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Absolute Worst, God-Awful Station Standardization


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Which one sucks the most?  

66 members have voted

  1. 1. Which one sucks the most?

    • CBS O&O
      11
    • FOX O&O
      14
    • Scripps
      11
    • Media General
      7
    • Hearst
      4
    • Other
      6
    • Gannett (late addition, forgot about them too!)
      13


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Such a tough choice, I'm not sure myself. They all suck in their own special ways.

 

I miss when there was someone doing standardization RIGHT (See: Hearst during the B Package/Image era).

 

Despite the CBS O&O travesties, I'm going with scripps. Nothing beats the ridiculous, giant gold graphics that go with absolutely none of their stations, along with the awful music that sounds like a 2 year old composed it on a keyboard.

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Worst.....CBS O&O...I think some stations use it well though. I think I am the only one to say this, but WBBM i personally think uses it the best out of any other O&O's. Yes, the opens are a bit bland, but the graphics fit their newscasts. The best, i'd say, is Hearst. At least for the larger market stations...(

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Gannett has to be the worst, if you compare it to what it replaced in some markets (I'm thinking what WXIA and KPNX had before vs. now).

 

CBS O&O is by far the most bland/least imaginative set of graphics I've seen, simply because of a) the usage of Arial as their main font, B) the boring opening animations, c) Enforcer (such a cliche'd theme). I'll give credit to WCCO and KDKA for their execution of this look.

 

The best one (which isn't listed on here) is the NBC Arthouse graphics. All of their 'looks' are well done (except the current KNSD graphics).

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Scripps

 

Not even Ubuntu uses brown anymore. It's clearly the worst: awful music, fixed color schemes, etc. WXYZ barely got to use EWN NG before they got subjected to this crap.

 

CBS O&O

 

They're good but well, needs some work

 

Hearst

 

Slick, professional, and quite wicked (going by WCVB anyway)

 

Gannett

 

They're good in areas where they desperately needed new graphics (talking to you, WGRZ), but they're just a tad too busy looking

 

Fox

 

Again, not too bad. WJBK's version seemed a little bad, WFXT's is better

 

CTV

 

Despite the complete lack of local branding (which is unfortunately a plague in Canada that we must deal with), CTV's standard graphics are probably one of the best standardized packages in North America. They're clean, professional, and clearly had effort put into them.

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I am only commenting on three since I've only seen three enough to weigh in with an opinion: CBS, Gannett, and Fox.

 

CBS

I will say it is the one that looks the most professional, but with that (I'm glad I'm not alone in this) it is the one that looks the most plain, the most generic. Plus, it doesn't seem to allow for any station who wants to brand as other than "CBS n". I like some of the cuts of Enforcer New Generation.

 

FOX

Fox is great for what it wants to do. I don't like the overuse of red (at least on my local station WTTG) and it gets busy at time, but it fits in with Fox's sense of urgency and edge.

 

Gannett

Good God. It's like an assault on your eyes and ears. It's busy without an overarching theme -- it's uncontrolled chaos. Swoops, tubes whathaveyou thrown in willy-nilly. And the musical theme is still bad, bad, bad. That said, WUSA's cold opens for 11pm (which doesn't appear to be a standard Gannett thing is actually even worse. It attempts to be edgy and urgent but winds up looking like ... well like what you'd get from a station that no longer has a graphics department because it was outsourced to Denver.

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Gannett has to be the worst, if you compare it to what it replaced in some markets (I'm thinking what WXIA and KPNX had before vs. now).

 

CBS O&O is by far the most bland/least imaginative set of graphics I've seen, simply because of a) the usage of Arial as their main font, :cool: the boring opening animations, c) Enforcer (such a cliche'd theme). I'll give credit to WCCO and KDKA for their execution of this look.

 

The best one (which isn't listed on here) is the NBC Arthouse graphics. All of their 'looks' are well done (except the current KNSD graphics).

You're right. The CBS O&O look very, very bland and redundant, needs more than a better look, They need a overhaul. IN A BIG WAY. L3s and more. My city's station (KYW) got that CBS look and I can't stand it.

