carolinanews4

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Los Angeles is almost an anomaly with three 10pm English-language newscasts battling it out against each other. If such a thing were to be tried out in Memphis or Jacksonville or Omaha, the results would be beyond disastrous.

LA is hardly an anomaly with three English-language newscasts at 10P. Charlotte (much smaller than LA) has had three 10P newscasts for years (WJZY/WAXN/WCCB). Heck, down the road in the Greenville/Spartanburg market (smaller than Charlotte) they have also had three news broadcasts competing at 10 (WHNS/WYCW/WMYA). Nothing "beyond disastrous" occurred in those markets.

Also, why is 10 o'clock so special that you can't have multiple stations competing with news? In recent years, some FOX stations have been adding 11 p.m. newscasts that compete with NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates. And what about 6 a.m.? Many markets have four stations airing news. The Charlotte market has five. No disasters to report during those hours.

I totally agree with your point about too much news. Stations have gone to the well a lot with news expansion. Part of that is driven by budget restraints while some of it comes to a lack of creativity. But to say that three stations fronting news at 10 p.m. would be beyond disastrous is a bit over the top. 

2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

Robin Meade and her show’s staff were for years the only ones that justified the Atlanta facility remaining open this whole time.

That’s simply not true. They haven’t been keeping an entire facility open for a little watched morning show and its staff. Yes, that team represented the only live news on HLN but they were hardly the only parts of the operation left in Atlanta. The main technical core of CNN in still housed at the CNN Center along with CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Newsource, CNN.com, and more. In fact, many of CNN's producers are still based at the CNN Center. According to the AJC there are about 1,500 employees based in Atlanta. 

On 12/2/2022 at 10:37 PM, Myron Falwell said:

It misses the point. Apollo Global Management (which is the real name for "Cox Media Group") is a private equity firm that is allegedly not supposed to be exerting any control in the business dealings of Tegna or Standard General; they are only supposed to be providing financing and nothing more. It's what Soo and Deb have been repeatedly bleating about for months and months to their apologists (or is that Apollogists?).

 

Shit like this makes it obvious in the court of public opinion that Apollo merely wants to run "Standard General" or "Community News" (or whatever in the hell Soo wanted to call the byproduct of this failed transaction) as a puppet company, owning three stations in Atlanta and four in Jacksonville. It's unethical, grimy as fuck, and lends credibility to Graham's already legitimate protest of the deal.

 

There's a reason why the FCC and DOJ are literally sitting on the deal at this point and letting the clock run out.

First off, the real name for Cox Media Group is Cox Media Group. 71% of CMG is owned by Apollo Global while 29% is owned by Cox Enterprises. I understand that Apollo has claimed it won't be involved in day-to-day business decisions should the TEGNA/Standard General deal go through. My point is that you can't use a press release by Dish as evidence. It was a press release in a negotiation. You appear to be taking the Dish claim as fact to use against a deal you don't like. Don't like the deal? Fine. There are plenty of reasons to object to this deal. But a press release by Dish isn't a legit reason. 

Also, why is it that you repeatedly use foul language in your posts? Posts are supposed to meet a "work safe" standard. Yet the post I quoted above and your original post on this Dish/CMG topic each contained language that I couldn't use in a work email. 

5 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

I declared this transaction completely and utterly doomed months ago in TNC and even then, I didn't expect for Apollo and Standard General to take their goddam masks off while the deal is (deservedly) languishing in the FCC and DOJ.

 

https://www.nexttv.com/news/dish-says-cox-wants-deal-to-include-standard-media-tegna-stations-in-blackout-talks

 

If you wanted a company - make it two companies! - that makes Sinclair look normal and ethical, may I present to you Apollo-Cox and Standard General. I call it... Apollostandarditis.

