dman748

17 hours ago, AJClementeFan69 said:

If WAVY got to keep Newswire I'd imagine WOOD gets to keep Primetime (I hope). If they switch it to Aerial or This is the Place...yuck.

As they should, I expect both WAVY and WOOD to give Newswire and Primetime News a few updates to it but otherwise. both of the packages at both of the stations should be left alone

1 hour ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

And then given the same boot along with Ernie Bjorkman it KWGN. This was really disappointing. Innovation is great, but long-term guiding experience is critical too (especially when it comes to anchors). Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for GMs.

1000% agreed.

Experienced anchors and reporters is the key to anything in this business and when your station owner and/or GM is booting the older anchors out the door, that's going to be reflected in a negative way for any station in this business. Innovation is great and everything but when a company does some of those things that Tegna has done to long time anchors, clearly there has to be concerns about innovative-style newscasts.

1 hour ago, east-tx-tv said:

 

I'm fairly certain (even though I have no ratings numbers) that Tegna did KYTX no favors in the "let's get rid of every recognizable long-time anchor and replace them with a bunch of no-name/talking-heads" mess, and likely gave away much of the viewership they'd built up over the years, to longtime ratings-topper KLTV.

Including Mike Landess just to name a few of those KYTX anchors/reporters Tegna got rid of.

Sure, Landess wasn't at KYTX for a long period of time but he was ousted for cheaper, younger and trendier people. Plain and simple.

12 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

The transitions are almost a dead giveaway that it includes elements of the WISH gfx, but the font is especially similar in the weather graphics.    I just hope they don't dump Primetime News, under any circumstances.

Absolutely.

I think Primetime News will remain on WOOD even though they may update the graphics which that makes sense considering next year will be 25 years of Primetime News at WOOD, I see WOOD perhaps get some fresher cuts of the package (which that would make sense as well)

Is WOOD potentially doing a graphics refresh? There's some hints of it as seen here with the Weather Open 

I see some hints of the WISH package in the Weather open.

7 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

I agree that it will take a good while to rebuild trust.  First, Tegna needs to assume the posture of doing serious news.  If they even halfway resemble newscasts by Hearst, for example, they will be in a very good place 5 years from now. 

 

Do I think that will actually happen?  I'm not yet convinced more so than not, but I have the smallest glimmer of hope for Tegna with this change.

IF (and a big IF might I add) Tegna does anything that resembles half of what groups like Hearst and even Meredith are in terms of doing real, serious news, then that'll do some good for a bunch of the Tegna stations.

I'm still holding out hope that Tegna will make changes that'll be for the good of their stations but I'll believe it when I see it

11 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

If true change is going to take place it first needs to happen at the top...which is what appears to have just happened.  This is a good change for Tegna, in my opinion.  But they need to clean out the rot underneath the top job at Tegna's corporate offices.   I want to see qualified and experienced journalists take the helm and steer the ship back on course.   

 

And I agree with FTVlive in this matter that Tegna has become something more of a punchline.  Any honest person with a brain understands that Tegna's idea of a millennial-style newscast only make people like me (a 20-something guy) want to reach for the remote because it looks low quality and ridiculous.   It's not just C Clarity that needs to be shown the trash can--the stupid newscast titles and their overly silly presentation style must go.   

 

It really makes stations like those owned by Nexstar, Hearst, Gray, and Sinclair look like world-class quality because at the least they strive to put on an intelligent newscast.  And is it any wonder that people like me prefers the newscasts from those station groups instead?  If I want silly, I'll go to Facebook.  If I want serious, I'll watch a newscast.  It's that simple.

1000% agreed.

Cheatwood may no longer work for Tegna but there are more problems within Tegna beyond just a Cheatwood problem, although Cheatwood himself was the root cause of the problems at Tegna's stations.

It's gonna take Tegna rebuilding that trust and respect the stations once had with viewers before they even think about returning to the dominance the stations once had and it all starts at the top at Tegna's corporate offices, and certainly with the General Managers that are forcing this garbage on the stations.

12 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

We can maybe hope that Tegna is at least considering going to go back to actual news, but like @TheRolyPoly said I'll reserve celebrating until we see changes towards actual news coverage.  And given the fact that ridiculous rebrand at WKYC took effect just this year and they just doubled down on it, I'm not yet convinced Tegna is going to be smart going forward.  Time will tell what direction Tegna heads.  But in whatever case, please dump C Clarity.

1000% agreed, I'm not ready to celebrate yet because we don't know what Tegna is going to do but what I can say is for the former Dispatch, Tribune and Nexstar stations now at Tegna, there is a little bit of hope that Tegna won't mess things up a whole lot.

