GodfreyGR

14 minutes ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I’m surprised they aren’t rolling everything out right now.

I'm not. Think of all the unforeseen issues that are likely to happen with the launch (like anytime a station launches a new graphics package, for example, let alone a whole new newscast). Having those issues right before the biggest story of the year when viewership is up and more eyeballs to catch a possible major issue makes for a bad first impression.

Recent example is KSAZ last night testing their election ticker... And whoever runs that for them probably isn't brand new to the job.

I'm waiting for Audacy to drop the hammer in Minneapolis next. "The Wolf" has only once ever beat K102 (iHeart) in the PPM ratings (and it was under their old country branding as Buz'n 102.9) and is the weakest of Audacy's three stations in the cluster (Jack-FM does really well here). Wolf just tweaked from "New Country" to "Everything Country" (That's New Country with a LOT of Shania Twain, by the way). Given the NY Move, guessing if this tweak doesn't instill life, WCCO 830 and 102.9 becomes reality very soon. There have also been moves to upgrade the talent on 830 in the last year including plucking popular WCCO-TV anchor Jason DeRusha to host afternoon drive. Ironically, 102.9 began life as WCCO-FM playing lite rock...

Where else does Audacy need to find and FM for talk? KRLD in Dallas?

Here's the rebrand of KBJR to "Northern News Now"- Shockingly managed to rebrand a whole station and not upgrade to the Gray graphics package. Instead, they rehashed the KBJR Quincy package. Take note behind the weather desk you can see they're working on the Gray wx graphics at least.

8 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

Thanks. I hate it.

That makes two of us... Add in the Gray "honeycomb" graphics package and they'll really have something!

I look forward to the facebook comments from the Karens on Monday.

5 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Ew. No! That's awful.

It’s what they’re going with… here’s the jackets and coffee cups (from their staffers on Twitter).

KBJR (Duluth) going back to combined branding for newscasts starting Monday.

10 minutes ago, bpatrick said:

I've just learned that WSB has started a 3 PM newscast, which will run at least through the election.  Tamron Hall has

occupied that slot and I'm not sure what happens to her show in Atlanta now; she's airing at 1:35 AM at present.

I'm going off of another site that claims the 3pm is temporary only through the election. Something in that other sites words as a "money grab"...

On 7/26/2022 at 1:05 PM, GodfreyGR said:

What I see happening in Duluth is consolidating Morning newscasts

Almost two months later, turns out to be a correct prediction- KBJR/CBS3 morning newscasts are combined- Staff from both shows were merged, live reporting in the morning added, and KBJR is now using "F1RST ALERT" Weather branding with the old KBJR/Quincy graphics.

That said, looking at their website, the morning newscast will rebrand as "Northern News Now" at 5a and 6a. Evening newscasts appear untouched for now with the exception of weather on CBS3 using the KBJR graphics- otherwise the CBS3 show still has their own branding.

22 minutes ago, NYPhillynews said:

It’s almost as if they’ve conceded to being in 3rd place forever. 

They're still hoping to find the next Walter Cronkite... Someone older and more seasoned to go up against all the trendy TikToking Whipper Snappers the other networks have (every pun intended)

6 hours ago, C Block said:

If he doesn't work on streaming, ....?

By then Norah's next contract will be up, he will cost much less and won't do any worse in the ratings.

7 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

There’s even a small chance that it doesn’t go away at all

I mean, every branding/graphics package they've had since 2007 features the rectangle of "WCCO". Only difference is that the CBS Eye is currently attached to it.

Thank to Jon Ellis for archiving all of these screengrabs! http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/captures/mn/wcco.html

2 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

It’s gonna become The 4 on CBS News Minnesota soon enough.

Lifelong Minnesotan here- even if you are correct, they will take a sweet long time to kill off the best known branding/call letters in the state.
 

They had the opportunity to unveil the CBSN MN brand to the tens of thousands who walk by their booth at the state fair and every sign, banner, and giveaway had the classic WCCO logo on it.

Along with the billboards, you don’t spend that kind of money on promos and giveaways (even if they are paper fans and reusable grocery bags) to flip it right away. 

A little off from graphics, but holy billboards CCO is marketing the hell out of their 4:00 show. One digital billboard flipped to three different “The 4” billboards in a row. 
 

Is there really that much $$$ in that time slot?

On 9/1/2022 at 12:19 PM, Georgie56 said:

Also, if you look here, you’ll see that WCCO has no newscasts scheduled at their State Fair studios for it’s last day on Sept. 5.

For the record, that’s pretty traditional for all 4 major stations to close up shop and head back to the studio on Labor Day. People still doing the fair want to see the sights, eat the food, and go home since it’s the first day of school for most of the state on Tuesday. I’m sure all 4 will have a reporter out there to say they’re still “Life from the fair”
 

Weekend shows from the fair are also usually limited if the station has any college football games airing since it’s hard to keep a live audience captive if the game runs long, but it looks bad on air if you’re live from the fair with no one standing around your studio to show off how popular you’re newscast is. 

13 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Likely WCCO. They’re debuting a new 4pm newscast on Monday and it looks like it’s using the prospective new graphics.

The 4pm has been running since last Thursday from the State Fair (big deal up here!). Tuesday should originate from the studio.

To make the case for CCO possibly not being the first, the stations are so preoccupied with their State Fair studios I wonder how much time they have to work on anything else over the 12 day run?

40 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

At least there's not a newscast titled "What Sucks."

Yet...