They didn't "take their masks off" as you say. In the article says Dish claims, "that Cox, controlled by Apollo Global Management, has delayed “meaningful discussions” because it wants stations currently owned by Standard General and Tegna to be included because of connections to Apollo." So, Dish is claiming that Cox is delaying the negotiations because it wants to include the Tegna stations. That's Dish's opinion. Might be true, might not. But the point is, to date there is no actual proof of this. Just one company making up a narrative about the other. 

And Cox is hardly innocent. They put out a statement saying Dish was "employing their well-worn anti-consumer drop tactic" by "unilaterally choosing to black out all Cox Media Group TV stations across the country." 

Both statements are full of hyperbole to make themselves look like the injured party. 

21 minutes ago, 24994J said:

CNN This Morning has been on the air for 4 days.

I hate to correct the best post I've read in a long time, but it has only been on the air for 3 days! 

1 hour ago, iron_lion said:

Why exactly did News 4 move from 3C to 3K?

Space! 3K is significantly larger than 3C. Studio 3C was never the largest of 30 Rock's studios, but it was made even smaller when MSNBC moved into 3A. Their new footprint in 3B will be slightly smaller than what they have in 3K but will be a good amount of space...and still significantly larger than 3C. 

22 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

Nielsen DMAs basically no longer exist, so I think we would now have to go off by metro area population.

I don't understand. DMAs still exist. It is how programming is sold, how broadcast coverage is defined, how ownership within a market is limited, etc. 

1 hour ago, CLETVFan said:

The CW does need to address what the list of affiliates will look like going forward, especially if the network is going on more of the Nexstar or staying as is as of right now.

Nexstar doesn't need to address anything regarding the affiliate list.

The last part of your sentence is everything that one needs to know. Affiliates have contracts with the network and so if you were a CW affiliate yesterday, you are one today. Do not expect massive overnight changes to the affiliate lineup. I know many on this board have speculated wildly about stations that might become a CW O&O. But under normal circumstances that will not happen until the incumbent's affiliate agreement is up...if it happens at all.

I can think of two exceptions. An ownership change could trigger "out clauses" in an affiliate contract. I'm thinking in particular the Chicago market, where Nexstar might see it worth the legal expense to claim the affiliation for WGN.  But Nexstar doesn't need to "address" that publicly since it would up to the two parties to work it out. The other condition that could trigger an overnight switch is if a competing broadcast network objected to a competitor owning one of their affiliates. I see this as highly unlikely since nobody objected to CBS owning part of the CW. But even if this did come up, Nexstar has nothing to address publicly until NBC, ABC, or FOX expresses a desire to end its affiliation. 

53 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

4:30-7:00am

12:00-1:00pm

4:00-5:00pm

 

That's in addition to 7:00-10:00am and 10:00-11:00pm.

@TheRolyPoly I'm not sure what you are responding to here. I know WRAL/WRAZ simulcast news in the morning, midday, and afternoon. I mentioned that in my response to the original poster that said WRAZ would have to change affiliations because FOX wouldn't allow a simulcast of WRAL. So I was letting the original poster know there are already time periods where news is simulcast on WRAZ.  

Variety published an article that says, "this conversation has happened multiple times over the past 10 years, and emphasize this is not the first time the option of ceding time to affiliates has been discussed at the broadcaster." So there is a possibility this might not happen any time soon. 

But I do think the Big 3 will contract their primetime schedules at some point. It just makes economic sense. Plus NextGen TV has the ability to bring new revenue streams to broadcast stations. So I think it only wise for the networks and their affiliate bases to start thinking about what their relationship looks like in the future. Perhaps there is a subscription model where NBCUniversal allows USA Network or Bravo to be encrypted on a broadcast signal. The broadcast station could then share some of the revenue with the network.  If people are beholden to the concept than an NBC station must air prime programs from 8-11, news at 11, and Tonight at 11:35 then business will dry up fast. Personally, I'd like to be the first network of the 3 to give the affiliates the 10 p.m. hour and start my late-night programming at 11. You'd rather play leader than play catchup. 

