nathannah

The big problem is definitely the security needed these days; as Weeters said, it was interesting in 1994 when the worst folks you ever encountered usually posted their manifestos via the mail and everyone self-policed themselves. But once Columbine and 9/11 happened along with the Internet, stalkers, then just general distrust of mainstream media setting in, you had to block out those folks from getting on camera as a threat to the safety of others, so now outside set parts of the day you're looking at an empty window outside the Today studio where unless you brought the right sign or sob story to get in for a game or makeover on the 4th hour (or now, well pre-vetted ahead of time), there's no way you're appearing on-camera. It's why the concept has just completely died locally outside of controlled weather decks and balconies; those stations just don't have the budget to provide security that NBC has, along with any idiot ready to yell 'FHRITP' and attack the talent. Who would want that headache? Add to that the pointless 1515 move that still stuck CBS in a windowless studio and ABC eventually retreating to the safety of the second floor, because pedestrianization of Times Square now means you have to deal with multiple headaches outside the Naked Cowboy, the cavalcade of unlicensed characters and the 'unwashed masses', which especially after Tony Dokoupil's interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates...yeah, you'd be questioned deeply if you wanted to send him and Gayle out to do a cooking segment on the Square. It's also so damned bright now with all the signage and is probably a nightmare to light/shoot around because ad screens are on 24/7 rather than just still images lit only at night (my trip to Times Square last year was on a drab and rainy day and it felt like that block was lit like 30 car lots), so that was another reason CBS had to cover the windows and ABC's only Times Square shot is now just that one generic shot of the big screen. All of that is a reason TRL is no longer a thing too; it used to be you tolerated Limp Bizkit to get to see Britney Spears, but today's music 'stans' will try to derail a free event with an artist they hate in any way they can (and the reason for the hate is probably very banal). Finally, most people are there just to get a picture with the talent, so once you get it...well, you're done. It's not 1998 any longer where it'll take a bit to get that picture from the lab. You got your TikTok/Instagram moment. Instant gratification. Why stick around? Outside the concert series, who wants to stand around watching a morning show backwards through a window you probably can't even see through, probably through loudspeakers which sound awful, and an outdoor uncovered plaza subject to rain, snow or cold? You'd be better off waiting for winter to get facetime on the skating rink wide shot or under the tree, where you know you won't get hassled by regular cops and side-hustle security guards.

It should be another lesson to media writers that they need to stop being 'viewer HR' and that day-to-day work status of TV show hosts is not a story that needs to be reported, and that these people deserve to have private lives and grieve. This is especially cruel because they helped spread the same trash to her Wikipedia article and folks had to edit around vandals that yes, she still works for the show. So much sympathy for her and her family, and I'm sure everyone at 1A feels the same.

Definitely Channels is your best choice in this situation; it's mainly built for Mac, provides proper TV listings and I've used it for four years and rarely had any headaches running it on my Mac Mini or anything else I want to stream from it as a server through the house and on the road. It is a paid product listings-wise at $9/month but I find it indispensable and you don't have to worry about setups or schedule XML files and configuring things unless you'd like to explore their Docker plug-ins or custom content lists.

They don't need to shop the shows; they same-day repeat on Nosey, which is on a KVEA sub and so many FAST providers. KCOP would've had them months ago if they wanted them, and I really don't expect KCAL+ to last much longer if new ownership comes in.

Last week's Madison meltdown had a positive effect in Allen ending their hubbing experiment. Outside the 11am and 4pm shows, the Wisconsin stations now originate their own newscasts, but the audience reaction to it in a negative manner certainly didn't help with the advertisers.

Really surprised they are keeping the Cox name, but with Spectrum being front-facing for the last decade, it makes sense to abandon Charter (which always sounded similar to a drug rehab center that existed until 2000). Besides price though, Spectrum is rock solid for me and I rarely lose service, so I must be in a good part of their service area (originally Marcus). It's just sad to see Cox in so many aspects wind down, though.

I still love that they had a perfect indie branding in "The Spot" and never thought to use it outside KC until a few months ago rather than this bland city+channel number pattern they used originally. Now we see what the Rays do (in so many ways)...

ABC has finally given up on the entire 'temporary simulcast because of strikes' charade involving MNF with the 2025 season; it's on every week for the new season (probably with those odd doubleheader weeks and one of them will have a VR game like the Simpsons game last year most likely)

They also have a 'malicious compliance' version of the logo where the ABC ball is still used...but for the Fox version they just replace the ABC text with the Fox logo. It's technically compliant for its use, but it feels like it's easier to just switch logos without the black ball being needed.

WLUK has pretty much escaped most of the Sinclairization and been able to shove it off to WCWF outside must-runs, which they burn off at the worst times possible. They're switching from their LIN era studio now, but being neck-and-neck with WBAY while WFRV and WGBA crash out towards irrelevancy from their own companies helps keep Hunt Valley from getting their way with 11 fully.

Probably more future-proofing than anything; if the Fox logo changes or they switch affiliations (or in the future Fox just stops operating on the traditional model), they don't have to change anything physically on the building, and when they take the WBRC baby steps it'll be easier if they decide to drop it in the future. Also like WMTV they can brand it neutrally and equally with GCSEN or whatever else Gray decides to operate out of it (note the extra space beneath the ground sign and plenty of room on the building fascia).

Hopefully nothing breaks in these next three hours (news or technically!).

