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Intro History of Spectrum Bay News 9 (1997-present)

For those of you who may not know, FlamingoPulse uploads TV & radio clips to YouTube as well as news open compilations. For this compilation, we will be showing a montage of intros of newscasts and other programs from Spectrum Bay News 9, the local 24/7 cable news channel in my home market of Tampa Bay, Florida.

Since their inception in 1997, Bay News 9 has been exclusive to one cable provider in Tampa Bay, but they were intertwined with three providers over the years. They first signed-on under Time Warner Cable in 1997, then TWC spun off their operations in Tampa Bay & Orlando as Bright House Networks in 2003, and both of them were later acquired by Charter (aka Spectrum) in 2016. Until last year, Bay News 9 used the same logo since day one, as well as the same news theme, Primetime News from Non-Stop Music, a trait they shared with a TV station in West Michigan until 2022. As of last year (2023), they completely changed their look, gaining a new logo after & replacing their iconic theme for Spectrum News' standardized theme after 25 years. They also got a new set a few months later.

Bay News 9 has also been praised for their severe weather coverage among locals & for their sophisticated technology. They were the first TV station in Tampa Bay to use a VIPIR doppler radar in 2002, then a dual-pole doppler radar in 2007, and later upgraded it to a klystron radar which they've used since 2009 and has called "Klystron 9". The jingle that comes after their meteorologists say "now here's Klystron 9" has become one of the most recognizable sound bites among Tampa Bay residents. It was changed last year as well, but if you listen carefully, you can tell they tried to make the new jingle sound as close to old theme as best as they could.

At one point, Bay News 9 was the most-watched TV station in Tampa Bay, surpassing longtime leader WTVT. Although if you ask me, I'd say their high performance is likely from them being on the TV screens of many local businesses as background noise.

As many people cut the cord across the country, Florida is one of the few states where cable seems to be holding steady, mainly due to our state having an older demographic who have yet to catch on to streaming. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for Bay News 9, as well as their sister channel Spectrum News 13, amidst these changes.

Our next news open compilation will be an update to a 2-in-1 compilation, WWJ-TV & WKBD-TV in Detroit, Michigan, who recently relaunched their newscast last year. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel & ring the bell to be notified when that compilation video drops. 🦩

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FlamingoPulse officially launches on Tumblr

Hello, this is FlamingoPulse, signing on the air on Tumblr. We're owned by @chocomingo, coming to you from Tampa Bay, Florida & transmitting throughout the internet. We are dedicated to archiving clips from TV & radio stations throughout history on YouTube and making TV station imaging compilations, especially their news intros. We hope you enjoy our videos from our YouTube channel!

In addition to Tumblr, you can also find us on these social media platforms.

🟥 YouTube

🐦 Twitter (no, I will not & never will call it "X")

🦋 Bluesky

📷 Instagram & 🧵 Threads

🏛 Internet Archive

🐘 Mastodon

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Hey there again

So it looks like I might need to increase my activity on here, do I? How long until the IRL Mark Beaks makes linking to Tumblr bannable?

Either way, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. As soon as I can get the proper clips, I'll make my Tumblr debut with Bay News 9's compilation. I just hope I get to decide when to do so...but I worry I may not

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FlamingoPulse's Soft Tumblr Debut (News intros from WVTV Milwaukee, WI)

This is FlamingoPulse. We are currently testing our Tumblr signal in an effort to get viewers tuned in to us on this platform.

For our pre-launch program, we would like to present to you, the news intro history of CW affiliate WVTV Channel 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The station has historically been an independent, but has seen plenty of affiliation changes from it's humble beginnings to today. And yes, this is the same station where that internet-famous 80s Autumn graphic came from. You can even buy it as a t-shirt.

WVTV signed on in 1953 as ABC affiliate WOKY-TV on Channel 19 by their radio parent WOKY (920 AM), but flipped to CBS & changed their call letters to WXIX (now used by a TV station in Cincinnati) in 1955 after the network bought them. You heard that right, WVTV used to be a CBS O&O, albeit short-lived. It moved to channel 18 in 1958 and became an independent a year later after being sold by CBS to Cream City Broadcasting following a brief period of being off the air.

In 1966, Oklahoma-based Gaylord bought WXIX & changed their call letters to WVTV, which they currently use today. Their call letters are loosely based on those of their former sister station in Tampa Bay. As an independent, WVTV was a superstation across Wisconsin & parts of the Midwest, running programs you'd usually find in an independent TV station. Cartoons, sitcoms, entertainment programs, you get the picture. Through the 80s & 90s, they also carried both Milwaukee sports teams, the Brewers (MLB) & Bucks (NBA).

In 1989, WVTV, having been airing news updates under the NewsWatch 18 branding since the late 70s, decided to launch a 9pm newscast, The Nine O'Clock Nightly News featuring anchors Liz Talbot & Duane Gay. This lasted until 1994, when WVTV & WCGV became sister stations and the former decided to ditch the news. At least, until almost a decade later when in 2003, they brought it back going by the WB 18 News under Sinclair's infamous News Central format. This format was ahead of its time, except for their notorious "must-run" stories that plenty have called right-wing propaganda, which Sinclair is known for to this day. That newscast ended in 2006 due to low ratings & budget cuts. However, the News Central format does have a de facto successor, The National Desk, which WVTV airs twice in the morning & night. The only local program on WVTV nowadays is Connect MKE, a public affairs program.

While WVTV has considered a news agreement with one of the existing news departments, unfortunately for them, all the other stations in the Milwaukee market (except WTMJ-TV) already have 9pm newscasts. WISN-TV has 9pm news on their DT2 subchannel, WDJT-TV has their 9pm news on sister station WMLW-TV, and of course, WITI is a Fox affiliate (an O&O once again) and has had 9pm news since the 90s. This means it's very unlikely WVTV will relaunch a 9pm newscast anytime soon, especially if/when NBC dumps their 9pm (10pm ET) timeslot to their affiliates, letting WTMJ-TV to air 9pm news on their main channel.

Our next news open compilation will be Bay News 9, a 24/7 local news channel in Tampa Bay, Florida. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel & ring the bell to be notified when that compilation video goes up.

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Testing Signal. Please Stand By...

This is @ChocoMingo, the owner of FlamingoPulse on YouTube. While we await for any developments from Twitter following Elon Musk's acquisition of the site, we are currently testing our signal on Tumblr as well as on Cohost. This was not an easy decision to make, but amidst concerns of potential decisions by Musk that could make the platform unusable for us, we decided to mark our spot here on Tumblr, just incase push came to shove.

The soapboxing from Twitter may possibly continue on Cohost with it's ability to hide shared posts, but it is unknown that'll be the case here on Tumblr or if we'll stick to simply posting content from our YouTube channel.

Here is the link to our channel, which will also be in our bio.

https://www.youtube.com/c/FlamingoPulse

For now, stay tuned...

-Choco