But at the same time, I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch with a company like Tegna. But it is at least a good starting point and now we're just taking baby steps to retain the things that make stations like WBNS, and WNEP so special while perhaps taking baby steps to restore what stations like KING, WFAA and WWL used to be. But again this is baby steps and keep in mind that this is something that's absolutely not gonna happen overnight (in particular for stations like WXIA, WTSP and KXTV) I think those 3 aforementioned stations have a LONG way to go especially in markets where stations like KCRA, WSB and WTVT are all the powerhouse stations in those particular markets

Maybe it was because Tegna entered into a market that clearly is not going to put up with their Millennial ideas (which is the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton DMA).

For stations like KFSM, WTHR, WBNS and WNEP they may have been saved.

For stations like KING, KXTV, WFAA, KHOU, WXIA and WTSP among others it's gonna take a lot of work to reverse the damage that has been done to those stations for the last several years

1 hour ago, scrabbleship said:

It looks like Daily Blast Live is slowly being picked up by the ex-Tribune/Nexstar stations. Looking at a schedule for the Hartford market, WTIC has picked up at 12:30 AM which is perhaps the best it can do unless they cut DailyMailTV (3:00/3:30 PM), Two and a Half Men reruns (6:00/6:30 PM), or Big Bang Theory reruns (7:00/7:30 PM) to a single rerun.

 

From the looks of it, WNEP and WPMT haven't picked up so WTIC may be the first to do so.

KFSM in Fort Smith/Fayetteville has picked up DBL as well and they too are running that overnight

2 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

I would expect nothing better from a company like Facebook, just saying...

Nothing surprises me anymore about Facebook, clearly they couldn't come up with ANY original ideas on how to do their own graphics package for a presentation and instead basically just copied off of Tegna's graphics.

If Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg had a brain they would come up with something better than that but, of course they chose not to do it.

24 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

You missed my point.  I was trying to say that you have packages that were created using actual musical talent.  C Clarity has nothing of actual music.  I tend to think of C Clarity as "noise", instead of news music.   It's full of emotion but little or no substance on most cuts.    As for your point about my aforementioned music pkgs mostly not used anymore, the stations still use an assortment of music pkgs that sound nothing like that "noise."    And I'll also add that stations in the Top-5 markets set the standard for the industry, not the other way around.  

 

If they had kept "This Is Home" with the new gfx, I wouldn't be quite as repulsed by the Tegna branding--notwithstanding the ridiculous show brands they've debuted (H Town Rush, Wake Up ____, etc.)

 

I'm a 20-something guy, and the way Tegna thinks my generation wants forced ingenuine shows that are irrelevant is not smart.   If I'm taking time to watch a newscast, I want a newscast with real substance.  And I'm saying that being as tech-savvy as anyone my age.

1000% agreed.

I'll just say that if Tegna had any brains and ANY resemblence of common sense, we wouldn't see stations like WFAA, and WWL fall off the way they have (sure WFAA in the November sweeps are #1 at 6/10 but WFAA is no longer the dominating force it once was). Also we wouldn't see names like H-Town Rush, etc.

And finally, Tegna could've done better with the usage of C Clarity, instead they chose to not only go with pure garbage but in the process destroy stations that was likeable, had personally, also had resemblence of common sense.

One more thing, (and this is sort of off-topic but is still on topic since we're talking about Tegna) the whole KTHV "Wake Up Central" thing is just absolutely ridiculous but, what else do you expect out of Tegna.

29 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

Any chance they go to having a newsroom backdrop versus the current video wall look?   Personally, I highly doubt it.

I'd love to see ABC go back to having that background, it'd actually be a nice tribute to Peter Jennings where throughout most of his run as anchor of World News Tonight it was done that way.

But I highly doubt they'll bring it back, it's nice to think and dream about though.

5 minutes ago, KevCor said:

I've been meaning to say this for a while now:

 

There are many things to argue about with these station groups: inherent editorial biases, incompetent newsrooms/production, even graphical presentation can be considered. But if you're simply griping about news music -- arguably about a total of 30 seconds to 1 minute of a 30-minute broadcast -- you're overreacting.

 

Now while C Clarity is not a traditional "news" package, but it's not a bad package by any stretch of the imagination. Granted those longer lived packages are synonymous with the stations they are with, they are aged DO age, and they show their age. The music is fine. It's just modern, and everyone loves to hate anything modern.  Just imagine if everyone was still using the music they used in 1970 -- every market would be suffering with a WJZ 1987 - 2017. sound.

