memnews1 25 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Looking like WHBQ (under new Cox ownership) has filed for a building renovation permit. Surely this would also result in a new set (a little overdue, especially with the switch to Cox). Memphis Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2015/05/13/fox-13-news-could-be-getting-a-new-look.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 747 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 I would think so, but after reading the article, something tells me WHBQ is renovating their newsroom first before putting money towards a new set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 And I'd have to believe that with a new set will come new graphics and possibly a new logo. Can't wait to see what comes of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRolyPoly 1847 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Will Cox add any more news on WHBQ? That's what Cox has been known for... Having newscasts in mostly unconventional times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3473 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 If the interior is as dated as the EXTERIOR of the building, then a renovation is long overdue. Look up 485 S. Highland Street in Memphis on Google StreetView and judge for yourself! It may be for functional reasons as well to expand or contract the working spaces to meet Cox's needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEOMatrix 1295 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 If the interior is as dated as the EXTERIOR of the building, then a renovation is long overdue. Look up 485 S. Highland Street in Memphis on Google StreetView and judge for yourself! It may be for functional reasons as well to expand or contract the working spaces to meet Cox's needs. Blame Adams Communication (and to a lesser extent, Fox) for not putting a lot of investment into 13. Remember, WHBQ pre-Fox was whittled down to only 7 hours of news per week in the early 90s and didn't even have a morning newscast until it booted ABC for Fox (maybe a little sooner). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRolyPoly 1847 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Anything that Cox does to WHBQ 13 will be well needed. I have loved what Cox does and I hope that whatever they do to WHBQ 13 will be greatly approved by us, news junkies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Anything that Cox does to WHBQ 13 will be well needed. I have loved what Cox does and I hope that whatever they do to WHBQ 13 will be greatly approved by us, news junkies. Uhhhh...are you sure??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRolyPoly 1847 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Uhhhh...are you sure??? That will probably be the only thing I hate that they've ever done. Other than that, Cox has done really really well and I like them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jero23 105 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Cox needs to leave the FOX O&O style as is until the contract for the current graphics package runs out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3473 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 It would be interesting if Cox took the WSB approach at WHBQ....especially since Bert Ellis modeled WMC after WSB when he took them over from Scripps. But after the questionable job they've done in Boston and the abomination they've created in Jacksonville, it's anyone's guess what will transpire in Memphis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 920 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 I have a co-worker who came from WHBQ. I sent her the article, but haven't heard back yet. I noticed Cox has published a ton of job openings for WHBQ, same as they did for WFXT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToriElectra 291 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 I have a co-worker who came from WHBQ. Any other station transplants at WDAF recently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 It would be interesting if Cox took the WSB approach at WHBQ....especially since Bert Ellis modeled WMC after WSB when he took them over from Scripps. But after the questionable job they've done in Boston and the abomination they've created in Jacksonville, it's anyone's guess what will transpire in Memphis. Questionable job in Boston? Do you have any clue how much CMG has done to turn around that place? For starters, just the improved morale is a major accomplishment. But the massive influx of money and staffing... and the huge ratings gains they made in the February book... Come on, dude. You've got to be kidding me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRolyPoly 1847 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Questionable job in Boston? Do you have any clue how much CMG has done to turn around that place? For starters, just the improved morale is a major accomplishment. But the massive influx of money and staffing... and the huge ratings gains they made in the February book... Come on, dude. You've got to be kidding me. Cox knows how to run a station and knows how to turn a struggling station around. Cox is #1 in most markets, except KIRO, WJAX/WFOX, KOKI, and WPXI. That's if you don't count WFXT and WHBQ, but that's because they just became a part of Cox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darius22 120 Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Cox needs to leave the FOX O&O style as is until the contract for the current graphics package runs out... or until WFXT Does something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 920 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 I forgot about the thread, but my co-worker says not much has changed about the building itself since the early 2000s. She's concerned about the mold they might find. Any other station transplants at WDAF recently? We all come from somewhere else at some point. We haven't made any major new hires in a while, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4171 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Cox needs to leave the FOX O&O style as is until the contract for the current graphics package runs out... Are WFXT and WHBQ still run out of the FTSG hub in Las Vegas? That's probably why they haven't done much - if anything - graphics-wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Both stations, as some of you may have seen, added several graphic designer positions over the past few months. They needed to build departments (staffing and infrastructure) and come up with a way to take care of daily news graphic requests and other typical duties of a design department without the aid of the Tampa FOX design hub. From what I am hearing, they are only now getting started at looking at a new graphics package. And this is CMG -- nothing is done without research and study. Change is coming, but slowly and on their terms... which might not make the fanboys on this site too happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 747 Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Both stations, as some of you may have seen, added several graphic designer positions over the past few months. They needed to build departments (staffing and infrastructure) and come up with a way to take care of daily news graphic requests and other typical duties of a design department without the aid of the Tampa FOX design hub. From what I am hearing, they are only now getting started at looking at a new graphics package. And this is CMG -- nothing is done without research and study. Change is coming, but slowly and on their terms... which might not make the fanboys on this site too happy. Sounds about right. Everything is a process after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WXmanTim 88 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Are WFXT and WHBQ still run out of the FTSG hub in Las Vegas? That's probably why they haven't done much - if anything - graphics-wise. The only thing the Las Vegas hub handles is programming master control operations, not graphics. As mentioned, the creative services hub at WTVT handles is the overall graphics look. When I was at KRIV, there was a single graphic designer. She handled most graphics request (i.e. Topical news opens, design for the sales & local creative services departments). More complex requests, and all standardized elements came from Tampa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 The only thing the Las Vegas hub handles is programming master control operations, not graphics. As mentioned, the creative services hub at WTVT handles is the overall graphics look. When I was at KRIV, there was a single graphic designer. She handled most graphics request (i.e. Topical news opens, design for the sales & local creative services departments). More complex requests, and all standardized elements came from Tampa. It's so odd then that KSAZ has a plethora of custom graphical elements. Their morning show, their promos, their opens, their weather segments, sports...so many custom items that (as I've said many times before) KSAZ looks very different from, say, WFLD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 It's so odd then that KSAZ has a plethora of custom graphical elements. Their morning show, their promos, their opens, their weather segments, sports...so many custom items that (as I've said many times before) KSAZ looks very different from, say, WFLD. Not every local station is thrilled with what the Tampa hub is producing and will go their own route. KMSP and whatever the Dallas station is do the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 747 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Not every local station is thrilled with what the Tampa hub is producing and will go their own route. KMSP and whatever the Dallas station is do the same thing. I think you mean KDFW in regards to the three Texas stations Fox owns. I think WTXF does so as well to some extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I think you mean KDFW in regards to the three Texas stations Fox owns. I think WTXF does so as well to some extent. Exactly. The graphics hub really can't control the end product the local station produces - and this isn't just native to Fox, take a look at what some Gannett stations have been doing as of late. One of the mentalities seems to be that if you're a station that operates from a graphics hub, you're free to do whatever -- but then you're on your own. If your local artist quits and you are without for awhile, you're somewhat screwed. The hub isn't going to work with your custom elements. This prevents a lot of stations from stepping out on their own. Another reason -- they just don't care that much about their graphics, they are content with what they have. I don't think we see much of a departure from the look in the CBS O&O group because, let's face it, that look is pretty vanilla. Not much to complain about. Same with NBC O&Os. It's some shapes and two colors. Not really much to be unhappy with, it's a harmless look. Fox? They really need to take a page from their competitors and SIMPLIFY the look. The sort of elements they produced had their place and time in TV design history... but that time has come and gone. It's time to modernize the look, especially if you're going to drape it across 20+ stations like a wet towel. Hearst seems to be a little more buttoned down, some of this is due to the fact that they have some custom software for Vizrt that really makes it difficult for a local artist to produce their own templates. I think another reason you don't see too much straying from the look with the Hearst stations, is that I honestly think (at least from my experience) they finally have a graphics look that actually is not half bad. The stuff they first went to Vizrt with in the late 00's/early 10's was pretty bad and I think mostly due to a lack of knowledge of the software. The current stuff is designed fairly well and the templates are coded fairly competently. edit: to get back to something a little more relevant in this conversation, years ago Cox even looked at a hub. Numerous reasons kept them from going forward with it, I think one main reason being you're really not saving that much money - the station group isn't that big. You will notice though, a lot of their stations look very similar... and CMG is also in the process of upgrading CG systems across all of their stations, so it could even happen there someday too. Can we talk about how boring the look Sinclair is distributing? Man, is that a disappointment. Anyone else sick of that font? No, let's not, let's save that for another thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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