Chicago's Very Own

Naturally, just two minutes into their big premier of the new set and graphics, and Patrick Elwood gets angry women shouting and swearing at him during a liveshot. The new graphics look great, WAY better than their previous ones. Much cleaner-looking.

So WGN here in Chicago is gonna be undergoing some big changes later on today, they're debuting a new set and a new logo, and I figured I may as well post some of these classic WGN videos from the 2000s. I found an entire 40 minutes of WGN Morning News from March 2004 (description says 2001, but he's mistaken. They only started using that logo and graphics around December 2002/January 2003, plus one of the events they described in the headlines was definitely in late 2003). Robin was still doing traffic and rocked a Tony Montana-style suit, and they still talked via satellite to Sam Rubin of KTLA. You can where they do the 8:30 am intro and read the news. At that point in the video, there's a graphics error in the headlines and the wrong clips are shown with the stories being read. Also, the song in the background during the headlines after the intro that they still sometimes use in the mornings isn't a stock music piece or something that they made in-house. It's the extended version of ! When I was a kid, I figured it was just their own news music. "Girls on Film" is used during some Dean Richards segments, so I guess someone at WGN is a big Duran Duran fan. While we're on the subject of WGN, I think this is the best open music they've ever used, and I wish they would have kept this tune when they redid the music packages in 2007 and 2014. And the Noon/9pm variant (complete with their even older logo) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-vQFpyJd8

Jeez, is Andy Lack intent on taking MSNBC to a new part of the political spectrum? Is Rachel Maddow not critical of Trump to him? Being critical of Trump isn't even a fire-able offense on Fox News (Shepard Smith would have been gone months ago if that was the case). It doesn't make any sense given that their progressive programming has been bringing in more ratings.

No kidding, I'm starting to wonder now if their theme music will even change with this, too. They're ditching their 2014 graphics even though they're only about three years old, with that plus the new set and new logo, why not go all out?

They showed it again this morning, I saw it a few minutes ago, but it disappeared quickly.

Of course, I don't see anything wrong with connecting to viewers through social media, but I agree, and I still think this is a very thin line that they're walking due to the nature of the stories that this is being done with. They're better off doing this for things that don't involve murders or serious crimes or anything, save it for goofier stories or entertainment news.

Oh dear, just what we need, taking a page from FNC I see? Reporters giving their personal opinion on serious ongoing events? Even if it's exclusive to Facebook Live, I could still see this causing a few issues despite the rise in clicks and views it generates. It sucks for Padilla, because she probably has no say in whether she does or doesn't do these, she's just trying to keep her job, and this could fall on her if something goes awry with it.

If that truly is the case and MSNBC is considering a format change and a move away from progressive politics, then I guess their end goal is to be "The Fox News that you won't feel guilty about watching and supporting."

I'm surprised that something like that could still happen, even for smaller markets that they seemed to target, given how easy it would be to find so-called public figures and guests on social media, there's ways of finding out if people are legit even if they provide false details. It reminds me of when Sacha Baron Cohen got on some local news show in Mississippi as "Borat." The makers of the film supposedly gave the producer a fake PR website, but always double check with other sources (even back then, a simple Google search would have given him away). She ended up leaving the station after that, too, because her boss started second-guessing everything she did after that. For this, the fault lies with whoever at the station didn't do their proper research and just haphazardly booked them without second thought.

That logo has been there since they updated the studio a few months ago, but we haven't seen any official changes to the logo for 720 yet so it might have just been something randomly used by the sponsor, but I do love the look of it (probably because of the font they used, it's just just a standard Arial or whatever they currently use). That font with the "W" logo would look good probably. I also think it'd make a good logo for WGN TV if they didn't want to go for a retro look (even though that's probably what they'll end up going with if that logo accidentally shown on the Evening News is anything to go by).

Can't wait to see how that'll look on the lower third, I assume the "WGN" lettering will be drawn with a Sharpie

I'm interested in seeing the new set finished for the first time, and it's cool that they want to get the anchors outside on the plaza more often too! It's also understandable that the FNC crisis hasn't affected their own newsroom, and I wonder if they've considered if the association with Fox News could possibly have a negative effect due to some viewers maybe not recognizing the difference or just not wanting to watch because of the "Fox" in the name. Maybe they did and just figured it wouldn't be enough people mistaking "Good Day Chicago" for a "Fox & Friends" style show to really worry about losing any viewership (not like they would have been able to do much of anything about it anyway, as they're O&O).

And don't forget, Tucker Carlson even had a show on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. Even he admitted "They didn't have a role for me" after they changed the programming to include mostly liberal commentators.

That's awesome! I'm gonna try my hand at a mock-up of this later on. I think it'll be a cool-looking logo if it does end up getting used, much better than the current one that replaced the old "W6N" looking logo (not that the current one is bad in any way, but this would be a nice upgrade and I kind of like the retro look, and it'd also go along with their affiliates KTLA and PIX11 using somewhat retro logo styles). EDIT: Made my own mock-up of what this might have looked like. Thanks, Spring Rubber, for the description of this. Hope it's close to what they obviously accidentally showed off too early.

Don't forget about all of these renderings of potential logos for WGN America, which were posted by the artist who they approached for a new logo design in 2013 (and for the record, I'm glad they decided against calling the station "GNA"). Personally, this one is my favorite out of the bunch. It resembles the "Code Pro" font and I think it'd suit the 80s-style "9" well.

Did the WGN font in that logo resemble the font used for WGN America? If it looked anything like that, then maybe they're considering going for more consistency with the "WGN" brand, considering WGN Radio uses a similar font. I really hope to see them change the logo and use the classic style 9, I think it's about time for a logo upgrade and it'd be a more recognizable and remarkable one I think. And I remember when WGN's non-news Twitter account used that retro "9" as their icon, so maybe it's something that they've been wanting to do for a while.

With Rachel Maddow doing pretty well in the ratings lately from what I've heard, and the way the political climate is today and the types of presenters they bring on, MSNBC could very well be in the right position to do better than they used to. Certainly among left-leaning viewers, but as a friend suggested when we were discussing Megyn Kelly's move to NBC (and I'm sure she'll make appearances on MSNBC as well, if she doesn't get her own show again eventually), maybe even among centrists and moderate Republicans with the addition of a few former FNC personalities.

To me, it always seemed like WBBM's set and overall studio is really small compared to others, probably because I think they zoom in a little too far on their anchors sometimes. On topic though, am I the only one who thinks this new WFLD set looks kind of retro/vintage from this picture? I'll save a full judgement for when we see the final set, but besides the futuristic-looking desk and the LEDs, it looks kind of "Fox & Friends-meets-70s/80s design."