DirtyHarry

I know Scripps has kind of dabbled in this, but I always thought it made sense for a TV news organization to have a website that would look and feel like the local newspaper. Newspapers don't need print anymore and TV stations already have the infrastructure in place to do what newspapers do, plus they can enhance it with video. I don't know what the cost of something like this would be, but perhaps do something like Amazon and sell a bunch of cheap tablets to your viewers with a one-year subscription to their version of the local paper. The newspaper is completely readable on a 10-in tablet. Turn over one of your sub channels to your reporters so stories can be discussed in long form. Then loop it throughout the day.

Compilation of old NBC Promos from the mid to late 1960's:

While they're at it, the 1990's called and they want their logo back.

I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to move WKRC to UHF, or at least provided a massive power boost. That is one crappy signal.

Something about humiliating people on live TV and the raw anger that results that I find hilariously entertaining. But then I guess Bey got freaked out by all the violence in the studio and they toned things down. That was the beginning of the end of his show. I don't tune in to Richard Bey to explore people's "feels." I tune in to watch people get angry and fight. Likewise with Jerry. When my grandmother had one foot in the grave, I used to go over there at night and watch Jerry Springer with her. We were just sit there and laugh together. It's not highbrow entertainment, but it's still entertainment, which is a lot more than what you can say about most TV these days.

Ummm, no.

I think most people do. When was the last time you saw an All in the Family or Maude rerun? Sanford and son was the least political, not to mention the most funny. You see that one a lot more than the former two. Green Acres is one of the best shows of all time. Some political stuff sneaks in there, but it's usually to poke people in the eye and make fun of life. Beverly Hillbillies speaks for itself. It's everywhere. Petticoat Junction was lame though.

Two things screwed everything up: 1) the death of all the vaudeville people; 2) Norman Lear. Before Lear, everything was just entertainment. Norman Lear with all his shows where he tried to make a social statements influenced too many others who seem to want to push their politics on everybody else. (Not to mention that many of us think that Archie Bunker has been partially vindicated after all these years.) But more importantly we've lost all those vaudeville people. Those people knew how to tell jokes and entertain and TV and radio reflected that. They're gone and I don't think the people producing TV today have the well-honed skills that those old timers had.

It would be nice if you could use a channel number online or through streaming though. I don't know why they haven't included that on the streams that use a menu like Pluto. Or maybe you can do this and I just don't know about it since I go through a Roku box? I'll probably get in trouble for posting this, but I was amused by the ad at the top of the screen, so I screen capped it for you all.

I don't understand BBC America either. I see virtually nothing British there that differentiates it from any other channel. It seems like the same movies that run on AMC are then passed on to IFC, then Sundance and sometimes then to BBC.

Imagine if they move this to Columbus, putting VHF 4 on Ohio State's 1200 foot tower in Westerville (which is already on high ground, I beleive). That signal would travel a long way. Columbus stations should be proactive in these outlying areas if they want to protect their turf. They need to fire up LPTV's in Athens, Cambridge and places like that.

Maybe they're going to try to move it to Zanesville so they can add CBS and ABC. (Or maybe even Columbus.) The geek side of me would love this. I've never tried to tune in a low VHF before and I'd love to see if it's as bad as people say. Petition the FCC for a move to UHF? Maybe there's room for that in Zanesville. Might be able to eat away at the Columbus Market with all four Network affiliates. Places like Athens don't get Columbus signals anyway. Columbus could drop down a few pegs if Zanesville ends up taking counties away. Will the powers that be let that happen?

I'd pay for a TCM only subscription, if that's possible, without bundling it with other channels. I can't say I miss too many other things on cable since I cut the cord a few years ago. Actually, the cable channels, for now, come through my TV because I still have internet through them. And I still don't watch it. But supposedly they are changing over to IPTV so that's not going to last much longer.

I don't understand why, however. What is the conflict / elimination of competition issue there? Not to mention that Forum is a quality company. Reminds me of when WBNS and WTHR got approved in 60 days. Maybe my theory that Tegna has some pull with the federal government might not be that far off.

