.   

 

We had the Vision Alaska stuff a few years ago where some tiny market newscasts were shuttered in favor of NewsNet.

 

Another thing to consider is that 2024 is just around the corner.  And by pumping outside news in from a company notorious for it's "must-runs", I'm going to leave it right there.....

TND merely exists as a cheap ploy to get additional political ad revenue with ham-fisted political overtones to boot. Of course WXLV would drop the KABB-done "local" news to carry it. WNWO will run it as a cheap way to get advertising from both Michigan and Ohio. (It's also why KDNL doesn't even carry it, because Illinois and Missouri are nowhere close to being political swing states.)

But why stop with TND? They could outsource everything to NewsNet and not have to pay anyone. As @Weeterspointed out in the Discord, it'd be a 1:1 replacement anyway.

On 4/23/2023 at 4:02 PM, MidwestTV said:

It would be quite the calamity if, in the end, Tegna ended up buying the Standard General shops for cheap. Just a fun thought - not trying to dive into Speclatron.

Certainly WLNE and KLKN could benefit from being in a larger chain with more resources at their disposal. Ditto if Apollo were to also sell WFXT to Tegna (which might be a good deal for both parties tbh).

On 4/19/2023 at 9:35 PM, MediaZone4K said:

CBS & their excessively long brandings. "WCCO News & CBS Minnesota".

Who said that would be permanent? Plus the “WCCO News” branding is still fairly prevalent at the opening and most reporter lock-outs. WBZ does the same and I’d be surprised if WJZ didn’t do the same as well.

7 hours ago, mre29 said:

For the record, I have no opinion about her. I was just wondering if GoldenShine9 wanted to see her and the rest of Standard Media's staff banished, too.

She presided over the full-on erasure of Young Broadcasting, LIN and MediaGeneral as Soo’s hatchet person. She played a role in the depletion of many independent, unique voices in the “M&A rolling thunder”.

On 3/30/2023 at 12:34 AM, mre29 said:

It'd be hilarious if, after this mess is over, Standard General ends up bankrupt and sells off its stations...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...to Tegna.

 

They may not go bankrupt but Soo may just have no choice but to unload those four stations and the licenses for WQHT—WBLS to Tegna when they sue his sorry butt for breach of contract.

Remember that Sinclair had to cough up several stations to Nexstar (vis-a-vis Tribune) after Tribune sued Sinclair when their merger imploded.

19 hours ago, Weeters said:

I could have sworn the WBBM streetside studio was going to become some kind of weather center annex, not a full news set...

It's possible that whatever plans existed for WBBM got heavily revised or altered as soon as Jennifer Lyons came in? Plus supply chain issues are still a thing...

4 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

That and 780/105.9 has all the news tradition; best to leave the calls with them and just try to get away from any call/numerical branding and wipe the slate; don't forget there the channel number and reception issues have been a curse, along with there being a UHF WMEU simulcast, since the 2000's management and NY decided to stick them digitally on miserable VHF 12 (and even worse 3 pre-2009).

WBBM-TV also does not have anything close to a reputation or heritage that WGN-TV or WLS-TV have… or even WMAQ-TV, certainly not since Bill Applegate left in 1993. They’ve had the negative connotations of being a laggard or bottom-dweller. It’d be insane to think of WLS-TV becoming “ABC News Chicago” and stripping themselves of the circle 7, but WBBM-TV literally has nothing to lose.

And it speaks volumes about how much of a project this actually is for CBS, we’re not talking about just mere brand architecture, but systemic changes in multiple news operations (or in the case of Detroit, literally building up from nothing).

On 4/14/2023 at 1:21 PM, MediaZone4K said:

Exactly what is the brandng? WCCO News, CBS News Minnesota, WCCO News on CBS Minnesota? Go the KYW route and simplify it. "4" in the black box, "CBS News Minnesota" in the blue box. Maybe WCCO is like KCAL or PIX where the call sign is famously known otherwise referencing them isn't necessary.

