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Channel 7 will soon have news out the wazoo
By adamg on Tue, 08/16/2016 - 5:43pm
The Herald reports WHDH is saying enough with this NBC nonsense and will start airing 87 hours of news a week in January - when it loses its NBC affiliation.
News-weary Channel 7 viewers will get a break between 8 and 9 p.m., when the station will air "Family Feud."
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Comments
Please 87 hours of Jadiann
Please 87 hours of Jadiann Thompson
There aren't enough hours in the day
For the lovely Jadiann.
God bless her.
Name Something That Sucks
Survey Said - Channel 7 news since Ed Ansin purchased the station.
Have fun with 87 hours of Off the Satellites and in depth coverage of the amount of germs on door handles going forward. I'm sticking with Adam.
BUT
In Boston the biggest competition for that format are WFXT and NECN. I'm on satellite so I don't get NECN and this will free me from the sinking ship that is the Fox25 morning news disaster. So for a very select population, Yay for us.
Oh, Please! — Does Anyone Really Take Them Seriously?
What's stopping Ansin
From moving the CW affiliation to 7?
I said this would happen to
I said this would happen to someone myself. I speculate they'll toy with being an indy for a year and then move the CW affiliation... or beg NBC to buy them.
I remember reading somewhere
I remember reading somewhere online about a possible plan to move the CW affiliation in Boston from channel 56 to channel 38 once 56's CW affiliation expires. CBS owns 38 and is a part owner of the CW network.
Haha
Channel 7 can say goodbye to the few news viewers it had but at last it will employ some people. They make news annoying.
Am I getting this right?
So, they think that because NECN is going to be the new NBC affiliate, they'll just slide into NECN's 24-hr news role?
Yawn...welcome to NECN's ratings too.
Cool! 87 hours of tweets on TV!
They must figure this is cheaper then syndication but given that they're competing with NECN regionally plus 3-6 national 24/7 "news" stations, plus all the other locals, how do the economics work? (The answer: Automation and repeats.)
Enjoy the death spiral. Relatively few people under 35 get their news via the locals and that age is only creeping up. Too bad Univision beat them to punch for Gawker.
EDIT: The sad part is that if they devoted 1-2 hours a week to serious investigations of local corruption and fraud they'd do a world of good, socially. But no way is the management paying for that and the 23 year old reporters and producers working for pocket change wouldn't know where to begin investigating something that can't be googled.
Better Idea
Get the rights to the 3 Stooges and run them 20 hours a day with 4 hours of infomercials.
I bet the ratings would be better.
This may be a dumb question
When Channel 7 loses it's NBC affiliation where do we find NBC programming?
Good question
NBC's busy putting together NBC Boston (they've already hired a bunch of news types and Pete Bouchard) and claim they're going to use some UHF station in New Hampshire (60?). Since Comcast is their owner, they'll probably get some good low number on the local Comcast systems, but I don't think they've announced that yet. And since those fuddy-duddies at the FCC require stations that allege to cover a particular market to actually reach most of that market on air (something that NH station probably doesn't), there's still talk of them trying to do something with one of the local stations - like, say, 25 (which would then put Fox, oh, I dunno).
A likely scenario
I can see NBC, Cox (who owns Channel 25) and Ansin doing a three-way deal: Cox sells Fox to Ansin and Channel 7, while NBC takes Channel 25. NBC may choose to put the WHDH call letters on Channel 25, or have Channel 7 keep WHDH and Channel 25 receive new call letters (e.g. WBXV, WNXV, etc.)
Somehow available
Too bad you can't park call letters like a web address.
Supposedly Ch 60 out of
Supposedly Ch 60 out of Merrimack NH.Though there are rumors NBC will trade stations with Hearst to wind up owning Ch 5..and ABC affiliates in NH and ME would also flip to NBC.
Ugh!
I still haven't gotten used to the NBC/CBS switcheroo back in 19??! Seriously, I have to stop and think, "OK, Channel 4 is CBS now and Channel 7 is NBC." And now they're going to switch it on me again? Thank goodness for my voice-activated Comcast remote (which is, actually, a pretty good gadget, to give credit where credit is due)!
