LoadStar

Looks like a variant of WITI Milwaukee's main set. Different desk, but both have an L-shaped desk in the corner. Even the 3x3 matrix wall is in the same place on the set.

To be clear, Bally's Corporation is not bankrupt. Diamond Sports is bankrupt. They were just a licensee of the Bally brand name. I wouldn't be surprised if Bally wanted to revoke that license at some point.

You don't need a mod to start a thread, you can start one yourself. General TV would probably be an OK place for it.

I'm guessing any major renovation plans will wait until Good Karma vacates and frees up all that space at Radio City. Edit: when is that happening, anyway? That was originally announced as being late in 2021, then "later in 2022" - how long does it take to build out an office space for GKB?

Completely spitballing here, but I could see another relaunch of "American Gladiators" being a good fit for the new CW... as long as they do it much like the original, as if it were a straight-up sports competition, and not like the 2008 relaunch, that was packed full of reality show tropes.

On what planet is WGN America a better brand name than The CW? (I'm not saying The CW is a particularly strong brand in and of itself, but it's certainly worlds better than WGN America.) The only people I've ever spoken to that have any kind of affinity for WGN America are here on this board.

That's actually a lot more than I thought, at least when based on the number of people who attended games in person. As far as XFL 2.0, that wasn't really their fault. It was an unfortunate result of COVID hitting and shutting everything down indefinitely. Before that, they seemed to have everything going for them. They had managed to attract decent in-person attendance, a seemingly respectable fanbase, and their TV ratings were (if I recall correctly) relatively decent for a startup league. (I'm sure someone will correct me on the ratings.) (AAF, on the other hand, was just bad product. Not the joke that was XFL 1.0, but just lousy football. Plus, IMO, the coverage really felt like the "brokered time deal" that I believe it was... everyone involved in the production seemed to be contractually obligated to laud the greatness of the AAF. It was kind of nauseating.)

Based on the unfortunately COVID truncated "XFL 2.0," I'm hopeful for this iteration. Can't be any worse than the USFL. I think they got ratings of 2... not a 2 share, 2 people.

The comic strip Doonesbury made fun of this all the way back on Sept. 20, 2015: https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2015/09/20

*shrug* Frankly, I've seen worse on many of the small-market stations I've seen. She seems to have fairly decent presentation skills, although her pronunciation is a little odd, almost like she's trying to cover up an accent, and to me makes her sound a bit like she has oversized dentures on. That's something she could work on over time with a dialect coach, if she wanted.

I'm so used to thinking of Sky as a News Corporation company... I had forgotten that Comcast bought them out entirely.

Very niche item, but not sure where else to ask... does anyone know if "Wisconsin's Morning News" co-host Jane Matanaer also quietly exited the station at the same time? No longer listed on the show page, and her bio page redirects to Debbie Lazaga's page. Eric Bilstad seems to be filling Jane's role on the show.

Today was Gene Mueller's last day on Wisconsin's Morning News on WTMJ-AM. On Monday, Vince Vitrano will move over from WTMJ-TV where until today he served as weekday morning anchor. (WTMJ-TV and AM are presently broadcasting from the same building on Milwaukee's north side, but are now separately owned. TV is owned by Scripps while AM is owned by Good Karma Broadcasting.)

Feels like some consultant saw viewer data that some viewed the FOX brand negatively, and as a result wanted to come up with a "FOX-free" news branding.

You're right, you HAVE been aggressively and excessively negative on NewsNation since before it premiered. Which makes one wonder if there is some ulterior motivation behind your vitriolic rants in this thread. Whatever, your contributions in this thread have reached near parodic levels at this point.... suggesting that one singular program is literally the only program that could "save" the nascent news network is beyond ridiculous.

This just all seems like a worse idea than AFL was. Agreed. The XFL was starting to find its legs... games were actually reasonably entertaining to watch (if not quite at an NFL level), and teams were managing to build an actual fan base. COVID screwed them bigtime. I can't see anyone caring about a made-for-and-by-TV league with all games played in Birmingham.

WTMJ-TV's Vince Vitrano (Weekday AM anchor) will be going down the hall to WTMJ-AM to replace Gene Mueller as co-host of "Wisconsin's Morning News." https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/vince-vitrano-move WTMJ-TV and WTMJ-AM were previously co-owned by Journal Communications. WTMJ-TV is now owned by Scripps, while WTMJ-AM is owned by Good Karma Brands. Both are presently co-housed at "Radio City" on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee, but AM will be moving out mid-2022 to a new studio being built in downtown Milwaukee.

That's funny.

As far as I know, they intend to bring back XFL as well. Duane Johnson bought the rights for practically nothing. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/xfl-owner-dwayne-the-rock-johnson-reveals-when-the-league-will-be-making-its-return/

Gene Mueller, the main host/anchor of the "Wisconsin Morning News" news/information show on Good Karma Broadcasting's WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee, today announced he would be retiring from the radio early next year. Mueller has been a fixture on the radio in Milwaukee. Before joining WTMJ-AM in 2007, he was the co-host of the "Reitman and Mueller" morning show on what was then CHR-formatted 94.5 FM WKTI. He has been on the Milwaukee radio scene continuously since 1981, and has been in the radio industry for 44 years. Longtime Milwaukee radio personality Gene Mueller to retire from WTMJ-AM - Milwaukee Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

This is one of those times when they probably should have tried to come up with a new corporate name that doesn't integrate either of the two merging companies (for example, "Stellantis" for the FCA/PSA merger). Trying to combine "Discovery" and any form of "Warner," "Warner Brothers," or "Warner Media" just doesn't sound right.

Looks to be mostly WarnerMedia. AT&T shareholders will own 71% of the company, while Discovery will own 29%. AT&T will appoint 7 board members, while Discovery will appoint 6. That said, Discovery CEO David Zaslav will run the new company.

I understood the Discovery/Scripps Networks Interactive merger, because there was strong affinity between their families of networks. In contrast, there's really no affinity between WarnerMedia and Discovery, and as a result, I'm a little puzzled by this. The only reason I see that AT&T is approaching Discovery with this deal is because both Disney and Comcast would have anti-trust issues to deal with, and there really isn't too many other companies left, other than Discovery.

Guess this is the best thread for it... unless I'm wrong, it looks like for the coverage of the Derek Chauvin verdict, Spectrum News 1 has a national feed going out on the regional news channels. First time I've seen them do live national coverage. Definitely a little unusual compared to the very soft news that they typically have on Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin.

NewsNation snags Adrienne Bankert from ABC: https://deadline.com/2021/04/former-abc-news-correspondent-adrienne-bankert-joins-newsnation-1234740011/