The changes are in many respects stylistic. The logo is now a “modern but classic” number three inside a circle, reminiscent of an old-school typewriter key.
“You’ve got the comfort of the blue,” says Betsy Kling, explaining the colors in a video tour of the renovated studios on Lakeside, “but the sizzle and pop of the orangey color.”
There are new faces, new studio furnishings and inspirational quotes, and new titles for the station’s daily news broadcasts. The morning show will now be known as “GO!” The 6 p.m. nightly newscast will become “What Matters Most.” Jim Donovan’s 7 p.m. show will now be “Front Row.” And the 11 p.m. nightly newscast will be called “What’s Next.”
On these programs and others, viewers will see recent hires like former cleveland.com columnist Mark Naymik, comedian Mike Polk, Jr., investigative reporter Rachel Polansky, meteorologist Jason Frazer, reporter Romney Smith, and digital anchor Stephanie Haney. ESPN veteran Jay Crawford has also been tapped to begin hosting a 12 p.m. show this fall.
“While 3NEWS will always have the breaking stories, weather and information that our community needs, now we seek to provide what you’ve told us you want: more solutions, more perspective, more hope and even more fun,” said wkyc’s content director Adam Miller, in a statement provided to the media. “We’ve added exciting new hires to the familiar faces you know and trust to deliver more relevant and useful news that helps people embrace change and live better lives.”
Sign up for Scene’s weekly newsletters to get the latest on Cleveland news, things to do and places to eat delivered right to your inbox.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2019.
The new logo looks like an interstate sign.
Looks more like a pool ball to me and…
‘Friends, let me tell you what I mean.
You got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the diff’rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum,
With a capital “B,”
And that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool!
And all week long your River City
Youth’ll be frittering away,
I say your young men’ll be frittering!
Frittering away their noontime, suppertime, chore time too!
Get the ball in the pocket,
Never mind gettin’ Dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded.
Never mind pumpin’ any water
‘Til your parents are caught with the Cistern empty
On a Saturday night and that’s trouble,
Oh, yes we got lots and lots a’ trouble.
I’m thinkin’ of the kids in the knickerbockers,
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin’ in the pool
Hall window after school, ya got trouble, folks!”
Clearly, WKYC is tanking and it’s numbers are falling. Desperation time at troubled and hurting Channel 3.
Smoke and mirrors, style instead of substance…
And if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it…or worse…”rebrand” it (ugh).
They’re getting their asses kicked by Fox-8 and they’re panicking, so they hire high-priced “consultants” who tell them what they think and believe viewers want…bells and whistles and fluff pieces about food and drink and whatever is “trending’ (gag) instead of hard news coverage and features and investigative journalism…all of which their competitors are providing for people who want to know what the hell is happening in their neighborhoods and their city and their region, and who rely on TV news because they no longer bother with the remnants of what used to be cleveland’s only remaininga “daily newspaper.”.
And the consultants tell them to hire half-assed, lame comedians instead of reporters, because they actually believe that viewers hunger for “more solutions, more perspective, more hope and even more fun,” (retch). And they’ve added “new hires” who are smart-assed, giggling clowns that are supposed to help us “embrace change and live better lives. (choke).
Yeah, right.
Most jarring of all, they gave designers and greaphics people free reign to re-style their logo and rename the place and come up with splashy new fonts that look like freeway signs, pool balls, and typewriter keys. And strange juxtapositions of colors…light turquoise and tangerine? What the flood? What outfit came up with this shit?
You’ can paint a crumbling wall with “the comfort of the blue,” and “the sizzle and pop of the ‘orangey’ color” all you like. But it will not change the fact that you’ve covered up a crumbling wall.
You’ve either got or you haven’t got style.
(If you got it, you stand out a mile.)
You’ve either got or you haven’t got style.
(If you got it, you stand out a mile.)
A flower’s not a flower if it’s wilted,
(A hat’s not a hat till it’s tilted.)
You either got or you haven’t got class.
How it draws the applause of the masses.
When you wear lapels like a swell, isn’t that swell,
You can pass any mirror and smile,
(You either got, or you haven’t got,)
Got or you haven’t got, got or you haven’t got style.
I no longer recognize our local television stations. They’ve become more about the presentation than about the content.
A month later, and they’re leaning more and more toward tabloid TV and hiring even more vapid airheads and clowns in a vain attempt to stem the blleding, as their ratings continue to fall into the toilet. The harder they try, the worse it gets, and the worse they look. I do not believe that the viewers in Cleveland are suddenly going to become stupid enough to turn away from Fox-8 and watch the fluuf on “Snews 3”
I get my channels from an antenna and I no longer have access to this channel.
If you squint, “3NEWS” reallydoes look like “SNEWS”…and it is.
A real snoooo-zzzzzzz-er. Fluff. Hot air. Smoke, meet mirrors.
No substance, all style. Impossible to watch, and a total POS.
It took the pandemic of the century to force them to do hard news.
But even without all the hype and hot air and fluff, they still suck.
Vapid new hires who flash their teeth and toss their hair…hi, Laura!
And Mike Polk? Still unfunny. Still smirking and stupid and lame.
Cram some toilet paper into your mouth and choke on it, frat boy!