H4UL4U

Appreciate the perspective of someone who has been there. Again, just from my observations here and other places, it seems the TEGNA stations that are struggling with new format(s) are stations that were already the dog station in town (or certainly not in 1st place). So in essence they are trying to change things up because they have nothing left to lose, and they probably had inept management to begin with (rampant everywhere, not just in TV). I think people who don't work in the industry have any idea just how much sales can influence the news product of a station. I'm not saying it's right, it's just the way it is. Also, wasn't Belo notoriously slow to embrace new trends and technology in the industry? It certainly seemed like they were. Going from a company stuck in the old ways to a company that encourages change is going to have some growing pains.

I'm not too familiar with the company, other than I see a lot of people on here and a certain TV news blog complain about TEGNA. I live in a state with a TEGNA station (now two, actually, thanks to the Gray-Raycom merger). If they have rolled out their changes it hasn't affected this station's ratings. Old Gannett poured a lot of money into this station and it became a relevant player in the market and has stayed there for the better parts of two decades. There is not a tremendous amount of turnover at this station, and most of their on-air staff are older and I would assume well paid, which supposedly are the target of TEGNA's implosion of their stations (again, not my opinion). Like someone else said, it's all the local management. Same goes for all TV stations, and really every place of business.

Careful. The internet will tell you TEGNA is the absolute worst.

Per is Facebook page, WCMH sports director Jerod Smalley suffered a small stroke at home early Friday morning. An MRI revealed no permanent damage. A previously undiscovered heart defect contributed to the episode for the otherwise healthy 39-year-old. He his home after a two-day hospital stay, and will have surgery to correct the defect. No word if/when he will return to work.

Heck, I still see Don Webster (longtime meteorologist at WEWS) in commercials, and he's been retired for close to 20 years, if not longer. When Dick Goddard returned to the air for his "retirement" he seemed quite frail. For years WKYC was a revolving door due to their O&O status. Essentially it was the minor league for NBC's talent. They would do their time at KYC then move on to a larger O&O station, or in some cases like Al Roker, go straight to the network.

FTVLive will still say they were FIRST...

WBNS was classy enough to acknowledge his accident and an update on his condition on their Facebook page.

WJRT noon and 5 p.m. meteorologist Chris Mulcahy announced today on his Facebook page he is leaving for WCNC in Charlotte. I worked with Chris in Dayton. He's good people.

Given that Nexstar's management all the way down to the station level is one big good 'ol boys club, Uncle Perry standing by their GM isn't surprising.

What is the control room area behind Lester while he is anchoring on set? Does anyone know?

It seems too TV news in general will be live from whatever is breaking; whether on the local level be that a fire, shooting, or car crash, or on the national level that may be the border, the scene of the latest mass shooting, or some type of natural disaster where people's lives are clearly impacted and have a story to tell. More often than not, once the liveshot or broadcast is done they pack up and leave with little followup on the event, just being live for the sake of being live like it's 1978 and that was the new thing.

Unless you can find a way to check the station's archives, circulating tapes is the only way. Some stations still didn't save very much because tapes were expensive and needed to be wiped and re-used, and they took up shelf space. Before the internet, stations would often trade tapes with each other. After the advent of home recorders, it was possible for viewers at home to record news shows, but I feel like those would be watched once than used again.

That was quick. Good for her.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought it was earlier than that, maybe I remember her at BNS and that's why.

To add to WCMH departures; today was midday, 5, and 5:30pm anchor Ellie Merritt's last day, and Saturday was meteorologist Tara Lane's last day. Ellie, who was at the station at least a decade and also worked at WSYX, is leaving the industry "to spend time with her daughters." Tara was only at the station about a year. Guess her husband couldn't find full time work in Columbus so they are going back to North Carolina. She is good enough to return to the air down there.

Here is a partial WCMH noon newscast from 1998.

Isn't Nexstar already at the cap?

As has been reported elsewhere, Tegna is on a huge hiring spree, mostly in mid-to-large size markets (Atlanta, D.C., Austin, Dallas). They were offering buyouts last year to a lot of their older/more expensive employees, so I'm sure most of these jobs posted don't pay great.

Another thought. Perhaps Fox could develop programming they syndicate in-house to the other O&Os like Tribune, Tegna and Scripps do. Not all local time may be devoted to a traditional newscast.

A newscast with a 0.4 rating can still make a profit. And 9.9/10 times no extra staffing would be needed. The Golden Age of syndication is long since over, so if anything more news or locally-produced lifestyle shows will take their place. I could see with Fox's greater commitment to sports programming your typical news timing (i.e. 5, 6, 10) getting shaken up.

Are those CBS and ABC clips the West Coast feeds of the evening news? The assassination of King occurred after the evening news would have concluded on the East Coast. Perhaps the Dan Rather clip was the SR for the East Coast stations.

WCMH has the new website.

Don't give Nexstar any ideas...their current branding is "Local 4 You." Reporters have to say it in their sig outs.