View Single Post
  #19  
Old 05-08-2017, 10:32 AM
Jeffhs's Avatar
Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
I agree that TV isn't what it once was before cable, satellite, etc., and is getting worse by the day. Like VK member Titan1a, I don't watch much standard TV these days, only certain shows on the broadcast networks (I have Time Warner Starter TV service, which is local broadcast channels only), their subchannels, and DVDs/VHS tapes. Time was when I watched a lot more TV than I do now; however, the only things I watch on broadcast TV these days are the evening news (NBC Nightly News and, occasionally, Dateline) and an occasional network program.

NBC's Dateline news magazine is not what it used to be, either. This was once a respectable magazine program, but it, like most of NBC's recent programming, has gone so far downhill, IMHO, that it isn't funny. One thing I don't care for with Dateline is the promotional announcement the network runs for it; it always ends with the phrase "#Don't Watch Alone", which appears just below the NBC peacock. This phrase implies that every edition of Dateline has stories with the potential to scare viewers half to death (I personally think this is simply overblown hype, like most advertising for TV shows these days), which is not my idea of what a TV news magazine should be and certainly not what NBC's news magazines once were.

I remember when NBC's news magazines of the '70s such as Chronolog, Weekend, Comment!, Monitor (the TV adaptation of the old NBC Monitor Beacon radio program, which aired from 1955-1975 over the former NBC Radio Network; "Monitor" on TV lasted only one season, IIRC), et al. were on a par with, and just as good as, CBS' Sixty Minutes at that time; they aren't any longer. No wonder NBC's ratings are so low these days, unless the network has sunk so low that all it cares about now is delivering junk programming to its 200+ affiliates across the US. They even had a jingle which was a takeoff on their "NBC - We're Proud!" slogan of about ten years or more ago. The new jingle replaced the word "proud" with "LOUD", and the network actually seemed proud that their ratings were, at the time, about two years ago (and are, even as I write this) lower than a snake's belly and are probably dropping almost daily. IMHO, they had better darn well watch their step, as they are skating on thin ice at this moment and could find themselves in real ratings trouble, if they aren't in such trouble already. I recently read online somewhere, I don't remember where, a comment (probably, even likely, in regard to the network's programming) in which a viewer stated, "NBC = Nothing But Crap!"


While I personally don't think NBC's programming is that bad (yet, anyway), it may be and probably is headed in that direction. I can see a day coming, again if the network doesn't shape up, and soon, when NBC will cease to exist as a television network, leaving America with just two commercial broadcast networks. NBC may be feeling the pressure from today's wide variety of viewing choices not available 50 years ago, such as cable networks, video on demand, DVDs, and so on, and may have reached the point where they simply don't care anymore about ratings or what happens to the network. Perhaps the only real ratings draws in the 21st century for this network are its sports programs on weekends; most weekends there is nothing but sports on NBC, beginning as early as noon Eastern time, often preempting local affiliates' early (6 p.m. Eastern time) news broadcasts and NBC Nightly News; this is due to the literally unpredictable nature of sports contests which can and often do run overtime, often slopping over into the 6:30 hour and beyond. I don't know about NBC affiliates in other areas, but here in northeastern Ohio near Cleveland, the NBC affiliate will almost always air its local news after NBC's sports programming if the latter runs more than 15 minutes past 6:30 PM EST, instead of showing NBC Nightly News on a tape delay.

I guess the reason Cleveland's NBC station does not show the NBC world news at all after a sporting event that runs more than five or ten (15 at the outside) minutes overtime may have to do with the availability these days of such platforms as video on demand, or even NBC's rerun of their world news broadcast at 3 a. m. (!) Eastern time. The station's programming minions may think these are easier to schedule than taping and showing the broadcast a half-hour later, after the sports event itself ends (assuming it ends right at 6:30 PM ET, which many sporting events rarely do due to overtime). Video on demand allows viewing of a program, in this case NBC's world news, literally any time of the day or night, but these programs are always shown the day after they air on the network, so it is nearly impossible to watch them when the news is actually new.
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-08-2017 at 11:30 AM.
Reply With Quote