With the folks behind the standard doing all they can to sabotage ATSC 3.0 as a DRM'ed mess with weakened coverage areas to distribute FAST channels and websites nobody needs, this is just another nail in the coffin for it. Sunbeam is right to just give up on it and end the farce and focus on just channel 7 alone and figure out something else for their 3.0 plans; ABC and Fox don't even take advantage of 3.0 90% of the time.

Byron has renewed all nine of his celebrity court shows (I remind you that none of the shows are litigating real cases, but CA court transcripts with actors), which is probably going over well in the AMG station Slack or Teams .

Back to the conference room (which I remember from the last time, 2011-ish). Hopefully they'll be able to keep Aerial and not have to be stuck with an entire Sinclairization; at least they got a good life out of their LIN-era set.

When your network producer doesn't remember their affiliate roster...of course WDRB doesn't brand as Fox 41, but you'd think 'Fox affiliate WX chiefs' would be in Fox Weather's Tweetdeck for sure.

The Allen Wisconsin network is having a meltdown; WAOW has been stuck having to cover WKOW's newscasts since yesterday (and having to present their news that's completely irrelevant to Madison to pad out shows), along with having to do their statecasts in the morning. At this point, you might as well consider Madison, La Crosse/Eau Claire and Wausau two-operation news markets because it seems like Byron doesn't even care about having a proper third news operation (and Rockford will be inevitably hubbed out soon enough).

The winner in this deal? Actually, WRNN. The network abruptly left the air entirely on April 15 as it quickly became clear that the energy drink guy knows caffeine, but definitely not the news or home retailing industries. ShopHQ is trying to disguise their GOTB sale on their website as a spring savings event, no refunds for anything you buy there, and the WARN notice went out to the state about their Eden Prairie HQ being closed. Didn't want to update about this until a couple other things were confirmed, but they dropped Spectrum cold on April 1, and did the same to Optimum in February to try to shift live product demos to Instagram and TikTok, which...you're stuck with them on a cable channel lineup, but you can just block them and move on if they're annoying or irrelevant in your feeds. The younger ShopLC (The former Liquidation Channel) just opened a new facility in the Austin area and is strong (tariffs pending) and doing better than QVC/HSN, while ShopHQ is fatally done. Never thought any of that would happen.

In case you needed an updated exaggerated and catty Post update on the Michael Strahan/Kelly Ripa 'feud' with GMA's upcoming move to Iger, here you go. Oooh, they have to share an elevator and they might see each other, this is the most oppressive workplace outside the Kremlin .

If anything screams '2000s imagining consultants imagining what the kids like', it was their branding the most at that time; "43 The Block" remains on the hill of worst station brandings above "JoeTV" and that short time KWGN was "The Deuce". "Cleveland's 43" is a signal that there are finally adults in the room.

I was wondering what on earth that "Remarkable Woman" special was on the CW Sunday night; it seemed so vague as to be a time-buy from some group you expect to carry a generic 'salute to gospel' or 'independent film showcase (of whatever they could get cheap)' that you see on Sundays on a station that doesn't have the NFL doubleheader and the home team is on the other station. It felt like some kind of bizarre Queen for a Day rehash. It also seems kind of insulting to anyone not in a Nexstar market, because the states without a station just came off as having very 'unexceptional women' (they drew 11 randomly from NewsNation but like...just spread them across each state. There's no reason outside Perry's ego that Alaska shouldn't have a 'remarkable woman'). Outside of sports and the good shows they bought, The CW is really no better than the 'i for infomercial' era of Ion at this point.

That would be obfuscation and obviously actionable if a company claimed in good faith to buy all the assets and then sell the ones they don't want off immediately against the seller's will. Yes, Apollo is not going to get anyone to take but a small fraction of them, but if somehow they do get a deal, there will be a clause where they can't be sold off for a certain period of time or if they go bankrupt.

WGN has a good offer, but CHSN already has a television partner in WJYS; the issue is that they need to convince them to switch to RTC next go around to force carriage (or CHSN pays them extra to bump it to their DT1 for the Sox season until this is all resolved so pay-TV fans can watch), or that CHSN needs to figure out their issues with Comcast. It's obvious they're asking for too much and need to lower their pricing to get on there, and Reinsdorf is stubborn. Also this would be self-inflicted and stupid on Nexstar's part; either they want to run WGN as a news-heavy CW O&O as intended by dumping the rights back in '19, or they go back to sports and create a messy situation where CW programming is bumped to Antenna TV and now you've made NASCAR and your college football partners mad because they don't have Chicago carriage or you're back to a situation where WCIU has to carry your stuff because of this goofy offer. This is a good proposal for WCIU or even WCPX, but it addresses nothing about the main problem with CHSN and will end with viewer annoyance, along with WGN staff having to deal with news at midnight once again because of West Coast road games.

This is pretty much it; Coxpollo wants it to be 1997 where they can create an omnimedia company when nobody actually wants that. They're better off just keeping only the Atlanta, Orlando and Dayton clusters (or better, just the AM news/talk and FM simulcast) that are historically important to the company and so integrated into the TV stations that there's no way to easily break them up, and selling off the rest. They already created Summit Media the first time, which got the radio stations Scripps couldn't easily sell off, and that might just end up being the default direction they have to take.

I imagine in that market most of the viewers (if they are) mainly hate-watch for certain political reasons and posting said hate-watching on the station's socials, so neither news org needs to put their best foot forward in the first place and the out-of-state staff is doing their 2-3 and fleeing.