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New Media General Graphics Package on the Way?

B

bg02445

Check out this video posted on Media General's YouTube channel, showing a new open for their Columbus, OH affiliate, WCMH:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/oGopDIGHBno

The channel also features 21 additional examples from this graphics package, detailing what can be done with it.

It certainly looks better than what they have now.

As of today, WCMH is still using the current standardized graphics.

Also, WSLS in Roanoke became the first station to drop the standardized music last year.
 
bg02445 said:
Check out this video posted on Media General's YouTube channel, showing a new open for their Columbus, OH affiliate, WCMH:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/oGopDIGHBno

The channel also features 21 additional examples from this graphics package, detailing what can be done with it.

It certainly looks better than what they have now.

As of today, WCMH is still using the current standardized graphics.

Also, WSLS in Roanoke became the first station to drop the standardized music last year.
Click to expand...

It would be an upgrade compared to the crap they have been force feeding on people in their markets since 2007.
 
The current graphics are bad but not THAT bad, although these are certainly a huge improvement. The worst part about MG newscasts is that horrendous music that they use.
 
w00t said:
The current graphics are bad but not THAT bad, although these are certainly a huge improvement. The worst part about MG newscasts is that horrendous music that they use.
Click to expand...

Outside of Tampa-St. Pete, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville DMA, Mobile, Providence, and Columbus (Ohio), MG doesn't even try with its stations. Those stations are all major moneymakers and market leaders so they get the "star treatment", but in other markets their stations are horrendous. I'm still pissed that NBC hawked off their O&Os to this cheap skate company, agenda-setting company. They could have done better than this.
 
kilamanjero said:
w00t said:
The current graphics are bad but not THAT bad, although these are certainly a huge improvement. The worst part about MG newscasts is that horrendous music that they use.
Click to expand...

Outside of Tampa-St. Pete, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville DMA, Mobile, Providence, and Columbus (Ohio), MG doesn't even try with its stations. Those stations are all major moneymakers and market leaders so they get the "star treatment", but in other markets their stations are horrendous. I'm still pissed that NBC hawked off their O&Os to this cheap skate company, agenda-setting company. They could have done better than this.
Click to expand...

WVTM Birmingham would have likely been higher up in the MG world had NBC not tanked and WIAT (ironically, what MG sold to get WVTM) soared in the ratings. It, not that long ago (15, 16 years), was once 6 and 13 dominating the ratings, with 42 squeezed out. Now Birmingham has four major players, and it's the new kids leading the charge (33-40 and 42).
 
kilamanjero said:
w00t said:
The current graphics are bad but not THAT bad, although these are certainly a huge improvement. The worst part about MG newscasts is that horrendous music that they use.
Click to expand...

Outside of Tampa-St. Pete, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville DMA, Mobile, Providence, and Columbus (Ohio), MG doesn't even try with its stations. Those stations are all major moneymakers and market leaders so they get the "star treatment", but in other markets their stations are horrendous. I'm still pissed that NBC hawked off their O&Os to this cheap skate company, agenda-setting company. They could have done better than this.
Click to expand...

Correction: They're NOT trying in Mobile, either!

They might be making money, but their news product is still pathetic compared to ten years ago.
 
My home market, Raleigh-Durham was one where one of the former NBC O&Os went to Media General.

WNCN-TV, "NBC 17" is, I believe, MG's second-largest market behind Tampa-St. Petersburg, but channel 17 faces an uphill battle here, where they're basically an also-ran in the two-way race between two established, entrenched stations: locally owned CBS powerhouse WRAL and ABC O&O WTVD. At least three news operations in the market have failed over the past 25 years, one of them the previous NBC affiliate. NBC 17 has cut lots of reporters and even did away with its sports department--in the middle of ACC country, no doubt, though they managed to make the conversion to an HD newsroom last summer.

WNCN got the Media General music and graphics, but never got the standard MG crescent logo. It's NBC-era logo was fairly new before the MG purchase, and the crescent logo is likely familiar to viewers who see the three other Media General properties in the next-door Roanoke/Lynchburg (WSLS), Florence/Myrtle Beach (WBTW) and Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville (WNCT) markets.
 
I watch WSPA in Greenville-Spartanburg-etc. and I can't stand their graphics. The navy and yellow/gold with that gear in the background does nothing for me. The 2D logos (especially the "Storm Team 7" one) are less than impressive also. Their newscasts are good, but the graphics are greatly lacking and are the worst in the market.
 
Nate Wesley said:
kilamanjero said:
w00t said:
The current graphics are bad but not THAT bad, although these are certainly a huge improvement. The worst part about MG newscasts is that horrendous music that they use.
Click to expand...

Outside of Tampa-St. Pete, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville DMA, Mobile, Providence, and Columbus (Ohio), MG doesn't even try with its stations. Those stations are all major moneymakers and market leaders so they get the "star treatment", but in other markets their stations are horrendous. I'm still pissed that NBC hawked off their O&Os to this cheap skate company, agenda-setting company. They could have done better than this.
Click to expand...

Correction: They're NOT trying in Mobile, either!

