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Of course it wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t necessary for them to change the lights to blue or for Norah to wear a pantsuit either. It was a choice. This is nothing new, by the way. When Charlie, Diane, and David each took over WNT, they all cited Peter Jennings in one way or another. For people who work in that business, it’s an act of respect. As I said, the 20 second nod to the show’s legacy was just as much for the CBS News staff as it was for the audience.

Your one-time purchase or subscription for a newspaper basically paid the cost of printing it and delivering it. The content? That was funded by the ads inside. Back in the golden age of newspapers, those were expensive ads. Everyone read the newspaper so they could charge a lot of money for the ad space. Now, the same news is available online, in some cases for free. Advertisers don't want to pay to subsidize the cost of the newspaper anymore, because nobody's reading it. So in comes the paywall. Now the subscribers are actually paying for the content itself. The same goes for TV. TV ads are decreasing in price. Newspapers somewhat responded to this by cramming more ads into less space. Decrease the size of the paper, increase the number of ads. Costs go down, revenue goes up. Except it's much harder to cram more ads into TV. Local TV has never been "free", you paid for the content you received by suffering through commercials. Viewers tend to notice when video is sped up to fit more ad time in (and yes, this is a thing that has been tried). Newscasts are now littered with sponsorship logos in an attempt to cram as much ad real estate into the day as possible. TV viewership is falling. Advertisers know this. People have more things to distract themselves with during commercials. Advertisers know this too. They want to pay less for the ad time because of these things. So the stations need to make money from somewhere, and free on the internet doesn't always cut it, especially in small markets like Fargo. So, just like newspapers, it's time to make the people who want the content pay for it. I've long said the best indicators of where this industry is going will be from the small markets. They're the ones being hit hardest by the changing industry. If it works in Fargo, it's going to start creeping upwards. And if it doesn't work? Well, there are a lot of buildings out there that used to be newspaper offices... Remember, Scripps/WCPO started experimenting with something like this in 2013, and the service is still active.

While the play button is getting pretty tired across the board, I can't say I hate it. Easy to read, not an uninspired flat design, full width of the screen used with no stupid branding box to the left. It's something I could live with, but I'll believe it when I see it used on-air.

Hopefully it's only that and not the other networks they own (CBS Sports, Showtime, Pop, Flix, etc...) I think we're beginning to see these disputes taken up to a whole new level. AT&T still will not allow HBO on Dish. Cinemax is being phased out on Xfinity for their in-house Hitz channel. The networks had better start making their content a-la-carte when they start demanding too much money for it. It's the only way in this vertically integrated disaster we're seeing with these mega-mergers. No one should have to sacrifice a whole service because another channel is ONLY available on a competing bundle.

A KETV update from July 10, 1981 - by this point Carol Schrader had assumed the lead anchor position and would continue to anchor until the “Newsplex” era in 1996. EDIT: The full newscast! Includes a long open with the KVBC 1980 Theme. Interestingly, it takes cues from KSL’s open at the time, and the graphical animations of this open would be recycled when they used “Newsbeat”.

KPIX is running a ticker on the Noon newscast right now saying DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse May drop KPIX. Right now KRON is still blacked out on DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers. This is will be a double whammy. 855-5 KEEP CBS KEEPCBS.com

I noticed this on a KMGH live stream today. *ducks and covers*

Steve Overmyer did the sports segment this morning.

I think that's a glitch from VizRT. Somehow someone routed the on-air feed back into the input channel used in the tease graphic since there's an effected wipe in it. It just caused an infinite loop.

On top of everything, Kristin Thorne had her baby and Danielle Leigh got married.

Strong debut. The blues give the show an evening feel, not too different from the blues of WNT and NN. Norah has a commanding presence and brings her own gravitas. This is a show I would watch. The nod to Murrow was just as much for the CBS staff as it was for the audience. She can give a 20 second nod to the show's history in the debut episode and still establish the show as her own. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Kari Lake is a pathetic example of journalism. I refuse to watch Fox 10 here in Phoenix until she's GONE. I've had the unpleasant task of helping her at a local health food store. She was rude, pushy, and thought she owned the place. The temptation to smack her was oh so great.

I thought Norah's debut was excellent. As an employee of various CBS affiliates since 1996, I think this is the best Evening News has looked and felt in quite a while.

The last segment of the late night replay of a WTSP 11pm newscast from 1985, followed by the sign-off itself, read by longtime Tampa radio personality Roger P. Schulman: FYI, I'm FB friends with the guy who gave the tape of this to @WFTV Channel 9!

WHIO 9/11 coverage.

It wouldn't be as big of a deal. However, there would probably a lot of confused baby boomers. On the other hand, if you take The Office off of Netflix... oh wait...

Failed Marketing Idea??? Or Al Primo's guest bath?

"Later this year" is what people on here were saying last year. I'll believe it when I see it.

I would like to remind everybody that Monday of next week, it would be two years ago, July 22... it was the day that Washingtonian's lost WRC NBC 4's Jim Vance. Take the time to remember him, and re-look back at his career next week.