VHSgoodiesWA

Yakima news has been relatively normal the past few nights. It could have been Jake gone for some other reason and no substitute reporter available. Or Sinclair is cutting back the local news output to 3 days a week? Given everything going on in other markets - hard to say.

It's like how KCPQ in Seattle acquired repeats of Judge Judy after KIRO, which had aired her for nearly 20 years, dumped syndication for news at 4:00. Ch 13 did have Judge Judy for a brief time in the late '90s.

Some more small-town clips - KTMF in 1998. Heidelhaus is now the Montana Club, and I've been inside that same restaurant.

WGN 9 O'Clock News open, 2/21/1989 - Pat Harvey, Rick Rosenthal Early Today in 2000, when CNBC was producing it. Nanette Hansen anchors and a really rare find indeed! Montana Today from KECI Missoula, taped April 6th, 2000. Monte Turner is still around taking on a county role (commissioner?) for nearby Mineral County, home to St. Regis and Superior. Features include a school skit on the dangers of tobacco that parodies Millionaire.

Tonight's newscasts on KIMA-29 was Scott Stovall at KEPR combining Tri-Cities, Yakima AND Lewiston. No local news on KIMA OR KLEW. With this and Friday newscasts being combined with Tri-Cities, it seems like the end is near for these two CBS affiliates in eastern WA/north ID. Jake Taylor is still listed on the KIMA page, at least.

Various national news clips from the PEPCON rocket fuel explosion in Henderson NV, which killed two and injured hundreds, on May 4th and May 5th, 1988 Also, KCYU/KFFX simulcast NWCN at 10PM for a few years, here's one of those. 5/16/2003, with Greg Copeland and meteorologist Mark Coleman.

That was in January. I stand corrected regarding Days' success on Peacock. That was out of left field and I did not expect that. When Passions went to The 101/DirecTV it was gone at the end of that season. None of that matters however if the writers' strike continues going on for several more weeks/months. No new episodes of Days will be produced.

A sample of what is now CW+. Yakima was one of the dozens of small markets that had a WB feed on cable, specifically WB 100+. Much like Foxnet, they cleared WB, WB Kids, and a plethora of syndicated programs, including Ellen DeGeneres in her first two or three seasons. It took me about eight years of VHS collecting to find a WB 100+ clip, but here it is, with the fictional calls "KWYP": And here's another look at small-town Montana TV...specifically KTMF 23 in 1997 - lots of local ads but no news department at this time. KGGL-93.3 "Eagle 93" is still around to this day, and it has one of the best FM signals in western Montana. I heard them as far west as the 4th of July Pass area on I-90, west of Kellogg ID.

A big dump of new videos this week...starting with this gem. This is a brief clip of BIZNET News, a business newscast that may have been the predecessor to First Business. USA Network aired this at 5 or 6am weekday mornings in the mid-1980s. KAPP/KVEW Weekend Report, 9/21/1991, with Kerry Tomlinson (taped from KVEW) KIMA NewsBeat at Noon at the end of this commercial compilation from 10/12/1994...KIMA aired a 5-min. local newsbrief before joining CNN Headline News. KREM 2 News, 5/8/1993, with Steve Becker and finally...I promised...Missoula newscasts!! KPAX 10:00 News, 9/13/1997, Jennifer John is the anchor and a partial 12/2/95 newscast from KPAX with Shane Edinger, before he moved to central Washington (and KNDO/KNDU)

Open to KULR 8 News (Billings MT) in this compilation of ads from 1993

Even KXLY is a strange duck for a rather large market, also owned by Morgan Murphy. They don't have news at 11pm on Saturday nights, but do have 11pm news on Sundays...I wonder why? Guessing because Saturday is a dead zone for broadcast ratings? I'm not sure how many are watching the nightly Friends reruns on KAPP/KVEW however. It leads into Jimmy Kimmel Live! Before 2022, KAPP aired JKL earlier than any other Pacific time ABC affiliate. It came on at 11:06PM, nearly a half-hour before the other late-night talk shows on NBC/CBS (possibly taped from east coast feed?) I wonder if ABC told them to knock it off.

For nearly 15 years now. The growth in Tri is crazy, from both westsiders (i.e. Seattle area) and from out-of-state. New housing developments popping up weekly. Not necessarily $300-400K budget homes either. Plenty of McMansions up on the hill, too. The area saw a 21% increase in population between 2010 and 2020, while Yakima only gained 6%. Nearby Hermiston, OR is jumping in population too (nearly 20,000 live there). KNDO's studios shut down around the same time as KAPP. They had dueling studios on S 24th Ave, near the airport. They sent everyone to Tri-Cities except for a multimedia journalist at a tiny downtown sales office for each station. This would have been during the recession (2008, 2009). That's when KAPP dropped to the 2.5 minute newscast that is seen at 11PM.

I was in western Montana a few weeks ago. The combined NBC Montana newscast is just "OK". It originates from KECI and is fed to KCFW/KTVM. They have done this for years and years. What did I watch the most, however? The MTN 10:00 News with Jill Valley, on KPAX. Too bad there's just the one anchor on set, but that newscast was far better than the others. Non-Stop Local (KTMF, maybe fed from KFBB?) looks old and tired, like it wanted to be the #3 station in town. Hasn't MTN been #1 forever in the ratings?

