11 replies to this topic

[HulkieD]

We've been seeing this for awhile, and Steve Burke mentioned some details in a conference call some weeks back, but the NBC Owned Television Stations officially announced their reinvestment initiative in a press release today. You want to read it, trust me.

EDIT: After reading that, you also want to read this great piece at TVNewsCheck that goes into detail about all of the changes. It's a must read, as Staab admits that several GE/Zucker/Wallace ideas for the O&Os were bad ones, and commits to reinvesting and restaffing the stations. I've revised the piece throughout with new information from this article.

You also want to check out this video, which is a short interview with Valari Staab, just going over the presser, but she admits the NBC O&Os "have to be strong again". This is honestly GREAT news to hear, because they're admitting the O&Os have been malnourished and mistreated, and have to be rebuilt.

And finally, they redid the official O&O website slightly. "NBC Local Media" is out, "NBC Owned Television Stations" is in. The headers have removed the "NBC <City>" block logos for Nobel font headers of the stations' brand names "NBC 4 New York", etc, and the station logos are now at the bottom of the page. I think the generic block logo look is officially dead and buried at this point.

Here are the highlights from the presser, with commentary on my end:

Quote

• Producing more than 1,200 additional hours of local news a year on the stations’ primary broadcast channels, including:

o An hour-long 5 PM newscast on WNBC/4 New York

o A 30-minute noon newscast on KNBC/4 Los Angeles

o A 30-minute noon newscast on WMAQ/5 Chicago

o Two 30-minute newscasts at 4:30 AM and 11:00 AM on WCAU/10 Philadelphia

o A 30-minute newscast at 11 AM on KNTV/11 Bay Area

o A 30-minute newscast at 11 AM on KXAS/5 Dallas-Fort Worth

o Two hours of news on Saturday and Sunday mornings on WTVJ/6 Miami

o A 30-minute noon newscast on KNSD/7 San Diego

I think all of these have been announced and have been airing, but if there's anything new on there that hasn't been confirmed, well...

Quote

• Purchasing 20 new cameras and other new equipment

I can say that the "other new equipment" includes true HD capable graphics for WCAU, and I'm sure the other stations are getting similar upgrades.

EDIT: In addition to this, they're getting 15 new live trucks.

Quote

• Adding or increasing the hours of helicopter coverage in several markets

This is interesting. In Philadelphia, WCAU, KYW, and WTXF share what was KYW's chopper. Does this mean some stations are getting their own choppers back? EDIT: The TVNewsCheck article confirms that WNBC and KNBC, at the request of Staab herself, are regaining their own choppers. So far, no other station is doing this, but Staab does say that she's given the GMs latitude to decide what they want to do with chopper and news sharing agreements.

Quote

• Restoring the promotions departments at all 10 stations.

THANK YOU, JEBUS.

I can understand graphics centralization, but centralizing most of the promo departments out of New York was a terrible idea. WCAU's promo department shifted to more of an ad agency, so we essentially kept our own promos, but what I saw of the other stations... oogh. I know the whole thing was "local, local, local" but the promos I saw from the New York setup were as generic and pointless as can be. I am so glad they realized how wrong that idea (which likely included the generic logos) was, and I'm equally glad they dumped it.

EDIT: Staab's comments on this are the most revealing. She admits to the centralized system as "not working" and refers to history, identity, and market traditions that weren't being transferred to New York. (I'd say that New York was steamrolling over all three.)

One more thing.

Quote

• Building new sets and/or studios at four stations, including WNBC/4 New York;

The biggest piece of news out of this, IMO.

WNBC, obviously, we know is moving into the old Nightly News studio, and it's named in the report. Not named is KNBC, which is moving into the studio that boasted the long, storied run of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien".

But with the flagships out of the way, what would the other two stations be? KNTV and KNSD got set upgrades, and while I'm tempted to say they might be the other two they were more GE/Zucker projects and the press release seems to highlight the Comcast/Staab changes. WRC and WCAU have relatively new Clickspring sets, so they're out. WVIT is a new building too, and KXAS is still kind of new... which leaves WMAQ and WTVJ...

EDIT: The TVNewsCheck article names the stations getting new sets. In addition to WNBC and KNBC, both confirmed a while ago, WTVJ and KXAS are also getting new studios.

This is also worth mentioning, from the NewsCheck article. They're scaling back the Nonstops - instead of seven local channels, it will be one network with local news opts, more similar to LiveWell:

Quote

Now, according to Staab, the plan is to create one national Nonstop channel using some of the local programs created for the original local channels and allowing for local news insertion. “We are going to take a look at what everybody is doing and see what we think will make it on the national network and what we think is too local.”

Makes sense to me - scale back the local stuff so the stations have more resources to focus on local news. I'll miss some of the interesting local shows 10's nonstop was doing, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a good idea to change course.

