mrschimpf

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. 

On 7/8/2022 at 5:33 PM, iron_lion said:

what was the sense of that? literally erasing years of daytime television? Wendy's hot topic videos used to get a lot of hits.

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.

13 hours ago, NYPhillynews said:

Granted it was July 4th & we realize that staffing numbers were low, but This story literally is in your backyard!! and you are still MIA as far as news coverage!

 

NN the writing is on the wall…

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.

On 7/2/2022 at 9:54 AM, nycnewsjunkie said:

What is it with these stations changing out sets when they aren’t even 8 years old? Granted, this isn’t as egregious as, say, KDVR ripping their studio apart after just 3 years, but still. Hopefully, their new one at least has a longer shelf life, because this trend is getting ridiculous imo.

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.

On 7/1/2022 at 3:45 PM, noggi said:

Weather Centers are dated… make the set more versatile by not locking in on such a wasted space. As for the overall design and how it looks when you see the whole thing - how often does that’s even happen anymore? Shows happen in double boxes and 2-shots and in front of giant monitor walls. 

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.

14 minutes ago, GodfreyGR said:

Here it be (mobile version that is)...

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

On 6/30/2022 at 5:21 PM, Greggo said:

Interesting news about the news in Dallas: The Spectrum News 1 North Texas feed will be simulcast over the air on Weigel’s KAZD. This will air around the clock, 7 days a week — except for a break on the weekends to show E/I programming.

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.

4 hours ago, NowBergen said:

Oxygen is on Altice's line-up.  I just checked.  

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)?

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!

On 6/22/2022 at 7:09 PM, Kenneth Kissel said:

This is the complete list of FOX stations (O&Os and Affiliates) airing this 

WITI has consistently aired every hearing, so you can add them to this list.

3 hours ago, David Salter JR said:

Another hearing has been abruptly scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1pm Eastern. Assume it will be aired on the 3 major broadcast networks.

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.

28 minutes ago, Nelson R. said:

GMA3 moves to 11am and the news starts at noon on Monday.

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).

4 hours ago, Adam MadMan said:

Since Nielsen has dropped its TV Station Index, the FCC is looking for another way to figure out where a given station's DMA is.

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.

14 minutes ago, Sendir said:

This will be their flagship. This station will literally be treated like Perry treats NewsNation. First hand knowledge. 

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.

We have an update to the WZMQ side of things; Lilly is leasing a downtown Marquette building to serve as their studio for an expanded news op.

9 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

I'm surprised that they didn't sell the license to one of the LPTV operators in Chicagoland. You'd think that somebody would want to buy it just to force their way on to cable.

I know, I'm just shocked that Window to the World put all this work to keeping the license active, and then just turned it back in without any rhyme or reason? I think we'll find out more in the next few months, as there's always something odd going on with WTTW. And I could've seen VCY America pay plenty for the license to extend their programming into Chicago.

3 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

I wrote this on twitter just to remind people there are many local FOX Stations that are similar to newsrooms of the other big 3 stations. I noted that WTTG-TV Did indeed air coverage of this and will also air the following hearings in the days/weeks to come.     https://twitter.com/Bbabybear01/status/1535074705165918208

So did WITI (it was specifically scheduled in their EPG), though of course they had to air the entertainment lineup after the 10 p.m. news despite it all being reruns.

On 5/10/2022 at 2:42 PM, Samantha said:

 

They've filed to do this again as of June 1 after dropping the idea last year. https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff37f8fa68f017fb2ee03ad295e&id=25076ff37f8fa68f017fb2ee03ad295e&goBack=N

WYCC is now officially gone, with its 'channel' being replaced by PBS World on 11.5 (I hope 20 days isn't enough to be considered a double-post).

1 hour ago, mre29 said:

 

I believe there's a saying for this:  "If it bleeds, it leads."

 

The fact that it bled five hours ago is apparently immaterial.

 

It was totally that decision because police injuries to that station are what they seem to relish covering deeply the most.

On 6/4/2022 at 2:07 PM, iron_lion said:

While we're at it, can we stop overusing "breaking overnight", speaking in half sentences, overdramatizing "severe" weather that happens all the time and using the present tense for everything. Don't get me wrong, news always needs a little spice of drama but these days we've just gone over the moon.

I saw this last night on a 10pm show, where a few other important stories which were developing were 'but first, breaking news!'ed for a minor car accident during a police chase...that happened at 5pm and was long cleaned up . If you as the viewer knows the other stories rundown deserved prominence, the news organization has failed to do its job.

1 hour ago, Newsjunkie24 said:

I like Jim Acosta but I think it's time for CNN to go back to the more straight news approach it had pre-Zucker.

And highlight pieces from other reporters. I cannot stand only having a few on-camera reporters these days; it makes your organization look too insular and limiting.

Another silent dump of MyNetworkTV; WACY is done with the network as of today in the Appleton/Green Bay market and replaced it with Dateline and Monk reruns. Apparently WFRV is picking it up on one of their subs, but I'm not seeing anything on their schedule yet.

9 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Ah ok, so the monitor was intended to be used for weather maps, and perhaps they had the monitor set to the wrong source in the opening segment.

 

Either way, the monitor is still kinda dark out there in the bright sun.

A lot of 'storm chaser' vehicles usually have a screen on an arm attached to the hatchback door to present a forecast outdoors...but they're usually always set to a very vivid mode and they usually use known brand name sets (often weatherproofed) with a very low-profile bezel.

This one is a closeout 720p special (this one, specifically, a 24" 720p model with RCA and VGA hookups, and a '3.4 mm headphone output' (!); the brand is called Furrion, which specializes in RV TVs no sensible person would ever consider)...whoever picked out that unit should be fired; that's unacceptable even for one of those back-set monitors that plays a competitor station for decor. Even a damned iPad mini would be better than that POS. Do better, Fox.

On 5/27/2022 at 8:15 PM, Spring Rubber said:

The Milwaukee headend has a Star where the ad ticker is for the Cleveland area? Are there any videos of it?

Never recorded it because it's on the Spectrum app, but the ticker's ads were for Elk & Elk and some service in Akron; it took until 2017 until we had Spectrum app access to TWC after the Time Warner merger.

On 5/19/2022 at 2:42 PM, mightynine said:

The app just has the same maps/forecasts/etc. as you would see on their website or other similar smart TV apps (except for whatever happened to the Apple TV TWC app, which is worthless these days).

 

Here's a good breakdown of the "new" Weather Channel TV App, which appears to just be their previous TV Everywhere-enabled app (for anything except, again, Apple TV) with the ability to pay directly for access to their TV stream:

 

https://thestreamable.com/news/the-weather-channel-launches-new-dtc-service-the-weather-channel-tv-app

I use my Apple TV all the time and not having it on there (as niche as it is) is a severe oversight. Not even a browser to AirPlay option. I have a Fire TV, but it's just too slow and, Roku's video standards and overall UX are years behind.

Like the horrible situation where the private equity vultures forced apart the TV Guide channel and the magazine and it took revolt to bring them and proper listings back together, the entire situation with the Weather Channel's breakup has been a complete strikeout; I'm more apt to ignore the Weather Channel completely because Spectrum never upgraded their local headend for HD (thus I get the same feed as DirecTV in HD), so it's either watch local coverage in 4:3 SD (which I simply won't in 2022), or cue up the Spectrum app and watch the Milwaukee headend's data (with Cleveland ticker advertising for some reason) over reality glurge in primetime the vast majority of the audience doesn't give a damn about.