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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.

This is dumb. I’m sorry I don’t have a more original thought contribution, but it’s so dumb that I can’t even begin to comprehend it. These people actually think they can live and die on retrans fees. For all of Tegna’s intelligence-insulting gimmicks, Sinclair’s extreme political bias, and Gray’s cheap/outdated visual aesthetic, those companies can at least understand one thing: they know where their audience is and where to grow it. Nexstar looks to be run by people who are too stubborn to understand that, to the point that they’re even killing off the damn web streams. It’s been said before, and it’s worth repeating: big market company, small market mentality.

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.

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.

And Shop 'Til You Drop. I didn't mind that one either.

KPRC Channel 2 News Update from September 1980:

The sad thing is, Media General and Tribune had really good streaming platforms through their use of Livestream (now owned by Vimeo) and Media General even had many of their stations on the NewsOn service. Nexstar has stripped much of this away with a very web-centric strategy, making their streams confined to websites and phones, and not easily translating to OTT. Fast forward to now, and the major broadcasters have pretty much put their stations news products on air 24/7 with their existing newscasts, re-airings, and other exclusive content that seamlessly works into its own virtual channel. It allows for new and targeted revenue streams that can reach viewers down to the ZIP code. And Nexstar is taking what they have and making it less valuable, all in the name of shaking down every Cable customer and cable company to squeeze every penny out of what should be a free service to the local viewer.

It wasn't long ago when the company thought most stations would adopt the WFLA "always on" model of streaming. WGN-TV and KDVR did it for a while.

WFLA will be very angry, as they literally run themselves on streaming coverage and online specials, especially during hurricane season.

How in the world do they think this will work in markets like LA and Chicago? Like they could probably get away with this in Minot - but in their large markets this has disaster written all over it. Perry seems to think that the cable bundle is the way of the future - not even Sinclair is that delusional.

They'd get eaten alive by the competition in that situation.

My only memory of PAX was watching AFV reruns and maybe you get a replay of the WNBC news or some programming that was preempted on NBC. As Ion, it is just rerun city. There's nothing really special there and I'm surprised Paxton got someone to pay for that network for a lot of money.

PAX wasn't really even that great of a network. You can get the same comparable programming from Hallmark and other "family-friendly" channels now. The only thing PAX had going for it, IMHO, was Supermarket Sweep and Candid Camera. Aside from that, wasn't much of their dramas Canadian produced anyway? And it was never going to contend with the other networks with the amount of infomercials it ran.

inb4 ION rebrands as “Scripps Sports” and ION Mystery casually drops “Mystery”…

This could be another opportunity for a rebranding of the network, which has undergone a lot of changes since it was originally PAX (after it was supposed to be PaxNet).

The other issue being that I don't suppose Nexstar can actually buy anymore without selling off properties because they are at the cap.

Considering that Nexstar owns the CBS (WKBN) and Fox (WYFX-LD) affiliates and operates the ABC affiliate (WYTV), they're going to want to find a different buyer.

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.

The Maag family is just trying to stay afloat in a market that's had its' population halved over 50 years. There's far too many radio stations in Youngstown and 1-2 too many TV stations. Even the Maags gave up on the city's lone daily newspaper. WFMJ's biggest weakness is the fact it remains locally owned; thanks to the M&A mania, WKBN-WYTV have the bigger advantage of economy of scale. WFMJ doesn't have the resources to compete with those two long-term, and even launching a 5pm news felt like their resources were being strained. The better question to ask is when do the Maags throw in the towel with WFMJ and sell the NBC affiliation and station IP to Nexstar.

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

WEWS will still be (to me)... TV5 Eyewitness News and NewsChannel 5. Happy 75th Anniversary TV5.

Could be a combination of that as well as the fact that odd-numbered years are very lean for stations without the political ads. (A few exceptions do exist, as KY, LA and MS have state races, but otherwise it's quiet.) Also, the Super Bowl is on Fox, which Gray is a little leaner with (they have far more CBS and NBC affiliates).

Paramount Global owns the EWN trademarks, which Disney pays royalties to use for some of their O&Os.

WEWS is celebrating 75 years on the air in Cleveland this month. https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/wews-celebrates-75-years-as-a-trailblazing-station