EVVTV12

As part of adding more news than hours in a week, WPLG is hiring a reporter for the state capital. Surprised they didn’t do this years ago.

I wonder if Disney wanted to buy WPLG, but someone in Omaha said no or wanted more money.

WRSP (Fox, Springfield), WCCU (Fox, Urbana), and WBUI (CW, Decatur) are all owned by GOCOM Media with an JSA/SSA by Sinclair. Unless that gets tossed out, not much will happen.

Nightly is the flagship newscast for NBC News overall, where Top Story is the flagship for NBC News Now. More than likely, he will step away from Top Story once they find a replacement for him there. Other wise, nights when they may to redo Nightly live for the Mountain Time Zone, it will be a mess.

Tom Brokaw was 64 when he left Nightly News in 2004. (I thought he was old then.) John Chancellor was 55. Lester wanting to step away now is just really part of the trend in tv news. Both Brokaw and Chancellor still did stuff for NBC after leaving the Nightly chair and Lester is also. As Walter Cronkite said, “Old anchormen, you see, don’t fade away; they just keep coming back for more.”

Turned on KAKE right when Jay Prater started talking about Reagan National and did a good job explaining the airport layout since he is a pilot himself. KSN is streaming DC News Now on their website, but not anything local cause Nexstar rules.

Well, it is FTVLive… CBS could do 100% what Uncle Walter did during his time and still complain.

Guess I’ll add also. Watching it, it felt more like something from the BBC. The fact they didn’t have a “breaking news” cyron up speaks volume to what they want with this newscast. I think the tease being gone is just something they are testing and we will probably see it back, but will be short to just two or three stories. We will probably see changes happen in the next few months before something more permanent happens. Let’s hope CBS doesn’t mess up anything else.

I’m still a little upset CBS hasn’t decided to do an hour of news in PrimeTime. The US is the only major country from my knowledge that doesn’t have a network newscast during that time period. Canada has Global at 6:30(?), CBC at 10, and CTV at 11. UK Channel 4 at 7, AUS The ABC at 7:30. To be honest, I’m surprised no one tired this during COVID lockdowns.

WLFI set is from when they went HD under LIN, WTHI set when they built their new building in 2012 under LIN, and WFFT set from their HD days under Nexstar. Under Heartland, I think both THI and LFI did add some more people back and improved their reporting. I think if Heartland hadn’t sold, they would have gotten new sets or updated sets.

WPSD has picked it up about WSIL. The report was done by the Paxton newspaper in Carbondale. Still says something when a competing news outlet is reporting this.

Let us all review something we have heard James Spann say over the years: Know your landmarks. Most people will not remember many roads, unless you drive them or they are a major one, like an interstate. What does Spann always do? Name off places people know: schools, churches, BBQ restaurants, that one gentlemen’s club one time. Here in Evansville, many of the Mets will say a number of the schools, major businesses, the airport. If a tornado is on the ground in a rural area, someone at TWC might say, “It’s in a rural area, not much to worry about.” Someone local will say, “This is on the ground just one mile west of XYZ High School.” Yes, we have a number of schools in corn fields around here. Our Doppler radar sits in the middle of a corn field. Everyone here knows if that radar goes down, we lose data that can help save and protect lives and property. Nothing against the folks at TWC, they are great people, but they shouldn’t be doing something this local.

Griffin will shut down the tv stations before they ever sell.

During the Hulman years, WTHI had a strong lead in the market. Cause the Hulman had this little race track in Indianapolis, they made a little money off of it and spent a good amount of money and resources for WTHI-TV and radio. They had the first live trucks in Terre Haute, more anchors, reporters, a farm reporter, and nice sets. WTWO was so bad that at one point, the opening credits logo was the welcome sign in the lobby. Today, WTWO is putting on a better product than WTHI and is starting to grab more people.

Once again, Terre Haute has been hit hard. Long time anchor Patrece Dayton and Chief Meteorologist Kevin Orpurt will be out of the station on Thursday. It has been reported that ND Susan Dinkel will become Regional ND.

After 35 years, RTV6 Chief Meteorologist Kevin Gregory is retiring. His last day will be at the end of February. Once he leaves, this will mark the first time since 1972 that a Gregory has not been one Indianapolis TV. His dad Bob Gregory was the long time chief meteorologist at WTHR. https://www.wrtv.com/wrtvs-kevin-gregory-announces-his-retirement-after-35-years-on-air

KCAL/KCBS coverage is on CBS News 24/7 and on CBS News Boston and Colorado. I’m sure the other CBS News locals, mainly Bay Area and Sacramento, will be added during the overnight hours. KABC coverage is also on ABC News Live. NBC News Now (as of 1:20am CT) is showing Dateline. Why? Don’t know. Also speaking of “why?”, Fox Weather and The Weather Channel are staying with regular overnight programming instead of simulcasting or doing their own coverage since this is also a major weather event.

FOXNET is used as an emergency back up service. After Hurricane Laura hit in 2020, KVHP was taken off the air. FOX piped in the network on cable via FOXNET until the station was able to get back in full operations later that year.

I was listening to WBBM Newsradio last night during the tornado warnings for Chicago and they still called the tv side as CBS2. I have a feeling it will take some time to call it CBS Chicago.

I’ve noticed something over the past couple weeks that they are starting to brand as PBS News and not PBS NewsHour overall. Case in point, tonight’s debate. In the past it would say “PBS NewsHour Special,” now it just says “PBS News Special.”

For those outside of Central Indiana, this move, like the one from ABC to NBC is big. The Indy 500 is seen as a state holiday. Trust me, the people at Fox59 are very happy right now about this. When WTHR (NBC) got it from RTV6 (ABC), they were very happy and started planning right away. Now, the blackout is still probably in tact and will stay that way from now until the end of days. How are the people at WTHR feeling? Not happy. for a number of years, the big three network stations in Indy had a share in The Month of May. WISH-TV had the One America 500 Mini Marathon and Indy 500 Parade, RTV6 with the race (tape delay), and WTHR with the awards banquet the next night. Shortly after WISH said they were losing CBS, they also lost the rights to the Mini and Parade to WTHR. I should add the Mini Marathon and Parade are outside of IndyCar and the IMS. The awards banquet is also something outside of IndyCar and the IMS. Unless Fox59/CBS4 make a move for those, don’t expect those to change.

True… It was, sadly, to report the news that Bob Simon had died in a car accident earlier that evening.

Or at least a smaller version of it.

Kate Snow announced this evening she will be leaving “Nightly” Sunday next week to focus more on “Daily.”

The tape delay ratings in the Indy market still beat out the live ratings in other markets. So for WISH, it would give them a huge boost.