MarkBRollins88_v2

Lot of stations getting delayed numbers right now because of the Dish outage

July sweeps is always seen as not that important. Usually the least important of the four sweeps periods. The ones that stations really care about are May and November, since those are the ones they metric to set ad rates. But more likely, the reason we are seeing this is because “sweeps” is pretty much a thing of the past, with more accurate metrics from companies like commscore which are measured at all times, not just certain periods, many stations are switching away from Nielsen. When I worked at a station in a market that preferred commscore, the saying was “we’re always in sweeps”

Here’s a full tour video. I like it A LOT better with the color schemes and lighting in this video versus that lighting scheme they chose for the sneak peak pic. i think nearly everything from victory got salvaged for this. The BAM and the frames around it, as well as the wall of wood and glass panels with the little silver plays buttons on it, and the desk, as well as the “floating” monitor, and some other things. still think it’s a little too… metal? Is that the right word? https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/wfaas-new-innovative-young-street-studio-to-debut-february-1-at-6pm/287-43f6a03c-6104-499c-a4c3-a09b42a916bb

Well I have heard otherwise from people directly involved. Looks like it’s going to follow the same styles of the refresh victory hot in 2018. not a huge fan of that look and color scheme.

Do you know people who worked there during the takeover? Because I do. and let me tell you…

Yes they were. But once Gannett (TEGNA) came in… they wanted to put their corporate mark on the place and frowned on people reminiscing of the Belo days. TEGNA doesn’t want people to remember the days when things were better before they came in.

Don’t you dare call it News 8. TEGNA will have you eliminated if you try to hearken back to the Belo days.

Not NPG finally giving a station a NICE new set, rather than a crappy one like they put in in Colorado Springs a couple years ago!

I just mean more of the fact that this can happen at all… I believe the only other states this is really even possible are California and South Dakota.

Oklahoma’s “no non-competes” law really does help talent wreak havoc on their stations when they just pick up and cross the street and I’m here for the drama.

Holy crap not only is her audio awful, but she couldn’t sound less interested if she tried… like… what?!?!?

It’s almost like viewers want the news—to do—get this—actual news. Hopefully this return to the way things were will be contagious and spread to their sister station in Dallas. But I won’t hold my breath. Maybe that’ll happen if Soo Kim/Apollo/The Cox family (what little power they have left) get their hands on TEGNA.

Is WGCL really beating WXIA now? Way to go TEGNA.

Whoa whoa let’s slow down

a couple thoughts I shared in the discord I want to bring over here. Hate to say it, but I agree… failure is the likely outcome. Do not like what I’ve seen. Queen City News is not a good name to begin with… Here’s my problem with Queen City News… and all the other generic names (mostly Gray) affiliates have been switching to… It does not, in any way, indicate the fact that it is a broadcast news outlet. “But that’s what they want to do! It’s about more than just terrestrial television now!” That’s true. But at the core of it, the product is still video news, with an emphasis on live and immediate VIDEO news reporting. That will always be true for this business no matter if the main medium people consume the product on changes from over the air TV, to streaming, an app, a website, or whatever else may come in the future. The problem is, this name sounds like what you’d name the free pamphlet newspaper handed out at coffee shops. The name, does not in any way, indicate how the outlet is different from the local newspaper. It does not indicate that, even if you’re only patronizing them through a digital outlet, you can expect strong audio and video to tell the stories, not just written text. It deemphasizes what makes a video news outlet unique and different from the rest of the news outlets out there. Names like ‘Queen City News,’ ‘Alaska’s News Source,’ etc. do not at all indicate that the outlet is anything more than a startup local news blog. Think I’m wrong? Visit QueenCityNews.com right now, and tell me what you see. You’ll see a website for another outlet already called Queen City News, that is exactly the kind of thing I described above. A local news blog straight out of 2005! Nevermind the fact that clearly, Nexstar is not really concerned with the digital product, or it would have bought the domain name that matches what it is calling its News product. That is BASIC cross-platform branding stuff. This is just an example of Nexstar not using common sense when trying to build a brand. Believe it or not… I think Sinclair is the example of how to do this right. When they rename their affiliates to deemphasize network affiliation, they make the names still portray the sense of urgency and immediacy of broadcast news. “Iowa News Now,” “Ohio 24/7 Now” are names that (while I still have problems with) still portray the immediacy and urgency only a broadcast news outlet can bring—whether it’s on their website, OTT channels, or terrestrial channels—in a way names like “Queen City News” do not. Would would I have done? I wouldn’t change anything. But if I had no choice, I would go with something like “Fox46 Queen City News” or “Queen City News on Fox 46”… or “Queen City 46” if we don’t want to mention Fox. I’d be much more okay with those names. Heck, some of the most legendary stations in the country get away with naming themselves in such a way. See “ABC 7 Eyewitness News” or “6 ABC Action News.” You can have a ‘fun’ name for your newscasts, but people need to know they are, in fact, watching a newscast. I get that they want to be forward thinking and emphasize that their product is available on more than just TV. That’s why they could brand their TV newscasts as ‘Queen City News on FOX46’ or “Queen City 46 News”… while on the web, just calling themselves Queen City News. As someone on discord pointed out… if a random guy driving down the highway sees a billboard for “Queen City News”… how do they know even what it is? If I saw a billboard for “Fox46 Queen City News,” or “Queen City 46 News” I would at least know what it is. Or if they could even say “Queen City News: Always Local. Always Streaming” or “Queen City News: On Air. Online. Always streaming” That would be a great way to convey to people what you do, while letting them know you can watch them and consume their content on more than just TV. But holy crap, that logo is awful too. I’m not usually a guy to be a huge pessimist… and like to give things a chance. But if I lived in that market, I would have considered watching this station before this rebrand. Afterwards, it looks like a station that is trying too hard to hide the fact they are, in fact, a TV station

