mrschimpf

Nothing truly exciting/groundbreaking here as Hearst starts to get the de-glossed logos on their stations with WISN-TV today (note the bug just has the new bug overlaying the old ABC logo, apparent when it does the freeze-in prevention animation);

I tried to quote Nick, but it ended up as a blank quote, so I'll say that launching on a holiday; best time to do it outside a weekend morning.

You have the diehards paying attention to glitches and errors so they can be fixed the next day easily and not show up and be very noticeable to regular viewers, and behind the scenes is less stressed having to fix things around known and scheduled coverage of Tajikistani Sorghum Days at the Fairplex in Pomona, last day before back to school coverage of sprinkler pads to deal with the heat, and 'boy the box office sure does suck, huh?' coverage rather than a breaking 'all hands on deck' story.

Tampa/WTOG is really the only one left on cbslocal; even WUPA has a site on the cbsnews domain.

I do love that Comcast has a realistic expectation of where things will go cable and broadcast-wise, along with Disney and is making proper cuts to channels (witness Oxygen OTA in NBC O&O markets); compare this with Paramount Global, who has this happening this week with TeenNick (on top of Rob Dyrdek's de facto ownership of MTV);

On 8/31/2022 at 5:04 PM, Nelson R. said:

Just noticed that KSL in Salt Lake City, who delayed Days to 1:05 am, isn’t clearing NBC News Daily at all. They are replacing Hot Bench with Drew Barrymore in full, moving up Top Story an hour and putting a Dr. Phil encore after Top Story. https://ksltv.com/ksl-tv-program-guide/

They already have their own newshour at noon, so here I think keeping the pre-emption is justified, and Rachael/Drew just works for that time in general. And why would you air 12 hour-old news when you can air five hour-old news in late night?

NBC was probably happy here to keep the status quo with Bonneville and not shake things up.

39 minutes ago, groupwfan said:

That could easily be used on some non-O&Os. (especially WDJT in Milwaukee/Green Bay; as they're the only Weigel owned station to use the current O&O GFX) 

It'll be interesting if they either adopt this or don't and take the in-house style from WBND, as they've never switched away from channel number branding and it's always been "The CBS 58 News".

9 hours ago, TheRob said:

Personally, I like the branding concept. But if the station is to leave the cellar, it will be because viewers like the on-air talent, not the graphics or the slogan.

If anything, the slogan 'Atlanta News First' will put behind much of its past, including the sleazy gossip tabloid period of CBS Atlanta (where they attempted to make Atlanta gossip on the level of New York's a thing) and when they had Ben Swann. The same slogan and direction has done wonders for WVUE's perception in New Orleans., along with their hires.

On 8/29/2022 at 5:47 PM, CircleSeven said:

EDIT: Sister station in Green Bay, WLUK is about to switch to the UHF dial (RF 18) this Wednesday at 11am.

Note how this was done before football season; I will be very happy to have that white whale (ALWAYS been bad since they launched their digi signal) in my channel lineup, and this makes Green Bay an all-UHF market (including whatever Weigel's Wittenberg station will be).

There's a new tradition in the subchannel market thanks to chains wanting to own their own networks (it's technically syndication); like for your local colleges, September 1/Labor Day is "Moving Day", and Weigel is seeing a lot of MeTV movement off stations this year thanks to Scripps and Sinclair wanting their own networks on their bandwidth. If you're 'lucky' enough to see MeTV switch to Stadium or Defy, this is why.

It's 100% dumb because there's no way Defy or Charge will get the same loyalty and other stations will grab those affiliations, and if not, Weigel has pushed for national deals to get the HD national version on cable, DIsh, and OTT providers. Thankfully a couple cases like Green Bay will be solved with Weigel O&Os being built out or purchased, but since 2018 this has seemed to be the time to launch new subchannels and end contracts.

17 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Does that also get translated for WKTB? I know they are building up a Telemundo operation.

