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WBTS - Home of NBC Boston?


The Frog

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Looks like WTHR opts out for an extra hour of "Eyewitness News Weekend Sunrise", or that's how it looks on the TitanTV guide, not sure.

 

Don't have that fancy Spectrum cable box yet to look it up there (we're upgrading soon).

 

They've done that for years. The second is always on their second digital subchannel and in this case... Cozi TV.

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I did mention a solution they could've done, but the way the subchannels that WBTS (formerly WTMU-LP) and WNEU are set up works too, I guess.

 

It works if the OTA signal is strong enough. I've heard from people even inside 128 it isn't very good.

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How many hours of news is NEWS7 adding? They are a very strong station with excellent talent. It's a very competitive market. But, does it really need this many news stations. There is only so many ways to divide the audience.

I think NECN will be the "odd station out." If you look at their ratings they draw hash marks in most time periods. And besides, NBC Boston is going to get the lion's share of management attention, at least in the near-term.

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Here's some promos from Countdown NBC Boston. Sounds like the voiceover for NBC Boston will be Jim Cutler.

You mean the same guy who does the voiceover for NBC 5 DFW?

 

I think NECN will be the "odd station out." If you look at their ratings they draw hash marks in most time periods. And besides, NBC Boston is going to get the lion's share of management attention, at least in the near-term.
But isnt NBC Boston going to be the de facto or even official flagship of NECN?
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But isnt NBC Boston going to be the de facto or even official flagship of NECN?

 

Yes, from what I've heard. If there's enough news to warrant breaking in on WBTS it likely would be worth it for NECN and they'd simulcast while Telemundo could break in from the other studio. But I wonder if in instances when WBTS is on NECN if they could have the same content with two different looks (lower thirds and full screen graphics) going out at the same time?

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Jim Cutler got his start at WLVI, didn't he? It just seems like he's going back to his roots in a way.

Jim Cutler's VO work is worldwide... especially with ESPN Radio, CW affiliates (mostly Tribune-owned) and iHeartMedia talk radio stations... sometimes it's easy to forget his roots.

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Yep, since the NBC O&O graphics refresh, Bob Tracey has been the VO of WTVJ and for the first time since I wanna say 1989? I've only been alive since '95 so I'm not really too sure about that but Tracey did do VO for WTVJ before, before this year.

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Al Vanik was the voice of WTVJ in the mid to late 90's when Channel 4 moved to 6.

Taking over for Danny Dark (who did their imaging when the chamn switch took place).

 

Charlie Van Dyke did imaging for WTVJ starting in the tail end of the Ralph Renick era (1984 IIRC), was eventually dropped after the affiliation switch to NBC finally took place, then was picked up again in the early 2000s.

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John Pleisse is the VO guy for KXAS, Jim Cutler does VOs there for KDFW.

 

Jim Cutler also does VOs for the Tribune Media-owned duopoly of KCPQ 13 Fox and KZJO 22 "Joe TV" here in the Greater Seattle Area. John Pleisse also does VOs for KNBC 4 Los Angeles and WNBC 4 New York as well as the Tegna-owned KREM 2 CBS and KSKN CW 22 in Spokane....well, for news programs.

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Yes, from what I've heard. If there's enough news to warrant breaking in on WBTS it likely would be worth it for NECN and they'd simulcast while Telemundo could break in from the other studio. But I wonder if in instances when WBTS is on NECN if they could have the same content with two different looks (lower thirds and full screen graphics) going out at the same time?

 

That gets to the essence of my argument. With NECN becoming even more NBC Boston-centric, doesn't that interfere with its mission to cover stories from throughout the region and maintain broad cable coverage throughout New England? I'm seeing promos touting the "synergy" between NECN, Telemundo and NBC Boston. To my mind, synergy could easily transition to redundancy.

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NBC Boston means way more to them, money-wise, than NECN or Telemundo ever will. It's not even close. So, yes, expect NBC Boston to be the top dog and get all the attention, toys, etc. The others are also-rans, afterthoughts ... whatever you want to call them.

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NBC Boston means way more to them, money-wise, than NECN or Telemundo ever will. It's not even close. So, yes, expect NBC Boston to be the top dog and get all the attention, toys, etc. The others are also-rans, afterthoughts ... whatever you want to call them.

Correct. NECN is simply morphing into NBC Boston's news department in a wag-the-dog situation. That NECN is (and apparently will remain?) a regional cable news channel is of little consequence... it's moreso a brand extension for NBC Boston now.

 

It makes sense for NECN to become something not unlike what the Ohio News Network had been. ONN was handled as an extension of WBNS 10TV that was run lean and mean. (To wit, during ONN's existence, they filled quite a few hours with simulcasts and time-delayed replays of newscasts from "partner stations" like 10TV, WEWS and WTVG.)

 

And Comcast owns the delivery mechanism for NECN, so if they wanted to shut it down or do something different in that channel spot, they easily could.

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Jim Cutler also does VOs for the Tribune Media-owned duopoly of KCPQ 13 Fox and KZJO 22 "Joe TV" here in the Greater Seattle Area. John Pleisse also does VOs for KNBC 4 Los Angeles and WNBC 4 New York as well as the Tegna-owned KREM 2 CBS and KSKN CW 22 in Spokane....well, for news programs.

 

Cutler was the de facto "Tribune guy" at one point...I wonder if he came there from WLVI. (He did KWGN before its merger with KDVR too)

 

How well is NECN doing? The era of regional cable news channels seems to be pretty much over, given how Gannett/TEGNA has nixed Belo holdovers TXCN and NWCN...

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Cutler was the de facto "Tribune guy" at one point...I wonder if he came there from WLVI. (He did KWGN before its merger with KDVR too)

 

How well is NECN doing? The era of regional cable news channels seems to be pretty much over, given how Gannett/TEGNA has nixed Belo holdovers TXCN and NWCN...

I think the Tegna and Comcast situations are very different- Re: Cable news channels. It makes sense for Comcast to keep NECN, since as mentioned above, will be an extension of NBC Boston (Sounds weird in a way, since NECN has been around before NBC Boston existed). Anywho, NECN allows them to have a brand/recognition in the market/region while they build up NBC Boston. Also, Comcast owns the everything from the content to the distribution and almost everything in between of NECN. It really does not take away from their bottom line, since they still have to pour money into the operation.

 

Tegna is just cheap, and stupid. Plain and simple. Plus, they don't own the distribution/delivery method, and thus it makes it that much harder to sell the channel to distributors- especially if they're not investing into it.

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