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WXYZ branding

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
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WXYZ branding

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Tue May 19, 2020 4:17 pm

I think they need to do away with the Channel 7 branding. In my humble opinion, it’s old and outdated. Most of the ABC Channel 7s either go by ABC 7, or in case of the affiliate in Buffalo (another Scripps Station), 7 ABC.

They can still keep the 7 Action News Branding and call it Channel 7 during all the newscasts. But for general programming, it either needs to be ABC 7, or 7 ABC.

Just my opinion, that’s all.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 4:28 pm

CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:17 pm
I think they need to do away with the Channel 7 branding. In my humble opinion, it’s old and outdated. Most of the ABC Channel 7s either go by ABC 7, or in case of the affiliate in Buffalo (another Scripps Station), 7 ABC.

They can still keep the 7 Action News Branding and call it Channel 7 during all the newscasts. But for general programming, it either needs to be ABC 7, or 7 ABC.

Just my opinion, that’s all.
The Channel 7 branding is a little too ingrained in the identity to pull it. If anything they need to have the reporters putting Channel back into their signatures, drop the ABC logo from the bug and put Action News under the names again. ABC has always been a part of Channel 7‘s identity and not the other way around. The same cannot be said for 3 of the other 4 circle 7’s. WABC still uses Channel 7 In most of its branding. They only use ABC7 once in a while. WLS, KABC and KGO on the other hand use ABC7 99.9% of the time on everything... but WXYZ isn’t anything like any of those 3.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Tue May 19, 2020 5:20 pm

Rate This wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:28 pm
CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:17 pm
I think they need to do away with the Channel 7 branding. In my humble opinion, it’s old and outdated. Most of the ABC Channel 7s either go by ABC 7, or in case of the affiliate in Buffalo (another Scripps Station), 7 ABC.

They can still keep the 7 Action News Branding and call it Channel 7 during all the newscasts. But for general programming, it either needs to be ABC 7, or 7 ABC.

Just my opinion, that’s all.
The Channel 7 branding is a little too ingrained in the identity to pull it. If anything they need to have the reporters putting Channel back into their signatures, drop the ABC logo from the bug and put Action News under the names again. ABC has always been a part of Channel 7‘s identity and not the other way around. The same cannot be said for 3 of the other 4 circle 7’s. WABC still uses Channel 7 In most of its branding. They only use ABC7 once in a while. WLS, KABC and KGO on the other hand use ABC7 99.9% of the time on everything... but WXYZ isn’t anything like any of those 3.

ABC requires its affiliates to use its logo along with the logo of its affiliates. So that will never happen. This is why stations like WEWS added the ABC logo to its own, after years of not using it. That old way is pretty much gone. ABC logo is here to stay. WXYZ also added the ABC logo back in 2009, because most of the other ABC affiliates, including its fellow Scripps brethren, were all doing the same thing. They still are. It’s better this way.


As for the Channel 7 branding, this is why I said it should remain in its newscasts. I think WABC just uses Channel 7 for its newscasts. Just change it for general programming purposes. ABC affiliates in DC and Buffalo (non O&Os) all use the ABC branding.


I know some want WDIV to bring back the neon 4 or WJBK to go back to CBS, but neither will happen. It is what it is.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue May 19, 2020 6:39 pm

I strongly dislike how "7 ABC" sounds. Completely unnatural.

"Channel 7" and plain old "7" sounds just fine to me. Get rid of the miliquetoast anchors behind the desk (reassign them to other roles), devote a lot of resources to hard news & investigative reporting, hire Charlie Le Duff and Murray Feldman, and upgrade the news set to something befitting of a top 20 market, and I think the ratings would improve.

I will say the 10PM newscast on channel 20 is a lot more watchable than it was a couple years ago. I think the News Director responsible for the stupid gimmickry at the outset (Rob Parker's barber shop sports, anyone?) is long gone.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 6:40 pm

CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 5:20 pm
Rate This wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:28 pm
CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:17 pm
I think they need to do away with the Channel 7 branding. In my humble opinion, it’s old and outdated. Most of the ABC Channel 7s either go by ABC 7, or in case of the affiliate in Buffalo (another Scripps Station), 7 ABC.

