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NewsCentral -- is it fact or hoax?

R

Rollo-Smokes

I'm surprised I hadn't seen this here yet, with all the exciting talk about PaxTV and other topics, but...

NewsBlues.com is reporting, and DCRTV.com is piggybacking on it, that Sinclair Broadcast Group is mulling cutbacks, or a possible shut-down, on its "NewsCentral" operation. If anything happens, it'll take place before the end of July. If "NewsCentral" closes shop, Sinclair will keep local news (yes, totally local!!) going in its stronger markets, like flagship WBFF-TV Baltimore.

"NewsCentral" haters can hold off on rejoicing for, at the most, another thirty-one days. Or, could it be the viewers are getting punked??<P ID="signature">______________
"Everybody wants something they'll never give up...Everybody wants something, they'll take your money and never give up!" -- The Zit Remedy, "Degrassi Junior High"</P>
 
>
> NewsBlues.com is reporting, and DCRTV.com is piggybacking on
> it, that Sinclair Broadcast Group is mulling cutbacks, or a
> possible shut-down, on its "NewsCentral" operation. If
> anything happens, it'll take place before the end of July.
> If "NewsCentral" closes shop, Sinclair will keep local news
> (yes, totally local!!) going in its stronger markets, like
> flagship WBFF-TV Baltimore.
>

I can't speak about the Baltimore market, but I can tell you that should the reports of NewsCentral's demise be true then the Sinclair station in Rochester will have to hire more people if they want to continue with local news.

Right now that have one main anchor; a reporter, who anchors two days a week and two other reporters. Just this year two reporters left the station, without securing other jobs, which strongly hints how frustrated they must have been with the operation at 31. I am not sure how many videographers the station has.

I know I've picked on NewsCentral for a long time on here but I want to make it very clear that I truly believe the people at 31 are trying their best to put out a good local product. And it's tough considering how limited they are IE: staff.

<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 think that WKEF-22/WRGT-45 in dayton will be just fine. They'd need to hire a weekend and fill-in weather person, but they could take up the slack in features, etc., other ways. Their main female anchor, by the way, is recovering from cancer and just gave birth.<P ID="signature">______________
I'll get back to you when I think of a cute quote</P>
 
> I'm surprised I hadn't seen this here yet, with all the
> exciting talk about PaxTV and other topics, but...
>
> NewsBlues.com is reporting, and DCRTV.com is piggybacking on
> it, that Sinclair Broadcast Group is mulling cutbacks, or a
> possible shut-down, on its "NewsCentral" operation. If
> anything happens, it'll take place before the end of July.
> If "NewsCentral" closes shop, Sinclair will keep local news
> (yes, totally local!!) going in its stronger markets, like
> flagship WBFF-TV Baltimore.
>
> "NewsCentral" haters can hold off on rejoicing for, at the
> most, another thirty-one days. Or, could it be the viewers
> are getting punked??
>

Well, so much for WVTV's experiment with a 9pm news... I doubt they'd keep it as a local 'cast since last time I checked, they were mesuring the viewers in the tens of thousands. (Fox 6 was the ONLY news @ 9 for years, so there's no competing w/ them!)

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
My guess is that Sinclair, post "News Central", will keep local news on any "News Central" stations that are either: (a) ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates, or, (b) Fox affiliates where Sinclair's "News Central" is the only 10 P.M. (9 P.M. in Central and Mountain time zone cities) local newscast in that particulart market.

On "News Central" stations that do not meet either criteria, local news will be dropped.

The name "News Central" may live on in some markets, even if the blended local/national format does not.
 
What is NewsCentral?

People keep talking about NewsCentral and I'm wondering what it is.<P ID="signature">______________

Member of the Los Angeles, Phoenix Radio, and California TV moderation team</P>
 
Re: What is NewsCentral?

> People keep talking about NewsCentral and I'm wondering what
> it is.
>

The cookie-cutter news operation used by Sinclair's Fox/WB/UPN affiliates in many of their markets. They have one or two local anchors, and weather/sports/some other features are made on an identical set in Baltimore at WBFF.

I wonder how many other people caught on to the gimmick when Paris and Nicole interned at WBFF on The Simple Life.
 
