norcalTVfan

KLEW newscasts are now produced and anchored from Boise. The quality has always been high school/college/cable access quality. The station veterans were great but everything else was so blah. It’s worse now.

The new set debuted on April 24. It is an improvement and is a “Top 2” set in a three newsroom market. For some reason, they decided to debut new “lower-thirds” that do not match their existing graphics package or on-air and on-set branding. The new “lower-thirds” and ticker use — insert audible GASP — use what appears to be Tahoma, instead of the Helvetica-esque font on everything else. These are atrocious and would be less so if they at least used the same font family found everywhere else. Cowles rolled the same super and ticker out to their other WA and MT stations, too.

TEGNA is taking a page out of the Scripps playbook now. In Spokane on KREM 2, the weeknight 11pm broadcast is now a replay of the 10pm they produce for their sister station. The main channel doesn’t even air live news at 11. No disclaimer on the TV that it isn’t live, but the app lags a few seconds behind the on-air feed and they match up word for word. Interestingly enough, the app has a “previously recorded” tag but keeps the 10pm time/temp bug. The on-air rebroadcast has the right bug. Seriously cheap as this is a mid-60s market. Is this happening elsewhere in TEGNA-land?

KPVI is an afterthought in a two-newsroom market. Its quality is on par with its former sister KIEM. Longtime users of this forum know that KIEM and quality typically aren’t mentioned in the same sentence.

I am not surprised as KREM has turned into a mini dumpster fire since they migrated to the new AI production platform. I think they may have undergone some additional budget tightening as well… It took them a few months to replace their morning anchor, some weekends there isn’t even a reporter in the field, and it appears they dumped their 5 PM weekend newscast to air a 30 minute week in review show.

Dan and Steph were the best. Glad they retired before this “NonStop Local” branding gimmick. Give me back “Q6” and the over-the-top graphics and music.

KREM is running blue graphics and not the colored ones typically associated with each different day part. I watched the first few minutes of the 4 PM news and it was choppy; the 5 PM seemed much better. The studio is apparently undergoing a refresh, but there have been no visible changes. The couch has been moved to the standup area, the news desk has been moved to the couch area, and the big screen seems to only be for the weather. Shots are really tight and the main anchors always appear together on camera.

Dennis Richmond was a prominent fixture not only in the Bay Area but throughout California. The Ten O’Clock news was widely available due to KTVU’s superstation status via cable and satellite. Even as the number of Fox affiliates grew in the west, most opted to simulcast KTVU’s popular Ten O’Clock news — at one time the most watched prime time newscast in the country.

I was channel surfing in the Pacific time zone and saw Collins/CNN and Hannity/Fox on the story. Meanwhile, Maddow/MSNBC kept rolling with an Alex Wagner piece re: Trump. It was awhile before they went to the crash. CBS was on and off the air with a special report before NBC brought in Hallie Jackson. edit: Chris Welch from 24/7 anchored initial CBS network coverage

I honestly believe this may spell the end of local news in Eureka, CA. Station KIEM - with partner KVIQ (LP) air the only local news after Sinclair closed up shop (on a much better product) and rolled everything to Redding in an adjacent market. I don’t think KIEM will roll into Redding as the other owner is Allen. I don’t think anyone wants KIEM and, if they do, will have trouble keeping news in that stagnant economy. This probably should go in the speculation thread.

Emerald Yeh way before KRON/SF

I just watched via NewsOn and it appears just 11a and 4p are shared. The Medford station still has morning (5a/6a) and evening newscasts (5p/6p/11p). So it’s not as bad as it could be yet.

KREM 2 in Spokane is now airing pre-recorded weekend forecasts from Denver. With this change, Meteorologist Michelle Boss, a 25-year station veteran, showed herself to the exit. The lingering question here is why Denver when their Seattle sister station has/had a large stable of weather talent.

It looks as if all of California’s sub-100 markets dropped a place or two.

Stan was in there at 5:05 with Jennifer Whitney. Not mentioned but shown.