They also bought a station in Summerville/Triton, WKSY-LD, which was a subchannel dead zone for the extreme western part of the market (though it did offer local public access like coverage of local meetings and events); Gray certainly isn't planning for it to forever carry Real America's Voice (that's what's on the schedule; gotta assume the ownership before and not Gray made that deal) and Circle has no affiliate in Atlanta to speak of. It's definitely a move-in and tower move-up target, because it's doing bupkis in Rome and Ft. Payne.

As for this station call change, good on them for finally killing calls that should've died when "Georgia's Clear News" did; if only WATL wasn't being wasted on Tegna/MyNet.

6 hours ago, bpatrick said:

I'm not surprised that LMAD is moving to 2 PM on KTVT.  Their sister CBS o&os in Los Angeles and Chicago have already done this.  I'm wondering if, by splitting Drew Barrymore into two half-hours, her show may be on its way out.

It's experimental; if say, a station would rather run it split among the day, they can do that, or if they need something to fill time before CBS Overnight News but can't fit the entire hour in, they can choose either the guests half or table discussion half and put that in. Plus they can experiment with new segments in the latter half hour and dump them if they don't work rather than saddling the entire hour with that failure.

Milwaukee changes are coming through; for this I'm not going to belabor WISN since I think people in Nome know that schedule by heart.  Also RIP my computer, because TitanTV loads so many ads and trackers now off station websites it apparently takes a bitminer CPU to load TV LISTINGS!

WTMJ - Poor Kelly. After a couple years at 3, it's back to the pre-emption heavy 2pm slot after the 2pm ET NBCND hour at 1, and The List remains in the Scripps Must-Run hour, along with something new called Afternoon Focus, where the chain's feel-good stories (and ratings) will go to die until the inevitable January Hard News Restructure. Of course, in place of RightThisMinute. Nothing replaces it in overnights outside of 90 minutes of paid programming.

WITI  - Sherri at noon, double-run of Pictionary at 1, and Retro Judge Judy But Shhh Nobody Actually Say That stays at 3 after TMZ Live.

WVTVCW - The Brokered Block Nobody Watches of The Balancing Act/Daily Flash moves up to 11am, an iCrime double-dip at 1 and 11pm, and Family Feud still has six episodes, with two moving to 2 and switching around with Funny You Should Ask. Chicago Fire moves to 1am because  procedural hour-longs always bomb in broadcast syndication, especially if they're against eight other CF episodes on Ion, USA and MyNet and the entire thing on Peacock (it was at 1pm in 2021-22).

WVTVMyNet - Karamo at 10am and scrambling around the Fox animated shows in late night to make up for Schitt's Creek departing syndication

WMLW - Blackish/The Neighborhood take over for Mom (latter now at 2am in place of 2 Broke Girls) and Mike & Molly (gone) in the 3/4 hours. The First 48 runs at 11 and 3am because A&E hasn't figured out video on demand is a thing.

WDJT - Like WISN, keeping it consistent outside the studio split of Drew which they keep as an hour at 2 and overnight.

By the way, The Good Dish has been at 1:07; WISN cut the ET late night run and moved Rachael back to 12:07 around mid-June. The fall changes restore the ET late night rerun and a 10pm news replay

Green Bay's changes;

WBAY - No appreciable changes, pre-lunch Pawn Stars fans!

WFRV - They've been out of syndication outside a couple of Friends reruns and weekend filler since 2019, so no appreciable changes.

WLUK - JHud at 1pm and The People's Court moves to 3pm/

WCWF - TBD

WGBA - They'll take the 1pm ET hour of NBCND at noon, and Kelly goes to 3pm, with Family Feud going to 11:30 am and 4pm and the 'I guess' Afternoon Focus carriage at 4:30pm. The List moves to 11am.

WACY - Sherri at 2pm, iCrime at 10am in place of 48. Again, major changes will wait for the 22nd.

5 hours ago, Weeters said:

(Also, look closely at the screens in those pics... Are they chroma keying in a fake monitor for the Storm Chaser live shot????)

