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Sinclair considering selling 30% of its station portfolio plus the Tennis channel https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/09/sinclair-explores-selling-30percent-of-broadcast-stations.html

Longtime WJW Meteorologist Andre Bernier (and semi-heir to Dick Goddard's throne) is hanging it up on May 22nd. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2024/04/28/fox-8-andre-bernier-retirement/73492814007/ He, along with Bruce Kalinowski (Bruce Edwards) were the first two meteorologists on the launch of the Weather Channel in 1982. He joined WJW in 1988 when they launched their morning newscasts. Andre even posted the very first one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z66zwFVsGs He later moved to evenings as Dick Goddard began reducing his on-air time. Since Goddard's retirement, he has also cut back on his on-air time, reducing it to only the 5pm news in recent years. He also worked his wife Sally, who is also a meteorologist. She retired in 2009.

Sony and Apollo have indicated that they plan to only keep Paramount Studios and sell off CBS (including CBS News & owned stations), Paramount + and cable stations. That avoids any Cox conflicts. Shari Redstone has said she was against selling to break the company up but the cash may be too good an offer to turn down.

It's clear the industry has seen better days. And I do agree that these stations may end up in the private equity / crappy owner dumpster pile unless there is a suitable duopoly partner in a market that can take one or more stations on without major investment. There may be a white knight somewhere that takes on a station or two....perhaps a local investor or a college/university that wants to make something out of a Sinclair fixer-upper. We haven't gotten to the point where groups are so insolvent they have to shut down stations and fire sale them off. But it could be coming. At least Sinclair is being proactive (at least in a financial way). The only way the FCC is going to change things is if things get so terrible, it takes anyone with a check that clears to run a station if there's no one else who can afford to do so.

... Here's my two cents on the matter 1) I know that Coastal Television is like the worst owner unless it's for, NewsNet programming outta Cadillac, Michigan (for example, KTWO, and the Alaska ABC (KATN, KJUD, KYUR, and KTBY) stations.) 2) I don't fully understand the hate against INSP. Like, okay, it was created from the remains of the PTL Network, and didn't have any Broadcasting station experience until 2022, but what did they somehow do to get hated upon? 3) Yea, some mega-chains are just too big or already in the markets (Example, Sinclair-Owned WJLA and Tegna-Owned WUSA in Washington DC whixh are the only affiliates because the other big four affiliates are owned by the network (NBC-owned WRC and Fox-owned WTTG)) 4) The only reason why Hearst even acquired WBBH and WZVN, (No, not WSVN, the one you legitimately revamped on Wikipedia) is because the Waterman family wanted to sell the stations before one of the family members turned 100. 5) Well, Graham, and Legitimately the networks isn't selling/buying any stations, and why would they do so? I mean, St. Louis once had 2, KTVI from 1997-2008 and KMOV from 1950s-1987 (during the CBS ownership, Channel 4 was called KMOX-TV) (Also, Paramount and CBS is not facing an Ted Turner moment again and are going to stop Byron from owning CBS, whatever the cost.) 6) Retransmission fees don't kinda have anything to make actual other than for revenue? Because cord-cutting, ATSC3.0, anything of those things, Hello??? 7) The FCC is probably focused on WPIX and stopping Robo-calls now than on UHF Discounts (which they did on Robo-calls, thank God they did.)

