Big Rollo Smokes

2 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I posted this on Broadcast Plaza’s A Block, but might as well highlight it here too. There has been so much turnover for TBN’s diginets in the past decade, to sum up:
* TBN Salsa (their attempt to target English-speaking Latinos/Hispanics) launched and failed within a couple of years;
* The Church Channel became Hillsong Channel and then, in the wake of Hillsong’s scandals, became TBN Inspire
* Smile and Juce TV (formerly JCTV) were merged into a Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite-style scheduling format OTA (Smile during the day and Juce at night for 12 hours each) for a couple years after Salsa launched, then re-separated back into two 24-hour feeds when Salsa was dropped;
* Juce (and its teen/YA-targeted format) was repurposed as a YouTube channel, while the OTA network got replaced by the family movie channel Positiv (becoming its first commercial diginet venture);
* Merit TV launched under a distribution partnership, hit financial issues within its first year and is now likely on the verge of being kicked off of TBN’s diginet suite;
* Enlace USA was shuffled off to streaming (bc of Merit’s launch);
* Smile (one of the few OTA kids’ channels) folded in January and had its OTA slot replaced by infomercial service OnTV4U.

For what it's worth most of this goes back to the Crouch family feud, in which Matthew and his wife Laurie (and by extension, their sons Caylan and Cody) prevailed over Paul Jr. and his children for succession rights.

P.J. and his son Brandon created JCTV, renamed JUCE after P.J. and his offspring were banished from TBN. Smile (of a Child) and the Church Channel were Jan Crouch's creations. As soon as she died, Matt and Laurie changed course on both.

TBN stayed away from wading into political waters when Paul Sr. and Jan were running the show. Of course, that all changed when Matt and Laurie gained full control once both his parents were gone. I see that as part natural evolution, and part Matt and Laurie seeking greater influence in those circles.

On 6/10/2025 at 4:07 PM, Georgie56 said:

Update: fired.

 

 

Terry Moran speaks out. His next act: Substack.

https://www.threads.com/@terrymoranjournalist/post/DKxy6ESxpE5?xmt=AQF0ykug5We3Dt7vnmPlx8Y0bvCm3z9dglgIDg2ee2ij0g

Lisa Guerrero is following Deborah Norville out the door at Inside Edition, leaving the show after 18 years as an investigative correspondent.

2 hours ago, cg4 said:

KSTW is technically already a CBS O&O.

...and has been a CBS affiliate thrice previously: 1953—1958, 1960–1962 (both as KTNT-TV) and 1995–1997. So CBS leaving KIRO-TV and going back to Channel 11 in Tacoma won't be much of a stunning development as what's about to happen in Atlanta.

From WABC-TV: Bill Ritter takes one more step towards retirement, announcing tonight (Mon 6/2) that he's stepping down as 5:00p co-anchor. He will continue to appear on Eyewitness News at 6:00p.

Mike Marza, who replaced Ritter at 11:00 not long ago, adds the 5:00 starting tomorrow (Tues 6/3).

https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/16636706/

I saw this in an FB group today...

14 hours ago, obxwatcher said:

 

What confuses me in the last few years is more ABC affiliates (especially the O&Os) dropping World News Now in favor of daytime reruns. There is an alternative to ABC News Live but at some point is it just better financially to rerun WNT and local news 11pm re-broadcast or does WNN still get good numbers streaming? They have solid likable anchors right now but some years WNN has anchors who have no chemistry and just do it for the network experience. 

 

I've often wondered about that also. I figured that once World News Now disappeared from the O&Os, the ticks on the clock would ring louder...but the newswatch continues. It is a relic of a bygone era, a time when the Big Three embraced the emerging 24-hour news cycle after the Gulf War and during the '92 U.S. election cycle. But NBC ended Nightside in 1998. CBS's Up to the Minute lasted a little longer, making it into the 2010s before morphing into its current incarnation.

My guess is that while WNN can't be making that much money for ABC News' bottom line, that show must be really cheap to produce.

