Sacramento... The last hurrah for west coast news...
As we reach out to the world in 2026 and beyond (a teaser for the future perhaps), we are emphasizing your safety on the internet in the age of AI. And, that is why we believe the best choice for a VPN (where you can lock in US pricing for your trip to secure tickets for the California State Fair or exploring the history of California that you just can't get in LA or San Francisco, or just checking out pricing at Walmart/Target without leaving your house in Australia) is Surfshark VPN. A VPN can make your life a whole lot easier when organizing your next trip to Sacramento in general, (or Australia, if reading from the US: we'll leave the shrimp out to defrost while you come across the Pacific). Follow our link, and it helps deliver better content for you, and drives the challenge home.
And, now: onto the ground rules.
THE GROUND RULES
Our focus, in Content Survey Live will be monitoring multiple news services over a significant timespan (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch American news bulletins here in Australia), using a slight modification of the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019 and in Content Survey Live between 2020 and 2024.
-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.
-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.
-Weather and traffic reports are not counted.
-Sport stories are counted for one point if it’s a voiced over piece: but… if you have a reporter on the scene reporting on the event, it counts for two points. This sports reporting scoring system is a modified version of the “Ray Robinson Number” from the 2024 special event, and the 2025 edition of Content Survey Live, which was utilized to examine overnight news, and will be counted up at the end of the regular season as a special secondary achievement going to the market who has the highest sports score.
This number, will be named… the David Hill Number: in commemoration of the role Hill played in revolutionizing sports coverage in Australia (as VP for sport for Nine in the mid eighties), the United Kingdom (launching UK cable powerhouse Sky Sports) and in the US (the founding father of Fox Sports, whose innovations reshaped NFL and other sport coverage for the better).
In addition, all scores in 2026 will be reported in a new format: a ranking out of 10: David Hill Number (e.g. 5.8/10 and a David Hill Number of 3) rather than separating these figures out.
THE TALE OF THE TAPE... SACRAMENTO.
Sacramento, is one of those US cities most known, as the state capital and little else, with only one major league team calling the city home permanently, the NBA's Sacramento Kings (while the A's in MLB are only here, as a pitstop between Oakland and Las Vegas) but it has a strong news market, dating back to the eighties, where it was nothing but warfare.
KOVR, has a unique position: where some parts of the CBS schedule air earlier than in other parts of California, a long-term strategy from it's days as a network affiliate two decades ago.
It's 11pm. KOVR's news is about to hit the airwaves: in reality, it's the final half-hour of news designed to catch up their schedule to the rest of the west coast network... and prove without a shadow of a doubt... there really is life beyond the nut tree.
Sacramento's news kicks off with a event callout for the weekend: kicking off with a feature piece on Country in the Park at Cal Expo, and a voiceover feast for a fun run, the Dixon May Fair, monster trucks at Stockton, as well as a Manteca pileup, Stockton sideshow crackdown, overnight shooting in Sacramento's suburbs, leading into a piece on cannabis crime.
We have mentions on the latest on the Canvas hack (yes, it's not just effecting Australia, students), a escort policy for a local mall, Californian reaction to the release of secret UFO files from the Pentagon, a wrap of events at the state house/California gubernational campaign trail, while a cold case goes hot with a search for remains in the Kristin Smart case, three arrests in Oak Park and closing with a piece about Omaha the dog, trained to retrieve baseball bats...
Which brings us into sport: airing live from the teardown of a local MMA event (that got a plug in bulletin itself)
AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.
12. Welcome to Fox: 1988/89
The 1988 writers strike led to a retooled ’87 promo airing for fall (now adding the first glimpses of glory from Springfield: then a segment of the Tracey Ullman Show) all while Fox was about to stake a claim with their first major market VHF affiliate (with a decent news department to boot) arriving in 1989: all a victim of circumstance.
The explosive growth of the Miami television market in the seventies and eighties (where independents blossomed, and Spanish-focusing stations became the norm) was about to face it’s biggest challenge: a challenge that took two years to bloom. It all started with NBC through GE acquiring WTVJ (a CBS affiliate no less) in 1987, only to find that the deal for WTVJ’s CBS affiliation was un-traditional in scope (most affiliate changes happened at the start of a ratings season, or in the tail end of a ratings year) along with WSVN’s deal with NBC expiring on January 1, 1989. Naturally, this cheesed the then NBC affiliate, WSVN off: especially as GE went behind their back, instead of making the station’s owner: Sunbeam Television a offer for WSVN.
Sunbeam then shopped WSVN to CBS (who had explored options concerning Miami as far back as 1986, with WCIX, which got WTVJ worried about it’s position if a CBS owned and operated station forced a affiliation switch), only to be turned down due to the 1/1/1989 affiliation date: especially as the now NBC-owned WTVJ was pre-empting left, right and centre CBS content.
But ultimately, CBS gave up on negotiating with Sunbeam: and restarted negotiations for WCIX (who were taking the Fox weekend schedule) that were ultimately successful, concerning a acquisition in August 1988. Thus, the game was set: WTVJ was headed to NBC (with the network securing the rights to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” to market the move from CBS to NBC), WCIX was headed to CBS (after the US’s shortest lived affiliation deal: three days, with CBS taking control of WCIX on January 3, 1989: a move that cost them significantly, due to the lack of marketing muscle in the leadup to January 1 1989, compared to WSVN/WTVJ): and WSVN was headed to the same position WCIX were previously in (independent, with two nights of Fox), with one strong element: their newsroom, bulked up to look good for CBS, (along with a gamble on Arsenio Hall) but retained to rely on as little syndicated content as possible (along with a hope Fox would eventually expand primetime output, something that was achieved by mid-1990).
Thus, in fall 1989: WSVN viewers likely got their peepers on this classy promo from Fox… that was a sign of things to come.
On Christmas Eve, 1989: The Simpsons was spun-off from the Tracey Ullman Show, while another big ticket for Fox launched in April 1990: In Living Colour.
By the time the 1990 fall season rolled around: Fox had a message… and it wasn’t afraid to shout it: especially as their schedule was now only lacking two days every week: something for WSVN to cheer about: especially as their news, became the textbook that New World would use for their new Fox stations (stations in markets like Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit) once the NFL’s NFC arrived in 1994.
Next week: Late night failures… and successes, as we approach the final bow for the Late Show on CBS.
Before we go tonight, let's show you the reason why "Beyond the Nut Tree" was chosen as part of the title for the Sacramento survey: it's based off a news promo, the then independent KTXL channel 40 (now a Fox affiliate) chose to run... to market it's newest tool in news gathering: a satellite truck, with the expense of getting none other than Leslie Nielsen (then, just over halfway between Police Squad!, and the beginning of filming for the first Naked Gun film) to sell it.
A reminder of our socials:
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