20 minutes ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

anything that drew an audience is being chopped.

Anything that drew an audience will be moved to Paramount+ and whatever Warner/Discovery does with HBO Max.

And the DC Universe fans will move with them.

WDAY/Fargo has been at 7 for most of the summer. Granted, some of them don't usually appear on screen at WDAY and do web-forecasts for the newspaper websites (I.E., The Duluth News Tribune). Could also speculate that some would transfer over to doing forecasts at KVRR/Fargo if the FCC ever approves that deal (KVRR's chief met Rob Kupec left this spring to run for State Senate in Minnesota and no permanent replacement has been named).

1 hour ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I imagine they’ll do something similar and take the name of the stronger newscast (KBJR I assume.)

KBJR is stronger, yes. But with two states (three, if you want to get technical since there's a couple counties in Michigan's UP) they have done a good job after the "NewsCenter" breakup to make KBJR6 a Minnesota-heavy newscast and CBS3 a Wisconsin-Heavy newscast. Given that both stations share reporters and a newsroom, the only real cost differential is that Quincy has 2 studios and 2 control rooms in the Lake Avenue studio that they operate simultaneously. Each station also has their own anchor teams and meteorologists (Which Gray might keep- Looking at KVLY in Fargo, similar is done for the 4pm-7pm news blocks that alternate channels every half-hour).

What I see happening in Duluth is consolidating Morning newscasts, Weekend Newscasts, and Breaking news/weather cut-ins, but leaving weeknights alone.

9 hours ago, Marvin Dillweed said:

Wonder if Fort Wayne and Duluth will be next?

Both have been tried (Indiana's NewsCenter and Northland's NewsCenter, respectfully) when both stations in the duo had the same GM under Granite (KBJR had Dave Jensch) and it simply did not work. Evidence: individual station brandings and newscasts were brought back under Granite, and kept under Quincy. Speculation would say ratings caused that (In Duluth, WDIO widened their lead over KBJR during the NewsCenter days).

Does that mean it can't be done in Duluth again? Of course not- I went to college in Fargo and watched what Gray did with KVLY. Just suggesting that Gray is also smart enough to look at the history books and realize that just a decade ago it didn't end well.

Also worth noting- when Granite tried the combination in Ft. Wayne and Duluth, they did not try it in Peoria (to my knowledge).

On 7/12/2022 at 4:03 PM, nycnewsjunkie said:

as that set looked extremely low-budget.

It was CBS' first OTT Hyperlocal- and I'm sure it was an experiment to see if it would work. My guess would be since all signs point to CBS being all-in on this, that any new streaming-exclusive sets will be better in many respects.

On 7/12/2022 at 7:15 PM, iron_lion said:

The layman viewer probably just thinks of "Mornings" as The Gayle King Morning Show. 

This made my morning! I was beginning to think my couple weeks of calling it he Gayle King show on this board was only irritating people (probably was, but someone else called it the same!)

1 hour ago, NowBergen said:

They seem to be weathering the NJ Congressional criticism

I think in hindsight, what Senators Booker and Menendez (et al) were doing by bringing WWOR's license into question was poor. Empty shell for WNYW? Yes. However, in the last decade where half-decent news accessibility is extremely important, an NY Newscast that at least covers news in your state when news happens is better than the syndication central that WWOR has become. FOX has proven to be reasonably dedicated to local content on their second fiddles- WFTC being a good example with a couple hours of news (actual newscasts- not just KMSP's repeats) and (pre Apple-TV deal) showing MN United Soccer games on nights Bally wasn't.

Now, Fox has the money and ability to do a NJ-central newscast- and they kind of did at one point. It can be a good flank to WNYW if done correctly (correctly = costs money). I think about what KBJR/KDLH did in Duluth for a while under Granite ownership with KBJR going more heavy on MN news/weather/sports and KDLH going more heavy on the Wisconsin side (Off topic, the irony here is that KDLH is licensed in MN, KBJR is licensed in WI). Then along comes a few sales of the station and as a result the more cookie-cutter newscast duopoly. Point is, a WWOR newscast need no be 100% NJ centered, just heavier on that side of the border than WNYW and others.

14 minutes ago, RGSJenkins said:

Especially after the paint on their vehicles, black and yellow nor KDKA ain't going nowhere any time soon.

That's actually a pretty cool wrap as far as news vehicles go!

2 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I wonder if they'll incorporate the little 5 note ditty that WBZ and WCCO are using for their weather

Probably. I wish CCO hadn't ditched the "weather watcher whistle" for the CBS 5-note tone.

On 7/8/2022 at 8:18 PM, Myron Falwell said:

Outside of WCCO, KCNC, WJZ and KDKA, the CBS O&Os are laggards.

I still argue the "If it isn't broken..." argument. WCCO desperately needs a graphics refresh like all the CBS O&O's; but they have done a good job going with what they know works in the market- a set that has aged shockingly well for being 10-years old (minor updates, of course), iconic branding, and recognizable air staff. On the other side of town, KARE11 used to be #1 with that same formula, and now they're just happy to be in the Top 5 (as of Nov 2021).

2 hours ago, DENDude said:

I haven't seen that.  The two here in Colorado don't have that. (9NEWS.COM & MY20DENVER.COM)

Here it be (mobile version that is)...

5 minutes ago, TexasTVNews said:

KXAS already updated it news set and wx center, and WTTV already have a new set.

Pretty sure @ABC 7 Denver meant KXAN not XAS. It's Monday.