mrschimpf

I want to know the drama going on behind the WGN News Twitter account before they were forced by Perry (with this embarrassingly bad soundbite) to throw this on their feed :

A final update to this thread so much longer later; they've switched the weather system to the O&O system as of July 20, 2022. Now to wait for the station to hit FoxNow full-time.

Not sseing anything online yet, but WBBM (the AM/FM news radio version of course, not the pop FM) just unveiled their first sonic branding in around twenty years and the FM broadcast on 105.9 is now fully emphasized in it with no sign of 780 outside the ID. It's a match for the older version, just much more modernized...and now traffic has music backing it for the first time ever. No logo change with this one since they did that a few years back already. If you can hear it I think you'll like it; it's like the KYW sonics, if a little more 'Chicago hard-edged'.

And it has closed. If it doesn't move to TWC's Interstate Parkway building in Atlanta, I would be awfully shocked, because it was a channel that should have been in Atlanta in the first place. Now ES can start to distribute news on their own rather that depend on the networks, and AMG will likely launch their own wire and down the line, can have a national hub. Yes, it's Black News Channel first, but this definitely wasn't a purchase made to only keep things as-is.

Yes, it's ridiculous to think that anyone is selling at this point in Orlando, and the only possible buyer is the networks (as NBCU did for WTMO and Fox hasn't floated the WOFL/WRBW duop in years, nor even WOGX). WRDQ is in that group too and staying with whoever gets WFTV. Orlando is rare in being a steady market where there are no sellers and the only buyers are either among the low-power bottom feeders, or the religious groups desperate to get carriage on The Villages cable system, and there the only move is someone selling out inevitably to TCT (the K-Love of religious television right now).

Even in a Gray market with that branding, it eventually does blend in over time where they just have the one call-out in the sponsor tag, and otherwise it's scripted 'in weather tonight...'. I'm glad it's there, but that the branding overall isn't that absurd. I think this will eventually be the case with the CBS intro of the Next and First Alert trademarks.

They have now added all of the Spectrum News channels nationwide through the regular Spectrum app on Apple TV/Roku in the 2200s tier, though I don't know if it's available to watch through bare Internet packages without TV service.

I think this is actually a good move, because like awards shows being taped and edited, the network morning show ending up with the same type of treatment when you've got it available live through SXM or your streaming service has gotten downright stupid; it's why Pacific Time stations are taking the 6:30pm ET newscasts more and more live at 3:30pm PT, and where the network overnight newscasts used to be live in all time zones, you only have World News Now done and out by 2:30am, then onto the morning newscasts by 3:00am. If you're a CBS station with no morning news, that means if you air the CBS Morning News at 6:30am PT...that's a six hour old newscast you're carrying (with a twelve-hour old newscast leading into that). And then you're leading into a morning show when Today is already onto Hota and Jenna outside breaking news days and CBS Times Square is empty and unused. It's an outmoded model, and there shouldn't be this artificial wall up around watching a morning show live in PT because 'that's the way it's always been'. I know KCBS will take a ratings hit, but you gotta start experimenting, and why keep KCAL in infomercial hell when they can be live 4-11? Most Fox stations are already in this mode, so it's basically CBS being adventurous and being the first here. I don't mind that they're going for it, and frankly, KPIX/KBCW should be next, and KOIN/KRCW should get incentives to try it themselves. You already basically had KOVR/KMAX as a half-model of this (their local show is active 4:30-11), and that seems to work pretty well for Sacramento.

It looks like some of his stuff was retained by folks who knew it was coming; Ben from The Oddity Archive is uploading non-game show stuff from the collection on his Archive Annex channel for instance. It's certainly a part of it though; you'll never notice any of NBCU/Multimedia's 90s shows on there because Nosey has been pretty consistent about getting those talk shows on any AVOD channel possible. It's just a part of those two finally realizing there's free money and viewers to be had putting it on Pluto, and TPIR was a great test of that thinking. I know I've stopped on the Pluto court show channel a few times to catch a few old Judge Judy episodes.

This would be the reason SPT and CBSMV cleared out a whole lotta WoF, J! And Judge Judy content: https://deadline.com/2022/07/pluto-tv-adds-judge-judy-streaming-channel-wheel-of-fortune-jeopardy-1235061482/ Hopefully it’s not the same limited episode pools that GSN got stuck with.

I can understand deleting the website (you can't get tickets to a non-existent show) and Twitter/Instagram (that's so ephemeral), but the YouTube simply is probably Wendy having control of that content and refusing to allow DM/Lionsgate to retain the channel at all (same as when Letterman had his CBS-managed channel removed when the show ended and then started a WWP-managed channel), which would be justified. Sherri also probably didn't want to keep the content of her guest host run up because she's already dealing with a big enough minefield with everyone as it is and prefers a full fresh start, and that includes the social accounts; unlike other cases such as Circa's subscribers becoming National Desk subscribers and being like 'oh yeah, Circa's gone...guess I'll stick around for this, same thing', you do not want to have those Wendy-era followers who don't like the show now sticking around to hate-watch you and just "Where's Wendy you suck"-ing every post.

