WTMJ Milwaukee will be all local or NBC programing this fall

[Rick Rose 2.0]

I read that WTMJ in Milwaukee is ditching all its weekday syndicated programming for more local news. WTMJ will be local news 5-7am, Today 7-9am, Morning Blend 9-10am, Today 10-noon, local news 12-1pm, Days of our lives 1-2pm, Better.TV 2-3pm, local news 3-7pm with a break at 5:30 for NBC News, prime-time 7-10pm. I heard that channel 4 in denver tried a similar approach a few years back.

 

[Ultimajock]

..."Better" is syndicated, not NBC (it runs on CBS affil KPHO/5 here in Phoenix)...

 

[tothedj]

I think they are going "overboard" with local news, that could hurt their advertising
dollars in the long run.

 

[nathannah]

"Better" can be counted as local since they have local inserts from the Morning Blend gang. But it's about the most asinine show in syndication; I feel like it's catering to housewives from the 1960's instead of any sane woman in 2008.

And don't forget the McCarthy coach's show on Tuesday. This is going to backfire; I switched to 12 after 4 led off a 2006 election night newscast with some government officer's prostitute bust thing that disappeared out of the media's view in a week rather than election results, and Gousha left to do actual news at 12.

I just wonder where "Extra" is going to head off to. Whoever said not to renew "Martha", "Wheel" and "Jeopardy" at that station has assured them a world of hurt in the future from news fatigue. Their snowstorm coverage where they go all day is about the most idiotic television I've ever watched. Lots of time filled with people telling us it's still snowing and other stuff that adds nothing to the story.

 

[Jim]

This is kinda funny, since Journal Broadcasting (who owns WTMJ-4) just cut all weekday local newscasts in the morning and afternoon on WGBA-26 in Green Bay. WGBA now simulcasts WTMJ from 5-7a and at noon with local inserts for weather. They are also showing TMJ4's "Morning Blend" program from 9-10a. WGBA continutes to air its own newscasts at 5, 6, & 10. Journal cut the newscasts on NBC26 due to budget problems, seems the budget just increased at TMJ4.

 

[genius]

KCNC's expansion of news as mentioned by the op actually worked out quite well as that was the same time frame I worked there. The station became very competitive towards KUSA and really defeated the notion of "Nine Country". IIRC, here was what the schedule looked like at its height. This is purely based on memory, because sadly I throw out all my TV guides from these years many, many years ago thinking they were worth nothing:

5AM-7AM: News
7AM-9AM: Today
9AM-10AM: News
10AM-11AM: Colorado Today
11AM-12PM: Leeza
12PM-1PM: News
1PM-2PM: I believe first Santa Barbara, then some syndicated fare
2PM-3PM Another World
3PM-4PM: Days of our Lives
4PM-5PM: News
5PM-6PM: News
6PM-6:30PM: NBC Nightly News
6:30PM News
And of course, news at ten. With KCNC going to CBS, they had to drop several hours of news programming as CBS Daytime has more programming hours. Eventually the 6:30 newscast was dropped, CBS Evening News moved from 6 to the traditional 5:30 slot, and the 4PM newscast was canned a couple years ago in favor of Oprah. Recently they now program the 6:30 slot with news again.

Recently here in Albuquerque both of our rival stations made some expansions themselves. KOB now airs a local show called Good Day New Mexico and airs a full hour of news between six and seven, while KOAT recently expanded their 10PM newscast to a full hour.

 

[ssetta]

I think WHDH in Boston may be up there. They have local news for most of the day, and some very cheesy syndicated programming. Here's the current schedule:

5 AM - 7 AM: News
7 AM - 9 AM: Today
9 AM - 10 AM: Regis & Kelly
10 AM - Noon: Today
Noon - 1 PM: News
1 PM - 2 PM: Days of our Lives
2 PM - 3 PM: Merv Griffin's Crosswords (2 episodes)
3 PM - 4 PM: Family Feud (2 episodes)
4 PM - 6:30: News
6:30 - 7 PM: NBC News
7 PM - 7:30: Access Hollywood
7:30 - 8 PM: EXTRA

Pretty cheesy and clogged with local news. What ever happened to staple shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? I remember those were on during the 7 PM hour for about a good 15 years.

 

[nathannah]

I think WHDH in Boston may be up there. They have local news for most of the day, and some very cheesy syndicated programming. Here's the current schedule:

5 AM - 7 AM: News
7 AM - 9 AM: Today
9 AM - 10 AM: Regis & Kelly
10 AM - Noon: Today
Noon - 1 PM: News
1 PM - 2 PM: Days of our Lives
2 PM - 3 PM: Merv Griffin's Crosswords (2 episodes)
3 PM - 4 PM: Family Feud (2 episodes)
4 PM - 6:30: News
6:30 - 7 PM: NBC News
7 PM - 7:30: Access Hollywood
7:30 - 8 PM: EXTRA

Pretty cheesy and clogged with local news. What ever happened to staple shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? I remember those were on during the 7 PM hour for about a good 15 years.

The game shows are on WSBK 38 now. And actually comparing that to WTMJ's schedule, that is a pretty average and good schedule that isn't dominated by news like 4's is. Plus Regis & Kelly is always a ratings winner.

I think the big reason 4 is going with all news is because they've picked nothing but duds in syndication since Leeza left the air. Once they got the intelligence to plug "Dr. Laura" in September 2001 into the 2pm slot, all of their syndicated shows have done nothing but flail and suffer. They took "Tony Danza" in 2004-2006 and got "Extra" from WDJT in 2005 after Wheel and Jeopardy went to WDJT, and kept Montel through almost the whole run of his show. I knew they're going to do a "Best of Montel" package for stations that wanted in the fall, but I guess they wanted nothing to do with syndication anymore if they could help it.

As for Better.TV, that's a Meredith-produced program and it was taken by Journal during their test run last year, so that was made by the head office more than the station itself.

 

[RALfan]

That troubles me greatly because the local stations seem to be copycatting CNN in terms of going all-local-news all day. In a lot of markets, there's already too much local news in the PM hours, so what's the point of going virtually all news in the daytime?