nathannah

I hope WTMJ picks up that theme. They seem to be changing around a lot of set pieces here and there and shuffling things around (there seems to be a new full-sized array monitor finally on set instead of TVs on wheels?), although whoever designed the color during this transition chose a very blinding baby blue background that just doesn't work.

The majority of them who did have medical reasoning probably won't ever speak, and will eventually negotiate a non-disclosure settlement from Gray because at least they have a reason and they probably had the 'I'm really sorry, I'd love to keep you but my hands are tied' conversation with their local boss, understood, and corporate is in the same position. The only ones we seem to be hearing from probably had saner family members and lawyers advise them not to say a word, and disregarded it. And a couple (like the WLUC met) were likely out the door anyways due to age/job performance. As for these people getting back into the industry through SBG and Nexstar...the Internet will have reputable news of their Gray firings under their station bios and LinkedIn that no reputation firm will ever wipe out. Unless they do a 180º and get the shots, the legal and HR departments for those stations are likely ready to tell them the hire isn't worth the local PR headache unless the hire has got a shelf packed with Pultizers, Morrows and Regional Emmys.

WJLP is about to lose a bunch of Scripps networks to WPXN and the rest are Luken trash or oddballs which can find better homes, so it's a good purchase. It might not solve reception issues, but a cleaner channel map up to Weigel's standards will definitely help, along with having WZME now. The lighhousing situation, whenever it hits New York, should especially help with their reception issues once they find their ATSC 1 host (if they do pursue it).

For the most part, most everyone you see on-screen on a newscast has been vaccinated because they didn't want to broadcast from home or be distant on the set any longer, and already had their celebrations of such in April and May; I know of nobody in eastern Wisconsin who has left their station outside of the regular old reasons and openly shared when their teams were all past the inoculation period. The hold-outs seem to be that side of broadcasting that think of it as a 'calling to God' and that they can somehow convert people reporting on a five-car accident or consumer reporting (the type that seem to pack a lot of 'news/talk' conservative radio station newsrooms), and think they're just that 'one big story' away from getting on Fox News or will personally oust Raymond Arroyo or Pat Robertson. Outside a few true exceptions where they cannot actually get the shot due to medical reasons, and along with the general public, they are few and far between, but can get the news on their side since they know the emotional tricks of doing so.

The after-SNL time period where I am used to be filled in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s with either It's Showtime at the Apollo, Soul Train, or on the comedic side, Night Stand with Dick Dietrich and America's Dumbest Criminals, and of course KING-TV had Almost Live forever, and it was always a fun topper to a late night. Now...a local church called Time of Grace bought out every post-SNL timeslot in the area (and beyond) for their 'how do you do fellow kids' ministry. It's the perfect cure for insomnia. The Saturday night newscast on an NBC affiliate in-season is usually a dirge. You lose five minutes of show you have the rest of the week because of SNL, governments are closed, the crime roll is shorter, and it's packed with stories where you basically have to get people out to go to festivals and funruns, and network/corporate must-runs, along with weekday junk you want to burn off ahoy. You also never have the rights to the local college football team in most cases since all NBC's got is Notre Dame, so outside WMAQ and WNDU, why care beyond the highlights? Most of the audience isn't even really watching because they're out or watching football at their local favorite bar. Outside of Notre Dame nights where you pray they don't go into overtime and Uncle Lorne rages in a press release Sunday morning about starting at 12:42 a.m., there's no excitement to them (except for the one time where that Kansas anchor said 'let's get the f**k outta here!'). I admit...I laughed quite a few times at this show, and I've laughed at Mike Polk's YouTube stuff often. It is a good alternative to the umpteen football games on (which for the area outside a couple of ABC weeks, never involves an Ohio team), and so WOIO wins the night; most of that audience from 48 Hours isn't in the demographic anyways. And when Pat Tomosulu did this on WGN in the exact same time period, it seemed to be fine, but suddenly it's a network affiliate and the death of the Fifth Estate?! (shakes head) I've seen much worse weekly local content, and better this than a 'bonus' edition of the midday advertorial show 'after dark'.

I'm really not liking that they now have their ticker in primetime. Morning I can understand; primetime is a white flag saying they could cover these other scrolling stories in detail, but they won't because they need to get Dog's tacky "Where in the World is Brian Launderie?" search more airtime (and that he's kept in touch with Nexstar despite his WGNA show being cancelled).

I wonder if that Tom Tucker (since he was in Palm Springs) inspired the same of the Family Guy news anchor . Also I understand privacy concerns and all that, but you'd have to think he's re-paying his contract because he held back he wasn't compliant with their policy coming in the door and they had to waste all that money promoting him and now are starting at square one after a month. Meanwhile Chris Berg reading that 'back story'...insufferable Al Bundy/past glory vibes . I'm sure he won't be missed at Gray, and the radio industry thanks that company for being blunt with their policies so the immuno-compromised know they need not apply there.

Nothing is going to change with any Univision station until the Televisa sale closes (if it does, of course). They also have coverage gaps in the market due to systems preferring the revenue the local breaks the national feed offers for them over WQHS carriage, so that would also have to be addressed.

