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Local New Year's Eve coverage

I loved ABC's Y2K coverage where they went time zone to time zone for 24 hours. The idea was that if all heck broke loose and all the computers went down, they would be able to cover it, otherwise they'd have 24 hours of New Year's celebrations, starting in the 5am hour. There was no New Year's Rockin Eve, but Dick Clark still did the countdown from Times Square.
 
For several years the West Coast had its own syndicated New Year's show. I remember because I spent Christmas and New Year's 91-92 in Pasco Washington. They had celebrations from Seattle, San Francisco, Reno, Vegas, and Disneyland and camera feed cycled through them all at Midnight.
 
BDBopper said:
For several years the West Coast had its own syndicated New Year's show. I remember because I spent Christmas and New Year's 91-92 in Pasco Washington. They had celebrations from Seattle, San Francisco, Reno, Vegas, and Disneyland and camera feed cycled through them all at Midnight.
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If I am not mistaken KRON was the one that did the syndicated New Year's Eve show at least the San Francisco portion though when they were owned by Chronicle Broadcasting and the NBC affiliate at the time. I am not sure who was teaming up with KRON at the time to produce the New Year's Eve celebrations all over the west coast at the time.
 
That's the old New Year's Live! which was syndicated all over Pacific time. KNDO/KNDU were the affiliates in central Washington that aired it; likewise it was on KIRO Seattle. It went on through about '95-'96 then stopped airing. Never understood why. At least some Pacific time stations are taking the KLAS Las Vegas coverage this year. But central and eastern Washington miss out on everything except 'the ball'.
Every year I mention this, but in a perfect world, KGW and KREM would be simulcasting KING's New Years at the Needle, plus one of the Yakima stations through a syndication deal. It's a PacNW celebration and both KREM & KGW owned by TEGNA. It would probably get higher ratings than Carson Daly or a Colbert rerun, plus would promote tourism in Seattle. NWCN used to break into programming about 5 mins to midnight on New Years Eve and simulcast KING, but of course they are now defunct. In central time, over 20 stations will be airing Lone Star NYE.
 
RadioFreeCedarCity said:
WKRN-2 Nashville (ABC) will break away from Seacrest sometime after 11:00 CT for their 3rd or 4th straight year of "Music Note Drop" coverage.
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WSMV (NBC) is also scheduled to broadcast the Nashville festivities with "Music City Midnight: New Year's Eve in Nashville" from 11:30 PM-12:30 AM CT.

Other local New Year's Eve programming I didn't see mentioned:

Buffalo: WKBW (ABC) from 11:20 PM-12:10 AM ET airs "Countdown to 2020" featuring the Buffalo Ball Drop at the Electric Tower.
San Antonio: WOAI (NBC) from 10:35 PM-12:30 AM CT airs the annual "Celebrate San Antonio!" concert and fireworks show.
 
hard to believe this thread is 5 years old and yet it getting bumped has become a new end of year tradition here at the Radio Discussions National TV forum. I'm sure the Dallas New Year's celebration will be airing across Texas or most of the Central Time Zone states.
 
Yep, Lone Star NYE will be aired in 4 or 5 states, on 20 different stations. My mother has a good friend that lives in the Wichita Falls market, she'll be able to watch it on KFDX 3 again this year.
 
CNN will be in Nashville at CT time countdown. And in Memphis, no Guitar Drop whatsoever. They will now put a mirror ball up and have it 'rise' at 12:00AM.
 
crainbebo said:
CNN will be in Nashville at CT time countdown. And in Memphis, no Guitar Drop whatsoever. They will now put a mirror ball up and have it 'rise' at 12:00AM.
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Memphis hasn't had any local NYE special in several years. The live broadcasts from ABC and Fox will be carried on WATN and WHBQ on time, but WMC is delaying NBC's broadcast by an hour and carrying an episode of Dateline (syndicated) instead. In Jackson, TN WBBJ is carrying ABC's broadcast on time.WJKT is delaying Fox's broadcast by 30 minutes and carrying their usual run of Entertainment Tonight. WNBJ is delaying NBC's broadcast by an hour and showing repeats of local holiday specials.

Chi-Town Rising, the Chicago based special that was syndicated on several stations in the Central time zone a few years ago, is back, but will only be shown on WGN 9, not even on WGN America.
 