January 2, 1995
That was the big day that WBZ became CBS, while WHDH became NBC.
The whole story about affiliation switches in 1995 are here.
I never got over all that
My brain still says Channel 4 is NBC and WHDH is Channel 5 so I can't keep any of it straight anyway.
I miss WNAC (and Dialing for Dollars).
At one point the cable
At one point the cable stations did not know how to treat Fox , at least in my market, so they kept on switching them around until they settled on giving them 13 for Comcast and that stuck for a while.
As for 4 and 7 my grandfather passed away a few years ago and I think he took his confusion over which was which to the grave. Although he also called the Herald the American and the Tobin Bridge the Mystic Bridge...
Ah, yes. The pre-4-7 flip,
Ah, yes. The pre-4-7 flip, pre-digital days of the late 80s and early 90s.
I was living in Worcester around 1990 and had this old, small black&white TV that was at least 15 years old. Rounded, molded plastic body, its own pivot base - looked like it should've been topping off a console on Space1999.
It was a relic of a time where tv set antennas/tuners had a little more ooomph.
I could tune in the three "big three" network stations from Boston, at least two from NH, three more from RI, plus channel 27 was the home off movies that were slightly less censored than on big-time stations.
Antennostalgia
Down in Southeastern Mass, we had it made: 4, 5, and 7 out of Boston; 6, 10, and 12 out of Providence; and all the usual UHF options. Even V66!
Still true-- We get all of
Still true-- We get all of them over the air at our house.
And then there was the ABC
And then there was the ABC/CBS flip between 6 and 12 in Providence.
Coming up at 5: "NBC You
Coming up at 5: "NBC You Later"
There is a huge glaring need
There is a huge glaring need for a comprehensive regional local news service for Greater Boston. I get that NECN does it's thing but honestly they kind of act like a cut and paste service more than anything. Channel 7 has a network in place, they could work with some of the local papers and websites and work on true local content. Not sure if that would work but they have to do something other than the same news over and over. When I am working from home and start early (6ish) they would run the same headlines over and over again , then again when NBC gives them programming back for like an hour. If they lose the Today show they will become unwatchable in the morning unless they come up with something to keep people tuned in.
The repetition is intentional
The repetition is intentional-- most people don't watch newscasts back to back to back.
In the morning especially, shows are set up for someone to get the headlines and weather in 20 minutes or less. Morning news functions more like radio-- it's usually on in the background during breakfast, getting kids out the door, etc. Same thing happens on WBZ radio all day long, for the same reasons.
And not to be overly contrary, but I think NECN does a good job. They often cover issues missed by local news and/or cover them more thoroughly and with less bluster and exaggeration. Their weather team is top notch-- again, clear, thorough and well informed, instead of the doom at the drop of a hat that we often get from the Boston stations.
I get that the repetition in
I get that the repetition in the morning is intentional but then it seems like they are going for a certain demographic once the Today Show takes over. I spent years not seeing a tv after 7am and before 7pm on weekdays but recently have had many stations on while I worked and it does appear there is a clear morning wrap up time, a stay at home clientele time and then a clear welcome home cadence to the cycle on most of the stations. Clearly the morning and evening segments work for them but the same routine over and over will not work with whoever the core 8am to 4pm audience is. I am not in that demographic so I do not know, my current situation switches in a few months and I will be going back to being in a physical office during that period again.
The more in depth coverage I was talking about would be more along the lines of investigative journalism in partnership with other venues. Maybe stories that run in other papers and blogs that are longer then a 15 second or even a minute slot. I could envision a paper and the station teaming up to share the pay of reporters that neither one of them would want to pay for on their own. With the story showing up in multiple forms and being recorded for tv. If they try to just be another WBZ or NECN it will not work because we already have WBZ and NECN.
Who still gets their news from TV anyway?
Universal Hub is where it's at!
more animal stories
All of these local news programs cannot make it through one newscast without at least one story involving animals.
Also sick children
Also sick children having their wishes granted by Make A Wish, police, firefighters, superheroes, sports figures, etc. Yes, it's heartwarming, but it is simply not news."Infotainment" has long since replaced hard news on any of these broadcasts.