sanewsguy

Are you talking about Steven Walsh? That guy gets on my nerves (and as someone who speaks with Ntropolis regularly, I can definitely confirm Steven grinds his gears as well). Yesterday on my classic video channel, 31 Rewind (shameless plug: please subscribe, as I have lots of unique content on the way), I uploaded a set of KSAT breaks from 1988. Not even 10 minutes later he had the legal ID up from that video on his channel. It was a late night post too so it makes me wonder if this guy even sleeps. His titles all follow the same formula: “(CALL) id (YEAR)” and have nothing in the description. Not even a credit/courtesy to the original upload. THAT part frustrates me the most - does not take much effort to credit the original uploader if you feel the need to do this, considering that it costs money to source the tapes, buy the right equipment to digitize them, actually digitizing them (a 6 hour tape will probably take, gasp!, 6 hours to digitize) and then time editing and uploading them. People like him and KLMO (I have no shame in calling him out - it’s VERY well known here in the community I despise the guy since the day he ripped off my main channel branding on one of his secondary channels) get on my nerves and frustrate me, but ultimately there’s little I can do. Those two are also THE reason I watermark my videos now. I hate doing it, because it takes away from the purity of the content. But I also don’t regret doing it, as it’s easy now to keep track of where my stuff gets used, and I’ve been surprised to see where some of it has ended up too!

You literally owned this story. Why are you not taking credit for helping to break it?

The person who wrote this couldn't have done this with a straight face, right? Like, really? Nobody buys this excuse. Based on what was published on FTVLive yesterday, it sure sounds like they're taking steps to make that a reality in the Fort at least. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/7/24/the-news-director-is-out-at-this-gray-station The fact they haven't filled a lot of positions or hired a new reporter in a year sure sounds like the foundation for consolidation is being laid. Not filling positions through attrition. I knew this consolidation was going to happen the second Gray announced they were buying Quincy. There's nowhere else in their legacy group they operate like this with competing shows during prime viewing slots (this is more common with Nexstar in their older, smaller market holdings than anyone else; their Lubbock operation comes to mind). Speaking of Lubbock, KJTV's newscasts are now full-on "NewsChannel 11" branded products, and I saw that coming as well. Surprised they didn't go the "Lubbock News Now" or "Central Illinois News Now" route though.

The breaking point has arrived. It's just that group owners (and some managers who refuse to adapt because "it's always been this way") won't change. Or they are straight up ignorant (Hilton Howell said that there hasn't been any great resignations at Gray.... I'm sure he's talking out of his ass, or maybe because he runs three insurance companies in addition to running Gray, he has no idea what really is going on there). I think a change will come, but it's going to take younger people at the top to make that change. That unfortunately won't happen for another 10-25 years, and by then, it'll be too late. In lots of these markets, there are independent filmmakers and theatre actors. I'd love to see a station produce a good quality drama or sitcom on a local level (or maybe as a group to share costs). It's amazing what good quality you can get with today's technology and some creative minds. Of course, someone has to pay for the production crew, for the actors, etc. But I'd imagine on a local level, for someone who is looking for a platform and a big break, you can produce something much cheaper than a network level series since it's not all big name actors or crew. Some of these stations are in states where tax film incentives are great. Or, maybe as an alternative, look at some PBS stations, many of whom do a far better job at producing non-news local content than the vast majority of commercial TV stations (maybe because PBS stations aren't owned by hedge funds so they have room to be creative and respond to their communities). One of my favorite shows from a PBS member is "Check, Please!" which originated at WTTW Chicago but has been licensed out to other PBS members as well. A show like this would work well for a commercial level too, if the creators were willing to license it to commercial stations, and it wouldn't take too much resources to put it either. Programming like this is far more useful to a local audience than "Local Steals and Deals" or a commercial for Power Swabs inside of "Podunk Living". And if you play it the right way, it can be easily monetized (maybe only feature restaurants willing to pay – might not be ethical, but a more entertaining way to make a buck than the crap stations put out now). Just, something has got to give. The status quo cannot and should not continue.

Forget whether Americans really want them or not, do people at the stations themselves want these extra newscasts? Especially when stations are already short-staffed and most certainly aren't adding extra bodies for these (both because people don't want to work there and because companies don't want to hire extra labor — it's a two-way street)? If anything, stations should be dumping newscasts outside of core hours to help give their staff a break. Mornings, noon, 6, and 11pm are all you really need. The 9ams, 3pms, 4pms, 7pms, weekend morning shows of the world can go if you don't have the staff. Not only is it overkill and repetitive, but it's a lot of work when most stations are stretching their staffs thin. If you have to make your people pull double shifts to get both the morning and evening shows on the air, that's a problem. If you have college interns anchoring your weekend morning show because no one else wants to do it, that's a problem. Although I'll argue that syndication has not been very compelling the past few years and has gotten pretty cliche. It's either "talk show with big name celebrity" or court show. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. These companies really need to do something different. I'd also love to see a local station do something other than news or pay-for-play, but unfortunately local stations stopped being daring and creative once quirky local individuals sold their stations to hedge funds. (I will give Graham Media Group credit in San Antonio, KSAT can and has produced a lot of non-news local shows in the past couple of years, mostly for their digital platforms but they'll air it on TV as weekend filler, most notably Texas Eats)

All I have to say is that you are definitely in the minority. You're talking about viewers who will call these stations by old, no-longer used brands (I used to have a co-worker that still called KSAT 12's newscasts "NewsWatch" in the 2010s), their network, or their cable channels. The average viewer does not admire station branding to the extent you or this community in general does.

Retirement? During a non-sweeps month? How did he manage to pull THAT off?

Definitely Arnold but sounds like a new/custom theme.

Erie News Now anchor Haley Potter will be facing felony charges for fabricating a stalking threat. https://www.goerie.com/story/news/crime/2022/07/11/erie-news-now-reporter-fabricated-stalking-threat-pa-state-police-say/65370806007/

Tim Dadabo. I completely agree that he’s awful. Rey did indeed design this.

(would rather send the traffic to my channel lol)

Sounds to me like the TDs aren’t used to automation!

Seems like a useless move. I get they are moving closer to DC since more money can be made in that area, but at the end of the day, it's still a rimshot signal most of the DC metro wouldn't be able to receive. I mean, can't they just stick WDVM on a WDCW sub and vice versa? Seems like a better use of spectrum to me and continue to give the people of Hagerstown some OTA broadcast outlet.

Didn't they just hire Jeff Andrews from WAOW a few months ago to be their chief? They seem to go through chiefs (and talent in general) like infants go through diapers. Not to mention, the previous chief, Jason Lindsay, didn't last long in that position either. TG should rent, not buy, once Morris finds out he's not moving the needle.

Simple: he was caught with his pants down and moved to quickly scrub the use of the stuff ripped from News Music Now once it was exposed to the right people that he was doing that. He probably made it private hoping nobody else would see that he was doing that. I am going to go out on a limb and say that he had probably hoped nobody would ever catch him doing this, and it worked, almost. Kind of an odd logic to have when you boast about being seen in over 115 million households. He also started to scrub the NMN stuff from his other show, "The Reed Report" and now uses some random YouTube music: It looks like he was doing this with his other show too, "Valley View with Austin Reed" (how many shows does this guy have?). That one is/was using the old TXCN music and Impact in a sponsor bump. Again, I think once Austin realized what he was doing was not cool, he corrected this. That said, he shouldn't have been doing it in the first place.