Where's John Christopher Burns when you needed him?

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The Scripps graphics package is pretty meh. The worst part about it is that it replaced the very nice, localized, and sadly relatively short lived Renderon packages on KNXV and WFTS with generic boring station group graphics.

 

I really think hubbing is the main problem with most station group packages. You either get the extremely standardized stuff like the FOX O&O package, or some sad attempts at making packages "local" a'la the CBS O&O opens with local video slapped in.

 

In my opinion, a good example of a station group doing standardization the right way would be Journal Broadcast Group. It's a great package that works well pretty much anywhere. There's no standardized music, and most of the stations still have their own dedicated creative department, so some stations are using the package even better than the flagship WTMJ is. Take for example, this graphic from KTNV:

 

[MEDIA=vimeo]32553832[/MEDIA]

 

Here, they'd slap "COMMENTARY" on their generic graphic that they use for everything (the last one being how 80% of them look, pretty sure it's just a Viz template that can be edited on the fly). The JBG stations have done a great job at taking the package and adapting it to their needs.

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Guest NewsHound

BEST: 3-Way Tie between Hearst, Journal Broadcast Group, and Gannett

(Most people hate the Gannett look and music, but you have to admit it's come along way and has greatly improved from what it was originally)

 

WORST: Either Sinclair (Sincrap) or Raycom

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I went with Media General. You've gotta see one of their stations' newscasts to see it. The graphics are pieced together so bad. The music's catchy, but gets so old... WNCT only uses two cuts of the entire package.

 

As for best, Hearst is pretty good since they seem to let their stations play around with it, but some stations butcher it up. I like the Scripps look, but their graphics hub (WFTS) is the only one that makes it really look good. I'm also a fan of the new Young Broadcasting package.

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From what I see in Phoenix...

 

Fox: A very overdone package, but it fits the feel of the Fox package. KSAZ was the last station in the market to go HD (in 2009), and I'm reminded of that every time they do a talent open... "You're watching Fox 10 News with Linda Williams and Marc Martinez...in HD." It no longer works. Some pieces are decent, some I want to overhaul, and of course, I'd LOVE to return 10 to, well... *looks at avatar*

 

Gannett: Busy is a good word to describe the package. And the fake Helvetica small caps annoy me to no end. KPNX looked better in the 1990s too. (Their first News Station-era stuff would look stunning remastered for HD.)

 

Scripps: Was there really that much of a change? I remember watching some KNXV news late in 2009 and weather had switched over, but not the rest of the news. The only difference was square forms versus circle forms.

 

Honorable mentions: Raycom for being predictable (but they've had that going since 1997 in some markets, and it's an Arizona-based design house); Media General in the early 2000s (that "crescent" image looks awful); Univision (but there's also a difference in network model in play, and they've done it as far back as 1997); and New Vision TV (notice more and more of their stations have gone to JC Burns? Strange but true trend.)

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Scripps: Was there really that much of a change? I remember watching some KNXV news late in 2009 and weather had switched over, but not the rest of the news. The only difference was square forms versus circle forms.

 

Honestly though, there's a difference between a station like KNXV that had a yellowish look to begin with. The gaudy gold crap doesn't go good with pretty much every other color.

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FOX. They started the entire standardization crap.

 

Well, not really. They helped make it a trend in the past few years. Hearst has been standardized since 1995, Media General since 1997, and it goes back further than that with the Corinthian stations in the early 80s (KHOU, KXTV, KOTV, WISH, WVEC all used the same music/graphics package and similar logos). There's probably a lot more.

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Well, not really. They helped make it a trend in the past few years. Hearst has been standardized since 1995, Media General since 1997, and it goes back further than that with the Corinthian stations in the early 80s (KHOU, KXTV, KOTV, WISH, WVEC all used the same music/graphics package and similar logos). There's probably a lot more.

 

Here are some examples:

CapCities Chrome, the (great) semi-uniform look used on the ABC O&Os, originated around 1986.

Before that, WABC, KABC, and WLS used a similar set design and graphical treatment.