> My guess is that Sinclair, post "News Central", will keep
> local news on any "News Central" stations that are either:
> (a) ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates, or, (b) Fox affiliates where
> Sinclair's "News Central" is the only 10 P.M. (9 P.M. in
> Central and Mountain time zone cities) local newscast in
> that particulart market.
>
> On "News Central" stations that do not meet either criteria,
> local news will be dropped.
>
> The name "News Central" may live on in some markets, even if
> the blended local/national format does not.
----------
WUHF could very well keep its local newscast then, but they may drop it since they've got way too far a way to go to even touch third-place WROC.
 
Re: What is NewsCentral?

> The cookie-cutter news operation used by Sinclair's
> Fox/WB/UPN affiliates in many of their markets. They have
> one or two local anchors, and weather/sports/some other
> features are made on an identical set in Baltimore at WBFF.
>
> I wonder how many other people caught on to the gimmick when
> Paris and Nicole interned at WBFF on The Simple Life.

If you wiped out the "FOX/WB/UPN" and replaced it with MOST, then your statment becomes true. Sinclair is doing on most of their affiliates, reguardless of the network.

In a lot of cases, the local station has a set built to Sinclair's specification to look identical to the Newscentral operation. And the news segments are split up into local or SINCLAIR segments...

i.e. local news block - break - national block from Sinclair NC - break -weather from Sinclair NC - break - local fluff - break - sports from Sinclair NC. Like that...
 
Re: What is NewsCentral?

> People keep talking about NewsCentral and I'm wondering what
> it is.

Hey Kyle...I'd be happy to send you some tape of NewsCentral as seen here in Rochester and Buffalo. Tried e-mailing you at the radio-info.com address and got no answer...drop me a line offlist if you're interested.<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>
 
Re: What is NewsCentral?

> Hey Kyle...I'd be happy to send you some tape of NewsCentral
> as seen here in Rochester and Buffalo. Tried e-mailing you
> at the radio-info.com address and got no answer...drop me a
> line offlist if you're interested.

Or, really, you could just crinkle up a blank VHS tape, and it'd be worth about the same content wise!

:D

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
My NEW blog is at Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: What is NewsCentral?

> > Hey Kyle...I'd be happy to send you some tape of
> NewsCentral
> > as seen here in Rochester and Buffalo. Tried e-mailing you
>
> > at the radio-info.com address and got no answer...drop me
> a
> > line offlist if you're interested.
>
> Or, really, you could just crinkle up a blank VHS tape, and
> it'd be worth about the same content wise!

Only if you sent the tape to Hunt Valley, Maryland and had someone crinkle it up there...but they'd have to pretend they were local!

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>
 
Sinclair's Fakecast

> NewsBlues.com is reporting, and DCRTV.com is piggybacking on
> it, that Sinclair Broadcast Group is mulling cutbacks, or a
> possible shut-down, on its "NewsCentral" operation.

Well, it's like dividing anything by zero when it comes to "NewsCentral," which is really an excuse to do a little news on the cheap and ram conservative commentaries down the throats of uninterested viewers who are already watching Fox instead of your 10pm newscast.

If they really drop it, it will be because of one thing - the viewers have fled the fakecast. No wonder. Here in Rochester, a top quality 10pm newscast was GUTTED by NewsCentral. They got the reporter who would work for the least to become the new anchor, and then ran a few minutes of local stories and then into the repurposed Baltimore junk, and then the conservative BS, which was always ironic coming from Sinclair, whose CEO was busted for indecency for having sex with prostitutes in company vehicles in plain view driving down Baltimore highways.

Running Hogan's Heroes reruns would be a better use of the airtime.
 
> WUHF could very well keep its local newscast then, but they
> may drop it since they've got way too far a way to go to
> even touch third-place WROC.

When Sherman Burdette used to anchor 31's news, it was a very credible and competitive newscast. Then NewsCentral came and that was the end of that. WROC is actually making a credible effort at trying to get viewers to their newscast. It isn't working yet, but after seeing the war crime that is NewsCentral, I have to give kudos to WROC for actually doing local news.
 
> > WUHF could very well keep its local newscast then, but
> they
> > may drop it since they've got way too far a way to go to
> > even touch third-place WROC.
>
> When Sherman Burdette used to anchor 31's news, it was a
> very credible and competitive newscast. Then NewsCentral
> came and that was the end of that. WROC is actually making
> a credible effort at trying to get viewers to their
> newscast. It isn't working yet, but after seeing the war
> crime that is NewsCentral, I have to give kudos to WROC for
> actually doing local news.
---------
WUHF should be sold to the Fox network. It is my understanding that WNYW has a lousy newscast, but it sounds a lot better than what WUHF has.
 
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