sanewsguy

Are you talking about Steven Walsh? That guy gets on my nerves (and as someone who speaks with Ntropolis regularly, I can definitely confirm Steven grinds his gears as well). Yesterday on my classic video channel, 31 Rewind (shameless plug: please subscribe, as I have lots of unique content on the way), I uploaded a set of KSAT breaks from 1988. Not even 10 minutes later he had the legal ID up from that video on his channel. It was a late night post too so it makes me wonder if this guy even sleeps. His titles all follow the same formula: “(CALL) id (YEAR)” and have nothing in the description. Not even a credit/courtesy to the original upload. THAT part frustrates me the most - does not take much effort to credit the original uploader if you feel the need to do this, considering that it costs money to source the tapes, buy the right equipment to digitize them, actually digitizing them (a 6 hour tape will probably take, gasp!, 6 hours to digitize) and then time editing and uploading them. People like him and KLMO (I have no shame in calling him out - it’s VERY well known here in the community I despise the guy since the day he ripped off my main channel branding on one of his secondary channels) get on my nerves and frustrate me, but ultimately there’s little I can do. Those two are also THE reason I watermark my videos now. I hate doing it, because it takes away from the purity of the content. But I also don’t regret doing it, as it’s easy now to keep track of where my stuff gets used, and I’ve been surprised to see where some of it has ended up too!

Wait, I'm confused. So they moved news to a new building (assuming rent is much cheaper there than it was at their downtown location) and the old Shakespeare Drive building is used for everything else? Or is everything now under one roof? Did they also build a new control room in Columbia as well as that continue to be done out of WCCB?

what? They left Main and Gervais?

You literally owned this story. Why are you not taking credit for helping to break it?

The person who wrote this couldn't have done this with a straight face, right? Like, really? Nobody buys this excuse. Based on what was published on FTVLive yesterday, it sure sounds like they're taking steps to make that a reality in the Fort at least. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/7/24/the-news-director-is-out-at-this-gray-station The fact they haven't filled a lot of positions or hired a new reporter in a year sure sounds like the foundation for consolidation is being laid. Not filling positions through attrition. I knew this consolidation was going to happen the second Gray announced they were buying Quincy. There's nowhere else in their legacy group they operate like this with competing shows during prime viewing slots (this is more common with Nexstar in their older, smaller market holdings than anyone else; their Lubbock operation comes to mind). Speaking of Lubbock, KJTV's newscasts are now full-on "NewsChannel 11" branded products, and I saw that coming as well. Surprised they didn't go the "Lubbock News Now" or "Central Illinois News Now" route though.

The breaking point has arrived. It's just that group owners (and some managers who refuse to adapt because "it's always been this way") won't change. Or they are straight up ignorant (Hilton Howell said that there hasn't been any great resignations at Gray.... I'm sure he's talking out of his ass, or maybe because he runs three insurance companies in addition to running Gray, he has no idea what really is going on there). I think a change will come, but it's going to take younger people at the top to make that change. That unfortunately won't happen for another 10-25 years, and by then, it'll be too late. In lots of these markets, there are independent filmmakers and theatre actors. I'd love to see a station produce a good quality drama or sitcom on a local level (or maybe as a group to share costs). It's amazing what good quality you can get with today's technology and some creative minds. Of course, someone has to pay for the production crew, for the actors, etc. But I'd imagine on a local level, for someone who is looking for a platform and a big break, you can produce something much cheaper than a network level series since it's not all big name actors or crew. Some of these stations are in states where tax film incentives are great. Or, maybe as an alternative, look at some PBS stations, many of whom do a far better job at producing non-news local content than the vast majority of commercial TV stations (maybe because PBS stations aren't owned by hedge funds so they have room to be creative and respond to their communities). One of my favorite shows from a PBS member is "Check, Please!" which originated at WTTW Chicago but has been licensed out to other PBS members as well. A show like this would work well for a commercial level too, if the creators were willing to license it to commercial stations, and it wouldn't take too much resources to put it either. Programming like this is far more useful to a local audience than "Local Steals and Deals" or a commercial for Power Swabs inside of "Podunk Living". And if you play it the right way, it can be easily monetized (maybe only feature restaurants willing to pay – might not be ethical, but a more entertaining way to make a buck than the crap stations put out now). Just, something has got to give. The status quo cannot and should not continue.

Forget whether Americans really want them or not, do people at the stations themselves want these extra newscasts? Especially when stations are already short-staffed and most certainly aren't adding extra bodies for these (both because people don't want to work there and because companies don't want to hire extra labor — it's a two-way street)? If anything, stations should be dumping newscasts outside of core hours to help give their staff a break. Mornings, noon, 6, and 11pm are all you really need. The 9ams, 3pms, 4pms, 7pms, weekend morning shows of the world can go if you don't have the staff. Not only is it overkill and repetitive, but it's a lot of work when most stations are stretching their staffs thin. If you have to make your people pull double shifts to get both the morning and evening shows on the air, that's a problem. If you have college interns anchoring your weekend morning show because no one else wants to do it, that's a problem. Although I'll argue that syndication has not been very compelling the past few years and has gotten pretty cliche. It's either "talk show with big name celebrity" or court show. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. These companies really need to do something different. I'd also love to see a local station do something other than news or pay-for-play, but unfortunately local stations stopped being daring and creative once quirky local individuals sold their stations to hedge funds. (I will give Graham Media Group credit in San Antonio, KSAT can and has produced a lot of non-news local shows in the past couple of years, mostly for their digital platforms but they'll air it on TV as weekend filler, most notably Texas Eats)

Why is a political correspondent giving commentary? Hasn't local news learned not to emulate cable news? (Oh wait, never mind, they're owned by the same people attempting to do that with their cable network because unbiased programming failed on it). Not surprised KABB didn't take it, kind of makes sense given that they have WOAI in that duopoly. If people want to watch it, there's an option in that duopoly, and if they want an alternative, because, (surprise!) not everyone cares about politics, it's there. Actually that's kind of why I'm not freaking out as much as a lot of you will when stations don't carry these events, it's on every other channel. I'm all for providing an alternative.

Those just look like they took the existing Tribune weather graphics and changed the fonts... probably why they look better than most of the rest of the O&Os.

All I have to say is that you are definitely in the minority. You're talking about viewers who will call these stations by old, no-longer used brands (I used to have a co-worker that still called KSAT 12's newscasts "NewsWatch" in the 2010s), their network, or their cable channels. The average viewer does not admire station branding to the extent you or this community in general does.

Retirement? During a non-sweeps month? How did he manage to pull THAT off?

Not only will those mistakes not be fixed, but Austin will get all defensive on why he can't fix them and that you don't have room to criticize them, etc. Which is a shame.

Considering that this is their news director, probably not:

No, I don't have time for that. (kidding) https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/news-13-reveals-new-studio/ I love, um, how they, um, included the "um"s when they quoted Tom Lewis: