Well, more generally, the black and gold colours are the official city colours of Pittsburgh, coming from the coat of arms of William Pitt the Elder, the city’s namesake.
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It’s a busy week for CBS O&Os, as WCBS/CBS News New York is the next to receive the new graphics package, coincidentally debuted in afternoon news:
The in-between animation seems to be a customized version, as it has the CBS2 symbol, instead of the CBS eye:
The weather uses the old graphics though.
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This was on Monday:
Also
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Back to CBS, KYW in Philly might be the next in line for the new graphics package, with a gigantic letter 3 twist:
https://vimeo.com/812176322
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The 3 looks horrendous IMO - inconsistent with both the main CBS brand and the legacy Westinghouse brand (anklepants). We’ll see how it’ll be seen on screen…
Meanwhile, WBZ Boston is the latest recipient of the new graphics. Or should I say, WBZ NEWS streaming on CBS News Boston?
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An update: WCAX in Burlington/Plattsburgh/Montreal adopted the new graphics package, changing their theme tune in the process.
WCSC in Charleston, where rumours of the new graphics first emerged, also got the new look:
Some more station blips are now available on Vimeo, utilizing shades of green from Eagles:
https://vimeo.com/815517360
https://vimeo.com/815505465
[UPDATE] They’ll be relaunching later on Wednesday, according to news anchor Jim Donovan’s Facebook live (2 minutes in).
Moving on to local TV…
WBBH/WZVN (NBC/ABC), Waterman Broadcasting’s Fort Myers station, were sold to Hearst Television:
https://nbc-2.com/news/2023/04/05/waterman-broadcasting-selling-wbbh-tv-nbc2-to-hearst-television/
Meanwhile, WVLA/WGMB, the Baton Rouge NBC/Fox duopoly by Nexstar, debuted a new set yesterday, as Nexstar’s vote of confidence in the region:
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and it’s now on the air:
They also debuted a new campaign: They’re “finding heart in every beat”.
NewscastStudio has the story on keeping the 3:
“We also recognized we couldn’t just completely get rid of the three,” said [Kelly] Frank, while noting that channel numbers mean something different in the world of streaming. “We knew that there was recognition and affinity and value in that three… We needed to maintain that tip of the hat, that legacy, that homage to the iconic three. So we kept it and made sure that it was married to the CBS brand.”
And now it’s WCCO/CBS News Minnesota’s turn, taking the WBZ route as WCCO NEWS streaming on CBS News Minnesota.
Their 4pm newscast, The 4, flipped first with standard blue branding:
Then the 5pm news followed with the new brand. Contrary to what we’ve seen in the practice run, no red is used in the new open:
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Don’t know where to put this. but Tucker Carlson is making a comback via Twitter
May not have signed yet, but what a potential cash cow for Twitter. Im no Tucker fan but Im aware of his reach and the sponsors that would follow him from Fox. If Elon works it right, it could just turn the whole platform’s fortunes around.
Someone should cuck the Tuck. Humanity doesn’t need him sputing his half-baked views.
Didn’t expect a social platform taking side directly in collaborating with a former politics pundit, but hey, this is post-Musk Twitter - everything can happen for one more penny in the billionaire’s bank account 
Staying with conservative-leaning outlets, Sinclair, the local TV group recently in financial troubles with Bally Sports RSNs, has been chopping local news departments lately. Since mid-March, places like Macon, Columbia, Toledo, Omaha and Gainsville are stopping their own news productions, opting for Sinclair’s The National Desk instead. TVNewscheck has the details:
TVNewsCheck reached out to several employees from each of the stations. Most interview requests went unanswered and two were declined, but three sources from within two of the stations were responsive. They did not wish to reveal their identities out of concerns that Sinclair might take legal action against them or thwart future job opportunities. Collectively, they said 28 people in the two markets lost their jobs.
“I’m still in shock, and just really sad,” said one of the former news team members. “We were all in a room together when a person from Sinclair announced news was not meeting ratings expectations and therefore not appealing to high-dollar sponsorships. Immediately, someone brought up union rules and that they were owed 90 days’ notice. HR replied that they spoke with the union and didn’t say anything else about it.”
“I’m trying to stay positive,” said another source. “It is hard because we, as a smaller newsroom, were very, very close to one another. We considered ourselves a lot more like family than we did coworkers, so it’s been especially hard to see the people I care about hurting as well and knowing there’s nothing I can do to make it feel better.”