From Oakland: KTVU's Dennis Richmond has passed at age 81.

2 hours ago, newsteam13 said:

Nobody comes home to watch the news anymore. Not even the local news at 5pm, 6pm and 11pm (10pm on central/mountain). Certainly not the network evening newscasts. More people are streaming nowadays, not to mention getting their news on the internet.

That's a very subjective statement.

Just because you may not come home to watch the evening news, don't assume "nobody" else does either. That invalidates the rest of your comment.

7 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

To me, this is another HUGE blow if true. It further drives away all respect I had for AMG.

 

They need to sell everything (including TWC) and FAST.

 

I god hope TWC gets new owners. They don't deserve this either.

You keep saying this same thing. Let me ask you: TO WHOM? You're looking for a white knight that may not exist. And forcing a sale doesn't necessarily help matters, because you may go from one bad operator to another. Be careful of what you wish for.

A better case scenario would be for viewers in the affected areas to file a formal complaint at the FCC, saying that AMG isn't operating in the public interest. If enough force is behind that, then something might happen. 

4 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I know. I understand it's not. It was in the heat of the moment that it's astonishing.

I live by this simple rule: If you don't have anything nice to say about something or someone, then don't say anything.**

**Personal exceptions are allowed. For me it's my former spouse, congestion tolling in New York City, and the incoming president.

3 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Oh cool, more fights and heated arguments. Again, it should've been canceled a long time ago, and yet is being expanded. I really don't get it.

Chances are you're not in the show's target demo.

If you aren't, and you don't watch the show, then there is no reason for you to complain.

It looks as though TheGrio is dead. Long live TheGrio.

FTV Live reported it today, and the website backs it up: Program listings are gone. 

Never thought I would say this, but Byron Allen is officially the biggest broadcast grifter of the century.

2 hours ago, VHSgoodiesWA said:

Losing Aaron is a major loss to TV news...Very unique charisma and PROFESSIONAL on the air.

He will be missed!!

If Aaron stayed at ABC, I believe he would have inherited the World News Tonight anchor chair when Jennings passed.

From his former World News Now co-anchor Lisa McRee, via IG: 

Aaron Brown, formerly of KING-TV and KIRO-TV in Seattle, ABC (one of the original anchors on World News Now), and CNN (Newsnight with Aaron Brown), passed on Dec. 29 at age 76.

5 hours ago, HanSolo said:

Thus, “aside from morning.” And apart from that and the Disney parks commercial, it’s 13 something hours of NBA, so yeah, it’s all day. 

Stop over-exaggerating.

8 hours ago, HanSolo said:

AKA by whom?

 

Aside from that, and aside from morning, what news? It’s all NBA all day and all night.

They've called themselves that on the air.

And it's not all basketball all day long. There is a morning show at least.

8 minutes ago, HanSolo said:

And why are we even speculating that is the case?  Some things just are.

I was going to add that channel 7 might do as they've done for years and have their prominent Jewish staffers (aka the "Eyewitness Jews"–Bill Ritter, Lauren Glassberg, Lee Goldberg among them) front the Xmas day shows. But with Hanukkah starting on Wednesday as well, probably not.

11 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

New from Cyle Dickens from KWQC, some mid-80's motion graphics to a nice period beat from a BPME videomag.

 

 

BPME? What are you talking about?

With all due respect, sometimes it can be a bit difficult to follow along with your posts. They come off as too heavy with "inside baseball" shorthand and in attempts to use clever and even snarky wordplay.

I would respectfully recommend using just plain ol' English. We'll still get the gist of what you're saying.

6 hours ago, bmasters1 said:

Shocking-- hardly knew he was even sick. 

If you read the linked article, it says no other details are known. Don't assume unless you know the facts.

4 hours ago, NowBergen said:

 

In being on the air.  Not in terms of total years in the anchor chair in DMA 1.  Chuck started in 1974.  For that the attention should be on Chuck's storied career.  Honestly, I'm not sure why Chuck's retirement from daily anchoring impacts WABC TV.  