WMAQ, WLS and WBBM (I'm sure WFLD too, didn't check them because Peacock, CBSN and ABC are fast to access) definitely had all hands on deck...even the stations from Milwaukee were covering it in full, with WISN sending their chopper into Illinois. There's no excuse for NN to not have covered this outside Paramount Global apparently having them by the you-know-whats to fulfill that Blue Bloods contract. Just throw the syndication deals at Reelz, Ovation, INSP...anyone that counts as 'cable', and call it a day with entertainment programming already.

I think the issue is more with technology just being too fast through the 2010s; you were dealing with DLP projectors and plasmas being the top technologies at that time...which required a whole lot of power and space to operate and maintain, along with most still being stuck on the 50s-era lighting that made a television studio a sauna despite being able to junk the CRTs. With syndication still lively, sets in the past were used five-six hours, tops, so looks were put over comfort (and don't forget the stupid late-10s 'standing' trend). The other thing was that those first HD sets were just built to 'pop' on an HD screen, or you had stations like Young building a very cheap default template where the only customization available was some glass inserts, your slogan, and a couple of beauty shots. Now you've got flat LED screens, light bars, quieter and more efficient AC cooling, and with syndication dying court show by court show, those sets are getting up to twelve hours of use, you gain a lot of that space back where lighting, duratrans and screen hardware were taking up space, and the gaudy design trends of the HD launch era have long settled down. You're looking for any way to both save money and make sure a set isn't going to wear out from multiple shifts, and it's better to junk a set that's costing more money just to light and keep active than a new one heavy on LED screens and light bars, is designed for actual people, and has more overall flexibility to be used for social stuff.

I do love that more and more, stations are acknowledging that and just either setting aside a separate space entirely for weather (as WITI has), putting it in a space behind the big screen (the new common Hearst setup) or just showing the plain old weather office where all the equipment runs.

I have been indeed seeing it default to dark mode for Twitter links (which I have on for my devices).

Along with this, Spectrum has just launched all of their news channels (outside the NY1 Road and Rail channel) nationwide on the Spectrum TV apps (mobile and STB) in the 2200s channel tier. They had been only available through the Spectrum News mobile app previously, so at least they're more widely available, if not through traditional cable.

I meant more of a future question as to whether they'd take a lower-cost OTA feed over the current cable channel. Obviously Altice and Spectrum still carry the Oxygen cable network, but would they dump it next RTC go-around with Comcast if it's available for free over-the-air (along with a further cut in their already declining original programming budget)?

There's just too many cable networks that could easily be a streaming service option, so I'm glad NBC is cutting weight on this (it seems like they only ever carried it because of pressure from the IOC president, not any viewer demand). And it pretty much seems like Oxygen going OTA in O&O markets means that network is next. But it shouldn't be on NBC and Disney alone to cut useless networks (there Disney XD and Junior are a Spectrum or Comcast RTC contract away from leaving the air going by the international wind-downs for D+). There are several networks literally only existent to carry two prime series with no reruns, and then 90s sitcoms for the other 166 hours, and the output of VH1 and MTV2 can easily be merged onto MTV without any viewer revolts. Same with a lot of Discovery's networks and TruTV, and FYI and Vice could go for A&E, while WeTV at this point could be an AMC+ hub.

Dario Melendez moved from Bally Sports Wisconsin to the vacated WISN-TV sports directorship a couple months ago; it's now a de facto 'trade' as WISN's Stephen Watson is taking Melendez's exact former hosting position at BSW. No word on compensation, draft picks, or a player to be named later .

You can just see this staff cursing about KMOV getting a new building, and they're stuck in this nightmare maze of four buildings which are jerry-rigged together and keep having new add-ons every few years, with a fifth across the street because they somehow ran out of room in that four-building centipede!

WITI has consistently aired every hearing, so you can add them to this list. And yet even with advance notice, CBS and ABC are like 'yup the soaps are still on' as they have been since COVID news conferences started. I still don't understand why they don't put "TBA" in listings to avoid calls; even the most 'no TV ever' guy knows when soaps air.

Which means KMBC is one of the few Central Time stations to carry it live with the East Coast. I wonder if there will be more changes like this, because I know a few stations that would be better off airing it at 11 (cough*WBAY*cough).

Hopefully one of the requirements is the new information is part of the public domain; the Nielsen maps being under copyright has always been frustrating.

I do hope a call letter change is also considered; they've meant nothing for so long except longtime failure from a short-lived initiative. I could see them using a variant of "46 News Now" like WXIX, or because Gray owns it, "First Alert 46"/"CBS46, Your First Alert Station".

I'll give RTM this; when every talk show was a bomb right out of the gate in the mid-10s, it helped Disney figure out what to do with 3pm after FABLife laid a rotten egg before they could sign Tamron; it's saved many a timeslot, and for many stations, it kept the lights on where a newscast couldn't or a court show/advertorial would look low-rent. But it was always a transitional program between bringing viral videos to a wide audience before they most viewers just knew where to seek them online without the handholding, making it superfluous.