bpatrick

I'm not sure I'd say that WAGA is not a legacy station. It has been on since 1949, although it has been with Fox since 1994. All that time it has been a (mostly) competitive second to WSB. WXIA, however, had no ties to a radio station (unlike WSB and WAGA), and has been on the air since 1951, but I doubt if anyone considers it a legacy station, what with a long history of turnover in ownership, call letters, and personalities.

Anne Garrels, who reported from Moscow for ABC and had stints at NPR and NBC, has died at age 71.

I missed KNXV in the listing for Afternoon Focus. But it still surprises me that the show isn't being carried in Scripps' home market. Not only that but Cincinnati, while maybe not as big as Phoenix or Tampa, is a sight bigger than Lafayette, LA or Tallahassee. Maybe WCPO will pick it up later. I'll also be watching to see if WTVF does so; this one's going to be iffy if it's meant to be an afternoon show. They've got Kelly Clarkson at 3, Newschannel 5 at 4, and Inside Edition at 4:30. If Afternoon Focus gets on in Nashville, I suspect Inside Edition would have to go.

Still amazing that "Afternoon Focus" seems to be rolling out on Scripps' smaller stations. Still waiting to see if stations like WXYZ, WEWS, WMAR, WCPO, WTVF, WFTS, and KNXV pick it up.

WFTV is usually number one on Orlando but it is surprising, when I look at WSB, that they don''t have Kelly and Ryan, Kelly Clarkson, or Tamron and WSB does. One other big difference is that WSB and WSOC have Entertainment Tonight at 7:30 while WFTV has Wheel of Fortune (although I wouldn't say that's an inferior program). And I agree about a 4 PM newscast on WSOC; I'm puzzled as to why they haven't started one when WBTV and WCNC have, and Charlotte is a big-enough market for it to work (after all, there are three 4 PM newscasts each in Raleigh and Greensboro).

Re JHud in Norfolk: WVBT will have her at 5 PM, repeating at 3 AM.

Finally found out what replaces Ellen on WFMY. They're going with a 9 AM edition of their local Good Morning Show. Otherwise, no changes.

I'm not surprised that LMAD is moving to 2 PM on KTVT. Their sister CBS o&os in Los Angeles and Chicago have already done this. I'm wondering if, by splitting Drew Barrymore into two half-hours, her show may be on its way out.

Have something from Atlanta. WGCL is expanding its 3 PM newscast to an hour, giving the station four and a half hours of continuous news, including CBS (which airs at 6:30). "The Big Bang Theory" remains at 7:30 as the last syndicated show on Channel 46. "Inside Edition" can be seen on sister station WPCH at 11 PM.

Checking TV Passport, I see that WFMY has its daytime schedule for Sept. 12 through 11 AM and is still showing Ellen airing at 9 AM. That can't be right. Does anybody know something I don't about what's going into that slot?

U.S. networks have not expanded beyond 30 minutes because of resistance from the affiliates. After all, who's going to give up the revenue from "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy!," "ET," or even local news? In fact, it was when WABC put "Jeopardy!" at 7 and moved "World News Tonight" to 6:30 that affiliates with network newscasts at 7 began moving them to 6:30 (there are a few exceptions, such as WSB, WRC, KDKA, WRGB, and WCAX). But I have said many times that if I had my own network, my newscast would be on at 10--far more potential viewers than at 6:30.

WBTV is a CBS affiliate. WCNC is the NBC affiliate in Charlotte.

I think it makes great sense. In the Central time zone people are more likely to watch the news at 10 than at 6, and given that many people in the Eastern and Pacific time zones aren't home at 6 they can catch the news at a more convenient time. I know of Fox stations (including one of my two, WGHP) that think a 10:00 newscast is the best thing that ever happened to them; Fox outlet WBRC in Birmingham, with a 9:00 news, registers in the range of 60 shares. When the access rule was first proposed, there was a debate about whether primetime would be 7:30-10:30 or 8-11 (ET/PT). One fear was that if primetime ended at 10:30, the networks would expand their late-night talk shows to two hours, starting at 11/10. (The networks opted for an 8/7 start mainly because they could run more demographically desirable programs from 10-11.) My point here is that I don't know if NBC would move Jimmy Fallon to 11:05, giving him a half-hour's head start on Colbert and Kimmel, but anything is possible.

For the station, the beauty of having local news instead of syndicated programs is the ability to control the costs and avoid being at the mercy of a syndicator who will raise the price of the show if it's a hit. But I also wonder if this news thing is getting out of hand when I see a station like WSMV running nothing but news (local and NBC) and local lifestyle shows from 4 AM-7 PM nonstop.

I'm hearing that WTVF is adding a 9 am newscast starting Sept. 6, followed by The List at 9:30, and moving Kelly Clarkson to 3 pm, in Ellen's former slot. (On Labor Day there will be infomercials from 9 to 10.) Also, WNCN is replacing Ellen with a second double-run of Judge Judy from 3-4 pm (that's in addition to the double-run it already has from 7-8 pm).

Addendum: Sherri Shepherd will be on WXLV at noon, repeating at 2 AM. I'm still waiting to find out what WFMY will run at 9 AM in place of Ellen. (Please! Anything but Andy Griffith!)

In the Piedmont Triad, Jennifer Hudson will be on WXII at 3 PM.

What I'm talking about is that there are no longer any syndicated shows on WAVE or WBTV (and WSMV is joining them); when their networks are down, they have either local news or locally-produced lifestyle shows. WBTV carries the entire CBS daytime lineup, and Days of Our Lives will be on WAVE until Sept. 9. As for WGCL, Inside Edition and The Big Bang Theory are syndicated, but they are the last two syndicated shows on CBS46.

Gray is pushing its stations to replace syndicated programs with news and news-related programming. WAVE and WBTV have already done that; WGCL is down to just two syndicated programs, 'Inside Edition" and "The Big Bang Theory." I suspect there are some Gray stations carrying "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" that are just waiting for the contracts to expire so they can put news at 7 Eastern or 6:30 Central.

The last time I remember college students getting excited over a soap was during the Luke and Laura craze on "General Hospital." And that was more than 40 years ago!

Given that both Cox and Tegna own stations in Jacksonville, wouldn't one of their stations, or perhaps one of the duopolies, have to be sold? I don't see what Graham Media is kicking about. As I understand it, Cox intends to keep the CBS/Fox duopoly, so the Tegna ABC/NBC duopoly would seem to be a sure bet to be sold. '

I think this business about CBS daytime started with the suggestion of KDKA having an hour-long noon newscast, none of which would be produced by the CW affiliate, and I did my fair share to contribute to it.

WNCN kept Y&R at 4 because WRAL had been carrying it at that time since 1993. If Y&R moved to 1 PM and B&B to 2, I figure that the earlier time zones would still have Y&R at 11 AM and B&B at 1 PM. There are a few stations (Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, and Springfield, MO) that presently carry Y&R at 11:30; they might opt to carry it at noon. I would suspect that CBS would turn it back over to the affiliates at 2:30/1:30.

I suspect there are more than a few CBS affiliates that would agree about moving Y&R to 1 and B&B to 2. There must be some that dislike having a half-hour noon newscast when the ABC and NBC affiliates have an hour. OTOH, the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, which is owned by Nexstar, cut its noon news to 30 minutes, moved Y&R from 4 PM to 12:30, and added a 4 PM newscast.