As OMW tipped a month and a half ago, Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 is now touting its newscasts in high-definition.
WKYC is now airing a promo tagged “local television redefined”, and promises “the bigger picture… with greater clarity” in a spot helmed by Channel 3 News weekday anchors Tim White and Romona Robinson.
We have only seen the promo, so far, on WKYC’s “NBC Weather Plus” feed. And it gives no indication when the newscasts will air in HDTV. For all we know, they already have started, since we haven’t watched in a while…but we now have our HD DVR set up to record the station’s newscasts so we can check for sure.
Though “local television redefined” is a nice tagline, WKYC is not the first station to do HDTV newscasts. WJW/8 “FOX 8” has been doing all of its newscasts in HD for some time now. What we believe MAY be different at WKYC – they may be airing local field video in HD, which WJW does not. Right now, “FOX 8 News” only airs the studio in HD…remote live shots are 16×9 SD widescreen, and all video is pillarboxed 4×3 SD.
WKYC, of course, has HD-capable facilities at its relatively new broadcast center at 13th and Lakeside in downtown Cleveland, and does HD production of Cleveland Indians games not only for itself, but for the team’s SportsTime Ohio.
The move by WKYC is part of what appears to be a chainwide effort by station owner Gannett. The company has flipped or will flip local news to HD in markets such as Washington DC, Atlanta and Minneapolis…
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