The Young and the Restless turning 50 on 26 March.
Puts our commercial networks to shame who pull this sort of shit every day with no consequences.
Updated 31/3
Of course, the networks here are not limited to a 39%* reach rule like station groups (including O&Os) are in the US, so there’s reasons I guess.
[* UHF stations counting as half, but few O&Os for the big three networks are in that category]
WGN in Chicago held an hour-long retrospective special on the station’s 75th anniversary:
Meanwhile, Peachtree TV (WPCH-TV), the former TBS local station and now Gray’s indie duopoly with WANF, got a redesign on its roadsign symbol:
Is it a community station?
No, it’s a full commercially licensed station, and in fact…
It used to be WTBS, as in Superstation TBS, as in the TBS cable channel.
I mean, US channels are also required to broadcast their call sign every hour.
What a fall from grace then. Looking very amateur.
I think they had to sell it eventually. Turner split TBS into the cable channel and the local station, thereby getting two bites of the cable ad cherry. Soon enough Meredith got control (whilst Turner/Time Warner still owned the license) and ran it in tandem with WGCL, and eventually brought the station to help Time Warner merge with AT&T quicker. Now Gray owns it.
WTBS had become a simulcast of the TBS cable channel when it was sold. Following the rebranding to Peachtree, the cable channel was finally made available to Atlanta customers for the first time.
Speaking of which… WGCL is now WANF. After Gray took over the Meredith stations, the Atlanta-based company (which had made a big string of acquisitions in recent years, the bigger ones being that of Alabama-based Raycom Media, Quincy Media, and the Meredith stations) decided to pour a lot of resources into the station, which has historically struggled. Although Meredith attempted in many occasions to revive the station’s ratings, all of these attempts failed, mainly because of WGCL historically being an UHF station with poor reception in many parts of the city and viewer awareness of the station being low (historically, Cox-owned WSB has been the undisputed leader, with its harder-edged “if it bleeds, it leads” Action News format consistently the most-watched; it is followed by Fox O&O WAGA and Tegna-owned WXIA, which after attempting to go social media in the news format, as well as high anchor turnover, it is losing ground in the ratings).
Gray decided to pour resources into the station, given the company is based there, and it wanted to use to it as its flagship station. First step: expanding local news to 40 hours a week, including a late morning newscast on Peachtree TV. Second step: hiring WSB legend Monica Kaufman Pearson as features presenter (including a weekly interview show on channel 17). Third step: buy a third sister station, WKTB (a Telemundo affiliate), and a fourth one, WKSY (which is temporarily airing a far-right, pro-Trump “news” network, Real America’s Voice, but that deal wasn’t Gray’s fault), as well as a production studio, Atlanta Assembly/Third Rail Studios (to which Gray sold half of the ownership to Comcast/NBCUniversal as a partner and operator) and a digital content studio.
Then, on September 30, 2002, the WGCL/CBS 46 brand was dropped in favor of Atlanta News First; this was followed by a call letter change to WANF four days later. The bold move was led by GM Erik Schrader, who said that WGCL “had no brand at all”; Schrader wanted also to emphasize an alternative to WSB’s “doom-and-gloom” news with a more balanced mix of stories. The change was led by Matt Quinn, who also leads Gray’s in-house design hub (and did so for Meredith).
Adelaide Advertiser reports upcoming US reality space simulation show Stars on Mars is being filmed near Coober Pedy in outback South Australia.
Filming has already started with contestants – concealing their identities with masks and hoodies – spotted landing in the opal capital Friday and is expected to continue for a month.
While the Stars on Mars celebrities are top secret, Variety has reported they are expected to be mostly American.
Lisa Rinna, of Melrose Place, Days of Our Lives and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame is said to be among them.
Pre-production and set construction started two months ago with a film set with four space-like domes popping up plus another next door to Umoona Community gymnasium is being used as a studio by the 250 crew members.
UPDATE
Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike at midnight Pacific Time (5pm AEST) today, after talks between the guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down.