New KFOR/KAUT Studio

[JCB4TV 347]

Just watched the debut of the newscast couple of key changes took place that came with the new building and I'll hit on those:

 

1. The "NewsChannel 4" branding has been retired and replaced by the new brand known as "Oklahoma's News 4"

2. The Wow & Flutter Custom Package used since 1997, that's also retired and replaced by "The Tower" that's also used by their sister station, WHO-TV

3. The set looks NOTHING like WPIX's set like what Ali Meyer originally told me a few months back, it looks almost like WTTV and KWGN except there's no duratons in the background, the newsroom is the background.

 

When Monday comes, 3 key questions:

 

1. Will the 4pm newscast originate from the same set as the other newscasts or will the virtual set carry over to the new building?

2. Will "Rise & Shine" make the move to the new building or will that follow "NewsChannel 4" and "Freedom 43 News" and be retired?

3. Will KAUT have a seperate studio for they 7-9am and 9pm newscasts or will they use the same set seen on KFOR's newscasts?

 

We will all find out on Monday

I wonder if KAUT will be branded as "KFOR Plus" or Oklahoma's News 4 Plus."

[CaptainNews 287]

I'm anxious to see their Weather Center...set and graphics are great!

Here is the complete weather set. Nothing too fancy and the graphics aren’t up to date....yet...

[MEDIA=imgur]a/hlDlM[/MEDIA]

[JCB4TV 347]

Great!

An empty newsroom at show time.

 

WSVN has plenty of interns they can use to fill that newsroom at showtime.

 

KFOR will have to lure Hobo's from the railroad tracks to be "Newsroom Extras".

It was late on a Saturday, most TV newsrooms look devoid of action unless something is going on.

[cxd7346 232]

My guess is weather equipment still needs to be moved in...but I'm not sure how they are going to operate during severe weather in that space...unless they have a working area off set. It'll be interesting to see how this works.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

The question is how long these will last though? You can be sure that Sinclair will switch it to their graphics set at the first opportunity, and in the less likely scenario that KFOR/KAUT are divested, would these stand up to another owner?

[NEOMatrix 1299]

The only thing that will stay is the music, if the group buying KFOR/KAUT is ok with Stephen Arnold.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

I wonder if KAUT will be branded as "KFOR Plus" or Oklahoma's News 4 Plus."

 

I say neither, I think it'll be titled as either 43 The Spot or TV43 OKC

 

The question is how long these will last though? You can be sure that Sinclair will switch it to their graphics set at the first opportunity, and in the less likely scenario that KFOR/KAUT are divested, would these stand up to another owner?

I say that depends on who buys KFOR/KAUT, if it's someone like Scripps or Sinclair don't expect the graphics and/or music to last for too much longer, if it's someone like Raycom, the music will remain (Raycom's stations uses Stephen Arnold Music) but the graphics will not, if it's someone like Meredith or Graham both Graphics and music will remain the same.

[cxd7346 232]

"The brand new studio, weather center, and news set were unveiled Saturday, August 19, for the 10:00 pm newscast. The graphics were designed by the Tribune Media Creative Services Team and the new news music and theme was produced by the award-winning team at Stephen Arnold Music. The KFOR newsroom provides the backdrop to the main studio."

Pretty cool shout out to Tribunes design team and SAM.

[Weeters 1916]

I say neither, I think it'll be titled as either 43 The Spot or TV43 OKC

 

 

I say that depends on who buys KFOR/KAUT, if it's someone like Scripps or Sinclair don't expect the graphics and/or music to last for too much longer, if it's someone like Raycom, the music will remain (Raycom's stations uses Stephen Arnold Music) but the graphics will not, if it's someone like Meredith or Graham both Graphics and music will remain the same.

Alright already. We get it.

 

There will be nothing stopping Sinclair from taking the Tribune Creative West packages and rolling them out to their existing stations. Please stop bringing the sale up every time someone mentions something happening at a Tribune station. Keep fantasies about groups that might swoop in and "save" the stations to the speculation thread.

[JCB4TV 347]

I would expect that the website and apps will be updated on Monday. The only major update I've seen this far is their Facebook profile picture has been updated. Furthermore, the graphics are now 16:9 ratio.

[PAnderson1 27]

[MEDIA=instagram]BYCJdaaAP8J[/MEDIA]

[JCB4TV 347]

The question is how long these will last though? You can be sure that Sinclair will switch it to their graphics set at the first opportunity, and in the less likely scenario that KFOR/KAUT are divested, would these stand up to another owner?

At this point, baring some miracle, the sale being blocked, KFOR/KAUT are as good as Sinclair stations. The only question would be who gets KOKH/KOCB should a divestiture take place.

[TheRob 937]

 

KAUT's "Rise and Shine" look

[ChesapeakeTV 311]

It's about time.

 

I came to the same conclusion as Raymie a long time ago...apparently they finally got the idea too. And boy, is this a thousand times better than the dated trainwreck they had before. Props to Tribune for giving them a nice look to at least see them through until Glass or Curves arrives.

 

As for the set, it's not bad either. My one complaint would be the printed logo on the desk - putting a monitor or something similar there would make things a bit more dynamic, so to speak.