CBS instituted the WBBM theme music and CBS Evening News graphics on all of their stations in the early 80s.

All of NBC's stations switched to a plain Helvetica channel number next to the N when that was introduced in 1976.

 

Hell, the Group W font and look, as well as ABC's circle-7 and Cool Hand Luke theme music? I'd say they count as standardized looks.

 

Standardization isn't new, it's just something we're swinging back to as stations cut costs and streamline their image.

 

Keeping with the list, here are my picks for best and worst.

 

Best Ever: CapCities Chrome/ABC Video Design Group,1986

 

Weeters brought up Journal's look earlier, but I think this is a more successful version of the concept.

 

They standardized a lot but they didn't standardize everything. The lower thirds looked similar, yes. Ernie Anderson did the opening spiel on at least three stations. Every station had flying chrome and/or glass logos in the background. If you saw more than one station, you could absolutely see the similarities.

 

But each station had their own quirks, their own spin on the design. KABC set

, perfected it a year later, then
KGO combined KABC's elements with
, while WABC used said recording with a
of the look. KFSN used a WABC-like open with "Turn To News", while WLS curiously stayed with their 1983-vintage graphics. Oh, and KTRK combined the elements with the best CGI of the group.

 

But I think no station used it better than WPVI. CapCities Chrome wasn't merely the graphics package - it was the cornerstone of the station's look. 6 didn't really have much of a set, so the graphics had to carry the newscast. I'm going to use the YouTube embed for WPVI's version - there are so many great elements in just this sampler of a half-hour of their 5pm:

 

[yt]2MAzOJFFKjA[/yt]

 

Best Now - NBC Artworks\

 

I'm gonna single out the company as a whole instead of picking a look, because they're so much more than Look C - they're an integrated operation servicing all of NBCUniversal. Their body of work is fantastic. They've established a "house style" for everything that relates, at least, to NBC News. MSNBC, CNBC, NBC News, and the Weather Channel look distinct - but their heavy use of white, their predilection towards simpler, flat graphics over flash, and the overall aesthetic ties them together. Their new packages for the O&Os just continue in this tradition, using Artworks' house style but adding their own flair.

 

Plus, I think Artworks uses typography better than just about every network or station group. They don't use Helvetica like everybody else - they use more distinctive fonts like Klavika, DIN, Gotham, and more. Typography makes up a lot more of a look than people think, and Artworks takes care to get it just right.

 

I look forward to everything they put out, because they care about the graphics and they put out excellent stuff. Okay, there have been some stinkers, but like I said, the body of work as a whole places them ahead of a lot of design houses.

 

I'm going to use the next post for my worst of all time, and worst right now.

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Best Ever: CapCities Chrome/ABC Video Design Group,1986

 

Weeters brought up Journal's look earlier, but I think this is a more successful version of the concept.

 

They standardized a lot but they didn't standardize everything. The lower thirds looked similar, yes. Ernie Anderson did the opening spiel on at least three stations. Every station had flying chrome and/or glass logos in the background. If you saw more than one station, you could absolutely see the similarities.

 

But each station had their own quirks, their own spin on the design. KABC set

, perfected it a year later, then
KGO combined KABC's elements with
, while WABC used said recording with a
of the look. KFSN used a WABC-like open with "Turn To News", while WLS curiously stayed with their 1983-vintage graphics. Oh, and KTRK combined the elements with the best CGI of the group.

 

But I think no station used it better than WPVI. CapCities Chrome wasn't merely the graphics package - it was the cornerstone of the station's look. 6 didn't really have much of a set, so the graphics had to carry the newscast. I'm going to use the YouTube embed for WPVI's version - there are so many great elements in just this sampler of a half-hour of their 5pm:

 

WTVD also had

and later
.

 

And I'm also a big fan of KTRK's look during that time... especially combined with Doug Tisdale's classic v/o!

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Even though they only have three stations, I guess you could consider Sunbeam standardized... right?

 

There's only so much you can do when both stations you own are on Channel 7!

 

And WHDH hasn't started using the recent WSVN updates yet...

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