TheRyan

My personal opinion is that graphics design peaked about when HD become commonplace on local stations around America. Now, it's quickly becoming an overload of blandness and uninspired hoopla. And specifically in regards to ABC, I think WNT has decent graphics. It strongly reminds me of the early to mid 2000s when Peter Jennings was still anchoring. But their L3s aren't very impressive, I will say.

So apparently they are making changes to management at Tegna's WCNC. Their general manager, Deborah Collura, is leaving at the end of the year. Story from FTV Live: https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/26/tegna-to-make-a-change-at-the-top-in-charlotte

I wonder why Sarkes Tarzian stations don't use Gray gfx on their stations. (Not Nexstar related, but my curiosity has me wanting to ask that.)

Very interesting. I guess WHNT could be a good candidate for Nexstar to dispatch for major breaking news in Chattanooga because of their relatively close proximity to Chattanooga, if being in a different state & time zone isn't a factor. I would just add this that I-75 makes Knoxville and Chattanooga very accessible to each other (except for the fact there is the risk of really bad fog at times on the roadway)...so I can see WATE being sent for coverage

I'm just guessing, but I suppose WATE would be the one. Geographically speaking, it would make more sense if you're comparing Chattanooga to the nearest Nexstar station. But WKRN could certainly pick up the story as well. Kind of surprised Nexstar hasn't bought any station in Chattanooga, though. It would make sense from their point of view.

It's sad enough when one broadcasting legend passes, but to have two in a short time...That's even sadder.

That happens a lot with various stations. For instance, when I'm visiting Knoxville, I'll watch WATE's newscasts. I notice a lot of collaboration on reports between them and WKRN--by that, I mean they'll carry a report originally for WKRN, if it's of any interest to Knoxville or the state at large. I would expect that with other Nexstar stations as well. Pretty soon my home market will have a Nexstar station...WJZY. Given that we are a NFL market, I would expect them to share their reports with other Nexstar stations, and vice versa.

If anything KFOR will benefit from Nexstar's vast resources of stations they own. At big events (like the Super Bowl), they have a reporter (maybe multiple reporters) go to the event and have them file reports with various Nexstar stations. They'll have many mic flags that they use in reports going to each Nexstar station. So I think KFOR will see a combination of being able to use their reporters for long-distance reports that is specific to Oklahoma, and other cases where KFOR will have a reporter (perhaps from a different station) file a report but use KFOR's mic flag. I think KFOR will be okay with Nexstar. Let's be grateful that they didn't go to Tegna.

That's good to see KFOR can still budget that.

Here's a look at KSPR when it was known as "ABC 33". I'm not certain exactly when this clip was recorded, but looking at Wikipedia KSPR rebranded from "ABC 33" to "Springfield 33" in 1998, so it's safe to assume this was perhaps 1997 or 1998. If anyone knows more exactly when this was, I'd greatly appreciate learning that. Also noteworthy is that you can see Sonya Kullmann when she was earlier in her TV career. She would go on to KOLR10 where she anchored their morning newscasts in the 2000s, then replacing Joy Robertson as co-anchor in the evenings before leaving that station around 2012. She is now with Mercy Hospital in Springfield.

I will say that everything about that purchase was ironic. Early this decade, KSFX (now KOZL) lost their Fox affiliation to KRBK, now they have it back via KRBK by Nexstar acquiring that station. Probably, Koplar Communications was not going to be as effective as they need to be in this current age of big media companies...and their ability to negotiate. That was probably why they agreed to sell KRBK. I think it's awesome that they have resurrected the "Ozarks Fox" brand over on KRBK, albeit with a new logo. And as for Ozarks Tonight, my understanding of that show is that it's basically a series of interviews--or at least that's what it appears from the videos I've seen on their KOLR10 YouTube channel. But I could certainly see a scenario where KOLR10 would find it advantageous to preempt the Ozarks Tonight rerun on KOZL to run a live newscast because of programming over on KRBK, since they already have that time slot committed to a news show to begin with.

I didn't think of that possibility, but you might be right on that.

Yeah I wish KOZL still carried live newscasts during the week. But I'm just glad they still have one on the weekends.

Now that's interesting. I wonder why they don't just simulcast KRBK's newscast live. But it might be they don't want KRBK's ratings getting diluted.

I believe they only do that on the weekends. KRBK 9:00 newscasts are run on weekdays only, I think.

Some shocking news from the KOLR10 studios. A van drove through their security gate and starting speaking some weird unintelligible stuff. They were arrested. Damaged some vehicles and a satellite dish at the station. Literally just saw this and thought it was important enough to share. (The story only takes up the first 1:45 or so of this video.) Hopefully they get the help they need.

I'm sure they can coordinate with each other, if needed, especially if a storm is close to the edge of each other's market. But each station has their own chopper, I think. Here's an older picture of the choppers from both KWTV and KOTV.

Some markets can better justify it better than others. In OKC and Tulsa, there is no doubt that it seems to be a vital part of their coverage on some of the stations. Without it, KWTV/KOTV and KFOR would be forced to rely solely on chasers on the ground (which they also do) and maybe a camera on the transmitter tower (if they have one and if the storm is close enough). The quality of their coverage is vastly improved by having a live chopper. It gets more people to take shelter than it would by showing blurry livestreams and the radar. I wonder how much they offset the cost by having those sponsorships (i.e. Bob Moore Chopper 4, etc.). For the remainder, they probably just consider it the cost of doing business. But I'm sure you're right about how much the chopper loses by being on the ground in the off-season.

In the town in Arkansas I grew up in (just a few counties over), one of the low-powered TV stations there actually has a program whose sole purpose is televising court proceedings. They even make that local TV show available on YouTube. So maybe some counties are more uptight than others. I feel so bad for the reporter. Given the market KNWA is in, she's probably early in her career. I hope everything works out well for her, and I have a feeling that everything will work out well for her. Maybe she can get that overturned and expunged from her legal record. She wasn't recording for broadcast--just for notetaking. I have a very hard time imagining that ever happening in the county in Arkansas I grew up in.

I agree, the whole thing seems bizarre to me. The reporter maintains she did that previously in other courts and nothing was wrong. I think the judge should've been more understanding of that and left it at a warning. I hope she appeals that and maybe gets the ruling vacated by a higher court.

At KNWA, a reporter was jailed for making an audio recording as part of her notetaking in court (such recording wasn't aired). If I was her, I'd appeal that verdict. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/21/judge-gives-reporter-jail-time-for-recording-in-court

I totally agree...the in-house team at WAVE are very good at designing gfx--that is for sure.

Wow, I didn't know that. I figured more stations in Tulsa would have helicopters. That would probably partly explain why I tend to watch KOTV (online of course) when I'm interested in watching storm coverage there.

There is no way KFOR will lose its helicopter. It's a critical part of their storm coverage. And I think Nexstar knows that they need the helicopter for tornado coverage and looking at the storm and see if the funnel cloud/tornado has touched down. I'm not sure why Nexstar got rid of KLAS' helicopter and I wish they hadn't. But I don't think that will happen to other stations, especially KFOR and KTLA.

Is there a tape of that somewhere online? That would be very interesting to look at.