They can still keep the 7 Action News Branding and call it Channel 7 during all the newscasts. But for general programming, it either needs to be ABC 7, or 7 ABC.

Just my opinion, that’s all.
The Channel 7 branding is a little too ingrained in the identity to pull it. If anything they need to have the reporters putting Channel back into their signatures, drop the ABC logo from the bug and put Action News under the names again. ABC has always been a part of Channel 7‘s identity and not the other way around. The same cannot be said for 3 of the other 4 circle 7’s. WABC still uses Channel 7 In most of its branding. They only use ABC7 once in a while. WLS, KABC and KGO on the other hand use ABC7 99.9% of the time on everything... but WXYZ isn’t anything like any of those 3.

ABC requires its affiliates to use its logo along with the logo of its affiliates. So that will never happen. This is why stations like WEWS added the ABC logo to its own, after years of not using it. That old way is pretty much gone. ABC logo is here to stay. WXYZ also added the ABC logo back in 2009, because most of the other ABC affiliates, including its fellow Scripps brethren, were all doing the same thing. They still are. It’s better this way.


As for the Channel 7 branding, this is why I said it should remain in its newscasts. I think WABC just uses Channel 7 for its newscasts. Just change it for general programming purposes. ABC affiliates in DC and Buffalo (non O&Os) all use the ABC branding.


I know some want WDIV to bring back the neon 4 or WJBK to go back to CBS, but neither will happen. It is what it is.
Right now Channel 7 isn’t in the newscasts much but it is used in the branding. Everyone knows them as Channel 7. When they became WXYZ 7 in the late 90’s it was a disaster.

Adding the abc logo 50+ years after the circle 7 debuted made little sense... everybody already knows where to find abc... it’s not like it’s a secret or something. WABC uses Channel 7 for much of its branding actually. It even gets used in their push alerts. When Bill Carey brought back the Channel 7 name Into wide use in 2001 it seems like to some extent it was modeled after WABC. It was exactly the same as the pre-WXYZ 7 usage. Close but not quite.

Actually most commonly the branding is just plain 7. “Next on 7”.. “Tonight at 730 on 7” “Dave Rexroth and the 7 First Alert Weather Team only on 7”...
Last edited by Rate This on Tue May 19, 2020 6:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 6:45 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:39 pm
I hate how "7 ABC" sounds. Completely unnatural.

Channel 7 sounds just fine to me. Get rid of the miliquetoast anchors behind the desk, devote a lot of resources to hard news & investigative reporting, hire Charlie Le Duff and Murray Feldman, and upgrade the news set to something befitting of a top 20 market, and I think the ratings would improve.

I will say the 10PM newscast on channel 20 is a lot more watchable than it was a couple years ago. I think the News Director responsible for the stupid gimmickry is long gone.
Dave Manney from WPIX... had been the Assistant News Director under Bill Carey in the early 2000’s then left for New York and spent time at WNBC then PIX then back here and back there again. Rhonda Lavelle who had been an Executive Producer at 4 for a while then spent time as the News Director at KHOU in Houston and then came to 7 is now in charge. Some of what they try to do is hamstrung by cookie cutter reporting decisions. Each Scripps station has a “The Rebound (City name here)” right now for example. That hurts in the long run I think...



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue May 19, 2020 6:47 pm

I agree. Not a fan of "The Rebound" stuff. Filler. Kinda like the "Don't Waste Your Money" reports JoAnne Purtan used to dub weeknights at 6PM. Channel 7 finally wised up and moved that stuff out of the 6PM newscast. (The bad news? Andrea Isom's restaurant segment was its replacement, I think.)