My (non-lawyer) brain tells me google would be violating retrans agreements with the station groups by removing all of their programming, even local newscasts and syndicated shows, infomercials, education programming, etc. that have nothing to do with ABC. But clearly Google’s lawyers think this is okay. Seems like an overreach if you ask me. But I haven’t seen the fine print of the deals the station groups have, so maybe it allows for this. Certainly, if there is a loophole in station groups’ agreements with google (or any other carrier) that allow this to happen, I’m sure next time they negotiate a deal… they will add a clause to make sure this can’t happen. — I’m curious, have we ever seen something like this happen before… where a cable/streaming provider removes an entire network and its affiliates from its lineup, without regard for the fact that those affiliates carry more than just that network’s programming? I can’t think of one.

That monitor just hanging in the middle of the room is a workers’ comp claim waiting to happen.

Per newscast studio there is a new facility in the works for KDFW… finally! — Has anyone found any pictures of any elements of the new set yet? they’ve done a decent job of keeping it under raps. unlike when they refreshed victory a few years ago and it was on display for the world to see.

How many of those Devlin HD sets from 2008-2010 are left now? there was a whole slew of them like the one WEAR had… with the projector monitors with the rounded frames… among other similarities (desks, frosts, etc.) The only ones that come to mind are KREX and KOMU. Used to be quite a few of them out there. Maybe @Dan Devlin keeps tabs on these things?

Crap like this is what I’m talking about when I say this station is not what it used to be. There’s self deprecating humor, but this is just literally the station saying… we’re cheaping out and we think it’s funny we can’t afford nice things any more. like… what? if anyone finds this post funny… it’s probably the folks over at KDFW, KXAS and KTVT. Under no circumstances should someone at WFAA find this funny.

Acme brick can single-handedly thank Tegna set designers for keeping them in business.

Oh my goodness… that story… the video they have from old newscasts at that studio. The old spirit of Texas music TEGNA scrapped. The old talent TEGNA scrapped. Oh the feelings it brings back. Oh how I miss the days when this station put out top-quality stuff. It’s not to say they don’t still do good stuff—they have some very talented people. But the era this story brings back to life… it was another level. I don’t know… I know the industry as a whole isn’t what it used to be. But companies like TEGNA are why. There’s no excuse that those days are gone. Tegna (Gannet) has/had the funds to keep the station operating just as it was. But they had to bring in their own, unproven way of doing things. I get profits have gone down. But what they did to WFAA was more than just the result of an industry-wide loss in revenue. They tried to fix what wasn’t broken. TEGNA was handed the keys to the Palace of Versailles and turned it into Holiday Inn. TEGNA was given a stately Victorian mansion and replaced all the hardwoods with laminate, even though they were in mint condition. They should consider deleting this story. It makes people realize how much better things used to be. — also this makes it seem like they’ll be doing newscasts out of the newsroom for a while and aren’t moving to the new-old studio just yet.