17 hours ago, Gavin M. said:

Fox isn’t going to allow cross simulcast newscast so WRAL will have an affiliate change basically every FOX station might have to be cancelled or be in their own.

Could I learn more about why you said this? WRAZ airs a simulcast of WRAL News at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. So why would FOX not allow a 10 p.m. simulcast?

There's also a little ratings trick when it comes to simulcasts. If the simulcast is pure duplication, meaning the exact same feed airs on two different stations then you can combine the ratings. Let's use WRAL/WRAZ as examples because they are referenced above. The 6 a.m. news on WRAL and WRAZ could be touted as combined viewership provided all content (news and ads) are duplicated on each station. That has the potential to widen the audience and thus be more attractive to advertisers. If, however, Capitol Broadcasting airs different commercial breaks on WRAL and WRAZ then the ratings must be broken out separately. As stations fight for revenue, a single primetime newscast shown on two stations could be a good thing from a revenue standpoint. Even if it is lackluster from a creative output. 

They have a write up about the temporary move of their temporary set. They will be broadcasting all of their newscasts this coming week at Gray's new "Assembly Atlanta" studio complex.

https://www.cbs46.com/2022/08/05/cbs46-crews-work-around-clock-transfer-news-studio-14th-street-assembly/

A couple of things stood out to me in NBC's announcement regarding NBC News Daily. First, the network said, "NBC News will provide signature world-class reporting and breaking news coverage in a first-of-its kind, live in most markets mid-day news offering." It was the "live in most markets" comment that stood out to me. Well, today The Los Angeles Times gave me more by stating, "The anchors for the program will depend on the time zone, as the newscast will be live across the country, using the hours shown on the NBC News Now stream. Stations will get the team of Morgan Radford and Vicky Nguyen or Kate Snow and Aaron Gilchrist."

So essentially the network will simply broadcast an hour of NBC News Now. Or I guess you could say NBC News Now will stream four hours of NBC News Daily. In any event, it is using one crew to create a program simultaneously for the NBC broadcast network and the NBC News Now stream. And thus, the economics of this programming decision makes sense. NBC gets lower production costs and probably similar ratings. Meanwhile, you move production-cost heavy "Days" over to Peacock where you have two revenue streams: subscriptions and advertising.

The other thing that I was curious about was "the option for NBC stations to add local news.” TV Newser reported that, "NBC stations do have the option of adding local news instead of this new national news offering." I'm hearing that statement is not accurate. NBC is not relinquishing the time slot back to affiliates. It is the ability for stations to add local news into the national show, not cover up the national broadcast with a local newscast. Think of it like the five-minute station breaks during the Today Show (7:25, 7:55, etc.) where local stations do news and weather.

5 hours ago, MorningNews said:

Days like today are when GMA3 is pretty weak. Significant implications from the SCOTUS decision on Roe v Wade and they’re airing an encore presentation of a recent episode dedicated to cooking. Any and TJ anchored GMA this morning too.

The fact that Amy and TJ anchored GMA is probably the reason an encore cooking show aired. GMA3 uses the same studio crew as GMA and its taped shortly after GMA goes off the air. My guess is that Amy and TJ were doing GMA for the West Coast. I'm not sure who anchored the supreme court coverage for ABC or how long it lasted but those two were probably either part of the Special Report or focused on producing an up-to-date West Coast show. 

On 6/21/2022 at 6:32 PM, ATLNewsExpert said:

Great now lets see how COX runs the Telemundo brand even more into the ground!

I don't understand this so I must be missing something. Could you show me how COX been running the Telemundo brand into the ground? I can only speak to WSOC who has been putting resources towards their Telemundo affiliate, like an evening newscast and producing Charlotte FC games with Telemundo specific announcers in their secondary studio. Not bad considering they could have just taken the national feed and slapped it on a subchannel. 

2 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

1. Move all of NewsNation's entertainment programs to The CW and Turn The CW into a rebirth of WGN America. 

 

2. Make NewsNation a full time NEWS Network on subchannels carried by its own Stations/ CW Affiliate subchannel Stations. 