It doesn't. Scarborough was here for a full quarter-century before Ritter started replacing Beutel on Eyewitness News weeknights. I don't think Ritter has any intentions of working into his 90s if he wants to catch up to Chuck's record.

Charles Scarborough was the last anchorperson on NYC TV to have been on the air in this market, at that position, prior to 1980.

As far as on-air personnel in any station going back to the decade of the '70s, it looks like it'll be down to just Marvin Scott (WNEW-TV, WPIX) and Irv "Mr. G" Gikovsky (WCBS-TV, WPIX).

Come Dec. 13, Kaity Tong (WABC-TV, WPIX) will be the city's longest-tenured news anchor (43 years and counting). Rosanna Scotto (WNYW) is next on the longevity list.

On 10/13/2024 at 6:07 PM, TheNewsTV said:

Just like yesterday, the newscast at 6pm is back on WWOR.

 

Could WWOR soon be rebranded as FOX 5 Plus?! Recently, WPWR was rebranded as FOX Chicago Plus.

15 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Granted WWOR is licensed to New Jersey but why is the state so protective of the station when channels like 4 and even 7 cover New Jersey pretty well?

5 hours ago, NowBergen said:

 

A little history.  For many years, WOR's owner, RKO General, had broadcast license renewal issues with the FCC due to many concerns with the parent company and its practices..  Meanwhile, NJ senators had a rule passed in Congress that any commercial station that would relocate to a state without a VHF TV station would get immediate renewal from the FCC.  NJ's only VHF station had switched to public tv status much earlier (now WNET).  The intent was to have a broadcast station much more NJ focus than the NY/PHL stations that cover a few, not exclusively NJ stories. RKO General saw this as a way out of their mess for WOR.  The FCC first agreed, and put in place the requirement that WOR would need to have a news product and focus more on NJ than NY.  The station moved, set up a news department and some local programming (e.g. 9 Broadcast Plaza) but in the end it did not prevent the FCC from yanking the licenses.  Once sold, it became WWOR and each subsequent  owner was required by the FCC to maintain the NJ focus as part of their license.  Then came Fox, who bought WWOR, moved most of its operations into WNYW Fox 5, then watered down the unique newscast, then cancelled it, first replacing it with Chasing NJ at a late night hour, then dropping all news.  Subsequently, all operations were moved to NYC.  Only recently has any news reappeared on WWOR, a tape repeat of the 6 pm news on Fox5, not a unique fresh newscast.  The news broadcasts due to sports on Fox5 that have recently showed up on WWOR are Fox5 news (branding and content). For those reasons, critics are correct in that Fox is not meeting the conditions of WWOR's license.  

The conditions that existed 40-plus years ago exist no more. WWOR-TV technically is a UHF station now, and has been since 6/12/2009. And the Secaucus studio is long gone.

The FCC doesn't regulate content or anything else for that matter anymore, thus why they didn't apply pressure on Fox when WWOR first replaced its traditional newscast with Chasing New Jersey/Chasing News and why they did nothing when that show went away altogether in spite of protest by New Jersey electeds.

Though it doesn't matter much in this era, it's about time to return WWOR's license back to New York City proper. And let Fox rebrand it to "Fox 5 Plus". I'd like to see it happen

3 hours ago, TheNewsTV said:

I would like to see a Sade and Liz duo, like it was at 5pm years ago with Sade and Tappy.

You meant Sade and Diana Williams. Tappy Phillips never anchored at channel 7.

Remembee that the Big Three went all-in on overnight news in the wake of the Gulf War and the endless hourly updates we got. NBC long ago got rid of Nightside, but that was for a different reason, of course.

Several years ago, CBS ended Up to the Minute and replaced it with CBS Overnight News, which is just a repurposed edit of previous night's Evening News. Makes better financial sense, I guess.

But really, the need for live news in that hour isn't worth the expense. Combined with all the other factors, I'm still surprised ABC hasn't canceled WNN yet.