The anchors are opening all newscasts with, “thanks for watching WCCO (or WCCO News), streaming on CBS News Minnesota”. The opens and most graphics show “WCCO News” fairly prominently.

In fact, the only thing that has definitively disappeared is the “4”.

23 hours ago, jase said:

 

I don't see the harm in allowing the stations to add their own unique twists/elements to this graphics package. KYW's new look is awesome and creates the [distinctive] look that they wanted. The same can be said of the other CBS O&Os. 

 

CBS could have easily laid down the hammer and mandated every station look and sound the same. They did not do that and that, in and of itself, should be celebrated. I had previously said CBS was 'placating' each station, but now that i think about it...I was wrong to see it that way.

 

The fact is [and regardless of the industry], when you allow people to have a say in something..the greater likelihood they will do all that they can to help the company, organization, etc... succeed.

 

People, at each station, advocated for certain things (however big or small) and CBS listened. How often does that happen???

 

At the end of the day, I rather they take some risks and think 'outside the box.' The bones of the package are still there. Allowing for different colors, etc.. doesn't change that. 

The intriguing part is that, aside from the color scheme, KYW still rebranded themselves in line with the majority of the O&Os. The “3” is only there as a visual and marketing tool; all on-air references to “CBS 3” or “channel 3”, especially from a verbal standpoint, are gone anyway. And this came about with as many as 40–50 KYW staffers helping with this rebrand! If channel numbers mattered to them (and they work there, so they’d know), wouldn’t there be more to the “3” we’re seeing right now?

KYW managed to pull off a rare feat. They adopted virtually all of the new CBS O&O branding conventions and yet are now looking like more of a “Philly station” than they have ever been, certainly since the CBS takeover.

On 4/14/2023 at 3:35 AM, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I'm going with WJZ only because it took forever to switch to the now old package... might as well get as much use out of it before switching again.

They kept their old, dated look for far too long solely because of their longtime GM Jay Newman, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he refused to work with Dunn and Friend on much of anything. As soon as Newman retired, they got a new set and everything.

Okay this is actually really cool, custom M&Ms made for KYW that also include "Philly Proud". Whoever is in their promotions department is a genius.

4 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

KYW-TV is CBS's pet project in more ways than one, it's fully repudiating and excoriating the past Dunn/Friend regime. Making Ukee Washington the literal face and voice of the station (in more ways that one) speaks volumes.

 

If you didn't see Ukee deliver KYW's new mission statement during the 5pm newscast, you really should seek out the airchecks.

And here you go

4 minutes ago, WCAUTVNBC10 said:

 

I also think the Westinghouse font is lost media. It hasn't seen any regular use as a typeface since Westinghouse became CBS. There have been (bad) redrawings of previous logos (looking at you WJZ and KYW 1060) and KPIX never retiring their 5 til just this year but no actual evidence that it survives at all. 

WOWO radio in Fort Wayne still uses it nearly 40 years after Westinghouse sold off that station. And once WJZ drops it, WOWO will be the only one left.

8 minutes ago, JosiahCubed said:

I'm looking at Logopedia, and the new '3' that KYW is using looks to be a redrawn version of the '3' used from 1963-1965 when KYW was still WRCV (and affiliated with NBC).

They'll never admit to the trades, "we went with a logo that hadn't seen the light of day since NBC was thrown back to Cleveland in 1965" because it would be insane to say. BUT it's pretty clear they looked long and hard at the station's history, saw that "3" and felt it would be better than the Westinghouse font or that Helvetica "3"... they went with the throwback on purpose.

3 minutes ago, CircleWXYZ said:

They are clearly coping KDKA with the local football team colors.  Told you they were eyeing WCBS and KDKA.  The eye 3 box of clearly WCBS and the local team colors is KDKA.

Dropping that Helvetica "3" was totally intentional. It had too much negative baggage connected to Dunn/Friend and it was absolutely boring to boot.