 

If Nexstar does this then you could have both the entertainment aspect of The CW and your Full time news network with NewsNation (and NN would get much better ratings because it would be on a broadcast subchannel). 

 

You can't just move cable programming onto a broadcast channel. The contract to air BlueBloods, for example, is for a cable channel. Could you renegotiate? Sure. But it isn't as simple - or as cheap - as just moving them from NewsNation to the CW.

Next, while I appreciate the nostalgia for the WGN America brand, changing the name of The CW to WGN America is not a wise idea. What do affiliates call themselves? "WGN America 7",  "Charlotte's WGN America WCCB", you get the idea. There's also a cost associated with rebranding that each affiliate would bear. 

I also don't think you can assume NewsNation would "get much better ratings" being on a broadcast subchannel. Most subchannels aren't heavily viewed. Plus given that one of the few channel's to get substantial viewership is Nexstar's Antenna TV - I highly doubt they would bump that off the dot2 position. 

1 hour ago, Spring Rubber said:

"Oh sorry, the news isn't happening during our regular news programming schedule, so we're not covering it." lol

I bet this is less about a rigid programming schedule for their staff and more to do with cable operators agreements. As news programming has grown, the "general entertainment" programming from WGN America's original format has shrunk. Most old school contracts have a minimum number of hours that must be dedicated to the channel's stated programming purpose. So while I think NewsNation probably would have liked to cover it - and certainly had the resources to given the availability of a clean feed - I bet they couldn't afford to lose 3+ hours of their entertainment schedule.

Ultimately this is one of the biggest problems for this channel. The need to still fulfill old carriage agreements while trying to take on a new mission. At some point they need to go all in if they are going to try to be a full-service news network. 

39 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

Does this mean Nexstar won't be buying The CW?  Plus, switching the network to streaming only would hurt the affiliates, unless MyNetwork TV could fill some slots.

No, it just means someone with a Twitter account talked with a person who had two failed pilots at WB/Discovery. So this Tweet changes nothing; it is just rumor and conjecture. Until there is official word that Nexstar has sealed a deal for the network or that the current owners are shutting down its linear feed (a highly unlikely scenario given the network's affiliate contracts) we know nothing.

More than likely, the producer pitching products was told WB/Discovery was investing in HBO Max instead of CW. That makes sense given everything they have said about making a central streaming destination. Doesn't mean CW is shutting down...just means another owner has to fund it. 

My entire point here is that we don't know what is going to happen. The claim that "3K is history for WNBC" seems premature as the only thing we know is that the two stations are moving into a shared workspace. Shared workspaces does not equal new studios. Like I said, I hope WNBC does get a new set but there's no evidence at the moment to support that. Only speculation. 

I haven't forgotten that 30 Rock used to be filled with radio studios. But all of the radio studios that were capable of being transformed into television studios were converted over half a century ago. As for Studio 1A, it used to be a bank and the ceiling in that space, as is true for most ground floor retail space, is a story and half. In fact, the area over homebase didn't have a ceiling above it at all. You could look down from what is now the SPA into Studio 1A. 

But my aside about construction clearly became a distraction from the fact that neither B&C or NewscastStudio made any mention of WNBC getting a new studio. 

On 5/22/2022 at 8:35 PM, SnellKrell said:

3K will be history for WNBC! 

 

The station along with WNJU/Telemundo will be moving to newly constructed studios

on the 2nd Floor of 30 Rock.  Not sure of the date for the move.

What's your source that WNBC is leaving 3K? I've seen no public announcement that new "studios" are being built. According to Broadcasting & Cable, the two stations will share a "massive workspace extending from 49th Street to 50th Street" which will include a shared newsroom. But there was no mention of studios.

