The Ever-Evolving Gray Graphics Situation...Thread

[nathannah 2792]

4 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

It's a long time coming.  WUAB has suffered greatly since the Raycom days and going independent again will hopefully be a good thing, especially since Nexstar has watered down the CW into a crap network with "wider" appeal.

If anything screams '2000s imagining consultants imagining what the kids like', it was their branding the most at that time; "43 The Block" remains on the hill of worst station brandings above "JoeTV" and that short time KWGN was "The Deuce". "Cleveland's 43" is a signal that there are finally adults in the room.

[Zantheman87 2]

WYMT has removed the CBS eye from its logo on their 24/7 livestream. More GrayOne assets also appear.

[LOWERCASE GUY 296]

39 minutes ago, Zantheman87 said:

WYMT has removed the CBS eye from its logo on their 24/7 livestream. More GrayOne assets also appear.

I can confirm WYMT will be switching to GrayONE this year as part of their 40th anniversary celebration. They are slowly working it into promos and weather has fully gone GrayONE (Watch an entire Weather cast.) The CBS Eye removal is part of the Gray Mandate.

[Zantheman87 2]

11 hours ago, LOWERCASE GUY said:

I can confirm WYMT will be switching to GrayONE this year as part of their 40th anniversary celebration. They are slowly working it into promos and weather has fully gone GrayONE (Watch an entire Weather cast.) The CBS Eye removal is part of the Gray Mandate.

Really like that their switching as apart of their 40th anniversary! (Hoping their old logo will make an appearance.) Looks like we will have to wait till about October for the switch though.

[NEOMatrix 1319]

On 4/24/2025 at 2:14 PM, nathannah said:

If anything screams '2000s imagining consultants imagining what the kids like', it was their branding the most at that time; "43 The Block" remains on the hill of worst station brandings above "JoeTV" and that short time KWGN was "The Deuce". "Cleveland's 43" is a signal that there are finally adults in the room.

WUAB has had either horrendous or generic branding ever since “Hometeam 43” in 1999. Between “Hometeam”, “(my)43 the Block,” “CLE43”, and “UPN/my/CW 43”, I don’t think Raycom has put any effort into branding WUAB, or even WOIO for that matter. Honestly, it’s nice to see Gray trying.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 1158]

Really frickin irritates me when they can't get the fonts correct

[LOWERCASE GUY 296]

On 4/30/2025 at 2:30 PM, Kingpeytonifx said:

Yep especially that weather open 

They are fixing it. It appears they forgot to install Barlow on their machines. Once they did that, it started to fix everything weatherwise.

That said, WILX is next.

[evv_mlis 34]

WFIE has started using GrayONE elements (fonts, backgrounds) in commercials for anchor changes beginning May 5. 

[AC1211 7]

KOTA removed the ABC logo so i'm kinda guessing somethings coming soon 

[LOWERCASE GUY 296]

1 hour ago, AC1211 said:

KOTA removed the ABC logo so i'm kinda guessing somethings coming soon 

It may just be since they brand their ABC/FOX as both KOTA Territory, they removed the ABC eye for consistency (Or the Gray Affiliate Logo Removal continues.) I do know GrayONE is coming later this year/early next year. There are quite a few stations ahead of them.

[AC1211 7]

oh okay i just saw that and thought something grayone related is coming soon

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

I'm willing to guess that these removals are contingent on affiliate renewals.  Gray probably has many of them all over the place due to acquisitions over the years. 
Even though some like WBKO have adopted the new ABC logo, it's probably staying around for this agreement until that expires.

Fox is likely the network that will hold them to some form of dual-branding.

[GodfreyGR 812]

On 5/7/2025 at 5:36 PM, LOWERCASE GUY said:

It may just be since they brand their ABC/FOX as both KOTA Territory, they removed the ABC eye for consistency

This, and it's been this for almost a year. If you look at the KOTA Facebook, they have used an affiliate-less logo in the profile pic since August 2024, around the same time they folded the KEVN/"Black Hills Fox" branding into the KOTA Territory banner. Looking on Wayback.org, I had to go to June 2024 to find a KOTAtv.com homepage that had the ABC logo adjoining the call letters.

[nathannah 2792]

On 5/10/2025 at 11:29 AM, GodfreyGR said:

This, and it's been this for almost a year. If you look at the KOTA Facebook, they have used an affiliate-less logo in the profile pic since August 2024, around the same time they folded the KEVN/"Black Hills Fox" branding into the KOTA Territory banner. Looking on Wayback.org, I had to go to June 2024 to find a KOTAtv.com homepage that had the ABC logo adjoining the call letters.

