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WDIV is opening a coffee shop in the western Detroit suburb of Plymouth with the oh so clever name “Fourgrounds”. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2025/06/24/local-4-to-open-coffee-shop-community-space-in-downtown-plymouth/

Longtime WDIV reporter Hank Winchester had his home searched on June 13th and he has been placed on administrative leave. Apparently he was studying massage therapy and made unwanted sexual advances towards a man during a massage. He’s been at the station since 2001. WJBK is blasting this as the lead story on its website. Classy. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/home-wdiv-local-4s-hank-winchester-searched-police

This is about as generic as you could possibly get I think…

Inergy was pretty good I thought…

If he’s 75 now the odds of him simply disappearing one day aren’t near zero anymore. Sometimes you just gotta know when to hang it up.

With ESPN in the family you would think they’d figure something out as a workaround. It always annoys me when I dip into a newscast from an ABC O&O.

Those are quite impressive.

The gold one was one of the worst things ever devised by mortal man. Those colors belong in a 1970’s car dealership. The other one was good except for the silly flying box on the left. That got old after a while.

It’s probably to counter the stupid, over the top, full of yourself presentation of WDIV. And besides. It’s the best thing they’ve put out product wise since all the old folks retired. That and they can put out a cleaner product than WDIV, which it is, and try to capitalize on that sinking ship over there. Do I wish they had some of the old O&O style energy? Sure. It’s it the most mistake free in the market? Probably. This new music package with the goofy string sound just sort of repeats variations of that and it sounds kinda weird after a while. WFTS played about two minutes if it today and it really never even gets off the ground. It might make a great BREAKING NEWS bed but it’s kinda lousy theme music.

This is the 7 day forecast graphic. It looks pretty decent me thinks.

The current music is rather... lethargic too. I really miss Inergy at this point. This music won't fit everywhere if thats the required opening cut. Maybe there is something better in the package. These graphics look pretty good though I hope they keep the concept of the transitions featuring the station logo between stories. It was a nice touch. I am glad to see there are no text bubbles or crazy flying boxes or other insanity this time.

Everything they have been doing lately has an early 2010’s Scripps vibe to it. I mean… who would hire the guy that brought “The Now” into existence and burdened the local stations with it?

Lauren Kostiuk has joined WDIV in Detroit as a reporter from WTHR in Indianapolis.

When WXYZ switched to the 7 First Alert Weather branding in 2011 they started “7 First Alert Weather Days” not long after. They’ve been gone for years now. WDIV then rebranded their weather to “4 Warn Weather” and started doing “4 Warn Weather Days” which is executed in a ridiculous overhyped fashion. Apparently nobody got the memo there that it’s so last decade.

The neighborhood reporters thing isn’t actually a bad concept. WXYZ is giving its plethora of reporters each a beat. And it’s sending them out to rustle the bushes for stories in their assigned area. All but a handful (5 or less) of their air talents are not from Detroit so the reporters they are hiring know the area. If you do it right it’s pretty workable. They haven’t reduced anchor time and the quality is much improved overall. So if done well it’s a win. Certainly an improvement over all the failed Scripps ideas.