atlnewsfan03

Here in Atlanta, WXIA and WATL have been operating out of the Monroe Place broadcasting facilities since July 2008 when TEGNA predecessor Gannett bought WATL from Tribune some 2 years prior (in 2006), and Gannett extensively renovated the long-time WATL broadcasting facility, and the old WXIA facility on West Peachtree Street (and right next door to Cox Media Group ABC affiliate WSB) was sold and reopened as a school specializing in media production and studies. The number of times I've passed by WXIA-WATL studios, which appears to be located on a hill overlooking I-85 and Buford-Spring Connector, doesn't look to be very big. I doubt that Nexstar or whoever WXIA-WATL's eventual new owner is after TEGNA case is settled plans to leave that facility anytime soon. Of the competing Atlanta stations, WSB appears to have a big facility (for both TV and radio) that was built and opened in July 1998. Fox O&O WAGA has been at Briarcliff Road since Summer 1966, and it appears to be a decent sized building. Gray Media's WANF has been at 14th Street since March 2001 and that looks to be a decent sized building. CBS O&O WUPA appears to be in an office complex on Southbound I-85 Access Road, and appears to be on a hill with trees blocking the view from the main entrance, and my guess is the space to be small, and I'd imagine CBS moving its Atlanta operations to newer location in the next couple of years.

I personally wouldn't be surprised if the NBC O&O stations go the route of filling timeslots where syndicated shows would air with locally produced fanfare, such as advertorial type happy talk themed talk shows, similar to those seen on TEGNA stations, or adding new daily newscasts, like a 3PM newscast to their station line-ups. Unless the stations opt for non-NBCU syndicated shows, or sitcom reruns. If NBC was to put the soap opera Days Of Our Lives back on their daytime schedule, they could easily cut Today morning franchise back to 3 hours by merging the 3rd and 4th hour into a new "Later Today" hour with Jenna and Sheinelle getting 3 new co-hosts, and NBC News Daily program sticking around. This would be a wait and see.

CBS Evening News at one time, we can collectively agree, was the ratings juggernaut back during the days of Walter Cronkite. Cronkite's most notable competition was The Huntley-Brinkley Report, co-hosted by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, and that program would be renamed to what we know today as NBC Nightly News. ABC Evening News became ABC World News Tonight when Roone Arledge was brought in to give ABC a major ratings turnaround. After Cronkite left CBS in 1981, it seems that CBS gave up on being competitive against ABC and NBC, as evidenced by CBS Evening News remaining stuck in last place behind ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, as well as CBS Mornings (also carried names like CBS Early Show and CBS This Morning, which CBS has struggled to make up its mind with a long-term morning show branding) remaining stuck in last place behind ABC Good Morning America and NBC Today. Although CBS had a notable exception during the 1998-99 period when CTM had a short-lived ratings surge and GMA had the pairing of Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman that proved to be a ratings disaster, and management at CBS seeming to also embrace the "status quo" and "lack of patience" mindsets. I'd hope CBS management would break free of those mindsets, and embrace giving Tony Dokoupil time to prove himself.

If the 4 major US television networks (ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS) don't make necessary changes to keep their network affiliation model with local stations to remain relevant, we could see more local stations copying the WPLG-10 and WANF-46 approach, and I'd even throw in stations like WHDH-7 and WJXT-4, that were once affiliates of major networks and moved in the direction of being independent stations focused on production of local programming (such as daily newscasts, sports programming, local talk/advertorial shows, charity telethons, etc.), and developing new content creators. We know that the US is unlikely to see the major networks being like Canada where local affiliates are network owned and operated. Major downside would be local stations having legacy identities stripped from them (examples could be, MCTYW music leaving WPVI, and 11Alive name leaving WXIA, which viewers of those stations expressed dismay at those stations doing that back 30 years ago, and those stations were forced to reverse course to keep their local viewing audience pleased) for a modern day cookie-cutter identity (example there is how Scripps, Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna, Gray, and Cox have visually-identical graphics and identical music themes on their stations).

I too agree that Nexstar would be smart to divest stations, especially the larger market stations, including Denver and Charlotte. I'd even add places like Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Columbus (Ohio), Sacramento, San Diego, Portland (Oregon), Hartford-New Haven, Norfolk, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Buffalo, to name a few. As for who'd buy up divested stations would be a different discussion for a different day.

