A pre-launch promo for BFM's two new local news channels, BFM Grand Littoral and BFM Grand Lille, which are scheduled to debut on February 3. The promo includes greetings from the teams at BFM Paris and BFM Lyon:

The morning news from BFM Paris, a local all-news channel for the French capital (not to be confused with BFM TV, which is a national news channel):

And that's the sad part. Unfortunately, many people "prefer" confrontation and excitement because they have been conditioned to expect that over the decades. Cronkite's newscasts contained neither confrontation nor excitement, yet they got incredible ratings and made him the most trusted person in the nation. Sure, the era before audience fragmentation had many drawbacks as well, but there's much to be said about the news values of that time. By the way, The Newscasters by Ron Powers, published in 1977, is a very prescient book about the decline of television news in America.

Here's another clip of Franceinfo TV -- it's nice to see how versatile and sophisticated this entire look is:

In Australia, the Nine Network stations have unveiled a refreshed look an a new Nine News logo. Here's GTV9 in Melbourne:

Indeed. This is exactly why some of us like it when TV stations try something different -- even if they don't always get it right.

As for the silly news titles, can you think of anything sillier than Eyewitness News and Action News? Sure, they have been with us for a long time, so we're used to them, but if you think about it, both titles just scream consultant-driven gimmickry.

At least they are trying something different. Local TV news has been stuck with the same consultant-driven formula for years. It looks the same from California to Maine: Ken-and-Barbie anchors, your-first-look-at-the-weather, endless mentions of the station's app, the consumer report, the health report, SuperDoppler 8000, inane chat with the sports anchor, excessively flashy 3D graphics, live reports from murder sites, etc. Some of these experiments may not work out, but you can't change things for the better by sticking to old, tired formulas.

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):

WLS, Chicago; 6 p.m, 1989 -- the 6 p.m. news was solo-anchored by Flolyd Kalber at the time:

And the situation was even more chaotic a few days later, when WMAQ aired this hour-long 9:30 p.m. special report: Part 2 (public transportation disruptions, airport chaos, downtown workers sleeping in hotels): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JM5mMcnaFg Part 3 (weather forecast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBsgFjkVs2g

From Chicago, WMAQ's coverage of a blizzard on today's date 41 years ago: Part 2 (collapsing buildings, airport chaos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CINL3VCG3xM Part 3 (weather forecast, interview with Mayor Bilandic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFHGppKgLQc

The 1989 crash of United Airlines Flight 232 from various sources (CNN, WLS, ABC, and others):

A never-before-seen WBBM promo from the late '70s:

From 43 years ago this month, WFLD's late-night coverage of Chicago's Blizzard of '67: Part 1: Part 2 (an update on the Apollo 1 tragedy, which happened earlier that day): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCh32cTIuLo Part 3 (ham radio reports on the blizzard): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UEirnarrNM Part 4 (news close): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJrZ8xJi5E