newsbot

I escalated the issue to Sinclair CTO Delbert Parks. He assured me he would look into the issue, so here's hoping...

After giving Sinclair crap about their new streaming protocol, I have to come to their defense on this. They're getting grief from Scott Jones about their news startup in Wilkes-Barre. Is he aware that currently WOLF's newscasts are produced by WBRE? Isn't a new "voice" in the market a positive thing, even if many functions are handled out of WSBT? Time will tell if this morphs into News Central 2.0, but on balance I view this as a positive development. http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2016/12/4/sinclair-to-produce-newscast-from-600-miles-away

In yet another classic example of fixing what wasn't broken, Sinclair has rolled out a new live streaming player for its stations. Only one problem: it reloads every few minutes, and if you're outside the "live" time period it defaults to the dreaded "your stream is starting soon" loop. If ATSC 3.0 is anywhere near this flaky, we're in for a world of hurt.

WCSH/WLBZ have brought back elements of the 2008-2013 Rampage Gannett News Music Package. Is that happening at other Tegna stations?

We're also getting a lot of Circa content, which tends to skew left (apart from ex-RNC flack Raffi Williams.)

In the wake of the "pay for play" scandal, our local Sinclair stations (WGME and WPFO) have started running several pages of "Promotional Consideration" disclaimers at or near the end of each newscast. Have you seen this at your local Sinclair news-producing outlet?

WCVB has finally switched. It's a nice new format, but a lot of legacy content has been wiped out (as was the case with the other switchovers.)

I can't imagine IE being long for Channel 5; I bet they want a solid news block from 4P to 6:30P but are precluded from doing so for now.

Plus WCVB has a high-profile vacancy with Heather Unruh leaving earlier this month. I wouldn't rule out Sacchetti going to WHDH since longtime political editor Andy Hiller is leaving the station after the presidential election. However, as I've noted before, defectors to Channel 7 have been few and far between. That said, the Boston Herald is floating the Sharman-to-Seven rumor: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/inside_track/2016/10/nbc_changes_ruffling_feathers

I've noted that WHDH hasn't landed any in-market defectors in the past few months, despite the news hole at 7 News increasing significantly in the new year. WJFW, incidentally, is the sister station of Bangor, Maine's infamous WVII, where the GM ordered the news staff not to cover global warming stories until Bar Harbor was underwater and where both weeknight anchors quit on-air citing upper management interference in news coverage.

Veteran political reporter Sharman Sacchetti leaves WFXT/Boston after 11 years. Is she headed to NBC Boston? http://www.newenglandone.com/news/local/boston/sharman-sacchetti-leaves-fox-25-boston.html

WMTW has switched to the new layout, while WCVB and WMUR are still using the old design. WPTZ hasn't switched over, either. I agree that the new layout seems to favor cleanliness over content. Not a good compromise IMHO, but then again mobile is what it's all about these days. One good feature is that the source of the content is listed alongside many of the featured stories. WMTW's on-demand news streaming is still messed up, though.

The whole concept of recycling CBS Evening News content from the previous night is ridiculous. If this is the best they can do they should simply turn it over to the affiliates.

FABLife was cancelled back in January. Executive Producer and co-host Tyra Banks left the show in November 2015, just two months after its premiere. ABC/Disney has taken over distribution of viral video strip "Right this Minute" from MGM Television and will be plugging it into the slot vacated by FABLife in the fall at its O&Os.

Indeed, Kelly staying away for a few days might be just the ticket for things to simmer down. Keep in mind that all we know is unsubstantiated gossip which varies depending on what publication you read it in.

At Tegna's Maine stations two meteorologists took the buyout - Steve McKay at WLBZ (22 years) and Joe Cupo at WCSH (37 years.) Tegna has largely escaped the bad publicity that have accompanied the layoffs, er, buyouts in other markets through slick PR. With McKay, the syrupy cover story is that he's a part-time minister and will go full-time with his "retirement" from Tegna. A total of nine staffers are taking early retirement.

As of Monday Sinclair is including Tennis Channel content in their newscasts as appropriate. They aired a report on Maria Sharapova's press conference.

I knew about the pronunciation issue regarding Gannett as I live in a market where Guy Gannett Broadcasting operated stations (Portland, Maine) and remembered Gannett pronounced correctly from when they owned WLVI in Boston. As for the current Gannett graphics, I don't like the L3s but otherwise they're okay. I miss the old vertical rundown on the left side of the screen. I'm not really sold on having the newspapers and TV stations use the same web template.