Oh, I've seen that shot on 4 before with the Chaser. It's not a chroma, but just a superimposed graphic; Marisa (the met) is on the right side pointing to the graphic (the 'screen on a pylon') to the left and working off a full screen/iPad in front of her to point things out, likely just either because that carport has no room to have the hatch TV out without obstructing other passing cars, or image clarity. Traffic is being done in-studio and the reporter is waiting for Marisa to finish.

A sad and shocking loss at WAOW in Wausau – Their morning anchor, Neena Pacholke, died suddenly over the weekend.

6 hours ago, carolinanews4 said:

There's also a little ratings trick when it comes to simulcasts. If the simulcast is pure duplication, meaning the exact same feed airs on two different stations then you can combine the ratings. Let's use WRAL/WRAZ as examples because they are referenced above. The 6 a.m. news on WRAL and WRAZ could be touted as combined viewership provided all content (news and ads) are duplicated on each station. That has the potential to widen the audience and thus be more attractive to advertisers. If, however, Capitol Broadcasting airs different commercial breaks on WRAL and WRAZ then the ratings must be broken out separately. As stations fight for revenue, a single primetime newscast shown on two stations could be a good thing from a revenue standpoint. Even if it is lackluster from a creative output. 

Some duopolies already do this, like WDJT/WMLW; the latter will 'technically originate' the 5:30 p.m. Sunday newscast and 5 pm. Saturday newscast, for example. But...most of the time it's pre-empted on WDJT for CBS Sports. Thus, WDJT will 'simulcast' those newscasts with the same ads from WMLW when they can, and be able to get two ratings in one. It's also the same for a combo unit like Western Mass News, which just takes a cume between WGGB and WSHM, and on some nights when Fox Sports pushes it beyond 11, WGGB-DT2 gives them a triple-cume number to work with. It just makes more sense than having two separate ad schedules to run when one will do the job just fine.

1 minute ago, TexasTVNews said:

Well, I don't. NBC does this, it's going to lose viewership and ratings at the 10pm/9pm slot.

A lot of people barely watch anything but 10pm evergreen content such as the L&Overse and Blue Bloods. The timeslot has been dying since it became the 'DVR catch-up' slot, and it's nothing now with streaming. Most nights it's just filled with Dateline episodes and obviously the Big Ten Saturday night slot and SNF aren't included by contractual force

Funny that they're doing this now when WHDH had the right idea thirteen years ago to try to dump it for news.

Impressed by this 'beta test' of Prime's coverage; one of the things they wanted to impress involved streaming syncing and lag in live streaming, and running the game on my Apple TV, another smart TV in another room, and iPad did bear that out; there was no stuttering or sync issue and the video/audio did not vary/fall behind on any of them. I don't know how this will bear out with the local syndicated/DirecTV feed, but there, a success.

And happy with the graphics too; they're not intending to reinvent the wheel with metaverses and AR (yet)...just broadcast a standard NFL game. A good B+ all around, though I do hope they merge in the English/Spanish feeds into one channel by their first game; they did it before with the Fox share and now...they don't?

9 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Jennifer Hudson's station/airtime list is out. (h/t @sanewsguy)

Looks like she inherited the infamous Springfield (MA) Shun that affected Ellen too, even with the loss of other talk shows. And no Hartford/New Haven station either is a shock.

ETA - Per below, just meant to point out that unusualness, not be 'it's on in my market at this time lead into what used to be the Merv Griffin/Oprah timeslot', of course.

40 minutes ago, Weeters said:

The lighting in Studio A was already mostly LED and fluorescent, but the fixtures date to the installation of that set back in 2012, so they're probably about due for replacement.

Ahh, it IS at the end of their expected 10-year life (which is now a low-end expectation for lights these days), so that makes sense. I knew you'd have the answer.

Wanted to confirm this was also happening on a weekday, and now I have; WTMJ is currently working in what seems to be a back wall of the current set or in front of a screen (post-COVID, two anchors look really crowded in that shot) and have been since Saturday morning, along with weather coming from the weather office with one of the set TV's plopped in the middle and the storm chaser outside.

