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Looking at the list of stations, I'm pretty certain they'd be a clean purchase for Hearst or Graham...but most of them are small-market, so outside of maybe WAAY, KVOA, WREX, KWWL, and WKOW, I don't think Hearst would be all that interested (and Graham even less so). Also, the work that would be involved in making the stations decent again.... It'd probably be Hearst's last significant purchase of the 2020s and 2030s.

I think the best option is to keep WANF as all-Atlanta and focused on the area, while WPCH acts as a regional superstation with the sporting events and state coverage (for things like the Legislature), with the latter also becoming a subchannel on Gray's other channels in the state. For example, in Savannah, WPCH could go on 11.3 or 11.4 or something.

As I have said many of times Byron Cheap Skate Allen had no business to buy TV stations and should've just stayed in his lane with his cheap syndication dreck, he was always a Wannabe Media Mogle, and his empire is about to crash. I'm sure those that work for Allen Media at the local level are happy their being sold sometime soon.

You just mentioned one key word flagship.

WANF and Gray aren't wasting any time on the news either. I hope this is a good thing for the Atlanta viewers and not a way for Gray to assume more control of other market's stations. Many in the region were decimated in favor of regionalizing newscasts. But this was clearly an expected outcome that they've been planning for years. WHEN this happens to other stations, they may not be so lucky when they realize they have more hours of programming to fill when their network walks...

With news of CBS moving from WANF 46 to WUPA 69, here's a video from back in late 1994 close to the time WAGA, then a CBS affiliate would go to FOX, where they reported on who was planning to take over the affiliation in...channel 69, then WVEU after CBS purchased it, only for then WGNX 46 took over instead. So, ch. 69, after nearly 31 years, ends up getting CBS after all.

Well, knock me over with a feather with this one...(sarcasm) It begs some real estate questions too. Surely CBS (assuming they'll start producing local newscasts) won't be operating a WUPA from that cramped Northeast Expressway studio once this shift happens. I could see Gray building new studios for WANF/WPCH on the Assembly Studios campus and Gray simply sells their 14th Street studios to CBS for them to use. Or, I could see either party relocating to some of the space that CNN just vacated downtown at what's now known as "The Center".

The way CBS is going now (especially with their "bombshell" in Atlanta)....Nexstar and others could be a victim of CBS pulling up stakes for whoever pays them the most.

More proof that CBS is following the money, regardless of ratings or market share. They must really be hard off thinking they can do better on their own station rather than having to extort be paid by Gray in Atlanta. Had they waited a little longer, they could have made a deal with WSB or WXIA when their deals were up. But yay! another soul-less CBS (insert city here) newscast. Maybe this time it will actually come out of Atlanta. Gray has probably seen this coming since the last renewal. And it may have been the reason they have stripped affiliate logos from many of their stations. At least they're making the effort to make something out of WANF. As for Tampa, it looks like WTSP (and all of Tegna's CBS affiliations) are locked in through 2028. Since "Coxpollo" is private, this information is not available through their annual report, so there's no word on KIRO's contract.

CBS going to use the indies to become CBS O&Os if TV station groups in the big markets don't want to shell out the $$$ for CBS. Yeah, I think that WANF will move The CW over and WPCH goes indie and airs sports in my opinion. The Big 4 don't mind switching TV stations any more than say 30 years ago when CBS lost the legacy channels in major markets like Detroit, ATL etc.

About time.

They need to go back to this era somewhat, which was right before the ill-fated Atlanta's Newschannel happened.

The other headline in this is CBS/Gray renewed their deal with every other CBS affiliate in the Gray group. So, no other shoes to drop with CBS/Gray, at least for now.

KCRA Channel 3 Reports 1980 KCRA Channel 3 Reports 1975

IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME. The sooner it is off Allen's hands, the better. This means all of Allen's dumb moves will be reversed immediately. Stations like WJRT, KVOA, and WTHI must be rejoicing at this news.

Update they have named McKenna King as their new Chief Meteorologist.

Side note.. for those in the atlanta market who know.. I am curious.. has the rebrand to WANF and all the investment there made a dent in the ratings? Where do they stand? That news operation still seems to have a lot of turnover for all the money pumped in. The CBS Atlanta of the mid 2000s rocked. The tough questions era.

Oh boy...

I'm just looking forward to the new CBS Atlanta rebranding itself every few years like the old one did. Hopefully, they'll skip the awkward "Clear News" phase 46 went through starting in 2000.

I can see Gray doing just that. I could also see it being a regional superstation that becomes a sub on Gray's other Georgia stations (although they'd probably want to go from 95% coverage to 100% coverage as they are missing Chattanooga and Jacksonville in the corners of the state).

And WJXT/WCWJ…

Well there is the WHDH/WLVI duo as an example of an indie/CW pairing. Since Gray made a big deal over airing some Braves games you might as well go for all of it on the old WTBS.

Just move the CW to 46 and put sports PBP on 17. Simple enough and it would make WANF a news-intensive CW station just like WPIX, KRON, KTLA and WGN.

Wow. Wooow. Woooooooow. Gray is going to take serious advantage now of WANF and its new status as a news-intensive Independent. I wonder how they'll use WPCH now since they'll use WANF to air more news.

Wow. Wonder what the path forward is for WANF/WPCH at this point? Not sure what the benefit is of having an independent primary/secondary pairing. Shows how much I watch linear TV here in ATL. Completely forgot CW was on WPCH now.