North American Affilliates/Network Set Design

MSNBC apparently has replaced the clock below the logo with the topic of whatever is on the ticker.

Just saw this kinda cool 360 degree tour around WHDH 7 Boston. This station is the sister to WSVN 7 Miami. You get a interesting view around the newsplex and on the set and above the newsplex and behind the massive news wall. As of January this station is 100% independent using the news as the viewership draw.

It'll be interesting to see how WHDH fares - they certainly have a lot of news now.

Any word on how WISH in Indianapolis has done since they lost their CBS affiliation a couple of years ago and increased their news output like WHDH is doing?

Apparently not well.

http://www.ibj.com/articles/62179-wish-tv-hires-new-general-manager-in-midst-of-tight-news-environment

Running an independent or a CW/MyTV affiliate with a big news department just doesn't really work even in the largest of markets. The same pattern happens everywhere: no ad revenue from any major shows that people watch leads to fewer resources to do more hours of news, which leads to crap newscasts that nobody would want to watch anyway, which leads to bad talent being hired to replace the many who bolt for better stations, and viewers eventually change habits and tune away because they're not going to tune in just to watch a crap news product. The days of being a quirky independent with a news department that can punch above its own weight with a primetime movie hour every night are long since gone.

(Cough)KTLA(COUGH) http://www.tribunemedia.com/ktla-los-angeles-sets-news-ratings-records/
(Cough)WJXT(Cough) http://www.news4jax.com/station/wjxt-tv4-wins-in-july-ratings

KTVK in Phoenix did really well for the first ten years as an independent. It was routinely #1 in the mornings and #1 in the evenings. But, yes, strong independents like that aren't common, and KTVK is especially atypical, having been the market-leading ABC affiliate until 1994.

That's true that there are still some independents/CW affiliates out there that are doing pretty well. But I'd argue that there are special circumstances that make them work. WGN and KTLA each have something that sustain themselves: the Cubs, the juggernaut that is the KTLA Morning News, the Rose Bowl Parade, and viewer habits. KTVK went independent 23 years ago in a time when local television was much more important than today, and having a local owner helped too. Also in that case, the Phoenix stations were mostly switching affiliation rather than having the market fragmented with another new player. Pretty much all of the Phoenix stations were dealing with major shakeups in their affiliations, so it was pretty much a wash at first. KNXV had a pretty weak news department and still does, and Scripps wasn't pouring money into it in the same way NBC poured money into WBTS and KNTV, or how Tribune ramped up WTTV and WXIN.

Apparently KRON 4 San Francisco is staging a comeback of sorts.
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/is-san-franciscos-kron-staging-a-comeback/185475

KENS 5 CBS San Antonio - UGH well apparently they are getting one of those ugly bland TEGNA sets. Hideous.

KRON has gone up in my estimation since I started watching their behind-the-scenes documentary, The BackStory:

http://kron4.com/category/kron-4-backstory/

They seem like a good bunch, working hard to report the news with fewer resources than their competitors.

KENS 5 San Antonio - Whilst this isnt as bad as some of the other TEGNA stations. it still has those odd dead spaces. The dead spots right behind the anchor desk.....UGh. The curved element is nice. But that dead grey area above and below the center colour bar across the set is horrible. And the way the LCD array looks tacked on at the last minute, looks like an afterthought. These TEGNA sets are not the best. And on the other forums like TVNEWSTALK. They arent most peoples favourites.
http://resize.tegna-media.com/remote/content.kens5.com/photo/2017/02/07/kens5-new-studio-desk-classic-shot_1486521714691_8363342_ver1.0.jpg
http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/57/03/71/12336752/3/1024x1024.jpg
http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/57/03/66/12336558/3/1024x1024.jpg
http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/57/03/66/12336557/3/1024x1024.jpg
from TVNEWSTALK

Would the dead space behind the anchor desk be for the same reason that CNN did it with their CNN International studio revamp in 2009,, so that they could use some of that for stand up positions?

http://www.newscaststudio.com/2009/02/06/cnni-debuts-new-atlanta-studio/