Watching The National Desk in primetime for the first time; I think it'll take a bit to get used to the format, but things like having weathercasters in each region do the weather instead of just one guy is a unique feature, and it seems a lot more focused on basic news (with the caveat of Hunt Valley's interference) than NewsNation, which is starting to feel like HLN when they began to slip away towards 'big news only'. And while we're here; Sinclair's out of the radio business with the Seattle stations officially sold off.

Is it the same space used for Law & Crime? No station airs his shows around here (and I avoid Mediate and their sister sites because their ads are obnoxious), so I have no reference.

Gotta get that Gray trademark on everything (WBAY launched a "First Alert Fastcast on Facebook" this morning, which I'm sure Jeff Laurence loved to say )! I'm surprised the smoke alarm company hasn't challenged them for dilution despite their different industries.

Going by what it was before WRNN bought them out, this looks like a good-faith purchase; the programming statement from Allen basically says ShopHQ is gone the moment the sale goes through, and they'll try their best to restore the old Filipino/Japanese schedule. I really hope this is a good sign that RNN is beginning to realize that throwing home shopping on their stations isn't doing anything for their bottom line. And going by this last note on their website where KIKU's staff basically threw them under the bus (rightfully so), Richard French and friends will not be getting a friendly Aloha out the door from the people actually staffing the station. And for all that we feared Byron would start a court-show only network and ditch major network affiliations, he's been a good steward and been wise about where and when to put his shows on these stations otherwise.

Related to this, WISN's generated ticker on ATM/GMA is also utilizing the new logo version as the between-headline divider, so it's across all of their generated logos, and likely for others that overlay the national ATM/GMA ticker. Because WISN's current logo took gloss notes from the '13 logo, having that gloss and then the flat ABC ball in the color version just clashes somehow. It's slightly less apparent with WBAY because of the more subtle gradient within their 'circle 2'.

It looks like affiliates will also be rolling out new after-break logos during network time, at least. WBAY and WISN changed theirs today.

It's parallel to the left edge of the '4', which means it'll be used for the dynamic/moving part of the branding.

I'm wondering if they've tried to sell out their rights to other networks, and failed as their program mix skews very old and there's no true place they can go outside Pop. And they can't go to Rewind because they're cable-only rights.

As we discussed the Gray fine...GCI was coming close to their 'drop dead' date of September 3 to light up KTVA again or have the license auto-cancelled. They did; although it's not noted on the network's affiliates list, 11.1 is currently running Rewind TV to keep the license going. Whether this is just for a week to warehouse the license, or just until the sale goes through eventually, is not known.

Will note this elsewhere...but Real Milwaukee isn't actually dead! It comes back at 10 a.m. on the 27th, now led by Rob Haswell.

Huh...that's the same one which popped up during Steelers pre-season games, so there's a change in the making for sure.

The FCC has never really specified, but going by the WPLG/WTVJ example, it can be merely a month. There was another example where Tribune wanted to buy KTVI in 2013 as part of the Local TV purchase to make the duopoly official with KPLR, and had to time the purchase to a time where KPLR was fifth; usually the CW affiliate can be purchased easily, but with KDNL in the market, they flip-flopped #4 consistently. Once KPLR had a lousy ratings month, Tribune could switch from the Local TV LMA to an outright purchase.

If they go by date of closing (June 27, 2016)...it's possible that KYES was ahead of KTBY, when Fox is in repeats and its sports output was limited to Saturday MLB games. Remember the attempted WPLG/WTVJ merger where they tried to justify that WTVJ was sixth in the market due to Univision and Telemundo, likely picking out a time where the latter two's soccer schedule was strong and just before or after the 2008 Beijing Olympics where WTVJ was at a ratings nadir.

This probably explains why WITI or KCPQ hasn't switched weather graphics from their Trib packages; why do it when the Fox Weather package would be coming after a few months anyways?

Every big network logo refresh, Wikipedia gets folks who have to be 'first' to update a logo...and then upload terrible 'point at 80s TV' screenshots, fakes, or tiny 40px versions of the 'new logo' that nobody can really use, or Logopedia-sourced garbage from those false television station wikis that think WNBC was founded by Sony or something. Trying to say 'no, ABC isn't going to revoke an affiliation because a station didn't update their logo' is like taking to a wall with them.

Another article said it was where they 'had channel space in legal states'...which makes no sense, because if that's the case, they'd be voiding their contract with Weigel to get Movies! off KLAS-DT3 and getting it on there at launch to get on the big casino screens in Las Vegas. That, or they're playing a long game with the rollout; roll it out too fast and it might catch the attention of state authorities and the FCC, then the channel has to air multiple state gambling PSAs and can't make money. And going by an uncensored "Pat McAfee Show" on the Pluto feed...yes, it'll be a bit different.

KTLA is in hot water for not giving one side of the SAG-AFTRA national elections equal time as Sam Rubin is campaigning on a certain slate, and had candidates for that side on the "Morning News". If the other side doesn't get equal time, SAG-AFTRA could redo their election and force Nexstar to pay for it.