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The Hearst Thread


aleckrohto

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WPBF is, I believe a Rare example of a station to Not have a newscast on a sister station, nor subchannel. EstrellaTV is on 25.2 and the Justice Network on 25.3, but I don’t think either subchannel Has a newscast in English or Spanish, so I say there’s always room for expansion.

WISN has no sister station, and only has a single digital subchannel, 12.2, which is currently the Justice Network (previously "Movies!"). WISN does not air news or any other local programming on 12.2.

 

(WISN was also notable for being extremely late to add a digital subchannel in the first place. 12.2 didn't begin until August 2014.)

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  • 1 month later...
The eight-voice test was eliminated when Pai changed the media ownership rules last year. That's how Hearst acquired WCWG from Lockwood.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Hearst move MeTV to WMTW, relieving some of the clutter on WPXT.

 

And indeed, MeTV is moving to 8.2, starting Monday. H&I is moving to MeTV old spot of 51.2.

 

Should've moved H&I down to 8.3, IMO.

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I've noticed some weird "behavior" with WCVB and WMUR between 7:20 AM and 7:30 AM.  This 10-minute segment is very "commercial heavy" on both stations, with about 2 minutes of local news/weather/traffic sandwiched around *8* minutes of commercials.  I've noticed the local news cut-in from GMA starts at 7:23 on these stations instead of 7:25, and even more annoying, they go back to commercial within the local news update, separating the "news" and the "weather/traffic" segments.

 

WHY do they do this?  you have about 3 minutes of commercials, then 1 minute of news, only to go BACK to commercials for another 2 minutes, then 30 seconds of weather, 30 seconds of traffic, then another 3 minutes of commercials before returning to GMA.  Who in the right mind wants to watch 8 minutes of commercials?  Are there certain times of the morning like this one where "the bills MUST be paid at this time"?

 

WBZ and WBTS in Boston air their local news updates at this time of morning "in one piece", starting at 7:25.  "One piece" meaning news/weather/traffic in about 2-3 minutes, with no commercial break within the update.

Edited by kdex86
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26 minutes ago, kdex86 said:

I've noticed some weird "behavior" with WCVB and WMUR between 7:20 AM and 7:30 AM.  This 10-minute segment is very "commercial heavy" on both stations, with about 2 minutes of local news/weather/traffic sandwiched around *8* minutes of commercials.  I've noticed the local news cut-in from GMA starts at 7:23 on these stations instead of 7:25, and even more annoying, they go back to commercial within the local news update, separating the "news" and the "weather/traffic" segments.

 

WHY do they do this?  you have about 3 minutes of commercials, then 1 minute of news, only to go BACK to commercials for another 2 minutes, then 30 seconds of weather, 30 seconds of traffic, then another 3 minutes of commercials before returning to GMA.  Who in the right mind wants to watch 8 minutes of commercials?  Are there certain times of the morning like this one where "the bills MUST be paid at this time"?

 

WBZ and WBTS in Boston air their local news updates at this time of morning "in one piece", starting at 7:25.  "One piece" meaning news/weather/traffic in about 2-3 minutes, with no commercial break within the update.

I believe GMA does not give time back to affiliates until 7:26 and they air the bulk of the ads - the same is said for Today.  Two minutes of news and two minutes of ads is pretty normal. 

 

Edit: I am surprised at how early GMA goes to affiliate time today it was at 7:23,  They had solid content up until 7:20 with no ads (save for weather). All I can think of is that perhaps GMA is giving the affiliates one hole to fill with news, a break for traffic and weather and then some network ad inventory. 

Edited by rkolsen
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I realize I'm bumping up this thread, which hasn't seen a post since August, but I felt this was something to share:

 

I happened to watch this video of a closing to KMBC's newscast from December 23rd and I immediately could tell the music did NOT match "Strive."   I picked up on the fact it sounded like something Stephen Arnold Music would produce.   If you listen to the montage of "The Rock" on NMSA's website, at the 4:45 mark, you can hear the same music used in this closing--just without the NBC chimes.   

 

I doubt this came from "The Rock" directly.  Maybe as production music from SAM?

 

 

Edited by TheRyan
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51 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

I realize I'm bumping up this thread, which hasn't seen a post since August, but I felt this was something to share:

 

I happened to watch this video of a closing to KMBC's newscast from December 23rd and I immediately could tell the music did NOT match "Strive."   I picked up on the fact it sounded like something Stephen Arnold Music would produce.   If you listen to the montage of "The Rock" on NMSA's website, at the 4:45 mark, you can hear the same music used in this closing--just without the NBC chimes.   

 

I doubt this came from "The Rock" directly.  Maybe as production music from SAM?

 

 

 

It sounds to me like some holiday-themed production music, and nothing more.

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I don't know if anybody on this board is familiar with the website https://ratemystation.com/ (this website allows people who have actually worked there to anonymously post what station they work at, their job title and salary, and any work experience they've faced, positive and/or negative), among other things. I'm posting this here on the Hearst thread because KOAT in Albuquerque apparently has a NUMBER of complaints on this website (37 to be exact), and the only people named throughout most of these complaints are the now-former news director, his assistant (I don't know if she's still there), and the current news director, neither of whom I'm naming.

 

Also, it's worth noting a common thread among these complaints is that KOAT's ratings have slipped in the Albuquerque market, but if you look among these complaints, the issues go deeper than that. I'll just post the link here: https://ratemystation.com/koat/

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WPXT has launched WMTW News 8 @ 6pm on Maine's CW for conflicts with college football; previously these newscasts aired in the 7PM time period. In housekeeping notes, WPXT also moved Total Maine with Steve Minich from 7PM on Saturdays, the time slot occupied for many years by crosstown rival WCSH's Bill Green's Maine (no longer in production due to Green's retirement) to 10:30PM on Saturdays (following WMTW News 8 at 10pm on Maine's CW.) The news theme is a variant of the corporate "Strive" package from In the Groove Music not previously heard in this market. The premiere was, shall we say, sloppy in its execution. Here's the first minute or so:

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Comcast to drop out-of-market Hearst stations on 38 different regions effective 12/2/20.

 

Some of these make sense as much as the replacement is inferior, such as the ancestral carriage of WTAE in the Wheeling and Clarksburg/Fairmont DMA's or WCVB's carriage deep into Maine and Southeast Connecticut (which was simsubbed and syndex'd into oblivion).

 

Some of these are disasters waiting to happen, such as a fair chunk of the New Hampshire part of the Burlington market losing access to WMUR or Bristol County, MA losing access to WCVB.

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1 hour ago, scrabbleship said:

Comcast to drop out-of-market Hearst stations on 38 different regions effective 12/2/20.

 

Some of these make sense as much as the replacement is inferior, such as the ancestral carriage of WTAE in the Wheeling and Clarksburg/Fairmont DMA's or WCVB's carriage deep into Maine and Southeast Connecticut (which was simsubbed and syndex'd into oblivion).

 

Some of these are disasters waiting to happen, such as a fair chunk of the New Hampshire part of the Burlington market losing access to WMUR or Bristol County, MA losing access to WCVB.

 

I really hope Comcast at least partially reverses some of these drops, or else they're probably going to lose some subscribers in Bristol County and NH's Upper Valley. In Bristol County's case, even though it is part of the Providence metro area for Census purposes, the majority of the county (save for the I-195 corridor in the south) is Boston through and through. And none of the Burlington stations cover NH very much, if at all.

 

It is also worth noting that in significant parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, they're dropping WGAL and WBAL so that viewers will be forced to watch NBC on O&Os WCAU and WRC. You can't tell me that wasn't a factor.

Edited by NewsMaster
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5 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

Comcast to drop out-of-market Hearst stations on 38 different regions effective 12/2/20.

 

Some of these make sense as much as the replacement is inferior, such as the ancestral carriage of WTAE in the Wheeling and Clarksburg/Fairmont DMA's or WCVB's carriage deep into Maine and Southeast Connecticut (which was simsubbed and syndex'd into oblivion).

 

Some of these are disasters waiting to happen, such as a fair chunk of the New Hampshire part of the Burlington market losing access to WMUR or Bristol County, MA losing access to WCVB.

 

Dropping WCVB in Bristol County, MA and dropping WMUR in Grafton and Sullivan Counties in NH would cause serious uproars in these areas.

 

If programming costs are an issue, wouldn't it make sense for Comcast to drop WMUR in Massachusetts and WCVB in New Hampshire?  There are some parts of MA like Framingham and Marblehead that get both, but towns adjacent to these two cities and closer to the NH border (Wayland and Salem) do not.

Edited by kdex86
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34 minutes ago, kdex86 said:

If programming costs are an issue, wouldn't it make sense for Comcast to drop WMUR in Massachusetts and WCVB in New Hampshire?  There are some parts of MA like Framingham and Marblehead that get both, but towns adjacent to these two cities and closer to the NH border (Wayland and Salem) do not.

 

This works better in concept than in practice. An identical thing happened in 2012 when WGBH took over much of the operations of then-NHPTV - WGBH was taken off of Comcast systems in New Hampshire and Maine, NHPTV was taken off of systems in Massachusetts - but it's never that cut and dry. Even today, WGBH and what now is NHPBS are both carried on Directv, Dish, FiOS, RCN, and non-Comcast systems such as Spectrum, Metrocast, and TDS. 

 

Also, even with WMUR superserving New Hampshire it isn't like WCVB ignores it totally. More people in New Hampshire watch WCVB than you would think and even with the PBS example there wasn't some backlash, especially from WGBH supporters in New Hampshire, 

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