 

And the music? Honestly I prefer The Rock to Tower V.5...and it does work here. Normally I'd be sad to see an old or custom pack like the Wow & Flutter theme go, but honestly it was about 15 years overdue for replacement anyway. (Maybe WNEP will update their music someday too.)

[MidwestTV 1232]

KFOR's choice in music is questionable. Of all themes, they chose The Rock??? That old package that's predominantly used by small markets? Maybe it fits the vibe of Oklahoma, otherwise they could have done better in that regard.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

[ATTACH=full]4360[/ATTACH]

 

KAUT's "Rise and Shine" look

Do they share the same set as KFOR's 4-7am newscast or do they have their own studio? I didn't get a chance to see it as I had to go to Vo-Tech this morning

 

EDIT: They do have their own set (there's no desk though), I wonder if the 4:30 show will share that set with Rise & Shine?

[T.L. Hughes 890]

Just watched the debut of the newscast couple of key changes took place that came with the new building and I'll hit on those:

 

1. The "NewsChannel 4" branding has been retired and replaced by the new brand known as "Oklahoma's News 4"

2. The Wow & Flutter Custom Package used since 1997, that's also retired and replaced by "The Tower" that's also used by their sister station, WHO-TV

3. The set looks NOTHING like WPIX's set like what Ali Meyer originally told me a few months back, it looks almost like WTTV and KWGN except there's no duratons in the background, the newsroom is the background.

 

When Monday comes, 3 key questions:

 

1. Will the 4pm newscast originate from the same set as the other newscasts or will the virtual set carry over to the new building?

2. Will "Rise & Shine" make the move to the new building or will that follow "NewsChannel 4" and "Freedom 43 News" and be retired?

3. Will KAUT have a seperate studio for they 7-9am and 9pm newscasts or will they use the same set seen on KFOR's newscasts?

 

We will all find out on Monday

My guess is weather equipment still needs to be moved in...but I'm not sure how they are going to operate during severe weather in that space...unless they have a working area off set. It'll be interesting to see how this works.

KFOR's choice in music is questionable. Of all themes, they chose The Rock??? That old package that's predominantly used by small markets? Maybe it fits the vibe of Oklahoma, otherwise they could have done better in that regard.

As someone from OKC, my critique on the new studio and look is this. The set actually more closely resembles that of WXIN, rather than WTTV, which makes the fact that the station implemented the tweaking of the Tribune Fox graphics weirdly apropos (FTR, the set has a special sit-down area that is being used for Rise and Shine, which is now branded as a KFOR-produced newscast). The newsroom is very sleek and professional in its design, and clearly gives the news staff a lot more space.

 

As far as "The Rock" goes, KFOR didn't exactly use the right cuts for the theme. The primary open is used for the intros of all newscasts, as had become the case with the Wow & Flutter custom package in its final decade of use. KFDX (which I watched while on vacation in Lawton a few weeks ago) actually makes better use of the cuts from "The Rock" that they use in their newscast intros, KFOR probably should have used the hard open for the 6:00 and 10:00 shows, the primary theme for the 5:00, the cut KFDX uses in its morning open for the morning newscast, and what News Music Now identifies as the political franchise open for the noon, 4:00 and 4:30 newscasts.

 

It does seem weird that they carried over the weather graphic templates from the old package, considering that the TCW graphics they had customized for KFOR have specific graphic templates for the weather segments. The old templates clash with the rest of the look.

 

While most of the anchors and reporters took to calling the station by its new branding, there have been a few times in which some of the anchors have accidentally referred to the station's branding as Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4, as had occurred when KOCO switched from Eyewitness News 5 to KOCO 5 News in 2013. Kent Ogle corrected himself during this morning's newscast, when he made that error; Tara Blume, though, referred to the old branding all but one time during the Sunday morning newscast.

[JCB4TV 347]

4:00 News & Sky Center - No virtual set.

[MidwestTV 1232]

2.) They couldn't spring for a big-screen TV behind the anchors instead of the quad array with a huge bezel?

 

Agree completely. This may be my biggest beef. There is absolutely ZERO excuse for having a monitor array with bezels that big. There are numerous examples of near bezel-less arrays.

 

Went to their facebook to check to see if they had any pics. Evidently they're having severe technical issues and couldn't air their 4pm show and are still off the air for the 5.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 915]

Not the graphics package I had envisioned for them -- but hey it's better than their 90s-esque POS they had -- also their website has yet to switch over to the new logo; still shows the NewsChannel 4 logo...

[Samantha 2895]

I'm curious to see what they'll do with Freedom 43. That look has been a success for them, but I imagine the newscasts are going to look more KFOR-ish.

 

A new logo would be good, as it's kinda hard to see, you know, the channel number.

[atlnews2 591]

open for those who haven't seen it

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=kYEgxFjRpr0;t=0

[NEOMatrix 1299]

I'm curious to see what they'll do with Freedom 43. That look has been a success for them, but I imagine the newscasts are going to look more KFOR-ish.

 

A new logo would be good, as it's kinda hard to see, you know, the channel number.

As of now, KAUT's primetime newscast is known as "Oklahoma's News 4 at 9".

[JCB4TV 347]

9:00 News - Nothing special to see here, just Linda Cavanaugh in front of a monitor.

[JCB4TV 347]

Another sign that they're in transition, on more then one occasion this evening, Linda Cavanaugh said "NewsChannel 4."