LoadStar 363 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 And there was much rejoicing. Duane Dudek, TV/Radio reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reports that WITI-TV Milwaukee (Local TV, LLC) will be building a new "Studio A" main news set. While Dudek says that they have had "3 major facelifts," that's a rather loose interpretation of the facts. The last "major facelift" consisted entirely of painting the blue floor black, replacing the anchor desk with a FOX O&O style desk, and swapping out the large duratrans above the set. The set really has remained mostly unchanged since 1998, and it shows. When even low-budget WDJT has a better main new set than you do, that should be a big warning sign you need to do something, Construction begins in December, and the new set debuts in January. http://www.jsonline....-176874311.html (Is it too much to hope that they pick up a better graphics and music package at the same time?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.L. Hughes 752 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article link shown above, WITI's newscasts will be broadcasting from the set of their morning talk show Real Milwaukee during construction of the new main news set. What does Real Milwaukee's set look like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article link shown above, WITI's newscasts will be broadcasting from the set of their morning talk show Real Milwaukee. What does that set look like? That's the weird part. Unless something has changed since the last time I saw the show, Real Milwaukee is filmed in what is simply an extension off to stage left (?) of the main Studio A set. It is just an alcove with a desk in front of it, very unimpressive. (I believe the interview set to the right in this image used to be their "Satellite Center" news standup set, and used to be decorated with a row of DirecTV style dishes, as if to suggest that they were receiving satellite feeds inside the studio somehow.) As a postscript, the even weirder part is that they have a beautiful set for their morning news that they could be using instead, one they built just a few years back... they'd have to take down the FOX 6 WAKE-UP branding, and probably replace the duratrans of a morning-lit cityscape, but that would probably take a sum total of a half hour. Their morning news set is really quite nice - IMO the second nicest set in Milwaukee (second to WTMJ's new set). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABC 7 Denver 1554 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 I'm hoping for a new logo. The current one looks like an offbeat 2004 logo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Pretty sure Dudek confused Real Milwaukee for WakeUp. It would be impossible to clear out the entire studio while utilizing the Real Milwaukee "set", which is just a really poorly converted former stand-up area. [ATTACH]1144.IPB[/ATTACH] That screenshot, in fact, was one of the last glimpses of the set before it was refreshed in 2008. The special program it was taken from actually aired after they started work on it, if I recall correctly. I'm not going to get my hopes up here. This station has had a major fall from grace when it comes to their creative team and their on-air appearance. We went from to to... in a period of half a decade. When the new graphics package launched (which was designed for WSFL and never used/was rejected) so did heavy use of DigitalJuce stock graphics for the majority of the in-house motion graphics. The VizRT is totally underutilized compared to the other two Viz stations in the market and regular newscast graphics look like they are given little attention, and even less thought. They spend money on things like plasma monitors in the newsroom that have only ever been used to loop DigitalJuice stock graphics with "FOX 6 NEWS" or "BREAKING NEWS" animating over them. New duratrans make an appearance frequently. Thinking about it, their graphics problem really began when they lost the standardization and templating of the first generation FOX O&O graphics. And don't even get me started on their 4 cuts of music. People have brought up that set to management for years and were always told how much management liked it. A little paint here... a LCD screen there... Then WDJT gets a set. Then WISN refreshes theirs. Then WTMJ blows the other two new sets out of the water. Suddenly, it's time for a change! That should help the falling ratings... To make things worse, the quality of the content has dropped significantly in an even shorter amount of time. While it's been on a slow slide for a while, it's really picked up in the years since the sale to LocalTV. Ridiculous and long long, rambling packages, done by reporters who look like they've just came from Internet Newscaster University (Milwaukee Airport Sheraton - AM Session). Adding to the content problems is the new Ross OverDrive system, which may have become sentient and is refusing to subject the viewers to some of this madness (It has problems. A lot.). The only positives that have come out of the past few years is their HD upgrade and investment in HD ENG. I'm pretty sure they're the only station in the market with an HD towercam. So yeah. Not getting excited here. It's completely possible that the set will be fantastic, that new graphics and music will debut that blow everyone else away, but I just don't see it happening. WDJT has had an impressive turnaround in the past two years, but it happened slowly and reached it's peak with the HD debut and the new graphics. They went through two (three, counting where they came from) graphics packages to get there. They retooled "Just 10 Minutes" until it was dead, then they changed the lyrics, then they removed the lyrics, then they replaced it with "We Are CBS58", which, production-wise, is beautiful. WITI's stayed the course, gotten slightly worse, debuted new live truck wraps that don't match a single other thing they have, and decided that 3D text telling us that "it matters" is an image campaign. What I wouldn't do for the chance to overhaul the branding and on-air appearance of that station... I'd even do it for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Yes!!! :D :D I thought their GM was being coy when I asked him about this a month ago. With the space they have, I really expect/hope that this set will be awesome. Then again, Milwaukee stations have been known to disappoint me. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that they will also be adopting, at least a version of, the new FOX O&O graphics set to debut in November..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 Yes!!! :D :D I thought their GM was being coy when I asked him about this a month ago. With the space they have, I really expect/hope that this set will be awesome. Then again, Milwaukee stations have been known to disappoint me. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that they will also be adopting, at least a version of, the new FOX O&O graphics set to debut in November..... If true, that's disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it would have to be better than what they have now (what isn't?), but I really love the graphics/music they use at sister station KDVR, and would love it if they adopted a similar package here. As for the set, if they can do something as nice as Studio B, just on a larger scale, they'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 Pretty sure Dudek confused Real Milwaukee for WakeUp. It would be impossible to clear out the entire studio while utilizing the Real Milwaukee "set", which is just a really poorly converted former stand-up area. Chuck from FOX6 confirms that they'll be using Studio B for the news, not Real Milwaukee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 THIS JUST IN to the TVNT newsroom: we can now exclusively report that WITI's new set will be built by FX Group. We are still efforting whether or not it will accompanied by new graphics and music. More shortly.... ...but seriously, their new set is being done by FX. And if it looks anything like the "FX 2012 model" done at WCCO, WBNS, and WWL, I will be more than satisfied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted November 3, 2012 Author Share Posted November 3, 2012 THIS JUST IN to the TVNT newsroom: we can now exclusively report that WITI's new set will be built by FX Group. We are still efforting whether or not it will accompanied by new graphics and music. More shortly.... ...but seriously, their new set is being done by FX. And if it looks anything like the "FX 2012 model" done at WCCO, WBNS, and WWL, I will be more than satisfied. Again, anything would be better than what they have now, but I really don't care for any of those. I was really hoping for more of a Clickspring style set, something a bit like KSL just unveiled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Again, anything would be better than what they have now, but I really don't care for any of those. I was really hoping for more of a Clickspring style set, something a bit like KSL just unveiled. Don't get me wrong, I love that set too. But they did say the new set would be "warm and inviting". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCAUTVNBC10 408 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Just hope you don't get the BS KYW got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Just hope you don't get the BS KYW got. Trust me, we already went through that with WISN. Big hype and an advertisement of a "new set", but it was only a bland refresh when the wraps came off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Trust me, we already went through that with WISN. Big hype and an advertisement of a "new set", but it was only a bland refresh when the wraps came off. From what I hear, not even WISN likes what happened there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestTV 1173 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 But what's wrong with KSL's set though? From what I hear, not even WISN likes what happened there. and I honestly wouldn't be too surprised. FX Group really did go through this stage where their set designs were looking like batsh!t. I mean, BATHROOM TILE BACKDROPS? what the hell... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 But what's wrong with KSL's set though? Nothing's wrong with KSL's set. It's pretty much unanimous that it's amazing. He said KYW (CBS Philly), which was basically another generic FX Group refresh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 That's a no on new music and graphics with the new set. Emphasis on "with the new set". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 http://twitpic.com/bf0p91/full It begins. They've ripped down the weather center already, which reveals what appears to have once been an alcove kitchen studio, similar to what WTMJ had/has (it's now storage and lighting/camera/prompter control) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Block 1488 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I just hope that they don't get a cheap mess like what sister LocalTV station KDVR got earlier this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 The set is to be decommissioned within the next few days. Evening anchor Ted Perry tweets here that tonight is his last newscast on the old set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 The 11am newscast, usually done from Studio A, was done from the WakeUp set today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev57 46 Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 They have also started a slideshow of the progress. http://fox6now.com/2012/11/21/pictures-fox6-news-studio-set-to-be-rebuilt/ In this pic, you can see the early demolition of the sports area (and the WakeUp set in the background). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groupwfan 95 Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I'm hoping for a new logo. The current one looks like an offbeat 2004 logo. More like the O&O one (since 'ITI is a LocalTV station, not NewsCorp)? Hopefully. They need to. WJW (another LocalTV sister) has the O&O Logo with the "8" that's been used since 1997. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Either they're done with the old set, or they're just swapping out the duratrans one last time. Edit: And they're on the Studio B set! It's a Thanksgiving miracle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abric 157 Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I actually like this setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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