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Until these groups finally realize that they need to get a local resident to file a detailed and proper complaint, they're going nowhere. There must be a local person behind it that's just an average viewer (not the ones long checked off to the spam box who think a woman meteorologist wearing pants is somehow a violation of community norms), not a whistleblower engineer who knows too much. This is why radio license appeals usually go nowhere, because the average listener finds the obvious voicetracking and 14 minute ad breaks to be tolerable as background noise, and even the worst produced syndicated radio show with obnoxious bias still 'sounds' better and is tightly edited to the millisecond better than any local afternoon show was circa 1992. The other thing is that local news still makes up a minority of the broadcast day. The old days where a license could be pulled because of things viewers easily noticed, like network programming being pulled for offending the GM's morals or their racial views are gone; they air the shows without any changes because they lose their affiliation if they don't and can't refuse shows outside breaking news. The network also controls the technical quality, so you're not seeing licenses revoked for poor on-air quality or using a Peacock stream for the on-air feed. The burden is extremely high to revoke a license and must involve all 168 hours a week of programming, not just news.

I wouldn't take Rich Lieberman's word for anything. To him, every Bay Area radio and television newsroom is a cesspool of incompetence and failure, backbiting and jealousy, and most news anchors are having illicit affairs. It'd be pretty funny if it weren't so monotonous.

Exactly this...FCC and other federal agencies aren't going to take action on any company based on corporate shell games and shifting affiliations around, along with their E/I issues that in the grand scheme didn't affect anyone that much. If Sinclair is going to get caught, it's going to be for something we won't even notice until it's revealed like one of their station holding companies getting sloppy with accounting, an advertising contract gone wrong, or tax-related issues.

Wow, that's so poorly written it makes me question factual accuracy. Once I see two spelling and/or punctuation errors, I'm done. But with all the speculation and the lack of proofreading aside, it wouldn't surprise me if it actually does happen.

The most egregious, in the eyes of the FCC was trying to pass off WGN to a closely-aligned sidecar company (related to one of their major advertisers) in the failed Tribune merger. Way back when RKO General lost all their licenses, they may as well have been a mom and pop company (by the number of stations they were allowed to own at the time) compared to the sheer number of stations Sinclair has been able to own and control under current regulations. And all it took for RKO to have their licenses revoked was some simple corporate misconduct. Reciprocal trade. I can guarantee you not only has that happened at Sinclair, but in such multitude and frequency, to make RKO General's punishment seem like a slap on the wrist compared to what Sinclair should be facing.

The filing cites other issues including past FCC violations (fines for violations of children's programming and non-disclosure of paid programming), evasions of local and national ownership caps (including through sidecar companies), the lack of diversity among Sinclair's Board of Directors, executives, and local station GMs, efforts to undermine union organizing among local employees, editorial bias, anti-competitive employment practices (restrictive non-compete clauses, nondisclosure agreements, and liquidated damage litigation against “employees who have pursued other career opportunities and as a way to limit criticism of its business practices”), contradictions of being unable to continue local news investment despite high executive compensation and profits that could be used to invest in the stations, the Bally Sports bankruptcy, the recent announcement of Univision’s removal from KUNS in favor of The CW, retrans disputes, and “moral terpitude” issues (the aforementioned prostitution arrest of Smith). None of this rises to the level of license revocation, either.

It would likely face the same fate as the petitions to revoke Fox Television Stations’ license for WTXF, it’s not gonna happen. In both instances, it would take either company being proven of engaging in something closer to RKO General levels of business misconduct to warrant the revocation of their broadcast licenses. The issues with Sinclair’s newsroom operations aren’t really fraud (as the filing states) as it is corporate incompetence. As noted in the filing, Sinclair’s newsroom cutbacks are mainly the result of its “ill-advised” purchase of Bally Sports, however Sinclair was already dealing with substantial debt predating that purchase, which its post-2011 purchases only contributed to. (Sinclair nearly went bankrupt itself only a few years before its buying spree began.) Side note: The ex-news director who filed the complaint, when citing stations affected by the news cuts (a list that included stations that dropped newscasts but still have an in-house or partially outsourced news operation), left out WPMI from the list; its morning and noon newscasts were canned in favor of the morning edition of The National Desk and a run of Family Feud this Spring. Then there’s one nugget I noticed towards the end: According to the Baltimore Sun, Smith was once arrested in August 1996, for “committing a perverted sex act in a company-owned Mercedes.” First time I’ve heard about this.

I think CBS News and Stations got the new look done in a hurry compared to ABC O&Os

I know this a pipe dream, but I would love to see Kaity anchoring weekdays again.

Since KCTV is channel 5.... WEWS capitalized on their channel number (5) to launch their 5:00 p.m. show years ago. There are a bunch of "Live AT Five" shows, but being on Channel 5 gives them the opportunity to brand their show as "Live ON Five"

And now this from Cord Cutters News: BALLY SPORTS PLANS TO SHUT DOWN IN 2024.

The FCC is considering an incentive to boost local programming, specifically news.

She is out of the business. She went into P.R. for a school district and sued the TV station for discrimination (moved to federal court, not sure where it stands now).

It is on the horizon. This whole page is about ABC standardizing graphics amongst its O&O’s. They are just rolling it out very slowly.

With all of the must-run garbage Sinclair puts out, it lessens their local output to the point where they actually question doing "local" news. But this issue extends to virtually all of the other groups...Gray does their fair share as well with "InvestigateTV" and sharing stories between markets. Same with Nexstar. Scripps is taking the HLN Jukebox to the next level, and other groups are just as guilty with all of their shared franchises. Sinclair and their "National Desk" have come in and out of the public eye just as people have forgotten about the way they've tried to sway politics over the years, from Mark Hyman and his commentaries, to the town halls, endlessly investigating Hunter's laptop and all of the "bad things" Biden has done, Boris Ephstyn, Sharyl "Tinfoil Hat" Attkinson, all while giving credence to a serial liar under numerous indictments and potentially the second president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to a second, non-consecutive term. Ok...rant done. But Sinclair will have their work cut out for them in 2024 if they want a front row seat to this $#!+show.

It’s been discussed extensively here in the past, but I don’t think the branding shift was designed to “move the needle” as much as it was designed to promote the local streaming services. I really wish there were more reliable sources for ratings than that creep Rich Lieberman, but even if he’s right…at least the station hasn’t tanked, I guess. Pittsburgh is always competitive, and the ratings race for the 25-54 demo is extremely close. I’m sure there are other factors as to why KDKA is down at 6pm, though I wouldn’t be familiar with what those are.