I think a lot of people are going to be severly disappointed when a bottom-feeder no-budget company like INSP or Vision/Coastal winds up buying these stations instead of these pie-eyed fantasies. Instead of playing speculator, let's just look at these indisputable truths. And they aren't pretty: The television industry is not a buyer's market in any sense of the word and hasn't been since interest rates got raised substantially The few remaining megachains—Scripps, Tegna and Gray—are either too built up or are already in many of these existing markets. Hearst doesn't buy anything unless it's a gigantic waste of money like spending $200M+ for freaking WBBH in a older market in a permanently uncompetitive state politically. Great thinking there, y'all. Apollo Global Management isn't buying anything and may be forced to sell off Cox Media Group if their stupid fever dream of buying Paramount actually happened. Graham isn't buying anything because they just don't. The networks ain't buying anything, and one of them (CBS) is in limbo right now since Shari Redstone took it off the market. The FCC might just repeal the UHF Discount rule (again) just to further erase anything Pai did and not grandfather a thing The continued diminishing returns of retransmission revenue is only going to get worse. Those golden geese are no longer not laying eggs, they're entering hospice care and the likes of Nexstar don't have a plan B. So as you can clearly see... Sinclair is absolutely screwed.

Nah, I think Cox Media is better owning/operating WPGH and WPNT, mostly because WPXI produces newscasts for WPGH.

I know this is not Speculatron though...and we don't know a lot of the details. This may all just fall through as well.

I hope KDNL gets acquired by all companies, Scripps. And sell of WPGH and WPNT to Cox Media, which would be somehow perfect for WPXI.

Time to be realistic. Don't waste your energy speculating which existing broadcasters with cap space could buy these stations. It's not happening. These station sales will be the broadcasting industry equivalent of selling bundled mortgages or medical debt. Sinclair needs cash. The companies that will purchase these assets will be private equity investors who can drain these stations dry without remorse and then hold on to them until there is another opportunity to sell the spectrum these stations broadcast on back to the federal government.

Maybe there's a possibility that the two companies can split the cost and the rights of the remaining part of the deal. That way, the NBA will still get their increase in the rights fee and both wbd & NBC get a piece of the package.

This is already been discussed elsewhere.

Weigel is launching another diginet, MeTV Toons, on June 25. Pretty much an outgrowth of MeTV's existing Monday-Saturday cartoon blocks (Toon In with Me and Saturday Morning Cartoons) and a broadcast equivalent of Boomerang (both its original all-classic cartoon format and its current daytime-only classic block), it will feature shows and shorts like Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Popeye, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Woody Woodpecker, Casper, Betty Boop, and Speed Racer. Bob Bergen, the voice behind various Looney Tunes characters (like Porky Pig, Tweety and Marvin the Martian), will be the announcer for the network.

Good for them and this little pet project. This should net them…like, seven new viewers.

That doesn’t sound like a career change allowing one to have more time with family…

this is why think reporters should get a *separate* friends only social media where they can post almost whatever they want. Keep your public profile clean and brand related. EDIT: and block your job from seeing your IG story, maybe even block them totally if you can.

It's an end of an era in Michiana. Longtime WNDU anchor Terry McFadden is retiring from the station. His final broadcast will be tonight (3/1). He will be teamed up with his former co-anchor, his sister Maureen (which she retired back in 2019) to anchor this broadcast.

It won't. While the company is looking over the Sony-Apollo bid, it is out of courtesy alone and will be rejected as soon as practicable. That being said, Apollo is more likely to sell off Cox Media Group than they are going to have them buy anything. Cox Media is stagnant, faltering and running on fumes.

The moment it was reported from Christina Pascucci's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6zQh3cy57f/?hl=en edit: KTLA posted the initial coverage:

Sam Rubin, KTLA's entertainment reporter for 34 years, died today (May 10) from a heart attack at age 64. https://www.tmz.com/2024/05/10/sam-rubin-ktla-entertainment-reporter-dead-dies-heart-attack/

Don't worry, Perry -- Rand Paul is coming to your rescue! Shouldn't they be referring to him as Senator Paul? I hope the bill crashes and burns. All it would do is help Nexstar, SInclair, and Gray gobble up more broadcasters, leaving smaller broadcasters such as Hearst and Graham (and smaller) unable to acquire stations because they keep getting outbid.

What I will say is that this was an absolute bloodbath. 30-40 people let go. the only ones being kept are a handful of MMJs and one anchor. Everyone, and I mean everyone else is gone.