 

As an aside: NONE of those packages you mention are widely used: Signature is in use by six stations nationwide, all in sub-100 TV markets, Primetime News is used by one broadcast and a handful of cable stations, and we all know who uses MCTYW. Eyewitness News is the exception, which most likely occurs because it's a staple in the three largest markets in the country on stations O&O'd by The Mouse (except of course the one who uses MCTYW) and that weird Fresno market . The ONLY other station still using EWN is Standard Media's are also sub-100 DMA stations.

 

Providence, RI is NOT a sub 100 market (they're in DMA #53).

7 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

 

KDKA and WCCO seem to be doing great. I bet the EN is #1 in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis.

I respectfully disagree, just because the Evening News is #1 in places like Pittsburgh and the Twin Cities does NOT mean that it's #1 everywhere else.

When a Cable News Show beats a national network newscast on a local station in more than just one market, clearly there's a big problem (as is the case with Norah)

1 hour ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

I really have to wonder how KCNC manages to still ranks number 2 especially with all of the issues that I see and know about.

Or even most of the CBS affiliates that are traditionally leaders in their respective markets (i.e. the Griffin Stations, WLKY and KCCI).

1 hour ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

That's not a knock off. It's been syndicated (see below). If there is any confusion about what a knock off is, it's a secondary graphics package that looks like another design originated at another station. Likely the package is executed horribly if it's meant to mirror the design completely (see WNEM) or has clear elements similar to an original package, where there is no mistaken identity for inspiration (See WSMV).

 

 

 

From what I could tell on the West Mass News Open vs the WABC open, the color scheme looks very the same as WABC but obviously the way WABC did the open is totally different compared to what Western Mass News did. A good example of that would the way the animations of the graphics is done at WGGB vs the way WABC does theirs.

My conclusion is that yes it's syndicated but because of the way the color scheme looks the boxes are used for one third of the screen in the beginning the news open, you could say it's a ripoff but I'd say its 50/50

4 hours ago, TheRob said:

 

I'm still here. But if the company gives me my walking papers someday, I'll be fine for a while.

Good to hear that your position didn't get axed

Meanwhile the layoffs at Nexstar continue to pile up, this time around it's in Kansas City with WDAF.

10 people at WDAF including an Editor who has been on their morning newscast for years and reporter Ashonti Ford (who left the station late last month after joining WDAF this past August)

Hopefully @TheRob is okay and his position didn't get axed

41 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

Speaking of that, FTVlive has a story about WDAM's switch to automation.  Apparently it glitched so bad they couldn't put their morning newscast on the air.  

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/12/13/when-automation-does-automate

I watched maybe a minute or so of the Facebook Live stream and the anchor Mike McDaniel litterally said they were going to make things up as they go along.

Look I get it, the weather graphics wasn't working but come on, at least look somewhat professional, when I heard that I had to stop watching the stream

1 minute ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Isn't that what Nexstar does though? I mean, simulcast as many newscasts in duopolies at as many stations as they can? I wouldn't be surprised to see that at KWGN/KDVR. Fox 31 News on Channel 2, et al.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is a prime example of what simulcasting a newscast looks like for a junior partner (in this case it's WYOU ironically a CBS affiliate, most of their news comes from simulcasts with WBRE)

18 minutes ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

What happened at WWJ?

Essentially what @scrabbleship is saying, is that WTTV would virtually not have a news department (except for maybe news simulcasts with WXIN but that'd be it) otherwise they'd be just like WWJ

4 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

Read today's article at FTV, NEXSTAR CONTINUES TO CUT PEOPLE.... MERRY CHRISTMAS, Mr. Jones mistakenly refers to KFOR as Miami's CO&O WFOR.

As always it's a typo error on the part of Mr. Jones

11 hours ago, TheRyan said:

It looks to me like a typo on FTVlive's part.  Hopefully FTVlive gets that typo fixed asap.

Just checked the article and Scott Jones fixed that typo

Assuming that this is true and everything else, Sinclair at least in Oklahoma City (and potentially the state of Oklahoma itself) may very well be in even more hot water than what they already are with the whole lack of candor stuff because for one they don't own KFOR/KAUT and two, they DIRECTLY compete against KFOR/KAUT (via KOKH/KOCB)

Wouldn't be surprised to see lawsuits and investigations come from this IF this is accurate (and I generally take Scott's reports with a grain of salt)

This may be one of the big stories as we head into 2020 and IF true this won't be the end of the whole Sinclair/Nexstar monkey business in Oklahoma City.

Also FTVLive noted that Nexstar also yesterday, gave the axe at WGHP in the Triad and the Denver duopoly of KDVR and KWGN respectively.

Now that I think about it when I reread the article clearly it was a typo on Scott Jones' part (as usual), THIS is why whenever Scott reports on anything until reliable, credible sources confirms the story with substance, it must be taken with a grain of salt