If WCBS were to swap out their current "2" for the Eurostyle-ish font with no eye and put THAT in their box... 

Just now, WCAUTVNBC10 said:

I was wondering the same thing. If this opens the door for say WJZ to go purple (wouldn't be the first time they went with a crazy color scheme) for the Ravens, or WBBM go dark blue and orange for the Bears or blue and red for the Cubs? It seems like everything is in play.

 

This does remind me of when NBC tried to implement this strategy back in 2011. The stations all had a choice of color schemes to go with.

@24994Jdid a mock in the Discord for WBBM with the Bears colors, and it actually looks good! (I won't share unless he'd want to lol)

The aforementioned B+C article did have this quote from Adrienne which is making me think "open source" more and more...

Quote

Adrienne Roark, CBS Stations president, was “involved every step of the way” in the CBS Philadelphia rebrand, she said. Other CBS stations may consider similar brand tweaks. “All of our branding and design decisions feature a market-by-market approach,” Roark said. 

Basically, this feels like it's a "sum of all parts" among the stations, and KYW might have served as an ice-breaker. Ironically this has the feeling of something @Samanthasuggested to me once: the idea of a station group (she was thinking about Gray) creating a graphics package or branding conventions with different colors for different regions.

KYW-TV is CBS's pet project in more ways than one, it's fully repudiating and excoriating the past Dunn/Friend regime. Making Ukee Washington the literal face and voice of the station (in more ways that one) speaks volumes.

If you didn't see Ukee deliver KYW's new mission statement during the 5pm newscast, you really should seek out the airchecks.

10 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

Wow, that Eagles green looks great; way better than it has any right to be. Certainly blows Black-and-Gold out of the water for personalized GFXs colors in my eyes.

What if the varied color palettes are intentional? What's to say they want the O&Os to try various color schemes and this is being worked out open-source between the stations?

Of course I'm a Browns fan, so Eagles green >>>>> Steelers black-n-yellow, sorry yinz all lmao

A breaking news stinger ran at 4pm with the new look (didn’t mean to post within seconds of you @Georgie56)

1 hour ago, WCAUTVNBC10 said:

That's awesome. He has a really good narration voice.

KYW is doing everything they can to make Ukee Their Franchise(tm). He’s living proof that good guys DO finish first.

12 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

New 3, for sure, with no CBS eye attached during the news. The flair of the new numeral is lost when at such a small scale, in the box, with the eye.

Having seen the demo, I actually give it a 9.5 out of 10, if it was JUST the 3 with no eye in that box, it’d be a runaway 10/10 and the best execution of the package yet. In fact, it already is better than KCAL

27 minutes ago, WCAUTVNBC10 said:

Nothing on KYW at noon. Btw is that Ukee voicing the opens now?

Yup, Ukee took over for Brian Lee voicing the opens a few weeks ago.

12 minutes ago, 24994J said:

The final product is green, but unfortunately, the 3 is co-branded with the CBS eye in the box, like New York and others. Paired with the black ticker, it's a very handsome look.

If you had to choose between the old Helvetica 3 (with the double CBS eye, no less) and this 3, which would you go with?

I would go with the new 3 three 10 times out of 10.

1 minute ago, PhillyWatch said:

I was thinking the green (IF the gfx actually end up being green) could have at least two meanings- one being the obvious Eagles connotation, harboring the city's affinity for the team, the other being the positive connotation of the term "green" in modern parlance. 

Thing is, I can’t think of a commercial station in the market that has used a color scheme like this. Maybe WCAU in 1995 when they were a lame-duck CBS O&O?

I know WIP-FM has that color scheme and blatantly so, being the Eagles radio flagship and all.
 