I think Scripps makes poor editorial and programming decisions on a corporate level. Their stock price also remains in the shitter. Look at the five-year chart on your stock analysis / financial news web site of choice.

"The List" might be the worst syndicated show to run on a big 3 station in the prime access slot in the history of Detroit TV.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 6:49 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:47 pm
I agree. Not a fan of "The Rebound" stuff. Filler. Kinda like the "Don't Waste Your Money" reports JoAnne Purtan used to dub weeknights at 6PM. Channel 7 finally wised up and moved that stuff out of the 6PM newscast. (The bad news? Andrea Isom's restaurant segment was its replacement, I think.)
You are correct. The don’t waste your money reports were the same concept, each station had a reporter assigned to read one piece of copy that was always the same.

Something like what Bill Spencer used to to with Call For Action would be kinda cool I think. It ends up being local and original.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue May 19, 2020 6:59 pm

I think is running out of ideas for "The Rebound...Detroit" stories.

Today at 5PM, they featured a lengthy and somewhat boring report from WXMI's Derek Francis regarding Lake Michigan shoreline towns.

The most interesting part of that report? Derek's stand up from the WXMI newsroom. The visual aesthetics of the Fox 17 newsroom are far superior to those of WXYZ!



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 7:11 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:59 pm
I think is running out of ideas for "The Rebound...Detroit" stories.

Today at 5PM, they featured a lengthy and somewhat boring report from WXMI's Derek Francis regarding Lake Michigan shoreline towns.

The most interesting part of that report? Derek's stand up from the WXMI newsroom. The visual aesthetics of the Fox 17 newsroom are far superior to those of WXYZ!
Oh dear... the set is from 2011 and it was meant for the gold graphics originally... they’ve added that big curved screen and made a few minor modifications but it’s getting to be time. The top of the set if they show a wide enough shot is actually from the set with that H*** projector screen... circa 2003(!)...



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Tue May 19, 2020 9:51 pm

Rate This wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:40 pm
CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 5:20 pm
Rate This wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:28 pm
CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 4:17 pm
I think they need to do away with the Channel 7 branding. In my humble opinion, it’s old and outdated. Most of the ABC Channel 7s either go by ABC 7, or in case of the affiliate in Buffalo (another Scripps Station), 7 ABC.

They can still keep the 7 Action News Branding and call it Channel 7 during all the newscasts. But for general programming, it either needs to be ABC 7, or 7 ABC.

Just my opinion, that’s all.
The Channel 7 branding is a little too ingrained in the identity to pull it. If anything they need to have the reporters putting Channel back into their signatures, drop the ABC logo from the bug and put Action News under the names again. ABC has always been a part of Channel 7‘s identity and not the other way around. The same cannot be said for 3 of the other 4 circle 7’s. WABC still uses Channel 7 In most of its branding. They only use ABC7 once in a while. WLS, KABC and KGO on the other hand use ABC7 99.9% of the time on everything... but WXYZ isn’t anything like any of those 3.

ABC requires its affiliates to use its logo along with the logo of its affiliates. So that will never happen. This is why stations like WEWS added the ABC logo to its own, after years of not using it. That old way is pretty much gone. ABC logo is here to stay. WXYZ also added the ABC logo back in 2009, because most of the other ABC affiliates, including its fellow Scripps brethren, were all doing the same thing. They still are. It’s better this way.


As for the Channel 7 branding, this is why I said it should remain in its newscasts. I think WABC just uses Channel 7 for its newscasts. Just change it for general programming purposes. ABC affiliates in DC and Buffalo (non O&Os) all use the ABC branding.


I know some want WDIV to bring back the neon 4 or WJBK to go back to CBS, but neither will happen. It is what it is.
Right now Channel 7 isn’t in the newscasts much but it is used in the branding. Everyone knows them as Channel 7. When they became WXYZ 7 in the late 90’s it was a disaster.