We've seen it with another WCBS-TV anchor, Chris Wragge. He did that one-year stint on the former CBS Early Show that CBS could never get out of last place and NBC Today and ABC Good Morning America mopping the floor with CBS. CBS switch back to CBS This Morning, and reassigned Wragge to WCBS-TV 6PM news and then later reassigned him to Morning (and Noon) news. Erica Hill was a short-lived holdover from CBSES till she exited CBS some 8 or 9 months later to move to NBC, and Norah O'Donnell replacing her on CBSTM. Jeff Glor, another CBS employee who appeared to us to be loyal to that TV news organization, and him being reassigned numerous times, including his short-lived run as CBS Evening News anchor (2017-19), and CBS reassigned him to CBS Saturday Morning, and he was laid-off last year. Part of me can't fathom Glor giving the CBS management the benefit of the doubt after the way they treated him in not giving him time to prove himself to the CBSEN audience. A thing I'd point out about CBS management is they must really love having an apparent "dysfunctional" work environment, and the management also being dysfunctional, combined with their lack of patience, and being "status quo" oriented. SMH in disbelief.

If (this is speaking theoretically) CBS were to re-affiliate with KSTW 11 and KIRO 7 were to go independent, KIRO would be able to hold its own. WHDH and WJXT have done remarkably well since losing their network affiliations. I'd anticipate WPLG, which is also losing its network affiliation in August, along with WANF, holding its own too. I'd agree with responses by @TVLurker and @Howard Beale about Gray Media investing too much money and resources into WANF (which previous owners Tribune and Meredith, from the WGNX and WGCL days, did very little to no investing), to CBS likely not being interested in buying WANF.

It'll certainly be interesting to see the new Scripps group graphics and music package introduced to the other Scripps group stations (including WEWS, WCPO, WPTV, WRTV, WTVF, KMGH, KTNV, etc.). I could see this throwing a hint to competing groups like Tegna and Hearst, if any of them are mulling over new graphics and music packages for their stations.

I also wonder if ABC has made any kind of offer to buy the South Florida station.

I wouldn't be surprised if other Fox O&O stations are to get similar morning newscast openings like that of WFLD 32 and KCPQ 13. For WNYW 5, they'd have the Mahattan skyline buildings (like 1WTC, Empire State Building, etc.), the Statue Of Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge as local landmarks that'd easily be in their Good Day opening. KTTV 11 would have the Hollywood sign. WTTG 5 would have the U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument, White House, etc. It'll be interesting to see this be rolled out.

My initial thoughts would've been either Savannah Guthrie or Kate Snow being safer bets, as they have the name recognition, and have been around longer than Llamas. Granted, it'd remain to be seen if Llamas can deliver ratings for NBC's flagship news program after Holt leaves, and if NBC truly has confidence in him. Plus we no longer see anchors of the flagship network evening news programs sticking around for 20+ years like we used to with Brokaw, Rather, and Jennings back in the old days.

We can only hope NBC doesn't mess this one up, and that the selection of Tom Llamas to anchor NBC Nightly News after Lester Holt departs to focus on Dateline NBC isn't a repeat of Jeff Glor's short-lived run on CBS Evening News, or anything like Deborah Norville or Ann Curry's short-lived runs as Today co-hosts, or Christiane Amanpour's short-lived tenure on This Week, or the short-lived pairing of Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman on Good Morning America.

The Upper West Side area (Lincoln Center and West 66th) was to ABC for decades, with the exception of GMA that is based at Times Square, prior to the recent decision made by Disney to relocate ABC's NYC-based properties and productions to Hudson Square near lower Manhattan. We know Rockefeller Plaza is to NBC. And the Hell's Kitchen area (along West 57th) is to CBS, with the exceptions of CBS Mornings (2021-Present) that is based in the Paramount Building near Times Square, and the former CBS Early Show (1999-2012) that was based in the GM Building near Central Park. NBC and CBS getting nifty investments similar to what ABC got would remain to be seen.

WABC-TV's new set looks very nice I must say. The Circle 7 fixture above the main anchor desk and home-base area is also quite neat. The anchor desk also looks nice. I'm curious as to whether the new WABC-TV Eyewitness News set is Broadcast Design International, FX Design Group, or Z Space Creative project, or something from a different set design firm. Hopefully the old WABC-TV set at Lincoln Center that made its final appearance this weekend gets donated to a local college or charter school journalism studies program and put to great use. Just sayin'.

