scrabbleship

Some more WNYT promos, all from the 2003-04 timeframe. "Born to Zap" [MEDIA=vimeo]18426227[/MEDIA] "Bob at the Track" [MEDIA=vimeo]26771993[/MEDIA] A school closings promo that lasted until at least 2006 [MEDIA=vimeo]18953316[/MEDIA] "How did Bob Kovachick become interested in the weather?" [MEDIA=vimeo]18426403[/MEDIA] "Playing With Fire," a Fall 2004 promo with current, glossier, peacock-on-the-13 logo. [MEDIA=vimeo]21548013[/MEDIA]

Isn't KNPN in a smaller market?

That promo is from sometime in 2004 as it was after when Bob Kovachick shaved his mustache and the weather center had already been redone yet were still using their 1997 weather graphics. Here is another promo from the same time period for the same doppler. [MEDIA=vimeo]18968925[/MEDIA] In fact, going through this person's Vimeo account there seems to be a LOT of late 90s-mid 2000s WNYT promos. A pre-1998 station promo [MEDIA=vimeo]53071157[/MEDIA] A 1996 Olympics promo, complete with clips of Chris Kapostasy (Jansing)'s Torch Relay run [MEDIA=vimeo]94070913[/MEDIA] "No one has more experience than Ed Dague", someone in 2000-01 [MEDIA=vimeo]18426083[/MEDIA] More later!

The next few years are going to be interesting for WNYT. Most of their old guard is reaching retirement age and their bench is a bit thin. For a station that is the epitome of stable, it will be interesting to see how they proceed. Come to think of it, this is the first time WNYT has dealt with an actual, planned retirement ever. Ed Dague had health reasons and a six-month saga full of drama, Bob McNamara had his hissy fit over bowling scores and resigned, Hubbard cuts ended Capital Region Backroads and Steve Scoville's career. Sure, there were people who left for bigger things (Chris Kapostasy/Jansing the biggest) or went to the next realm (Norm Sebastian), but this new ground will soon become familiar ground.

I know Sinclair reupped their CBS affiliation contract not too long ago but I wonder how much work it would be to undo the 1995 KUTV/KSL swap. Sinclair has all the leverage to get what they theoretically want in this case.

It's amazing to see how much Albany news changed in a mere 18 months, especially looking at old news articles and realizing that almost every newscast had some sort of turnover between those timepoints. Those WTEN opens have me welling up from all the nostalgia, they may have been the #3 station by an actual margin at that point and their graphics and music were a bit chintzy but they went out and did their best against a growing WNYT and WRGB careening into its dork age. To WRGB's credit, that closing cut of Making a Difference was WRGB in the 90s and survived until the station had a total image reset for their 70th Anniversary in 1998 when it was pushed aside for InSink.

Albany has a habit of keeping old themes alive after a theme change. WTEN did just this as I remember some promo cuts of Primetime News sticking around after Momentum News came in. WRGB was a big offender of this, using some cuts from the mid 80s Freedom package for promos and random stings as late as 1993 and some v.1 Enforcer cuts stuck around for the whole time then-News in Focus was in use. This doesn't even get into WNYT using cuts from Image IX and The Tower just for promos here and there.

Weren't KJEO and KIDK sisters under Retlaw and, for a short time, Fisher?

I wonder what this means for WPXT long-term. With the Top 8 rule poised to go away, you would think that Tegna and Hearst would be chomping at the bit for WPXT at minimum if not Gray using it as a trojan horse to enter the Portland market if no other avenues open up.

13 minutes of WRGB's 6:00 PM from 12/6/89, featuring a post-WABC/pre-WTEN Tracy Egan and a pre-WYFF John Cessarich.

WNYT's had a little bit of a rough week. On Monday, morning anchor Phil Bayly announced his retirement after 31 years, 14 in mornings and yesterday 10:00/11:00 meteorologist Jason Gough announced that he was leaving at the end of January after 13 years. I wonder if this is the point in which a lot of the old guard starts stepping down.