They might be making money, but their news product is still pathetic compared to ten years ago.
Click to expand...

The thing is WKRG has one thing very few larger market stations in the MG group have, a news helicopter.
 
MG here in Charleston is really bad. They've owned WCBD for decades, and got a new studio in 2002. They've had the same style of graphics since then, and changed them at the end of '06 when Media General made that dumb music.

WCBD still doesn't have the capability to carry any syndicated HD programs, even Wheel of Fortune (which they hosted a few years ago), and just a few months ago got their HD weather crawl. HD news hasn't even been thought of there. The old news director dropped sports on weekdays, and only a couple of months ago began to add it back. The only time they cover sports heavily are HS football Friday nights.

They have pretty good talent, with the main anchors well-known in the market. However, they get soundly beaten by WCSC in local news.
 
RadioDaze said:
My home market, Raleigh-Durham was one where one of the former NBC O&Os went to Media General.

WNCN-TV, "NBC 17" is, I believe, MG's second-largest market behind Tampa-St. Petersburg, but channel 17 faces an uphill battle here, where they're basically an also-ran in the two-way race between two established, entrenched stations: locally owned CBS powerhouse WRAL and ABC O&O WTVD. At least three news operations in the market have failed over the past 25 years, one of them the previous NBC affiliate. NBC 17 has cut lots of reporters and even did away with its sports department--in the middle of ACC country, no doubt, though they managed to make the conversion to an HD newsroom last summer.

WNCN got the Media General music and graphics, but never got the standard MG crescent logo. It's NBC-era logo was fairly new before the MG purchase, and the crescent logo is likely familiar to viewers who see the three other Media General properties in the next-door Roanoke/Lynchburg (WSLS), Florence/Myrtle Beach (WBTW) and Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville (WNCT) markets.
Click to expand...

"NBC 17" WNCN has been very lucky on its imaging and logo situation under MG and so has WJAR to a certain extent since they are allowed (for now) to keep their NBC O&O era logos for regular usage. Literally within a year MG, dumped WVTM & WCMH-TV more appealing O&O era logos for their boring mess of present-day. Also, WNCN is now the 2nd largest market for the group, and NBC is kicking themselves since Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville is also rapid growth and revenue market for the future to come now in the top 25 of DMAs. Hartford & San Diego are both stagnant and becoming liabilities to NBC, and its new parent, Comcast, because they are sliding in market rankings and basically flat in revenue. If MG were wise, they would be trying to build up WNCN so it can become a stronger player in the market because it wouldn't be unheard of in the next 10 years for the DMA to be in the top 20.
 
You mentioned WKRG's news helicopter. That's another news gathering tool WNCN lacks, a liability in such a vast market as Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, especially when the competition is "airborne". I remember a former WNCN employee in the early NBC O&O days (1996)saying, in jest, that WNCN stood for, "We Need a Chopper Now".
 
I think it's the market leader, but I can't stand to watch WJBF in Augusta, GA. They have that same horrid look WSPA has with the blue, gold, and that stupid gear in the background. Horrible. You could put both stations on side by side and they would look identical except for the anchors and logo.

CharlestonDX: are these the graphics WCBD uses?
 
carolinaradio said:
I think it's the market leader, but I can't stand to watch WJBF in Augusta, GA. They have that same horrid look WSPA has with the blue, gold, and that stupid gear in the background. Horrible. You could put both stations on side by side and they would look identical except for the anchors and logo.

CharlestonDX: are these the graphics WCBD uses?
Click to expand...

Those are the graphics all the MG properties with news products uses that horrendous graphics package.
 
RadioDaze said:
You mentioned WKRG's news helicopter. That's another news gathering tool WNCN lacks, a liability in such a vast market as Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, especially when the competition is "airborne". I remember a former WNCN employee in the early NBC O&O days (1996)saying, in jest, that WNCN stood for, "We Need a Chopper Now".
Click to expand...

I agree, many of the MG properties are in vast markets without helicopters (Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Anniston, Roanoke-Lynchburg). The 4 stations with helicopters are their top moneymakers (WCMH-TV, WSPA-TV, WKRG-TV) and flagship (WFLA-TV). WJAR-TV is the only "larger market" leader that doesn't have one.
 
Just within the last few days, they got new Titan weather graphics. They look pretty good, but the rest of the station is pretty indistinguishable from the rest of the chain.

Until last week, they had a bad 11am newscast called "My News 2". It was basically a bunch of fluff stories with weather included, and had a blue and yellow graphics package that matched the rest of the station.

For the CW, they tape the 6pm news and air it at 10pm.

Here's My News 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6PTrmF1tSQ

6pm at 10:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwek3RaVKbA#
 
Any more Media General stations changing graphics?

The local FOX affiliate here got a new set and graphics today. It makes WSPA look even worse. Their news quality is great, but a freshened appearance would help greatly with the visual part.
 
One thing i noticed recently is that WNCT in the Greenville/Washington/New Bern market hasn't upgraded to
HD, that station has always lacked in equipment upgrades, although their news presentation is not bad.
 
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