“Some of us have seen this coming,” a third person said. “We couldn’t hire anyone, the quality of work was diminishing and some of us, like me, were doing three positions.”
Over in Allentown, Pennsylvania, indie station WFMZ debuted new graphics earlier this week, which holds up well against those big station group ones IMO:
And finally, on your CBS Local Graphics Newswatch™ tonight, WBBM Chicago is the latest to join the queue, and it’s the boring boxed one with their channel number. As of now, only WJZ Baltimore and KOVR Sacramento haven’t made the switch:
NewscastStudio has the story.
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The problem with Sinclair is that they kept buying station after station after station. Debt loads came up, along comes COVID, and their goose was cooked.
They’re better off selling a lot of their stations.
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It was the bet on regional sports networks in particular that did them in. League contracts costing billions for a very particular slice of the audience watching live on local cable (not out-of-market, streaming or cable) did not match up with potential revenue from ads and retransmission fees.
Sinclair recently reorganized so that it basically saddled its local TV ops with Bally - they have tech stuff that apparently does well and has been separated out into its own division. Clean balance sheet, clear burden.
It sucks.
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Not to keen on this:
Abc7 Eyewitness News at 6pm New Graphics Open_| 2023_ - YouTube
The intro audio seems a bit mangled.
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I hope that isn’t the standard open for all the ABC O&Os. Looks a bit too busy. Plus that mixture of the Eyewitness News and News Series 2000 Plus packages sounds odd.
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IIRC all the ABC O&Os take their own direction with graphics etc, unlike CBS and NBC
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They have in the past but I think this package is part of a broader rebrand across all ABC O&Os to create a more unified look. Some stations have been testing the package in their weather segments for months before a full relaunch.
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The mangled audio is because they tried to mix the opening part of a cut from Gari Media’s ABC O&O package Eyewitness News with the tail end of a cut from News Series 2000/Stimulus. Otherwise, WLS now uses Eyewitness News outside of this.
Fun fact: the open is generated live using Vizrt technology, allowing for live time, temperature and ticker generation during it.
It is indeed, and has been popping out in some promos and visual elements since 2020-2021ish. Here are some examples:
The new O&O package designed by Vivid Zero, the motion design division of the SmithGeigner consultancy group; the contract was originally won by Stun Creative, a Hollywood-based creative agency, however, after a takeover and merger done by a strategy and data firm, the contract was turned over to Vivid Zero, thanks to the good relations with ABC by its chief director, Michael Vamosy.
Vivid Zero also did the current ABC News Special Report, ABC News Live and Good Morning America graphics, so it made sense to award the contract with an agency which has had some kind of great track record with the Alphabet. In some way, the new O&O package finally unifies the stations with ABC News’ (the network division) typography-laden design language, which is really all over the place, but the O&O implementation looks way better.
The roll-out of the mandated graphics, also delayed due to the roll-out of the redrawn ABC logo by Trollbäck+Company, will do away with many of their local graphics packages (some of which look really bad and dated on-screen, KABC and KFSN do look good however), but won’t affect the station’s individual music packages, most of which come from Warner/Chappell Music (the legal successor of Gari Music, who composed these Cool Hand Luke-inspired theme packages); WPVI, fortunately, will retain the well-known MCTYW theme viewers know and love. Like NBC O&Os (but unlike CBS O&Os, which used historically the Enforcer themes, and currently the new package by Antfood), ABC doesn’t have a formal standardized theme package (although Eyewitness News is used by most O&Os).
Some other pics (sourced from TVNewsTalk.net) and NewscastStudio’s take on the rebrand:
The ticker (used mainly during the morning news and daytime updates) was accidentaly launched during a noon update:
As the package was rolled out on the weather graphics on WLS and WTVD, it was clear it would come eventually as soon as possible.
It was eventually rolled-out in September to WLS’ master control-based TOTH ID, information ticker (used for programming changes, school closings and severe weather) and the “Previously Recorded” DOG used during rebroadcasts.
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NewscastStudio has the scoop over the new GrayOne package.
Also, WABI in Bangor, Maine (CBS), WGEM in Quincy, Illinois (NBC), KTTC/KXLT in Rochester (NBC/Fox, the latter under an SSA with Gray) and WVVA Bluefield (NBC, formerly owned by Quincy like WGEM) have now flipped to the new package:
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