One last thing that I think is telling, and I think was much needed:

Quote

The autonomy that the stations now enjoy is new, she believes. Under her predecessor, she says, “I think it was much heavier, top-down. There were a lot of things that they had to at least run by corporate. The culture that I am trying to create now is that the general manager and the department heads run their stations and we’re here to help.”

NBC stations, under Wallace, Zucker, and GE, were being run top down from New York City. What we almost saw earlier this year would have been the ultimate conclusion - local stations controlled out of New York City with local news opts produced by a skeleton staff. NBC now has people seeing the stations as independent entities, and they've SORELY needed that. Now's the time to see what they can do.

Anyone else see any changes/improvements to their NBC O&O?

[A3N]

Here is an article by TV News Check with more specific info on what Hulkie discussed above.
http://www.tvnewsche...-nbc-oo-revival

In the article, it mentions that WTVJ will be getting a new set, and that KNBC and WNBC will be getting their choppers back. Sadly though, KNSD which really needed a new set isn't mentioned in the article. And no, a fresh coat of paint does not equal a new set. Also, i'm a bit surprised that they have not made a new O&O gfx package. It would really help in terms of getting rid of the block logo/gfx all across the O&O's. Also, I wanted to point out that Staab mentions in the article that the NonStop Channels will be reformatted to be one national channel with local insertion of news and other stuff.

[Weeters]

The video shows a WNBC broadcast and "New York Live" being produced traditionally in a standard control room. Did they un-Ignite?

A3N, on 31 October 2011 - 03:55 PM, said:

Also, i'm a bit surprised that they have not made a new O&O gfx package.

With their new dedication to localizing the stations, I'd think we're going to end up seeing stations contracting out for their own custom graphics packages.

[HulkieD]

Made some edits to the original post. Also, here's some of the improvements I've seen at 10 in the last few months in addition to the 4:30am and 11am newscasts and the HD gfx.

• The afternoon news block has been overhauled, with new anchor pairings on each newscast: Renee Chenault-Fattah and Dawn Timmeney on the 4, Tim Lake and Tracy Davidson on the 5, and Tim and Renee doing the 6. Up until the launch of the 11am news, the 4pm was often single anchored and the 5pm was Tracy solo.
  
• The 5pm has been retooled. Previously it was a half-hour, with the 5:30 taken up by a themed show. Now it's a full hour of news, with the former themed shows getting one longer segment at around 5:45.
  
• Weather has a new graphics system, comparable to what was introduced at WPVI but with even more horsepower it seems. I've seen them generate live, full 3D citiy skylines - delivered on the air without any noticable hitches or slowdown. They've gotta have some seriously powerful hardware to do that.
  
• More reporters and more reporting on the whole. They've hired a few people and they seem to be doing a lot more live shots.

Overall, I've noticed just a tremendous improvement in the quality and capability of WCAU's news department. I'm watching them far more than I've watched them in years, and they really have something good over there. It's a better, more watchable newscast than 3 these days.

A3N, on 31 October 2011 - 03:55 PM, said:

Also, i'm a bit surprised that they have not made a new O&O gfx package.

Lest we all forget, they DID. They just came to their senses right as they were rolling it out.

I'd love to see what the full story behind this failed revamp was, and how close it came to being rolled out. I'm convinced that at least WCAU was days away from launching that look, and graphics in that KNSD style have appeared on their air once or twice. They ended up using some of the elements, namely the open footage and music, for their refreshed Look C.

And keep in mind we have the two flagships moving into new studios at the end of the year/beginning of next. If we see any new group look, it's going to be when WNBC and KNBC move into their new facilities.

Which brings us to this:

Weeters, on 31 October 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

With their new dedication to localizing the stations, I'd think we're going to end up seeing stations contracting out for their own custom graphics packages.

I'm... not so sure.

While we're seeing them restore the promo departments, they still have the graphics hub in Fort Worth, and I've seen nothing that suggests they're dismantling that setup. They've been hiring for that, too, so I don't think that part's going to go away. Granted, I don't know how the Artworks/Arthouse platform works these days.

Moreover, NBC still has a giant in-house division specifically to create graphics for their properties. They work with outside clients, but Artworks is almost always involved in some way. That's worked well for them, honestly, and even if the stations are getting more leeway in their visual appearance I doubt they're going to go as far as to have GO/FX or Hothaus contract a look for one station.

That said, I don't think there's going to be one single standard look like in the past. I think what we're starting to see, and what we're going to see going forward, is something akin to the "CapCities Chrome" look ABC had in the late 1980s. Not the general style, mind you, but the fact that there was a really malleable look with a bunch of elements that could be mixed and matched. The result? Stations used similar elements, but could create their own spins for something really unique. All of the stations had an unmistakable graphical style that was purely ABC, but none of them looked the same.

