TheRob

WAGA-TV will expand its late news by 30 minutes, going all the way to midnight. http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2015/08/03/fox-5-expanding-news-to-midnight/

One of my co-workers, Katie Ferrell, is going to Columbus to be weekday morning anchor at WCMH.

Today marks one year of The Now in Kansas City.

I don't know if this still counts as the Gannett/Tegna thread, but the company had a morning show strategy meeting in Texas this month to try to "re-invent" the morning shows at Tegna stations, I've heard, focusing on KHOU, WFAA and KVUE first. I imagine we'll see whatever they came up with in a few months.

This is not unique to Scripps, but they want to do more with less. The problem is one can only do less with less. The List, Right This Minute, etc., is nothing more than America's Funniest Home Videos packaged as news. It looks cheap. It is cheap. It carries over to some of the real news product too. People are still buying the ad space, though.

The Salt Lake City Tribune wrote about recent demographic numbers. KSTU and KUTV rank well in the key demo. KTVX has the best lead-in ratings, but the worst newscast ratings. http://www.sltrib.com/home/2656192-155/utahs-kstu-kutv-battle-it-out

I wonder how quickly the station knew about it. They didn't cover the actual crash, and made no mention of it in the 6:00 news. The weekday team anchored at 10:00 and dedicated the whole a-block to Barry. They had an obituary pkg and a string of soundbites from various writers, sportscasters, coaches and the mayor. Friday night's aircheck is still in the KFOR queue. He didn't even technically say goodbye for the night. The last thing he did was toss to a golf package, and the show ended on that story. This is how he started his sportscast Friday.

Is a "real-time desk" just a fresh name for an assignment desk, with the people working on it earning less money? http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/6/8/phoenix-station-ditches-their-assignment-desk

KSHB anchor Jadiann Thompson is leaving to be the weekend anchor at WHDH in Boston.

The mustard-yellow wall in the background of the shot is a nice touch.

KCTV will soon announce Ellen McNamara as its new female anchor, replacing Karen Fuller. McNamara comes to KC from KSTP-TV.

KMBC/Kansas City is moving morning anchor Kris Ketz back to evenings, making him the lead anchor. Len Jennings will do sports (can't imagine this is his decision). Matt Flener will take over as primary morning anchor.

Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote about the ownership changes in the market. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/news-landscape-las-vegas-undergoing-historic-shift

Official KSHB announcement on Mike Marusarz http://www.kshb.com/about-us/kshb-tv-names-mike-marusarz-evening-anchor

It is the only primary male anchor opening in town right now.

Back to the layoffs... At our station, the Assistant News Director is in charge of the investigative pieces. We just have one reporter and a part-time producer for investigations, so it's not a priority any way you slice it. But I can see the logic behind laying off a special projects manager and giving the responsibility to another manager. I think at KSHB, they moved their special projects manager to their open nightside E.P. position.

KSNW reporter arrested http://ksn.com/2015/03/03/ksn-reporter-arrested/

The Denver Post wrote about KMGH. http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2015/03/02/channel-7-station-adrift/21521/

This is a curious post from Scott. http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/3/2/cuts-happening-at-scripps-stations

KSHB is also adding news on KMCI at 7:00 a.m. beginning in April. KSHB will rearrange its weekend news lineup as well, starting weekend news at 6:00 a.m., moving Weekend Today to 7:00, then continuing local news at 9:00 in the morning.

KDVR had a bad meltdown this morning. The audio board failed before the morning show. They ran Antenna TV from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. instead of news. The weather and traffic talent used hard-wire mics when the news began. This didn't affect KWGN's news at all.

One of the early Los Angeles television journalists, Stan Chambers, has died at age 91 http://ktla.com/2015/02/13/stan-chambers-longtime-ktla-reporter-dead-at-91/

KFMB-TV sports director Kyle Kraska has been shot at his home. No article yet...

KSHB/Kansas City investigative reporter Ryan Kath is leaving for an investigative reporting job with WBZ-TV in Boston.

WVTM is self-contained, it seems. All the assets are on one site, and the streets are crumbling on the street view. WALA has a primary facility southwest of downtown Mobile, a tower site in another city, and a small studio space in Pensacola. I doubt that accounts for the difference in price, but maybe something to consider.