Scripps - General Discussion

[nycnewsjunkie 1395]

11 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Caught some of the WEWS 4:30am portion of Good Morning Cleveland and it was basically an edited series of packages with a little weather in between.

Most likely, the future of Scripps newscasts.

 

In another thread, someone likened this approach to news like the Al Schottlekotte approach WCPO used until the 80s.  This was later copied by WIAT for their "42 Daily News" relaunch in the late 90s.

 

Back when Al Schottlekotte did it, it was unique and driven by his personality.  Now with Scripps launching this approach at their stations, it's cheap, lazy, and basically throws the concept of live news out the window.

 

And in Cleveland, WKYC has once again seemingly come to their senses after "normalizing" their newscasts and it's WEWS once again that's gone off the deep end.  Meanwhile, despite Nexstar taking hold of WJW, their dominance still remains and WOIO is now owned by a major broadcaster seeing how Gray has leaped ahead of both Scripps and Tegna.

To be fair, if that format is only for the 4:30am half hour, that’s not the worst thing in the world; many stations are dropping the 4:30 entirely anyway. That said, a lot of those MMJ-heavy newscasts look really amateur and unpolished on a lot of the smaller stations that have adopted them.
 

WTXL, for instance, is rough to watch, and their whole product gives off the impression that they’ve thrown in the towel. Still, though, at least they aren’t pulling local news entirely, and they’re still providing a public service, even if it doesn’t look very presentable.

[mrschimpf 2051]

Watching the WGBA version, it comes of as 'thin-staffed small-market Gannett newspaper operation' where only weather has money put into it instead (as it should, it's their main and only strength) and they're reporting about evergreen topics like 'how did my high school mascot get their name' rather than anything investigative or current-day, and like the Gannet example, struggle to fill 35 minutes the same way they struggle to fill twelve pages (and ten of them are pre-filled with USA Today filler and one page of classified/legal notices). It's fine for what it is, but if what it was was already kind of a mediocre product to begin with, it's just making it even more unremarkable. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by mrschimpf

[doublejman69 105]

TV listings indicate WTMJ has dropped the 4:30am newscast, likely a combination of being short staff and lack of ratings. at the moment WTMJ only has 3 meteorologist and each month the morning newscast rating are sinking and are approaching CBS58’s type ratings. 

[mrschimpf 2051]

17 hours ago, doublejman69 said:

TV listings indicate WTMJ has dropped the 4:30am newscast, likely a combination of being short staff and lack of ratings. at the moment WTMJ only has 3 meteorologist and each month the morning newscast rating are sinking and are approaching CBS58’s type ratings. 

WISN and WITI pretty much have all the momentum now and there's no stopping them. The 4:30 half-hour was only two-staffed anyways and never could justify itself.

 

And it took them about nine years to get to it, but Scripps finally covered up the Journal Broadcast Group logo label scar that's been on the front of Radio City for years and was never replaced; this flat sign just felt like they could've done MUCH better, but it feels like the least they could've done was light it (even for a basic lightbox sized to the logo LEDs are nothing now). Were they seriously waiting for the radio side to move out before finally replacing it?

[HSV cheesehead 88]

If WTMJ gets lower ratings than CBS58, I would be shocked as CBS 58 is basically just an afterthought in SE Wisconsin.

[Georgie56 3059]

Scripps already has multiple agreements in place with possible Bally-affected teams.

[CoopInTheHouse 63]

In the midst of almost last week, KIVI switched their 2nd digital sub-channel to an independent sub-channel, moving Laff (the channel previously occupying the .2 sub-channel) to the .5 subchannel, replacing getTV. Its semi-satellite, KSAW-LD, did the same.

[Adam MadMan 277]

1 hour ago, CoopInTheHouse said:

In the midst of almost last week, KIVI switched their 2nd digital sub-channel to an independent sub-channel, moving Laff (the channel previously occupying the .2 sub-channel) to the .5 subchannel, replacing getTV. Its semi-satellite, KSAW-LD, did the same.

Not entirely surprising, given those subchannels are airing Vegas Golden Knights games as part of Scripps' contract.

[T.L. Hughes 746]

I stumbled upon this on Logopedia (yes, there’s a wiki for logos), apparently the Montana Television Network has updated its logo, dropping the longtime mountain outline emblem used in some form since 1969.

Edited October 19, 2023 by T.L. Hughes

[Ig2002 3]

2 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I stumbled upon this on Logopedia (yes, there’s a wiki for logos), apparently the Montana Television Network has updated its logo, dropping the longtime mountain outline emblem used in some form since 1969.

Let me clarify this, but this is on the MTN .2 subchannels, all of which are independent, it's not the new logo for the CBS main channel or KTVH/KTGF.

[tyrannical bastard 3442]

FTVLive is talking about a Scripps station in Florida that is no longer doing a live late newscast...could this be WTXL in Tallahassee?

 

If that's the case, the news vacuum continues in a place where Sinclair gave up 20 years ago as well, in a state capitol controlled by a wannabe dictator governor who's only in it for his own ego and political career.

[24994J 5269]

6 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

FTVLive is talking about a Scripps station in Florida that is no longer doing a live late newscast...could this be WTXL in Tallahassee?

 

It's WFTX.

[tyrannical bastard 3442]

4 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

It's WFTX.

That's probably even worse, unless they are getting crushed at 10pm by the WINK-powered newscast on WXCW.

 

That's a FOX affiliate's calling card unless the station is a total ratings dog or mismanaged by its duopoly partner.

 

All the while Scripps is heavily investing in sports on the broadcast properties while the newscasts are getting the shaft in smaller markets.

Edited October 19, 2023 by tyrannical bastard

[CoopInTheHouse 63]

18 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

I stumbled upon this on Logopedia (yes, there’s a wiki for logos), apparently the Montana Television Network has updated its logo, dropping the longtime mountain outline emblem used in some form since 1969.

 

16 hours ago, Ig2002 said:

Let me clarify this, but this is on the MTN .2 subchannels, all of which are independent, it's not the new logo for the CBS main channel or KTVH/KTGF.

I gotta say, they’ve been using that logo in stations a whole lot lately, and I don’t think it’s stopping anytime soon. First there was KMCC, then KUPX, then KIVI-DT2 (plus its semi-satellite), and now this?

[Adam MadMan 277]

3 hours ago, CoopInTheHouse said:

 

I gotta say, they’ve been using that logo in stations a whole lot lately, and I don’t think it’s stopping anytime soon. First there was KMCC, then KUPX, then KIVI-DT2 (plus its semi-satellite), and now this?

I wouldn't be shocked to see that design appear in more markets. Scripps has publicly stated that they plan to pounce on more regional sports rights should Diamond Sports Group reneg on anymore deals.

[C Block 1487]

15 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

FTVLive is talking about a Scripps station in Florida that is no longer doing a live late newscast...could this be WTXL in Tallahassee?

 

If that's the case, the news vacuum continues in a place where Sinclair gave up 20 years ago as well, in a state capitol controlled by a wannabe dictator governor who's only in it for his own ego and political career.

 

This is happening in pretty much every small market station that Scripps owns. I know KERO and KSBY are pre-taping their late news as well. KSBY is getting some more latitude than KERO because they're #1 in the market, but it's still pretty bad.

 

The whole thing doesn't make much sense. Staff at these stations are pre-taping "modules" of stories after the early evening news to run at 10 and 11pm. They don't really get done with everything until about 8:30 or 9pm anyway. And then an anchor and director still sit around after in case they need to update anything or insert it into the rundown.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

18 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

FTVLive is talking about a Scripps station in Florida that is no longer doing a live late newscast...could this be WTXL in Tallahassee?

 

If that's the case, the news vacuum continues in a place where Sinclair gave up 20 years ago as well, in a state capitol controlled by a wannabe dictator governor who's only in it for his own ego and political career.

 

If that were the case, WCTV would pretty much have a monopoly on news there.

[CircleSeven 1944]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

If that were the case, WCTV would pretty much have a monopoly on news there.

I think you didn't see it on the last page. 

13 hours ago, 24994J said:

It's WFTX.

 

[LexTVandRadio 412]

11 hours ago, C Block said:

 

This is happening in pretty much every small market station that Scripps owns. I know KERO and KSBY are pre-taping their late news as well. KSBY is getting some more latitude than KERO because they're #1 in the market, but it's still pretty bad.

 

The whole thing doesn't make much sense. Staff at these stations are pre-taping "modules" of stories after the early evening news to run at 10 and 11pm. They don't really get done with everything until about 8:30 or 9pm anyway. And then an anchor and director still sit around after in case they need to update anything or insert it into the rundown.

I've noticed WLEX looks to be pre-taping its 12:30 and 4 p.m. newscasts. 

[tyrannical bastard 3442]

12 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

If that were the case, WCTV would pretty much have a monopoly on news there.

They've pretty much owned the market since the beginning.  Florida State University nabbed the VHF allocation for Tallahassee (as a non-commercial station), while WCTV nabbed the next closest one in Thomasville, Georgia.  It wasn't until 1976 when WECA (now WTXL) signed on, and not until 1983 when WTWC did.  WALB in Albany still had city-grade coverage in the northern fringes and served Tallahassee as their default NBC affiliate until WTWC.

 

The ratings pretty much have reflected this for years...WCTV owns the market by a large margin with WTXL as a distant second, and WTWC as a perennial non-factor.  Even Sinclair opted to still have WCTV produce WTWC's .2 (FOX 49) newscasts and have absolutely nothing for WTWC/NBC.

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:51 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

That's probably even worse, unless they are getting crushed at 10pm by the WINK-powered newscast on WXCW.

 

That's a FOX affiliate's calling card unless the station is a total ratings dog or mismanaged by its duopoly partner.

 

All the while Scripps is heavily investing in sports on the broadcast properties while the newscasts are getting the shaft in smaller markets.

 

The weeknight 10, 10:30, and 11pm newscasts are now Scrippscasts.

[tyrannical bastard 3442]

And now more cuts are coming to WTXL.  The noon show will be replaced by a Scripps-produced national newscast, and the weekend morning shows are on the bubble.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/10/24/scripps-pulls-plug-on-local-newscast

[Georgie56 3059]

Effective Monday November 20th, KASW is booting The CW and will become an independent station. The CW will move to KNXV’s .2 subchannel.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Georgie56

[Nelson R. 560]

12 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

Effective Monday November 20th, KASW is booting The CW and will become an independent station. The CW will move to KNXV’s .2 subchannel.

That didn’t take long. Expect the Coyotes to move from Antenna TV to KASW.

[LTSC1980 96]

On 11/15/2023 at 9:18 PM, Nelson R. said:

That didn’t take long. Expect the Coyotes to move from Antenna TV to KASW.

https://www.abc15.com/about-us/news-releases/arizona-coyotes-moving-to-new-independent-arizona-61-station-with-scripps-sports

 

And it’s confirmed. KASW will take Coyotes games. Also same branding as KUPX, KMCC and MTN sub channels.