Completely agree. I will probably post a follow-up video on Friday to show my audience the improvements he has made, and to be fair. I don't want people to just see the first show, think I was there just to post it because it was bad, and move on. If he's making a true effort, which he is, I will spotlight that. For a one-person operation he is trying. I believe in being fair and equitable in my uploads (as the person who brought attention to this - I doubt we'd all be here talking about this if I didn't make that upload, and to be honest I almost passed on it, so I'm glad I did end up going for it). Not every station is going to be WPVI or WRC — conversely not every station is going to be WBKB or The Delta News. It's important to provide as wide of a variety as possible. Is this product better than what KFSN was providing them? No, but nobody is claiming that either (I don't even like KFSN's product to begin with - too tabloidy for me). This is the same market who has bestowed the world with TikTok/IG stars Caroline Collins and Liv Johnson (KSEE/KGPE), remember. Fresno is not exactly the mecca of quality storytelling. I think Austin is making a legitimate effort to provide a serious newscast. Like I said, he is looking around for a graphics package and so it will start to look more polished with time. If you want to blame anybody here, blame Cocola. They are a notoriously cheap company and have been since day one (they are still using outdated EAS equipment in 2022). I'm surprised they even picked up the KAIL lineup to begin with. I'm not surprised they didn't renew the KFSN agreement. I will give them credit for at least wanting to keep some type of 8pm newscast going when they could've just plugged in syndicated or paid programming (and the Cocola stations air a lot of that). I have seen much, much worse, and I will defend Austin because he is at least taking people's concerns to heart and trying to improve. He is more than aware that his product doesn't look like the O&O in town, but I'm sure if he had the money, he would. I don't think he is doing this for ratings or to make money, but doing it because he is truly passionate about it. And in this day and age when many people are exiting the industry and not missing it one bit, Austin should be commended for continuing to truly have a burning passion for journalism and local news.

My53 did not broadcast an original broadcast tonight — instead repeating Monday night's broadcast. I hope Austin didn't just give up all of a sudden.

Not saying I agree with that comment to begin with, but in the interest of fairness: csreedabc is Chris Reed, owner of Newsmusic Central and also a copyright lawyer in his day job. So I can see why he said what he said.

In the interest of fairness, as the person responsible for posting the video that went "viral".... Austin Reed did post tonight's newscast and he did take everyone's concerns to heart. He has replaced all of the various music lifted off of News Music Now with proper News One tracks that he is authorized to use, downloaded directly from WCPM, and only that package. I think he did read the FTVLIve piece that was published this morning and got rid of the podcaster-hosted sports segment in favor of an extended interview. He also put a disclaimer at the end that it was recorded at CentralValleyTalk.com studios (an obvious swipe at FTVLive for claiming that it was shot in his basement). He actually did license it — he sent my friend the contract he has with WCPM, so it is legal. Mark Agent is a legitimate person, the licensing director for WCPM. Apparently he had difficulties downloading the audio tracks and resorted to NMN for the first show. Should he have done that? No, but give him credit for getting that rectified quickly. News Music Now is very much aware. He commented on my video: They are licensed, so nothing is going to come of this. At the end of the day, I do feel kind of bad that Austin has received some of the hate he's gotten. Some of it is rightfully so and well deserved: lifting others' news video (even if he gave a YouTube credit) is not acceptable, and is not fair use if he's profiting off of it (which he is, there's advertising, it's all direct response ads, but there's ads) and he does seem to be making some strides to getting things right. There was a fair amount of lifted video this evening so I think it'll take him a while, but nowhere near the amount that there was Friday. The presentation could use a lot of work, and he knows that. He is actively shopping around for a graphics package and has had interest from a couple of designers. Given the fact that is a one person operation, I will give him credit and I think this product is only going to improve over time. He had a week to launch (they were airing NewsNet in the timeslot the past three months after they declined to renew their outsourcing arrangement with KFSN at the end of 2021) and I guess they had to have NewsNet gone by the end of March. So I will give him a lot of props for stringing together what he could on such short notice.

I know why - because neither stations' opens were done by Gray's hub and it's very obvious. Almost anybody can design and animate stuff better than the Gray hub.

thank you for tipping Dado and Larry off so they can get them (w/ Bandicam logo) for their channels

that my little pony pun was cringe ngl

I've talked with enough people connected to Nexstar who would agree with that assessment.

WRGB has made its move to physical 35. https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/antenna-users-wrgb-to-change-channels-for-over-the-air-broadcast-service