KDRV and KOBI are celebrating. A lot of channel 10 viewers will come back to them. The walls are closing in on KIMA, I'm sure. I've said it for years, eventually that tired, old building will be demolished, everyone will move to KEPR, and local Yakima news will cease to exist. The must-runs and out-of-market stories are destroying this station from the inside, while KVEW and KND...ahem! NonStop Local, continues to improve. If that happens, Jake Taylor could just join Scott Stovall at the anchor desk in Pasco. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the factor keeping 29 on the air *IS* Alan Sillence...a nearly 30-year career on sports and still going strong with his coverage of local high school teams. The other stations don't come close. KVEW doesn't even do sports for the most part. NonStop Local combines Tri-Cities and Yakima, so on a busy fall Friday night, there's not as much video from HSFB games in our area (but tons from the Richland/Kennewick/Pasco area teams).

From my trip to western Montana a few weeks ago. Some very low-budget local ads in this compilation from KOUS-4 (ABC) Hardin/Billings, which is now KHMT (FOX), in 1988. That Chevy dealer in Big Timber doesn't even exist anymore.

KOMO 4 News Nightcast Saturday, only 15 minutes long, 8/2/1986. Ted Warren and Rick Meeder. Also, a KTNV News 13 (Las Vegas) open at the end of this clip, from Martin Luther King Day 1987.

KOIN NewsCenter 6 at 11 open, 11/18/1997 - found at the Spokane Goodwill Outlet two weeks ago, 350 miles or so from Portland I have some Missoula news clips to post soon!

Give me an old John Wayne or Perry Mason/Raymond Burr classic any day. Cheers, Seinfeld, Home Improvement too. The Conners is one of the few first-run sitcoms left that still follows a classic comedic format, not modernized and PC. It's been the trend for a good 10 years and especially took over during and post-Covid.

A very early appearance of the late Billy Mays on this infomercial from 1989, long before Oxi Clean from the same tape - KVEW 42 signs off early on 7/24/89

Lots of rarities this morning. Clips of KRTV MTN News and KFBB News 5 from 9/18/1982 (!!) when the Great Falls Anaconda Co. Smoke Stack was imploded. The Iowa Caucus on KWQC-TV6 News Tonight, Feb 10th, 1992 WGN News at Nine, 5/12/1998 (national feed) Karen Stone delivers the ABC News Weekend Report on July 23rd, 1989 (KVEW-42 Kennewick) first few minutes of KVEW 5pm news on 11/2/2006 ABC World News Sunday (partial) 6/20/1993 from KUSA Denver CBS Sunday Night News, 2/6/1994

The Flint, Albany GA, Macon GA cuts in news operations just means one thing - this will be the "new normal". I wouldn't be surprised that the eastern WA CBS stations are also in danger of losing their news operations. Either KIMA/KLEW shutting down and simulcasting KEPR news, or worse - going to The National Desk at all non-CBS/syndicated timeslots. The audience has gotten older, and the younger crowd isn't flocking to local TV news. Commercial breaks on KIMA are redundant, fewer local advertisers every year, national spots, and plenty of promos. That's not good for revenue. The advertising is all on local radio and/or online. News stories are the same ole', only the sports seem to be fresh (lots of HS sports here and we still have veteran sports director Alan Sillence). Motivate Your Monday and must-runs are killing what could be local story airtime.

KIMA NewsBeat at 11 open, 11/17/1994 Who is this lady subbing in for Lloyd Robertson on CTV News? 9/23/1996 from CHEK-6 Victoria...first-ever find from this station! plus part of the 11:30PM news from CHEK-6 - Meribeth Burton is the anchor, she worked at CHEK for years, later became a spokesperson for BC Transit. My guess is someone lived in Port Angeles, Bellingham, or Port Townsend where CHEK was available on cable (this was found in Wenatchee at a thrift store in 2021). It looks too 'clean' to be from rabbit ears. But who knows? Bellingham/Victoria FMs are super-strong in Mukilteo, Edmonds, etc. with the line-of-sight along the water...

KAPP Local News at 11 after a snowstorm - 1/11/1998, Lucinda Kay

Several NEW clips here KBCI 2 News at 10 (partial), 3/15/1998 - a reupload from the old channel KYTV and KSPR news clips from March 1987, when Vice President Bush came to Mountain Grove, MO. Lucinda Kay on KAPP/KVEW news, 1/10/1998 Renee McCullough does a weeknight broadcast of KAPP news on 1/8/1998 Classic KIRO from Oct. 1984 - Susan Hutchison, John Marler, Wayne Cody, and Harry Wappler on top of Broadcast House

All in to *losing money* from a dwindling TV audience. Wow, is there anyone with a brain left at Nexstar? Even a rolling news format ala CNN Headline News won't even work in today's environment. You can easily find news on Facebook, on the station's website, even asking Alexa. The average 30-year-old isn't watching NewsNation and neither will the average 50-year-old. At least they woke up and realized streaming apps are the way to go.