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Rusty Muck

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Everything posted by Rusty Muck

  1. Likely that the negotiations with these stations took place while the Allbritton deal was still pending. I'd be shocked if the Allbritton stations aren't bundled together with an extended affiliation deal in the coming months...
  2. USA Today is a McPaper. It's also very popular among hotel housekeepers and tourist attractions. And it's the only property Gannett has with a national reach. I'd still stick it with the Gannett newspaper group with the impending spin-off. It can't be solvent by any stretch of the imagination, and it would totally drag down the Gannett television station group.
  3. That's pretty stupid considering the impending spin-off of the entire newspaper division.
  4. Which, of course, is operated entirely out of the WICU/WSEE studios in Erie. I'm wondering if WNBC got the .2 simulcast on WKAQ because of NBC's attempt to sell off WTVJ in 2008.
  5. WKBW is tying in the new show to the implementation of the Scripps graphics package, in addition to a total rebuild of their weather and traffic computer equipment. Methinks that MCTYW will disappear from WKBW forever after the 11pm news on Sunday, September 28.
  6. LIN-MG obviously learned their lesson after being spanked by CBS over WISH. It shouldn't be much of an issue at all.
  7. Come later this month, when Scripps installs the standardized graphics/music on WKBW, bringing that station into the 20th century, there will be some that mourn the loss of MCTYW. But WKBW has a terribly antiquated look and sound, so much so that MCTYW's retirement is sorely needed. Change is a hallmark of the industry. Anomalies like WJZ and WPVI (and WNIR) are exceptions to the rule.
  8. At least one station is keeping The Spirit alive... [yt]QoIcKI_L96w[/yt] And yes, WNIR still uses that jingle package to this day.
  9. The only - ONLY - station to have revived a newscast theme due to popular demand... was WPVI in 1996. And they had good reason: NO ONE liked the London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of MCTYW. This is Home isn't bad. It's generic. It's a bit corporate-ish. But there's nothing that garners immediate negative reaction like MCTYW by the London Philharmonic Orchestra did. And honestly, I don't think the majority of viewers to either station are spitting angry that "The Spirit" - a musical signature barely in use for YEARS - got retired. Your idea is not only impractical, it is impossible and almost childish. No suit from Gannett is going to read posts on FB fan pages for WFAA or KHOU and think, "Ah ha! Let's bring back The Spirit!" That is not how the world works.
  10. Scripps has made official that KMGH's ND Jeff Harris is jumping over to WEWS. Take from that what you will.
  11. WEWS just posted a promo for "The Now Cleveland," which unsurprisingly has it's own dedicated YouTube channel. [yt]PE1agocDwlo[/yt]
  12. Sharon Reed was an embarrassment to Cleveland television news. She was only hired by Bill Applegate because of her outrageous persona - the WCAU flameout was pretty much a resume enhancement** - and was best known for her "Body of Art" sweeps stunt. When WOIO finally 'fired' Reed (the Plain Dealer infamously spiked a plausible rumor - which somehow got published on their own website - as to why) the station became 100% more watchable. Plus WOIO hired away the very respectable Romona Robinson from WKYC to replace Sharon, and WKYC shockingly was able to lure away Russ Mitchell from CBS to replace Romona. So it effectively became a trade of Russ Mitchell for Sharon Reed. And that's a hell of a trade. **If you think I'm kidding, look at Catherine Bosley and Chuck Galeti as other public rehabilitation projects that Applegate initiated. But at least those two had some likable qualities.
  13. As long as hashtags aren't incorporated into the graphics (see KALA-TV as a prime offender) then it's not that big a deal. More of a viral marketing effort than anything else as well as to help with search efforts on Twitter.
  14. Actually, WJW needs a new anchor/reporter to replace Zinni. He's headed back to New England at an unspecified station (Zinni worked at WPRI before joining WJW in 2008).
  15. I don't know if anyone has posted about this, but WEWS has also added another hour to their Saturday morning news. Now wrapped around a live clearance of "GMA Saturday" at 7am, WEWS has local news from 6a-7a and 8a-10a. The third hour of Litton's E/I ABC package gets scooted to 11am Sundays. So here's the local-news-on-Saturday-morning landscape for Cleveland: WKYC (as of early September): 6a-7a, 9a-10:30a, and 12p-12:30p. "Today Saturday" from 7a-9a. WEWS: 6a-7a and 8a-10a. "GMA Saturday" from 7a-8a. WJW: 7a-10a. (You have to wonder when they up the start time to 6a.) WOIO: none, surprisingly. "CBS This Morning" runs from 9a-11a.
  16. So remind me again why Linda Pellegrino had to leave WKBW's news department when "AM Buffalo" was converted into an infotainment program?
  17. WKYC uses sponsorship billboards leading into their newscasts. They've done that since 2006. And WEWS's newscasts were "brought to you by Ohio Edison and the Illuminating Company" for decades up until the late 90s (likely when both utilities merged to form FirstEnergy). WOIO's newsroom also has a sponsorship billboard usually run after the second commercial break... I forget the sponsor.
  18. Oh God. Don't remind me of those AND the Rampage Music. The Belo stations were damn lucky that they were never subject to those.
  19. I just heard that the Dollar Tree is going to buy Family Dollar for $1B. The combined company will be called Two Dollars.
  20. Who knows what Gannett is going to do with the Belo and London stations in Texas? Although it is hard for the London stations not to be standardized. That percentage of Texas viewers served by a Gannett TV station is mind-boggling. 83%. Good Lord.
  21. Has any station ever switched out their graphics system while a news/weather emergency was taking place? This could be a first.
  22. I tried ux.wfaa.com to no success (it was the first Belo station that came to mind). So I would assume that they are building these new sites one at a time. It should be noted that you can replace "www" with "ux" on any Gannett website using Presto - e.g., ux.wkyc.com, ux.wgrz.com, ux.ktvb.com - and still access their main websites. EDIT: I tried out ux.kgw.com... and it has the Presto layout with content populated. But oddly enough, no logo.
  23. And it's still the same setup today. So expanding it should not dilute that much to begin with. If the stupid, worthless E/I rule didn't exist, I bet most stations would literally program their entire Saturday morning block as one extended newscast.
  24. I see what you did there...
  25. WKYC is doing the same on weekends, come September. (The one hour of E/I programming will supposedly move down to the 11am hour on Sunday). Of course, WKYC has had weekend morning newscasts continuously since 1991.
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