I think you're starting to see that with the NBC O&Os. WCAU and WTVJ went to heavily modified versions of Look C that are very locally customized, and I wouldn't be shocked if that happens with the rest of the stations. I'd love to see someone launch a corporate look as customizable as CapCities Chrome was.

Weeters, on 31 October 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

The video shows a WNBC broadcast and "New York Live" being produced traditionally in a standard control room. Did they un-Ignite?

Weren't they on Ross Overdrive or something? I'm not a control room guy, so I wouldn't know, but when WPVI did their behind the scenes tour of their new studios, the control room looked similar to my eyes, just automated. But again, I wouldn't be able to tell.

[tmanokc]

NBC Owned Television Stations appears to also be making improvements with at least one of its Telemundo stations, WNJU in New York is supposed to be reinstating weekend newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. in January and add a local public affairs program called "Enfoque Nueva York" (English: "Focus on New York") starting this coming Sunday at 11 p.m. (presumably it will be moved to another slot once the weekend evening newscasts return).

This story from the New York Daily News explains things: http://www.nydailyne...rticle-1.967469

[WCAUTVNBC10]

HulkieD, on 31 October 2011 - 06:33 PM, said:

Made some edits to the original post. Also, here's some of the improvements I've seen at 10 in the last few months in addition to the 4:30am and 11am newscasts and the HD gfx.

• The afternoon news block has been overhauled, with new anchor pairings on each newscast: Renee Chenault-Fattah and Dawn Timmeney on the 4, Tim Lake and Tracy Davidson on the 5, and Tim and Renee doing the 6. Up until the launch of the 11am news, the 4pm was often single anchored and the 5pm was Tracy solo.
  
• The 5pm has been retooled. Previously it was a half-hour, with the 5:30 taken up by a themed show. Now it's a full hour of news, with the former themed shows getting one longer segment at around 5:45.
  
• Weather has a new graphics system, comparable to what was introduced at WPVI but with even more horsepower it seems. I've seen them generate live, full 3D citiy skylines - delivered on the air without any noticable hitches or slowdown. They've gotta have some seriously powerful hardware to do that.
  
• More reporters and more reporting on the whole. They've hired a few people and they seem to be doing a lot more live shots.

Overall, I've noticed just a tremendous improvement in the quality and capability of WCAU's news department. I'm watching them far more than I've watched them in years, and they really have something good over there. It's a better, more watchable newscast than 3 these days.


Lest we all forget, they DID. They just came to their senses right as they were rolling it out.

I'd love to see what the full story behind this failed revamp was, and how close it came to being rolled out. I'm convinced that at least WCAU was days away from launching that look, and graphics in that KNSD style have appeared on their air once or twice. They ended up using some of the elements, namely the open footage and music, for their refreshed Look C.

And keep in mind we have the two flagships moving into new studios at the end of the year/beginning of next. If we see any new group look, it's going to be when WNBC and KNBC move into their new facilities.

Which brings us to this:


I'm... not so sure.

While we're seeing them restore the promo departments, they still have the graphics hub in Fort Worth, and I've seen nothing that suggests they're dismantling that setup. They've been hiring for that, too, so I don't think that part's going to go away. Granted, I don't know how the Artworks/Arthouse platform works these days.

Moreover, NBC still has a giant in-house division specifically to create graphics for their properties. They work with outside clients, but Artworks is almost always involved in some way. That's worked well for them, honestly, and even if the stations are getting more leeway in their visual appearance I doubt they're going to go as far as to have GO/FX or Hothaus contract a look for one station.

That said, I don't think there's going to be one single standard look like in the past. I think what we're starting to see, and what we're going to see going forward, is something akin to the "CapCities Chrome" look ABC had in the late 1980s. Not the general style, mind you, but the fact that there was a really malleable look with a bunch of elements that could be mixed and matched. The result? Stations used similar elements, but could create their own spins for something really unique. All of the stations had an unmistakable graphical style that was purely ABC, but none of them looked the same.

I think you're starting to see that with the NBC O&Os. WCAU and WTVJ went to heavily modified versions of Look C that are very locally customized, and I wouldn't be shocked if that happens with the rest of the stations. I'd love to see someone launch a corporate look as customizable as CapCities Chrome was.


Weren't they on Ross Overdrive or something? I'm not a control room guy, so I wouldn't know, but when WPVI did their behind the scenes tour of their new studios, the control room looked similar to my eyes, just automated. But again, I wouldn't be able to tell.

10's got what looks like the same control room setup as 4's it looks like. 10's still using I believe Ignite to automate though.