The Morning Blend gals are claiming a 'lighting upgrade' is going on so I'm inclined to agree it might merely be a move to LEDs...but I'm hoping it's more because that set was already behind the times when it launched (and the neon blue lighting they now have doesn't work in any way). Also if it was just a 'lighting upgrade' why is their half of the set also getting this so-called upgrade that requires set dressing to be out in the hall?

12 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

Damn…when stations are even outdoing WSVN in terms of news hours, you know things have gone crazy. Then again, I suppose this isn’t a new development, so it’s not as shocking as it might have been years ago. SW Florida stations must be raking it in when it comes to ad revenue.

A hurricane-afflicted area with a lot of transplants needing homes remodeled or built does keep siding, roofing, concrete, HVAC and pool contractors and maintainers well in the black...and you need to get around by car too, so dealers get their piece too, along with a captive tourism audience wanting to head north or east.

6 hours ago, iron_lion said:

WSVN has a straight hard newscast in the morning time. if they can pull off Deco Drive for this long I'm sure they can try their hand at "Good Day Miami".

Today in Florida was launched at the right time; WTVJ and NBC can't copyright that as long as the Ansins keep puttering along. There won't be a name change anytime soon, and I could see them gaining two hours eventually when Rachael ends or if Sherri (don't know if they're carrying that) doesn't succeed. Divorce Court will continue to exist just because it now has AVOD/YouTube channel revenue coming in along with syndication, and spouses will want to air their stuff out on TV.

1 hour ago, iron_lion said:

If you think this is bad, WBBH NBC 2 in Ft Myers, FL barely has a daytime lineup outside of news. The only thing keeping them from a 7 PM newscast is Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! 

If it wasn't for Scripps trying to make their Must-Run Hour a thing (along with advertorials), a lot of their NBC affiliates would be in the same position. We're also losing RightThisMinute, so that's a lot of stations that already had an hour free going into summer.

3 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

It’s honestly a matter of time before CBS moves both Bell serials to Paramount+ in favor of a CBS News Streaming-produced midday news hour.

CBS Daytime is proud of their 36-year daytime #1 streak, so just for that I wouldn't count it out yet just based on that boast; it'll be considered when ABC blinks and moves General Hospital to Freeform or Hulu or cancels it and CBS just declares 'flawless victory' by attrition. The Talk would likely go over the soaps for a newshour

More likely they want to hit that round number of 40 years, and then bring those shows to a dignified end with proper closures for both.

43 minutes ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

While they rightfully pointed out instances in which Fox News lacked journalistic ethics, I can’t remember the last time they seriously scrutinized their own network for blatant bias and lapses in judgement.

I can at least say they were open to criticize issues involving their management. Yes, these media shows definitely don't like to bite the hand that feeds them, but they did bring their bosses to account, and I will admit I've never been a fan of Brian Stelter (I can't stand self-promotion), but it's still downright uneasy to fire a media critic.

Also, any kind of Sunday morning show now merely appeals to a circular audience of both Washington insiders and those looking to find (very rare) gotcha journalism. The ratings and their influence are declining as to a normal person, it just seems like a thing designed to fill with soundbites for two minutes on Sunday newscasts with something besides coverage of North Platte Alfalfa Days. When Tim Russert and David Brinkley died, their aggressive questions and call to power seemed to do the same thing.

From NPR

Seems like the worse idea is firing someone who's criticizing the moves your company makes, Zazlav, but that might just be me. You never saw Ted Turner, Steve Case and the other Warner execs mad about Howard Kurtz and Brian doling out criticism about their business before now.

2 hours ago, Glimmer said:

I imagine NBC will try to angle for as many 7/7:30e starts as they’re able when SNL is new (as they do for the ND deal) 

Ahh, that makes sense (as ABC has done for their Saturday Night Football games as of late). With the way college football has gone longer and longer that makes sense to do and sets up some good days for NBC where Notre Dame leads into the Big Ten. I don't know why I keep thinking of 8pm starts (no, I do; I'm old ).