Combing some historical weather data for Albany, there's a date I'm 99% sure fits this clip: October 10, 1991. The record highs and lows still match, the high and low that day match, and the other October 10ths that graphics package was in use were weekend days. This would've been just over a month after that package, Gari's "The Hour", and the NewsChannel 13 name came about. On a WNYT-related tangent. lurking on Archive.org is their own story on their 50th Anniversary (warning: downloadable link).

Those clips of Albany in 1994 are like gold given how that year was one where the market hit a turning point of sorts in it's history. WNYT and later WTEN refreshed their logos and image and later you had an arms race of news expansion to the point where stations were moving launch dates up to be first. All three stations announced their expansions to 6:00 AM within a day of each other and were set to do it on the same day until WTEN jumped the gun, for example. Not seen in the debacle of WRGB's 5:00 PM newscast, the return from commercial bumpers in which vocal effects looped Charlie Van Dyke several times. In contrast, WNYT played it safe with it's newcast being only two extra-long (13 minute!) segments.

Given the investment Sinclair has made in a WTVH-exclusive news product, I wonder how viable it would be for Granite to sell to someone that isn't a Sinclair shell. Who would even go after a third place station that's shown some potential? Heartland? Quincy? Gray? Hubbard owning its first CBS affiliate ever? As for KOFY, a saga ends. A saga which, adjusted for inflation, cost the $257 million in station value alone. I wonder where it would be today if they cashed out sooner, I remember when the cap went up to 39% it seemed initially certain that Tribune wanted then-KBWB and then-WDWB at any cost, well minus what Granite had in mind. Even the failed DS Audible deal would've been less of a disaster.

Right before WOKR got the Ackerley treatment in that company's dying months, but distinct given their being the largest market in the Ackerley CNYSG given Ackerley's inability to crack Buffalo and Albany. Quite ironic that, with a mere change of station in Rochester and an opportune deal, that Nexstar accomplished Ackerley's goal.

Yes. Chapin replaced Clausen alongside Momentum News replacing Primetime News and that open (which WJBK and WMTW also used) being hacked to bits. This was also when Rene LaSpina snaked her way into WTEN and tried to turn it into WHDH Lite, complete with "The News Station" being their tagline. The mid 2000's were a fun time for Albany news in general between all the anchors shifting stations, some old veterans hanging around, and the sheer expansion of content that continues to this day. Remember, Nexstar's Albany newsroom today produces more news per day than any other broadcast station in New York state or any station in New England outside Boston.

Clausen was dumped a couple of years before Primetime News was ditched and the L3's changed in late 2005. Momentum News didn't come until the start of 2007 when they did a music change alongside an anchor shuffle. The time when KSAZ gave someone good to the Albany market rather than bring a living debacle as when Kari Lake had her fifteen month detour to WNYT.

If memory serves me right, I can think of at least two other NBC affiliates - WGRZ and WPTZ - airing The Disney Afternoon. Both probably serving their larger audiences north of the border as much as those at home. Funny that 7:30 is one of the few times Boston doesn't have news today.

Wiki would've had six ownerships: Detroit News to Knight-Ridder to Palmer to New York Times to Local TV to Tribune. I'm racking my brain to think of anyone who has been at the same station under that many owners in which each was relatively stable and it wasn't sold in quick succession (a la one-time sister WPRI).

This makes me wonder why Univision bought WBIN then extended this agreement. Why own two stations when neither is your flagship network?

I hate Pai and Sessions but did they kill your cat and hurt your family?

Both needed new logos badly. The true is not same in Vermont where as poorly weighted as WCAX's "3" is it is a bit iconic and would be a loss.

The issue isn't how they get carried, it is the game plan to get carried in areas they don't have carriage in or on platforms they aren't carried on. I think the rebrand will help especially if they're finally getting Comcast in Montgomery and Loudoun counties on board. If they had must carry, everyone would've given in as soon as they ditched NBC. Witness how everyone carries WMDE without question.

This must've been a new development as they appear on no lineups as of yet.

Will that get them carriage in the core of the market though.