Since moving to Studio 3C in 2012 - and for decades earlier when WNBC used Studio 6B - the newsroom and station staff have been housed on a different floor than the studio. All of the television studios inside 30 Rock are two stories tall. So studio 3K starts on the 3rd floor and extends up to the 4th floor. Given there are four existing studios on the 3rd floor, it would be very difficult to find a physical footprint for a new studio that would start on the 2nd floor and extend up to the 3rd.  

Don't get me wrong, I'd like for them to get a new studio as I think the set in 3K is boring and doesn't fully utilize the space. And I certainly don't want to see them return to the days of a tiny conference room turned into a cramped "studio" space. (That's how Studio 7E was made) But I haven't seen anything to suggest a new WNBC studio is being built. Anyone have any info?

On 5/25/2022 at 4:31 PM, evwalker0901 said:

They have actually already moved to their new studio in DC (just over a month ago) but are pulling a WJZY and are only using a portion of the new set and have duplicated the look of the old set and wx center trying to make it

seem nothing has changed. 

I don't think they are in their new studio yet. Several stories have mentioned that both stations will move into a “state-of-the-art newsroom and studio currently under construction." According to the Washington Business Journal, the new newsroom and studio will be in WDCW's current building at 2121 Wisconsin Ave. NW. The paper reports that Nexstar signed a lease for an additional 29,000 sq. feet of space.  

Here's another source in case you are over your Biz Journal free views for the month: https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/nexstar-to-expand-local-news-operations-launch-dc-news-now

Live with Kelly and Ryan is a WABC production and so it could have been a control room issue. WABC has only one control room and from 8 to 10 a.m. Live has use of the control room. That's why the GMA local cut-ins on WABC are done in the newsroom instead of their news studio. Heck, for 20+ years the Live set and the Eyewitness News set shared the same studio. I mention this because it could have played a role in WABC's decision to go on-air with a special report. I'll be interested to see the new set up once they move downtown. 

The original Deadline article on Friday stated as fact that The Doctors and Daily Mail TV had been cancelled. Their original reporting said that producers of both shows had been informed of the cancellation. Several hours later Deadline amended their report to say that one of the two was being cancelled and execs had yet to decide. That's why the story on Deadline carries the UPDATED slug. However, they should have added a paragraph at the bottom clarifying HOW they were changing the story. The first version claimed both were cancelled, the updated version says "it appears unlikely that at least one of two" shows will continue into the future. It is a big pivot to go from "fact" to "appears unlikely" and I personally don't think the UPDATED slug is a sufficient explanation of the change in reporting. Just add a correction paragraph at the bottom, be transparent with what happened, and then move on. 

Will a moderator please just shut down this thread. The forum standards of quality state users are to be held to a "work safe" standard, yet one poster is cussing in their responses. And now that same poster has reduced this conversation to name calling. It is pretty sad that people can't make their point without personally attacking someone who disagrees with them. This same thing happened last month on the Standard General / Tegna thread.

Studio 45 at the CBS Broadcast Center was home to Inside Edition and Sunday Morning. The Sunday Morning hard set took up most of the space. Opposite the Sunday set was a large green screen that was utilized for the studio portions of Inside Edition. Studio 45 is now being used for Paramount Plus.

To me, the minimalistic set from the 70s is part of the DNA of the show. I think their chroma key looks cheap and is more reminiscent of the production value you'd see at a small market station, not a national news program. I know CBS values the story over the presentation, but there's a fine line between intentional minimalism and poor quality. 60 Minutes does all its studio wraps on blue screen and it looks extremely polished. 

I know studio space is at a premium and it is not efficient to have Studio 45 house a hard set that is only on air for 90 minutes a week. But there must be a better way to shoot this show. 

I've never understood why people call something dated when a graphics package (or hand me down set for that matter) comes to a new market. Has it been used before? You bet. Has it been used before on NCN? Nope. So to the viewers of News Channel Nebraska, it is a fresh look. I know this board doesn't like seeing graphics repurposed but this was an affordable way for Flood Communications to update their look. In this ad market I'm impressed a locally operated cable-only news channel is spending anything to evolve their on-air presentation.