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The thing about Qubo is that Scripps would likely have to invest big bucks into it to make it even remotely competitive. That would mean spending big on original programming that they'd either produce in-house or otherwise lock down all the rights to. There would also likely be minimal help from the syndication market, since most of the worthwhile content (at least, animation-wise) is owned by Disney, WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal, and I can't imagine most of those companies are all that eager to help. They could perhaps look into old TGIF shows or what have you but I can't imagine they come cheap. Remember The Hub? Not even Hasbro had the acumen or the willingness to spend big to make that network competitive. Were it not for My Little Pony, The Hub would've been even more of a flop than it ended up being. I'm also under the impression that the TV business has more or less given up on children's shows on linear. Cartoon Network has basically packed it in (if only they hadn't ditched the multi-generational angle they had in their salad days!). The Disney Channel and its offshoots seem to be dying on the vine. Nickelodeon is still one of ViacomCBS's crown jewels and that NFL simulcast indicates some sort of self-preservation instinct. The fact that they have so eagerly flogged their '90s heyday and decided that we didn't have our fill of Rugrats in 1999 helps. Scripps bought ION because it's cheap and hugely profitable. Qubo will never be a factor without significant investment, and reruns of 20-year-old Nelvana shows aren't going to cut it.

It's pretty much a certainty after this next retransmission cycle, Disney Channel and Disney XD are done. They've already killed the channels in Europe, Australia and Asia for a Disney+ focus, and it's only accelerating since COVID-19 (the only advantage Disney Channel has right now is its live-action shows are closed-set by design). Cartoon Network is losing product to HBO Max, and Nick is surviving on SpongeBob reruns and stunts. Qubo also tried the multi-gen strategy with the Filmation library earlier in their history, but for the most part the nostalgia of He-Man was of the 'only thing on for kids at the time of day' type of nostalgia rather than it being good, so it died off. But what did kill off Qubo was the horrid management of the 'i for Infomercial' era of Ion which decided to go hard on must-carry of their main network, but shrugging off carriage of the subchannel networks when there was plenty of room for carriage, despite plenty of viewer demand for it at the time. Once the digital transition came and other station groups and network owners argued for 'main channel/subchannel' carriage, it was just another bottom-barrel subchannel like RTV or TheCoolTV

Local3... Ok, Nexstar. Taking a national view. Seriously dumb branding. Akin to Kraft saying "Homemade Goodness From Our Factories"

This move reinforces that the Ion transmitters are acting more like a national digital multiplex licensee in a European-style DTT system than anything that exists in the US. About all that's missing is one national channel number.

It really is something how thoroughly MeTV eviscerated RTV... Cartoon Network is losing product to HBO Max in large part because AT&T is starving their still-tremendously-lucrative cable networks of resources. Nickelodeon has had their heads up their asses for the last 15 years or so and has spent most of the last decade blasting the sort of "hey, remember us?" messaging typical of organizations that are deathly ill (MGM, pre-Eisner Disney, and pre-Turner Hanna-Barbera all come to mind here). The one hit cartoon they've squeaked out since Avatar was quickly embroiled in scandal. I'm so bothered that that asshole turned Dexter's Lab and PPG to shit, AND co-created Trixie Lulamoon. SpongeBob has literally outlived its creator and from the sound of it the quality of the animation has improved over the last few years, which is good at least. The Classic Media catalog actually had some neat stuff in it (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Underdog) but they didn't plumb THAT deep apparently. Truthfully, with the cable bundle severely ailing, I feel like Scripps has an opening to make Qubo competitive, but of course, that takes money, and whatever in-house advantage they'd have isn't there anymore, because they sold it in 2010...that being Peanuts!

re: Qubo Dozens of Canadian media executives cried out in terror...

We have a date! Ion Plus, Qubo and Ion Shop will be going away on February 28. https://scripps.com/press-releases/scripps-takes-first-steps-to-realize-ion-synergies-with-multicast-networks-move/

In the memory and in tribute to 13WMAZ's late news anchor Tina Hicks. RIP and Godspeed.

Since we've seen clips of WMAQ's blizzard coverage and Floyd Kalber, let's combine the two and take a look at this clip of Kalber from 1967: Here's Kalber in 1972: And here's Kalber's 1976 farewell from WMAQ (featuring Jane Pauley and goodbye messages from other Chicago news teams):

Turns out the channel with the Vicki Van Meter KNSD video has a couple more. No full opens, but the rarity of these clips makes them prime viewing. KPHO, showing their early 1990s (to March 1994) look. Reporter Sergio Pedroza had previously worked for KTVW: KWTV: KRQE: Clips from OKC and especially ABQ are extremely rare (this is the first clip of KRQE between KGGM in the late 80s and Balls and Walls in the mid-late 90s), so this is awesome to see. If only we had some of the other rarities: KUTV, KTVX, KFOR in the early 90s...

As a result of recent events, some stations are pulling their logos off their vans.