North American Affilliates/Network Set Design

KTVO the Sinclair owned ABC Affiliate (with CBS affiliation on their subchannel on .2) serving Ottumwa, IA-Kirksville, MO DMA launched HD newscasts. They got a new set, control room, and associated kit for $1.5 million. Additionally their bureau in Ottuma (Kirksville seems to be where their main studios are) was mentioned to have made the HD transition as well. They air three hours of news on weekdays on the ABC channel (0530-0700; 1700-1730; 1800-1830 and 2200-2235) and one hour total on weekends (2200-2230). On the CBS subchannel (which focuses on the southern portion of their territory originating for the Ottuma bureau) where their only newscast is at 1830-1900 weekdays. They total 18 hours 30 minutes a week. According to Wikipedia the CBS subchannel has a quick mini newscast targeted towards Spanish language viewers.

Now this is a big deal the station serves only 44,690 homes serving 0.039% of the United States and is DMA 200 out of 210 nationwide. According to RabbitEars.info their current transmitter covers 6,082.7 sq miles and an estimated 149,165 people. They have an application (not sure whether it’s related to the spectrum repack or something else) where they plan raise their antenna (on the same tower) 153 feet to 1,963 ft AMSL (above mean seal level or the altitude) from 1,1812 feet. The tower is only 1,101 feet tall but it’s several hundred feet above sea level with the new construction permit it would put the transmitter at about the top of the tower. If the construction permit is approved it will expand the coverage area of KTVO to 9,380.1 sq miles and to about a population of 233,068 people. You can see vast increase in coverage area in this map


You can see photos and Facebook live streams on their website.

Well apprently CBS News is planning a new newsroom set. Currently the operate out of the same studio as CBS This Morning. This is also connected to the CBSN newsroom at the CBS Broadcast Center. Which is a collection of cobbled together buildings on W 57th. CBS News doesnt seem to operate out of one unified space. They seem to be located all over the Manhattan in different buildings. Sadly the CBS Broadcast Center is funny jumbled collection of buildings that makes a unified space kinda hard to do. Unlike what NBC News did by unifying their main news room on one level. Genius move. I wouldnt expect CBS to do something similar, but this is a strange move after they left their long time newsroom studio. In CBS fashion I wouldnt expect it to be overly modern. I expect wood and lots of it..

But it seems like CBS is going to spend some money and building a new newsroom. Apparently. This bears watching.

Celebrating the construction of a new @CBSEveningNews newsroom with windows...coming soon to the @CBSNews Broadcast Center pic.twitter.com/PVVG29tgWZ

— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) March 23, 2018

ABC is a mish mash of buildings as well. But some are more modern.

I think the CBS Broadcast Center was mainly warehouses. In fact the only windows in the CBS This Morning newsroom is covered up with blinds or when they are open it’s obstructed by the CBSN “set”.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/WCBS-TV,+524+W+57th+St,+New+York,+NY+10019/@40.769387,-73.9891517,3a,75y,217.38h,105.87t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sP7jSTIIIltE2AQ6O88cKmg!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c2585bc4754619:0x60069fcba56cc1d9?hl=en-US

The view shown on the cake seems a little optimistic if it's going to be related to the current location. In fact, in this tour of CBS This Morning, the Executive Producer said they previously wanted to knock down the wall to show the newsroom from the studio - maybe they are just doing that?

I guess this show's more serious tone doesn't attract "fans" trying to wave in the other, studio window, unlike Today. Also, I guess it's not in shot often, so it just isn't much of a focal point.

There’s a window into Studio 57 but it’s somewhat hidden and doesn’t always make an appearance. Plus it’s on a street where not many people would walk by.

I Don’t think they’re doing anything to the studio. Jeff Glor posted an InstaStory where it looked more like a typical office remodel where regular walls were coming down. Walls which I assume blocked a view.

Hope that is the case - think the current studio works well for them and is quite distinctive.

The problem I think is that the newsroom (which I believe next door) is in a “seperate building” and that when they were looking at the plans it was a lot more than a layer of brick that needed to be knocked down. That being said outside the studio and the green room door is I believe a long hallway likely connecting the two.

A similar problem occurred when WABC moved to their current streetside studio. The studio space was I believe a former Disney store and then production offices for a syndicated show. The thing is the studio is in a separate building from the newsroom and offices. So anchors had to walk outside and enter a different building for the studio. I’m not sure how long that situation lasted but it was atleast several months before they connected the buildings (I think the access is via the basement).

My mistake I read "newsroom set" in this post, but have since realised the tweet doesn't refer to a set/studio space at all, so it may just be better office accommodation then and not used on-air? Now the on-air stuff all comes from downstairs, I suppose they can do more with the space where the old evening news set was.

Looking at Jeff Glor's Twitter it sounds like they are renovating the old newsroom and giving it windows as well. Here's their temporary accommodations:

Checking the temp space while we build a new newsroom! pic.twitter.com/FYVodPwOVO

— Jeff Glor (@jeffglor) March 14, 2018

Maybe the new area will include a set / flash cam.

Oh and their cake has a view from Top of the Rock

Saying goodbye to old newsroom with cake. And hello to the new one with windows and sunlight. (Not the actual view but still amazing creativity @gracelightnin) pic.twitter.com/Z1AheQdGTI

— Jeff Glor (@jeffglor) March 23, 2018

There are multiple newsroom spaces at CBS' headquarters.

There's the Studio 57 newsroom, which houses CBS News' digital operations and the CBS This Morning staff. There's also a fairly simple broadcast setup in there that is used for CBSN and the CBS Morning News.

A brick wall separates the Studio 57 newsroom from Studio 57, which is where CBS This Morning, the Evening News, and the Overnight News originate.

Studio 47 was the space with the previous CBS Evening News set as well as the workspace for the Evening News staff. From what I know, the newsroom stayed in there even after they moved the show to Studio 57 and dismantled the old set.

Here's a good clip from 1996, when the Evening News first moved into Studio 47. As you can see, it's very clearly a studio environment with a newsroom in it (not unlike the outgoing Sky News building). It's not a typical office space with windows and normal lighting.



There were rumors that if/when Studio 47 was redone, CBSN would move into it. If it were a studio before and they're redoing it now, I can't imagine they won't have some sort of broadcast setup in there. I could see how they redo it so that there's a nice, open newsroom flow with a newsroom set in the corner with a smaller footprint than the old Evening News set.

It's actually somewhat surprising how little content can be found online about the layout of the CBS Broadcast Center. You can find floorplans of 30 Rock online, but not so much about CBS. From what I've been able to figure out, CBS' main building is what used to be a dairy depot. They've since gradually bought up almost all of the buildings on that block. I don't think CBS owned the buildings that now are Studio 57 and the Studio 57 newsroom until around the time when they decided to end the lease of the Early Show studio at the GM Building.

Here are two tours from Erica Hill and Mo Rocca that give some sense of the layout of the Broadcast Center. It says there's 1.5 million square feet in total there, so it's not like it's a small facility.

WABC ended up building a walkway in the newsroom connecting their current studio to the newsroom. They actually had a similar setup in the 1970s and 80s, where they would have to exit the main building for the studio down the street, as this 1973 documentary on WABC-TV's Eyewitness News operation would show

WFAA 8 - ABC - Dallas premiered their update set designed with a new desk, video, wall and the new TEGNA music, graphics and logo. Certainly this new TEGNA look they have been rolling out is a big departure from the look and sound of many stations. And WFAA is beleive is the biggest TEGNA station to roll it out. I think WXIA 11 Alive - Atlanta has done so yet.