Where I grew up was “the Northern Hills”, reflected in the names of several businesses (the northern regions around the Black Hills in South Dakota).
I have no idea if the area I’m in now has a “local news” regional name; I don’t even know what passes for local news around here; we basically just go by counties.
That section of I-84 in Portland called “The Banfield” by all traffic spokescritters, although if you drive over it there are no signs with that name on it.
Also, how many “Inland Empires” are there?
The Sacramento Bee had a section for Northern California news that it called
“Superior California.”
(Sorry, Angelenos)
I’ve never heard of St. Pete being referred to as “South Bay”. It’s part of Tampa Bay or The Bay Area. Perhaps that’s a term from years past?
I grew up in South Bay (SoCal). I’m ashamed to admit how old I was when I learned the name is related to NorCal/ San Francisco Bay 
To be clear, I’m not looking for names of local areas in general. I’m looking f
Do you watch the local news? Do they say something like “the greater (X) area” or “metropolitan (X)” or something else?
Those aren’t always different - I’ve definitely heard both “the Tri-state area” and "the outer boroughs " on NYC local news and “the Capital District” on the Albany local news.
St. Louis is “the Bi-State” which includes the surrounding counties. It’s subdivided into Metro West, Metro East, and Metro St. Louis (which overlaps with both East and West.)
The Mid-South. According to Wikipedia: The Mid-South is an informally-defined region of the United States, usually thought to be anchored by the Memphis metropolitan area.
We don’t really have any local news that I’m aware of.
I’m in northeast Wyoming; my county is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and only has 47000 people in it…
With respect to Connecticut, the term Tri-State Area more precisely refers only to the southwestern corner of the state near NYC.
I live in eastern Connecticut, which is most definitely not part of the Tri-State Area. In fact, I avoid that part of the state like the plague.
I lived in a Chicago suburb for a few years in high school, and that term always sounded strange to my ears as well.
The whole area East of New Haven to the Rhode Island line is neither-here-nor-there land. As is Western Mass.
Lake County, Indiana is “The Region”. The term is not used by the local TV news because that is from Chicago. The local newspaper, NWI Times (Northwest Indiana Times) does use “The Region” often. It is pronounced Da Region.
When I was stationed at Fort Rucker (now Fort Novosel) we called the area UCLA. I don’t think the local news used it. UCLA stood for ugliest corner of lower Alabama.
My wife lived there and we got married there, and what I remember mainly is everybody calling it the Wiregrass.
The Kansas City area (KCMO and KCK) is usually referred to as “The Metro” by the local news.
Nashville is often called Music City.
StG
That’s me.
I’ve lived here 10 years and have never watched an episode of the local TV news. I intend to keep that record going until I’m dead. TV news is far worse than useless, and local is far more useless than national.
I’ve certainly seen a snip or two of TV news in a bar or restaurant over the years. And will continue to do so. But I’ve never caught any canned name for our region.
I think you need local TV news to attach a name to the area, and in Connecticut, the only stations are statewide (WTNH/ABC in New Haven, WFSB/CBS in Hartford and WVIT/NBC in New Britain).
Them’s fightin’ words, ya varmint! Missouri/Iowa/Illinois is the Tri-State Area! 
It would always make me chuckle when my kids watched Phineas and Ferb, and Dr. Doofenschmirtz would launch yet another plan to wreak destruction on the Tri-State Area!
I can’t think of one for the Sacramento metro area, but I haven’t actually watched the local news in years. (And I haven’t hears the “Superior California” name @Chad_Sudan mentioned).
But I do recall that the TV weatherman always referring to the region as “The Valley”. Typically they’ll give the weather for the Bay Area, The Valley, and the Sierras, since those regions can have very different weather.