5 minutes ago, PhillyWatch said:

Also given the sheer size of the 3 in some of the new promos (even though I much prefer it's smaller usage in place of the "box" in the new logo), as has been said- it's definitely a testament to the "channel 3, channel 6, channel 10" mentality of the market. Aside from potential usage in the graphics and maybe on screens in the studio, I doubt the word "three" will be mentioned much, if at all, but for hardcore old-school Philadelphia viewers, just SEEING a three will perhaps help bridge that gap between the outgoing and the incoming. 

To wit, WPSG has a logo that reads “CW Philly 57” but is identified verbally as “The CW Philly”. This is actually on-brand for them.

17 hours ago, PhillyWatch said:

The CBS Philly Vimeo has posted a few new imaging spots featuring a green theme and the new logo, that along with the fact that tv listings haven't reverted back to using the "Eyewitness News" name this week may point to something imminent (unless the user has actual inside info). 

@HulkieDand I were spitballing last night over a possibility this usage of Eagles green might be tied to a forthcoming broadcast rights deal of some sort with the team. I can’t think of a single TV station in the entire market that’s ever used the color scheme, nor could she.

And to be honest, the O&O graphics will look a lot better with Eagles green and teal as opposed to black-and-gold.

3 hours ago, newsteam13 said:

How about bringing back that classic Group W 3 logo?

That typeface needed to be retired in 2003 and would be even more obsolete in 2023.

Using this weird “3” for what it clearly is — a simple marketing tool for CBS News Philadelphia — is actually not that bad an idea. (“Tune in to CBS News Philadelphia on Channel 3!”) Plus it’s more visually appealing than that ungainly Helvetica “3” KYW-TV has been saddled with for far too long.

46 minutes ago, sfomspphl said:

 

You heard it here from Falwell...April 1, 2024 - the only call letter or channel number used to ID CBS 0&Os will be KCAL. 

 

I'll take the over on that - more than one will be using legacy calls and/or channels on-air...based on some available objective facts, vs speculation and spin...

With all due respect, wishcasting for call signs and numbers to remain as brands and promoting equally speculative theories like “variable standardization” and “opt-in mandate”—which are complete oxymorons and make little sense—and disguising this speculation as “objective facts” has me rooting for the elimination of ALL local branding conventions and the complete collapse of the network-affiliate model.

46 minutes ago, compubit said:

- The US market is different, in that it is still mostly affiliate-based. European countries started with a government-owned or managed model on a nation-wide basis, with private broadcasters starting relatively late. Canada was similar to the US, until consolidation resulted in basically each station is effectively owned by a network. (and I do wish that CTV would make an attempt to differentiate between CTV National News and CTV Local News… CBC and Global do it…)

Thanks to the M&A rolling thunder of the 2010s, local ownership no longer exists outside of a handful of people (Sunbeam, Griffin, Capitol, Bakahal, Forum). It’s limited to Nexstar, Gray, Sinclair, Tegna (which doesn’t want to exist), Scripps, Hearst and Graham. That’s it.

And if Nexstar wants to turn their stations into nothing but CW O&Os and brand their news departments as “NewsNation (City)” then there’s nothing management at those stations will be able to do to stop the future from coming to pass.

46 minutes ago, compubit said:

- There is a heritage in the primary local stations, often tied to channel number, call signs city and network(s). It’s up to the marketing and ownership to decide how they want to brand. …

- Some stations want to be linked to networks (NBC 4 News) and some don’t (e.g., Boston 25). It’s management’s call, not ours, and if CBS wants their O&O stations to use “CBS News New York” rather than CBS 2 or Eyewitness News, so be it.

To be brutally honest, I don’t see how the U.S. network-affiliate model even survives within the next three years, if that. We are bound for major and massive brand consolidation like ITV did in the late 90s and 2000s, ultimately erasing all of the local franchise brands within their network and becoming “ITV”. All the heritage in the world couldn’t save Granada or LWT or Yorkshire.

This includes CBS ultimately exerting soft power over the affiliates and inducing them to adopt the new branding conventions… the power ultimately being taken away on the local level.