South Bend and Sioux Falls are both similar sized, South Bend just isn't isolated like Sioux Falls is. They could do what Weigel does there. They've got live staff, but some things like weather are done in Milwaukee. Or that's what I read before. WDAY is a quality outfit so if they could snag the Fox affiliation, I think they could carve out a niche. Since mostly the same weather patterns are affecting Fargo and Sioux Falls, I could see the weather being produced in Fargo without skipping a beat. After all, KDNL morning weather comes from Columbus and that seems to work. Aren't they buying some other Fox station in the region? I think in Minnesota somewhere?

If I remember correctly, Pluto uses Vevo for music videos. I don't mind a reasonable amount of commercials. I realize people have to pay their bills and make some money. The problem is when they keep layering them and the commercials never seem to end. The other thing I hate is when they push low quality borderline scam products on us. If they're so great at pinpointing potential customers, they should know who is stupid enough to buy those things and who isn't. I personally believe that all stale content should be free, when it comes to music, print and video. Forget the copy protection and all this other crap, just encode them in a way so that a reasonable amount of commercials get inserted from the internet. If you want to watch commercial free, then you can watch them through a service. (I understand that you should pay for first-run and newer content however.)

Given the crap on TV these days, I just don't see much of a future for the business until they can figure out a way to provide something unique. I just don't see who would watch most of those shows other than low income, less than intellectual types. At least the fighting on Jerry Springer and Richard Bey was funny. There's nothing funny or entertaining about any of these shows.

This was the closest I could find on the fly. They painted the background blue at some point, but it started out as a beige color.

Two comments a little off topic. 1) Surprised I didn't hear the "Nationwide is on Your Side" tones at the beginning or end of the newscast. It was part of the WNCI top of the hour ID for many years. 2) That news set looks very similar to the one WTVN/WSYX had. WSYX had a more streamlined version, though.

I always wondered why one of the local stations didn't format itself as an all movies Channel. Do it like they used to do with a local host, somebody entertaining or witty, maybe have viewrs call in to rag on the movie or have a sidebar where people can make comments like a lot of the YouTube podcast type shows. I know there are movies only diginets, but that live factor is missing. Watching movies with a local host has to be better than what's on most independent stations these days which seems mostly to be Court shows and Oprah clones. I think that's kind of what I'm getting at. The entire broadcast industry used to have plenty of fun. Now that it's all corporate, I don't know if they even have it in them to be able to give us fun. That seems more like something that would come naturally to the local owner, but not to some corporate suit.

So much of TV news is just political propaganda. It comes from either party operatives or their deep state sources. Maybe it was always this way, but it has never been more obvious that most of it is propaganda. I've completely tuned it out, which I probably shouldn't be doing, but what's the point of watching right-wing, deep state or left-wing Pravda on the tube anymore? It's just talking points repeated over and over again doing the whole Joseph Goebbels thing of repeating lies over and over again.

I don't know how much this article has merit and how much of it is political slant, but there is no question that network TV is losing viewership. There's very little I find on that's interesting and unlike the TV shows of the olden days, it's just too much effort to follow anything anymore. I liked the way old TV shows were better. It was down and dirty and entertaining at the same time. Plus, you knew who all the actors were, even the character actors who would step out of Hollywood on occasion to be guest stars on the shows. Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along. https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2023/01/tvs-awful-year.html

I hope his bosses have a sense of humor. Most corporate suits don't. But then again, Byron Allen owns the station, so he might not mind the comedy.

I had a feeling she was going to Detroit at first, but then she started talking like she was going to be staying in Columbus, so that threw me off. Always go with your first instinct.

Scripps should get ahold of the WLWC call letters for WSFJ. If they really want to be creative they can drop in some Avco nostalgia, which I'm sure they can get a hold of easily from their crosstown rival in Cincinnati. Maybe they can even run some of those tribute shows WLWT runs periodically. The WLWC call letters are on a station in Providence they had to offload. But they are friendly with that company so it should be easy to get them back. The call letters won't mean anything in the long run, but they can get some cheap marketing attention for an otherwise forgotten station sharing a low power frequency. (Kind of like the WWJ call letters in Detroit.)