TheBigA said:
What a terrible idea. That show is awful at any time, but worse for NYE. Anything that follows will get zero lead in audience.
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It doesn't make sense to me to delay the special but a lot of Central time zone stations do it. And Dateline is definitely a terrible choice. But some stations delay the special and fill the time with infomercials, which is even worse. I think the logic(?) is to make it line up with Midnight local time, but delaying it by 30 minutes like WJKT makes even less sense.

I think ABC has the right idea by covering NYE from New Orleans for the Central zone as well, and it looks like it would make sense for Fox and NBC to do something similar. The Chi-Town Rising special was an attempt for a syndicated NYE special for the Central zone but it only happened a couple of years and is now only local on WGN 9.
 
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Part of the problem is nobody wants to work on New Year's Eve. I mean, think of it...would YOU? I know there are some pre-taped music shows available, some sports things out there too. There used to be a lot of Rose Bowl events, but once that moved to ESPN, the other networks are not interested in promoting it. Same with the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. There are consequences when all the events are on cable.
 
But Central time (at least southern states) gets Lone Star New Year's. So there's that. Since the Chi-Town Rising experiment in 16-17 (I think?) northern states in CT time haven't gotten a celebration except for Rockin Eve at New Orleans, or the local Chicago market stuff. Mountain time is even worse and is always considered the redheaded stepchild of the lower 48. Denver has no celebration. Only lone Boise gets a local broadcast, the Potato Drop on KTVB.

KMIR will get a local celebration in Palm Springs this year too. Another addition to Pacific time.
 
https://gizmodo.com/fox-networks-could-soon-go-dark-for-millions-still-stuc-1840712799

https://www.jsonline.com/story/ente...-stations-down-wire-talks-directv/2785905001/

https://www.multichannel.com/news/mediacom-nexstar-retrans-talks-could-go-down-to-the-wire

For some parts of the country you may not even get New Years Coverage on TV due to contract dispute.

One is the Fox (Murdoch owned) Vs. NCTC Dispute

Two the Hearst Vs. AT&T Dispute and the Mediacom Vs. Nexstar dispute. All these deals expire at Midnight Tonight to start 2020.
 
crainbebo said:
2020 is less than a week away! Some highlights of New Year's Eve on television:

Local/regional
Nexstar will air KLAS-TV's Las Vegas New Year's Eve in 15 markets this year. This includes KZJO (JoeTV) in Seattle, which recently became a Nexstar-owned station and is pending a sale to Fox Television Stations for the O&O status. Several local hosts from KLAS-TV.
Lone Star NYE will be aired in about 20 markets throughout the Central time zone, with KXAS Dallas being the flagship of course. Many of these stations are NBC (like KTAL Shreveport and KFDX Wichita Falls), so they will air Carson Daly live at Times Square midnight followed by 'their' celebration.
KTVB Boise has the glowing Idaho Potato Drop....one of the more amusing celebrations and the only one aired live in MT time (11PM PT). We watch it every year!
WJZ-TV Baltimore has local fireworks from Baltimore's harbor again this year. I don't see First Night Pittsburgh on KDKA however.
More local fireworks from the Navy Pier on WLS in Chicago.
WBTS (Boston NBC) will air First Night Boston this year. Wasn't it on WBZ for a long time?
KING-TV Seattle continues their tradition of New Year's at the Needle, with the Evening hosts (like Jim Dever) emceeing the broadcast. I watch it every year...love the fireworks at the Space Needle. 10 minute show this year to ring in 2020!
KRON San Francisco is an affiliate for KLAS's show, but will break at 11:30 for New Year's Live!, the local Bay Area celebration with fireworks and entertainment.
Am I missing any more?
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No "Moonpie Over Mobile" on TV this year?
 
JayR said:
No "Moonpie Over Mobile" on TV this year?
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The event is happening again this year, but it's apparently not on TV. It had been on Raycom owned stations including WMC in Memphis several years ago, but I don't know if it's still on TV anywhere now. It's actually odd that the Moon Pie drop is in Mobile since Moon Pies come from Chattanooga.

Lone Star NYE is apparently on stations in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, but nothing East of the Mississippi.
 
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