They also have a 'malicious compliance' version of the logo where the ABC ball is still used...but for the Fox version they just replace the ABC text with the Fox logo. It's technically compliant for its use, but it feels like it's easier to just switch logos without the black ball being needed.

[GodfreyGR 812]

1 hour ago, nathannah said:

They also have a 'malicious compliance' version of the logo where the ABC ball is still used...but for the Fox version they just replace the ABC text with the Fox logo. It's technically compliant for its use, but it feels like it's easier to just switch logos without the black ball being needed.

Which throws me for a loop when I watch, but small potatoes. Did they do that just for the ease of simplicity knowing they're getting the new graphics package eventually (which, if history keeps up, there will likely not be any network logos on that logo), or would it have been just as easy for them to take the entire ABC logo out and place the Fox logo in?

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

On 4/28/2025 at 3:21 PM, NEOMatrix said:

WUAB has had either horrendous or generic branding ever since “Hometeam 43” in 1999. Between “Hometeam”, “(my)43 the Block,” “CLE43”, and “UPN/my/CW 43”, I don’t think Raycom has put any effort into branding WUAB, or even WOIO for that matter. Honestly, it’s nice to see Gray trying.

"43 The Block" couldn't have come at a worse time.  They had just lost the Indians and Cavs to cable and WBNX was starting to clean their clocks in the ratings by smartly investing in programming.  WUAB had been burned in the past by some deals (notably Webster reruns) but managed to get some good syndication as well.

 

WUAB's strategy at the time?  Bulk up on informercials and create a bunch of amateur comedy-mercials with comedian-hosts like Mike Polk. 

Even he lampooned these efforts in WUAB's 50th anniversary special!

https://youtu.be/pKW-7sccPDY?si=wXH-3IGg7AZEDKbf&t=1242

 

[tylerSC 67]

WHNS in Greenville-Spartanburg is overdue to update to the Gray graphics package. They are still using old Meredith graphics. And will they follow the Gray trend and remove FOX Carolina from their branding? They haven't used Channel 21 in years.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

I'll do better than the last poster...
 

 

 

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

34 minutes ago, tylerSC said:

WHNS in Greenville-Spartanburg is overdue to update to the Gray graphics package. They are still using old Meredith graphics. And will they follow the Gray trend and remove FOX Carolina from their branding? They haven't used Channel 21 in years.

I just have to wonder if GrayOne has existed alongside a Nexstar station (like WSPA) that looks very similar.  WSPA's is modified heavily, but it uses practially the same fonts as GrayOne and others (like WYTV, WHTM, WYOU/WBRE, WIVB, etc...)

[tylerSC 67]

Yes the Nexstar graphics used by WSPA do look similar in font to GrayOne. In Charlotte, WBTV has GrayOne but the Nexstar graphics on WJZY look a bit different than WSPA. I receive very strong signals from WBTV and WJZY in Spartanburg, even though WSPA and WHNS are my true locals. But from Charlotte, I think WSOC is the best overall news station, although you need more of a strategic antenna to pull in their main signal or the translator here. From Greenville, WYFF is my preferred news station.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 1158]

20 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I just have to wonder if GrayOne has existed alongside a Nexstar station (like WSPA) that looks very similar.  WSPA's is modified heavily, but it uses practially the same fonts as GrayOne and others (like WYTV, WHTM, WYOU/WBRE, WIVB, etc...)

Also of note, the Nexstar package has been around waaay longer than GrayONE

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

4 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

Also of note, the Nexstar package has been around waaay longer than GrayONE

Even WISH-TV's look keeps it alive after Nexstar traded over to WTTV/WXIN.  And WXIN's new look looks like a more refined GrayOne.

GrayOne hasn't even made it's way around the country yet and it's getting stale.  I wonder if they ever intended to take it national after it debuted at WANF.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 1158]

15 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Even WISH-TV's look keeps it alive after Nexstar traded over to WTTV/WXIN.  And WXIN's new look looks like a more refined GrayOne.

GrayOne hasn't even made it's way around the country yet and it's getting stale.  I wonder if they ever intended to take it national after it debuted at WANF.

They're doing the same thing as Sinclair did -- took them FOREVER to roll out and Sinclair's is what, almost a decade old (combining the glass/curves 1.0 and 2.0 looks) and also very stale?

[kfc513 259]

8 hours ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

They're doing the same thing as Sinclair did -- took them FOREVER to roll out and Sinclair's is what, almost a decade old (combining the glass/curves 1.0 and 2.0 looks) and also very stale?

 

Even then, Sinclair's glass/curves look didn't make it to all of their stations before it got replaced.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

When was the last time a station or group actually introduced a new package?  That's how stale and boring everything is right now.  The industry is stuck in 2019.