[Weeters]

HulkieD, on 31 October 2011 - 06:33 PM, said:

While we're seeing them restore the promo departments, they still have the graphics hub in Fort Worth, and I've seen nothing that suggests they're dismantling that setup. They've been hiring for that, too, so I don't think that part's going to go away. Granted, I don't know how the Artworks/Arthouse platform works these days.

Moreover, NBC still has a giant in-house division specifically to create graphics for their properties. They work with outside clients, but Artworks is almost always involved in some way. That's worked well for them, honestly, and even if the stations are getting more leeway in their visual appearance I doubt they're going to go as far as to have GO/FX or Hothaus contract a look for one station.

My thinking is that Artworks already works with multiple graphics packages just for local station newscasts (WNBC, Look C, WMAQ's ancient graphics... Do they do the Telemundo stuff too? because if they do there's a few more packages...) and any graphics that get widely-used among stations are often generic (the tropical storm/hurricane graphics, for example) and are tied to no particular package. It really wouldn't be that hard to roll out individual packages that would be managed by Artworks.

I would not be shocked to see stations get the option of commissioning their own packages or sticking with Look C.

[kjohnson]

Can't wait to get back to an O&O market, then. KMOV and KSDK are being run in the same way Comcast is throwing out. Top-Heavy distant management is bad for the community the station is in.

Nice to see somebody gets that. Any word on hiring, though? Plenty of new grads ready to go. Time to start hiring them.

[Bsean]

I will say the same thing about KNSD, the changes thus far have really made me watch them a lot more lately. Most of the changes here have to do with on air talent and possibly new equipment. A considerable amount of on air talent has been hired in the last few months expanding what they can cover. KNSD is taking the route of dedicating reporters to specific issues. In addition to Gene Cubbison covering politics and Rory Devine covering education, Lea Sutton is covering the military, Chris Chan covering business and Diana Guevara covering Latino issues. The latter three reporters recently hired. Also, Consumer Bob will continue with consumer issues. I do wonder if there will be an investigative reporter in addition to Consumer Bob, or does he fill that role. In addition to those three reporters there have been others hired including Danya Bacchus, Brandi Powell, Kelly McPherson, and Nicole Gonzalez.

Another difference is in their coverage. With the addition of all the reporters and I am assuming some new live trucks, their coverage of major news has much improved.

Lastly, in house weather is back at the station. No longer does the station share KNBC's weathercasters. All in, I think they are heading in the right direction.

[jdcnow]

There has been talk for years that KXAS wanted to move out of the digs in east Fort Worth where the late Amon Carter founded the station (and where it's been ever since - ***1948!***) The rumor was that ever since WFAA got the storefront studios at Victory Park in downtown Dallas, back in early 2007, KXAS also wanted a storefront studio, and the primary estimated location was to be in downtown Fort Worth's hugely popular entertainment district, Sundance Square. Now there is word on the street that KXAS is seeking a tax abatement from the city of Fort Worth for an old office complex on the Tarrant-Dallas County line, technically in Tarrant County and technically in the city limits of Fort Worth, but directly south of DFW International Airport. Relocating the station to here would put it directly in the geographical dead center of the Northern Texas/Dallas-Fort Worth DMA. Why this matters is that if KXAS ever left Fort Worth or Tarrant County and moved to Dallas County, that would leave KTVT as the only major TV station based in Fort Worth, and it would be a huge blow to Fort Worth and the western half of the DMA in terms of news coverage.

It'll be interesting to see what also becomes of the LNS helicopter/news sharing agreement with KDFW and KDAF.

And, in the link above, an eyebrow-raising statement from Brian Hocker, the VP of programming for KXAS...

Quote

"It'll give us the opportunity to 'enterprise' stories better. You get to a point where reporters are having to turn out a story each day. The additional staff gives us the opportunity to do more research on stories and not have to turn them out as fast."

The word 'enterprise' in that statement intrigues me >> Perhaps they'll finally start at least trying to do what WFAA has been doing for decades.

I once said that the only 2 things that could truly fix KXAS and all its problems was a wrecking ball and the yelling of the word, "CLEAR!!!" But seeing Comcast's plans make me cautiously optomistic. I may yet have to eat those words.

(Plus, starting their 10pm news on-time instead of a minute late couldn't hurt either. While KDFW is usually just finishing up their lead story at 10.01pm, KXAS is rolling the opening graphics intro.)

[mbhcity]

BTW...KNBC rebranded its newscast as NBC4 News retiring the Channel 4 News brand after 26 years.

[24994J]

WMAQ has announced that they will be reintroducing the legendary "Unit 5" investigative series, once a staple on the station's newscasts in the 80's. Award-winning producer and 13 year Unit 5 vet Katy Smyser will rejoin NBC5 after 16 years away from Chicago, reuniting with lead anchor Rob Stafford (they worked together on Dateline in the late 90's). The station is still interviewing for a second producer.

http://timeoutchicag...iority%E2%80%99