Adding the abc logo 50+ years after the circle 7 debuted made little sense... everybody already knows where to find abc... it’s not like it’s a secret or something. WABC uses Channel 7 for much of its branding actually. It even gets used in their push alerts. When Bill Carey brought back the Channel 7 name Into wide use in 2001 it seems like to some extent it was modeled after WABC. It was exactly the same as the pre-WXYZ 7 usage. Close but not quite.

Actually most commonly the branding is just plain 7. “Next on 7”.. “Tonight at 730 on 7” “Dave Rexroth and the 7 First Alert Weather Team only on 7”...

Actually, ABC mandated that it’s affiliates add the ABC logo. That’s why stations like WEWS and our very own WXYX did it. So it makes sense. This is why going by the plain 7 no longer made any sense. How do I know? I talked to someone from the station years ago about this. They went back and forth about this since the late 1990s, and decided to go with it in 2009. It’s here to say. I think ABC making it a mandate for its affiliates to add their logo with that of its affiliates is what pushed it over the top, for Ch 7.

Remember, they used the ABC logo with it’s general programming as early as 1996. They used it across the board beginning in 2009. It’s not changing at all, my friend.

Also, WXYZ is no longer an ABC O&O. It hasn’t been since Spring of 1986. So they aren’t going to be like KABC, KGO, etc. WXYZ does still act like an ABC O&O at times, but it’s not. WXYZ was definitely linked to ABC in its O&O days. In many ways, it still is. This isn’t WDIV. WXYZ is not anti network. They proudly show its affiliation with ABC. This is another reason why using the ABC look makes sense. That, along with the ABC mandate.

I can understand why 7 ABC sounds weird. It’s a change I can get used to. That’s why I say it’s better to use during general programming promotions, and/or to promote ABC shows. Channel 7 branding just got newscasts. That way, anchors don’t get confused.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Tue May 19, 2020 9:53 pm

Rate this,

They definitely need to upgrade the WXYZ news set.

Fox 2’s news set looks far superior. Fox O&O WJBK’s news set definitely looks like that of a top 15 Market.
Last edited by Deleted User 7620 on Tue May 19, 2020 10:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Deleted User 7620 » Tue May 19, 2020 9:56 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:59 pm
I think is running out of ideas for "The Rebound...Detroit" stories.

Today at 5PM, they featured a lengthy and somewhat boring report from WXMI's Derek Francis regarding Lake Michigan shoreline towns.

The most interesting part of that report? Derek's stand up from the WXMI newsroom. The visual aesthetics of the Fox 17 newsroom are far superior to those of WXYZ!

It’s past time WXYZ upgrade its news set. It’s bad. Not as bad as WEWS but still bad.

Fox O&O WJBK and WDIV both have far superior news sets than WXYZ. Fox 2’s news set definitely looks like a top 15 market.



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by Rate This » Tue May 19, 2020 10:31 pm

CircleWXYZ wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 9:56 pm
MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 6:59 pm
I think is running out of ideas for "The Rebound...Detroit" stories.

Today at 5PM, they featured a lengthy and somewhat boring report from WXMI's Derek Francis regarding Lake Michigan shoreline towns.

The most interesting part of that report? Derek's stand up from the WXMI newsroom. The visual aesthetics of the Fox 17 newsroom are far superior to those of WXYZ!

It’s past time WXYZ upgrade its news set. It’s bad. Not as bad as WEWS but still bad.

Fox O&O WJBK and WDIV both have far superior news sets than WXYZ. Fox 2’s news set definitely looks like a top 15 market.
Except for that hideous 2 shaped desk. That thing is cartoonish. This whole idea to rebrand 7 entirely seems like a solution in search of a problem. Calling it 7 and Channel 7 isn’t their problem... all the other issues they have is the problem...



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Re: WXYZ branding

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed May 20, 2020 6:35 am

Fox 2’s news set looks far superior. Fox O&O WJBK’s news set definitely looks like that of a top 15 Market.
I am not a fan of the Fox 2 set. I liked the prior one better.



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