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Most channels are turn-key jukeboxes these days. Look at virtual OTT providers like PlutoTV. You have entire "channels" of old shows. Trying to watch the 24-hour look of "A Christmas Story", both TBS and TNT are basically barker channels for the latest Superhero movies and HBOMax. Aside from sports and news, the entertainment channels are useless since all of the content can be watched without commmercial interruption and visual cluttter promoting some program they want you to watch. I can see why Scripps wants to focus on news and sports. In terms of channels, Ion is like the "Ollie's Bargain Outlet" of TV shows. Just off-network runs of mediocre TV shows no one else wants anymore.

That’s not really how it works. First, ABC doesn’t program sports just to “avoid having to get people to work on the holiday”. I’m hoping that was meant to be funny, but it comes off as naive. Second, the newsroom does not get the day off. It still has weekend staffing. That includes assignment editors, reporters and photographers working on stories for the late news. A skeleton staff of producers, editors, writers, directors, on-air talent and technical people will still be scheduled during the day, in case of an emergency or breaking news. They won’t have a lot to do, but they’ll still be there, just in case. Small market stations might not do that, but at WABC, and I’m sure most other major market stations, that’s the way it works. Newsrooms everywhere get a staffing break when Christmas falls on a weekend, because weekends always have skeleton staffs, compared to weekdays. So, Christmas scheduling on a Sunday is easier, even without sports to fill the day. By the way, the people who went to work at 11PM on Christmas Eve, in miserable weather, to put together the morning show on Christmas Day probably don’t feel like the newsroom got the day off. Neither will the people who have to go to bed at 3PM on Christmas Day, so they can do the Monday morning show.

There are cities in this market too far away for an over-the-air signal, Cambridge and Athens being among them. I don't know why the Columbus stations don't put up lptv translators and then feed some special content to those distant areas.

Carol Marin and Floyd Kalber would like a word. Hell, Allison Rosati's 25 years as lead has her GOATed, to a degree.

I wish people would better be able to make the distinction between the city proper and the metro area / market. The population of Youngstown has been cut in half, maybe even more, but not the metro area. In 1970, the population of Metro Youngstown was 396,000; as of 2020, the metro area population is 357,000. So the population is down, but nowhere near drastic levels. (The population was actually up a little bit by 1990.) Don't you think Tegna would be a better fit, given WFMJ's newspaper heritage? There are also economies of scale to be had that way. Hopefully the banksters will be shooed away and it can be back to business as usual.

I think they should do it like radio. Maybe 5 minutes of serious news at the top of the hour, the rest being like the Morning Zoo or a talk show. Talk, banter, in studio guests, whatever act is having a concert down at the local theater or arena, Jack Hanna with his animals, maybe a band. I'd also hire a bunch of interns, give them iPhones and every time there's a car accident I would send them out to film all the gore. People love that stuff. Let the other channels do boring news, I'd do Action News 19 on if I we're running a station. Totally entertaining and sensational. There was an article in the Dispatch this morning about some guy who got mad that Giant Eagle closed at 10:00 p.m. and rammed his stolen car through the front entrance. I'd put that on some kind of a carousel and loop it the entire day. Now that's good TV. LOL

Dax Tejera - EP of ABC’s ‘This Week’ dies at the age of 37