Byron Allen's media empire could be subject FCC and congressional investigations and paying hefty fines to the FCC over this apparent violation of not serving the best interests local TV viewing audiences. At this point, Allen would probably be smart to sell his local TV stations off to companies that can operate stations that would adhere to serving public interests in good faith, and building up new groups of up-and-coming content creators.

I'd be on board with CBS allowing its affiliates to have the full Noon-1PM Eastern time slot for local midday news... The Price Is Right remain in its 11AM Eastern time slot... and CBS shifting The Young & The Restless to 1PM Eastern time... The Bold & The Beautiful moving to 2PM Eastern time... and The Gates at 2:30PM Eastern time. I'd also be okay with CBS parting ways with Let's Make A Deal to accommodate CBS Mornings Plus, and affiliates having the option to air it at 9AM or 10AM.

Rebekka Schramm was with WANF during the Clear News era, then the back-and-forth CBS Atlanta/CBS 46 eras, and Atlanta News First. Not sure whether she may show up at a competing station later on or if she's leaving the news business entirely to try something new. Hopefully Schramm remains in Atlanta.

Nexstar would have to sell off a few stations in order to acquire any additional stations they see as lucrative and keep WPIX.

With Dana Tyler's time at CBS2 coming to a close. Hopefully this isn't goodbye for Dana, assuming she decides to show up at one of the competing NYC stations (NBC4, FOX5, ABC7, or PIX11) for I believe she's got a few more years left in reporting news. Wishing Dana all the best.

Another thought could be CBS & the Bell family expanding B&B to 1 hour, and The Gates be a half-hour soap. It'll be interesting to see what CBS might be planning.

It'll be interesting to see how those soon-to-be former CW affiliates that are CBS O&O will do as independent stations. It's been nearly 17 years since The WB and UPN went away when they merged to create The CW. I miss seeing those 2 networks as independent entities, and we all know they're not coming back. We can likely expect call letter changes for some of the affected stations to phase out any CW references. The next couple of months will be interesting.

The CBS News Detroit set doesn't look too bad. Graphics is okay. As is the new This Is CBS News Theme. With WWJ-TV returning to in-house local news production, I kind of pick up a WIAT 42 Daily News type vibe with the new CBS News Detroit newscast, from the starting out with 2 daily newscasts (at 6PM and 11PM), to having a small reporting staff. Hopefully CBS has plans to grow its presence in Detroit, considering local news/programming production is typically cheaper to produce and more profitable than acquiring nationally syndicated shows these days. I don't know what to make of CBS going in the direction of "CBS News (market name)" for local newscasts, when viewers would be used to the "CBS (channel number)", or station call letters, or the "Eyewitness Action News" brandings on local newscasts.

That is true. It would seem like WABC must not be motivated in making that change. WNBC retired their talent intros in their main news opens 15 years ago. The majority of other local TV stations across the country ended that practice back in the mid 90s. Other than WABC... WPVI has introduced their talents in their main news openings, although I see them scaling back on it in certain newscasts. WPVI could opt for simple "Live with the Delaware Valley's Leading News Program. Channel 6 Action News starts now." News opening retain visuals of Delaware Valley surroundings and MCTYW music. WLS did talent introductions in their main openings, which has also since been changed a few years ago to simple news opening and talent montage piece when the newscast goes to or returns from its first commercial.

It's a lucky thing that Days Of Our Lives is getting a new lease on life via Peacock streaming service. I'd welcome seeing Peacock perhaps exploring acquiring rights to do reruns of classic Procter & Gamble soaps, including any and all surviving episodes of Another World, Search For Tomorrow, The Edge Of Night, Guiding Light, and As The World Turns... Or maybe bringing certain shows back for new half-hour episodes. I certainly miss seeing the soaps and don't really care for the major TV networks going for cheaper fanfare.

With COVID-19 dominating the news cycle. WNYW Fox 5 NY appears to have made a change to its 10PM opening. Instead of the standard "It's 10PM do you know where your children are?", NYC viewers will be seeing... "It's 10PM, stay home, stay safe, stay strong, we're all in this together." Video: