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Sinclair Scales Back WB 49 Newscast
- Thread starter Radio_Freak
- Start date
B
Bob1370
Guest
http://buffalo.bizjour> nals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/08/01/daily32.html?jst=b_ln_hl
>
The way it reads, it looks like they're cutting it back by dumping most or all of the "News Central" product from Maryland except the weather forecast. If that's so, it'll be an improvement...and one can hope for similar changes in their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot of the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
>
The way it reads, it looks like they're cutting it back by dumping most or all of the "News Central" product from Maryland except the weather forecast. If that's so, it'll be an improvement...and one can hope for similar changes in their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot of the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
M
Mark_Giardina
Guest
> one can hope for similar changes in
> their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't
> surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot of
> the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years
> ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
>
It wouldn’t hurt 31 if they did go to ½ hour by concentrating on local news and dumped News Central. Even with a skeleton staff, WUHF at least tries to compete with the other Rochester TV stations.
The problem 31 would immediate face if News Central goes kaput is the need for weather and local sports. That means hiring additional staff and, as we all know, hiring additional staff cuts into the bottom line.
31 could still farm out its weather forecasts, but what about local sports? They could just have the anchor read sports scores and settle for that, if push comes to shove.
For people who don’t have cable, dish or satellite, 31 is the only over-the-air TV station in Rochester offering a 10:00 P.M. newscast.
The real shame in all of this is that several years ago 31 did have enough on-air and behind the scenes staff to offer a decent product.
Like I said, it all comes down to the bottom line. In this day and age if a broadcast operation can get away with having fewer people on the payroll, yet have the appearance of news, they will do it, as long as the sales department can sell it.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't
> surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot of
> the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years
> ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
>
It wouldn’t hurt 31 if they did go to ½ hour by concentrating on local news and dumped News Central. Even with a skeleton staff, WUHF at least tries to compete with the other Rochester TV stations.
The problem 31 would immediate face if News Central goes kaput is the need for weather and local sports. That means hiring additional staff and, as we all know, hiring additional staff cuts into the bottom line.
31 could still farm out its weather forecasts, but what about local sports? They could just have the anchor read sports scores and settle for that, if push comes to shove.
For people who don’t have cable, dish or satellite, 31 is the only over-the-air TV station in Rochester offering a 10:00 P.M. newscast.
The real shame in all of this is that several years ago 31 did have enough on-air and behind the scenes staff to offer a decent product.
Like I said, it all comes down to the bottom line. In this day and age if a broadcast operation can get away with having fewer people on the payroll, yet have the appearance of news, they will do it, as long as the sales department can sell it.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> > one can hope for similar changes in
> > their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't
>
> > surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot
> of
> > the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years
>
> > ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
> >
>
> It wouldn’t hurt 31 if they did go to ½ hour by
> concentrating on local news and dumped News Central. Even
> with a skeleton staff, WUHF at least tries to compete with
> the other Rochester TV stations.
>
> The problem 31 would immediate face if News Central goes
> kaput is the need for weather and local sports. That means
> hiring additional staff and, as we all know, hiring
> additional staff cuts into the bottom line.
I'd like to see FOX 31 make a deal with WROC and use their staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would work great!
>
>
> > their 10 PM news on Rochester's Channel 31 soon. (Wouldn't
>
> > surprise me, since the WUHF 10 PM newscast has lot a lot
> of
> > the audience it built as an all-local newscast a few years
>
> > ago before it adopted the "News Centra;" propagandacast.)
> >
>
> It wouldn’t hurt 31 if they did go to ½ hour by
> concentrating on local news and dumped News Central. Even
> with a skeleton staff, WUHF at least tries to compete with
> the other Rochester TV stations.
>
> The problem 31 would immediate face if News Central goes
> kaput is the need for weather and local sports. That means
> hiring additional staff and, as we all know, hiring
> additional staff cuts into the bottom line.
I'd like to see FOX 31 make a deal with WROC and use their staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would work great!
>
>
My favorite quote, from the WB49 News Director:
"It's tough to make a newscast fresh for an hour."
Um... excuse me sir, but if you've only got ONE newscast a day, I would think you'd be more worried about how you're gonna cram so much news into half the time you used to have! That is, if your news crews are actually covering the market as well as they should be.
Look at all the other stations. If they can find enough news to do 2 hours in the morning, a noon show, another 90 minutes at 5pm, and an 11pm show... I don't see how Corris' explanation makes any sense.
Even from the days of watching WPIX and WWOR on cable, I always thought the big benefit of only doing one show at 10PM was that your reporters have more time to spend on doing better-quality stories, rather than mass-producing a story into different segments so there's still something "new at 6" that we didn't see at 5:30.
Stations who do news more frequently have a much harder job keeping stuff fresh... something that first aired at 5 this morning would be unacceptable on today's 11pm news -- by then, it would have been on at least 3 or 4 other times. But if you have only ONE newscast a day, you can get away with running those kinds of stories, because any viewers who are "exclusive" to you haven't heard about these stories yet.
From Corris' quote, it sounds like they were relying a little too much on News Central and they lack the motivation and/or resources to replace it with local content. Instead, they'll just be lazy and shorten the newscast. Too bad.
"It's tough to make a newscast fresh for an hour."
Um... excuse me sir, but if you've only got ONE newscast a day, I would think you'd be more worried about how you're gonna cram so much news into half the time you used to have! That is, if your news crews are actually covering the market as well as they should be.
Look at all the other stations. If they can find enough news to do 2 hours in the morning, a noon show, another 90 minutes at 5pm, and an 11pm show... I don't see how Corris' explanation makes any sense.
Even from the days of watching WPIX and WWOR on cable, I always thought the big benefit of only doing one show at 10PM was that your reporters have more time to spend on doing better-quality stories, rather than mass-producing a story into different segments so there's still something "new at 6" that we didn't see at 5:30.
Stations who do news more frequently have a much harder job keeping stuff fresh... something that first aired at 5 this morning would be unacceptable on today's 11pm news -- by then, it would have been on at least 3 or 4 other times. But if you have only ONE newscast a day, you can get away with running those kinds of stories, because any viewers who are "exclusive" to you haven't heard about these stories yet.
From Corris' quote, it sounds like they were relying a little too much on News Central and they lack the motivation and/or resources to replace it with local content. Instead, they'll just be lazy and shorten the newscast. Too bad.
What you'll most likely see is a half-hour version of the hour-long broadcast. Sinclair has already been experimenting with this 30 minute version. Half-hour versions of "NewsCentral" are on in Nashville (at 10pm), Baltimore (11pm), Oklahoma City (10pm), and until recently, Greensboro (WXLV's 11pm newscast).
I've seen the soon-to-be history WXLV version, which was indeed just a shortened version of the hour-long newscast on sister-station WUPN. That meant-shortened local news, Baltimore-based weather, The Point, and a very short Baltimore-based sports segment. What was bad about the half-hour version is that after a brief local news tease, it STARTED with the Baltimore segment, rather than the local segment. After the first commercial break it was all local, followed by taped Baltimore fluff.
I've seen the soon-to-be history WXLV version, which was indeed just a shortened version of the hour-long newscast on sister-station WUPN. That meant-shortened local news, Baltimore-based weather, The Point, and a very short Baltimore-based sports segment. What was bad about the half-hour version is that after a brief local news tease, it STARTED with the Baltimore segment, rather than the local segment. After the first commercial break it was all local, followed by taped Baltimore fluff.
A weird thing about WNYO's news
I'm watching, out of the mistaken idea that tonight would be the first half-hour News Central there. (It's two weeks from tonight, actually.)
But there's something weird that I've noticed about WNYO's local news video shot in the field: the frame rate is off, almost as if I'd set my cheapie DV camcorder to the "cinema" mode to simulate 24fps instead of 30fps video, or (at its worst) like high-quality streamed video.
Now, I know that WNYO is the first station in western NY to use the new totally solid-state camera gear, storing the digital video on a flash card instead of on tape. But that shouldn't automatically lead to the weird-looking video. Perhaps something's not set right on WNYO's cameras?
<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2005 NOW AVAILABLE! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
I'm watching, out of the mistaken idea that tonight would be the first half-hour News Central there. (It's two weeks from tonight, actually.)
But there's something weird that I've noticed about WNYO's local news video shot in the field: the frame rate is off, almost as if I'd set my cheapie DV camcorder to the "cinema" mode to simulate 24fps instead of 30fps video, or (at its worst) like high-quality streamed video.
Now, I know that WNYO is the first station in western NY to use the new totally solid-state camera gear, storing the digital video on a flash card instead of on tape. But that shouldn't automatically lead to the weird-looking video. Perhaps something's not set right on WNYO's cameras?
<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2005 NOW AVAILABLE! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
M
Media_Man
Guest
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
You can receive WNYO from Rochester? Interesting......
You can receive WNYO from Rochester? Interesting......
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
> You can receive WNYO from Rochester? Interesting......
Even I can receive WNYO, and I'm 25 miles farther than Fybush is. Anything within 100 miles is usually fair game, no matter what the weather conditions are like.
> You can receive WNYO from Rochester? Interesting......
Even I can receive WNYO, and I'm 25 miles farther than Fybush is. Anything within 100 miles is usually fair game, no matter what the weather conditions are like.
M
Media_Man
Guest
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
That leads me to this question- what WB affiliate do Rochestarians watch WB49 (WNYO) or WB16 (WRWB) and why? I was under the assumption that WB49 doesn't reach into the Rochester market.
That leads me to this question- what WB affiliate do Rochestarians watch WB49 (WNYO) or WB16 (WRWB) and why? I was under the assumption that WB49 doesn't reach into the Rochester market.
J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
Is WB-16 a cable-only channel or a low-power TV outlet??
Is WB-16 a cable-only channel or a low-power TV outlet??
J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Mark Giardina commented:
> Like I said, it all comes down to the bottom line. In this
> day and age if a broadcast operation can get away with
> having fewer people on the payroll, yet have the appearance
> of news, they will do it, as long as the sales department
> can sell it.
If WNYO-49 really wanted to do news on the cheap, they would be showing a slide saying "News" on-screen and have an off-camera voice-over read wire-service copy!
> Like I said, it all comes down to the bottom line. In this
> day and age if a broadcast operation can get away with
> having fewer people on the payroll, yet have the appearance
> of news, they will do it, as long as the sales department
> can sell it.
If WNYO-49 really wanted to do news on the cheap, they would be showing a slide saying "News" on-screen and have an off-camera voice-over read wire-service copy!
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
> Is WB-16 a cable-only channel or a low-power TV outlet??
>
"WRWB" 16 is cable only, on Time Warner, which (last I looked) had about 65% market penetration.
The WNYO signal is fringe in most of Rochester. I get a not-quite-perfect signal from them with the help of a sizable Yagi antenna mounted about 10' off my roof (and about 45' above ground).
WNYO's transmitter in western Wyoming County is significantly closer to Rochester than the other Buffalo-market stations. The only one that's closer is Pax/i WPXJ 51, whose site in Pavilion is actually closer to Rochester than it is to Buffalo. It's a studio-quality signal on my rooftop antenna and watchable on rabbit ears.
There's no really local OTA WB signal for viewers in Monroe County.
s<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2005 NOW AVAILABLE! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
> Is WB-16 a cable-only channel or a low-power TV outlet??
>
"WRWB" 16 is cable only, on Time Warner, which (last I looked) had about 65% market penetration.
The WNYO signal is fringe in most of Rochester. I get a not-quite-perfect signal from them with the help of a sizable Yagi antenna mounted about 10' off my roof (and about 45' above ground).
WNYO's transmitter in western Wyoming County is significantly closer to Rochester than the other Buffalo-market stations. The only one that's closer is Pax/i WPXJ 51, whose site in Pavilion is actually closer to Rochester than it is to Buffalo. It's a studio-quality signal on my rooftop antenna and watchable on rabbit ears.
There's no really local OTA WB signal for viewers in Monroe County.
s<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2005 NOW AVAILABLE! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
S
scooterodell
Guest
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
Back before I succumbed to the Time Warner giant, I used to watch WNYO off rabbit ears. But I live on the west side of Rochester. Now, if I want to watch the WB (and, really, who wants to watch the WB?), I watch TW 16.
Back before I succumbed to the Time Warner giant, I used to watch WNYO off rabbit ears. But I live on the west side of Rochester. Now, if I want to watch the WB (and, really, who wants to watch the WB?), I watch TW 16.
M
Mark_Giardina
Guest
>
> If WNYO-49 really wanted to do news on the cheap, they would
> be showing a slide saying "News" on-screen and have an
> off-camera voice-over read wire-service copy!
>
Shhhh.. Don't give management any ideas.<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> If WNYO-49 really wanted to do news on the cheap, they would
> be showing a slide saying "News" on-screen and have an
> off-camera voice-over read wire-service copy!
>
Shhhh.. Don't give management any ideas.<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
> I'd like to see FOX 31 make a deal with WROC and use their
> staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would
> work great!
----------
There is no reason why a market the size of Rochester cannot support a fourth television newscast with no affiliation with WROC, WHAM, or WHEC.
> staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would
> work great!
----------
There is no reason why a market the size of Rochester cannot support a fourth television newscast with no affiliation with WROC, WHAM, or WHEC.
Re: A weird thing about WNYO's news
>
> But there's something weird that I've noticed about WNYO's
> local news video shot in the field: the frame rate is off,
> almost as if I'd set my cheapie DV camcorder to the "cinema"
> mode to simulate 24fps instead of 30fps video, or (at its
> worst) like high-quality streamed video.
>
> Now, I know that WNYO is the first station in western NY to
> use the new totally solid-state camera gear, storing the
> digital video on a flash card instead of on tape. But that
> shouldn't automatically lead to the weird-looking video.
> Perhaps something's not set right on WNYO's cameras?
>
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. It looks like a lot of the VO is actually slowed a bit, yet the resolution is very clear.
I'd be very interested to know if this is by accident or design, because in any case, I think it actually looks kind of neat. It certainly results in a different lookinhg product and , well,..I like it!
>
> But there's something weird that I've noticed about WNYO's
> local news video shot in the field: the frame rate is off,
> almost as if I'd set my cheapie DV camcorder to the "cinema"
> mode to simulate 24fps instead of 30fps video, or (at its
> worst) like high-quality streamed video.
>
> Now, I know that WNYO is the first station in western NY to
> use the new totally solid-state camera gear, storing the
> digital video on a flash card instead of on tape. But that
> shouldn't automatically lead to the weird-looking video.
> Perhaps something's not set right on WNYO's cameras?
>
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. It looks like a lot of the VO is actually slowed a bit, yet the resolution is very clear.
I'd be very interested to know if this is by accident or design, because in any case, I think it actually looks kind of neat. It certainly results in a different lookinhg product and , well,..I like it!
B
Bob1370
Guest
> I'd like to see FOX 31 make a deal with WROC and use their
> staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would
> work great!
> >
Ummm, what/who did you know, and when did you know it?
The irony of it all is, if they'd left the damn thing alone years ago, held on to Donna Dedee, Sherman Burdette, John DiTullio and Michael Gouldrick and let them and their team do their thing, they'd have kept a successful and increasingly PROFITABLE newscast on the air, and built their overall station image and ratings considerably. (The old 31 10 O'Clock News outdid its ratings and revenue targets from day one, and became a profit center for WUHF very quickly.) There was even talk of expanding to an early morning show and a noon newscast, both of which could have been additional profit centers (as similar programs are for 8, 10 and 13). They were ordered by Baltimore management to throw it all away, probably as much for reasons of controlling the newscast's political message as for controlling costs. Now they've been reduced to renting out the whole station to WROC, and to watch millions in revenue get away.
Nice play, Sinclair...sometimes it's costly to do business on the cheap or use your news as a corporate partisan soapbox. Too bad you had to learn it the hard way, and so did your employees.
> staff for a half hour newscast at 10:00. I think that would
> work great!
> >
Ummm, what/who did you know, and when did you know it?
The irony of it all is, if they'd left the damn thing alone years ago, held on to Donna Dedee, Sherman Burdette, John DiTullio and Michael Gouldrick and let them and their team do their thing, they'd have kept a successful and increasingly PROFITABLE newscast on the air, and built their overall station image and ratings considerably. (The old 31 10 O'Clock News outdid its ratings and revenue targets from day one, and became a profit center for WUHF very quickly.) There was even talk of expanding to an early morning show and a noon newscast, both of which could have been additional profit centers (as similar programs are for 8, 10 and 13). They were ordered by Baltimore management to throw it all away, probably as much for reasons of controlling the newscast's political message as for controlling costs. Now they've been reduced to renting out the whole station to WROC, and to watch millions in revenue get away.
Nice play, Sinclair...sometimes it's costly to do business on the cheap or use your news as a corporate partisan soapbox. Too bad you had to learn it the hard way, and so did your employees.
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