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Let us all review something we have heard James Spann say over the years: Know your landmarks. Most people will not remember many roads, unless you drive them or they are a major one, like an interstate. What does Spann always do? Name off places people know: schools, churches, BBQ restaurants, that one gentlemen’s club one time. Here in Evansville, many of the Mets will say a number of the schools, major businesses, the airport. If a tornado is on the ground in a rural area, someone at TWC might say, “It’s in a rural area, not much to worry about.” Someone local will say, “This is on the ground just one mile west of XYZ High School.” Yes, we have a number of schools in corn fields around here. Our Doppler radar sits in the middle of a corn field. Everyone here knows if that radar goes down, we lose data that can help save and protect lives and property. Nothing against the folks at TWC, they are great people, but they shouldn’t be doing something this local.

CBS is test driving the new EN team with the prime time Inauguration coverage.

My question though: isn't it federal law to break into programming for life-threatening severe weather? So isn't Allen "technically" breaking the law because they aren't providing life-saving information?? I just can't see TWC providing live coverage, especially if they struggle bad enough with who they have for national coverage?? I'm just curious if there are lawsuits just waiting to happen??

Quite honestly, I'm amazed Standard General is even still around.

The Tegna stations sure dodged a big bullet - he was interested in them, was willing to buy them, but the failed Standard General deal came into play.

And sell piecemeal! If a buyer only wants a small handful of stations, take the deal. You'll be that much closer to done. (He's not reading this, is he?)

Oh my god they look awlful, including the set design.

It goes back to the 80s-90s....if you think it's bad now... Now their WLBT simulcasts will blend right in....

WTSP 1982 WWL-TV in 1992 news stills holds up 3+ decades later.

GOD that 11 logo is so bad.

Please don't speak this into existence.

WABC, with Inauguration coverage running long, decided to air Eyewitness News from 7-8 tonight bumping Jeopardy! & Wheel of Fortune to overnight.

They probably see it as going away, or perhaps it was #5 last year?

The Fox affiliate in Rochester, MN is valued at $495,000. I know the market is small, but that's not much money. I presume a good chunk of that is tied up in being the local home of the Vikings.

Can they make an eventual play for the ABC affiliation on a subchannel? That could be the end game here.

It is absolutely not federal law to break into programming for severe weather. What about stations without newsrooms? Come on. Stations have an obligation to work in the best interests of the public, but honestly an automated severe weather crawl is probably enough to honor the bare minimum. I am not saying it’s right.

Yes they are breaking a contract with the FCC that is a legally binding contract. They can get fined by the FCC and local residents can file complaints to the FCC for them not breaking into programming. As for lawsuits I’m not 100% sure on that end.

This is akin to the fans of whatever sports team screaming to trade whoever is the subject of their ire at the moment, as if it was as simple as snapping one’s fingers to find a trade partner willing to give you whatever unicorn you think is out there. Followed by the inevitable bellyaching when some kind of trade happens and it isn’t on the terms or for the other player you think it should have been for. The economics are not great. The revenue pie continues to get sliced into smaller and smaller pieces. Who, exactly, has the money to sink into said operations with little assurance of a return on the investment?

You keep saying this same thing. Let me ask you: TO WHOM? You're looking for a white knight that may not exist. And forcing a sale doesn't necessarily help matters, because you may go from one bad operator to another. Be careful of what you wish for. A better case scenario would be for viewers in the affected areas to file a formal complaint at the FCC, saying that AMG isn't operating in the public interest. If enough force is behind that, then something might happen.

Just in the Hawaii case alone which otherwise only has Nexstar and Gray as viable news operations, this feels like it should be a license-forfeiting offense; there is no serious reason there should be weather forecast from 4,500 miles away nearer to another coast and a quarter of a day away. It's already questionable enough when TWC absolutely refuses to forecast the western mainland well to begin with unless it's in severe danger.

This had been one of my fears whenever everyone was rooting for Allen to buy Tegna. I could tell from the programming that they put out that they were cheap as hell and would run everything on a shoestring budget. I was hoping that I would be wrong but look at what's happening now. I don't mean to sound pessimistic or be a "I-told-you-so" but what's happening at these stations is truly pathetic. How do you expect to be able to serve a market effectively if you're not actually based there? Allen is unfit to hold any broadcast license. This makes me sick to my stomach.

To me, this is another HUGE blow if true. It further drives away all respect I had for AMG. They need to sell everything (including TWC) and FAST. I god hope TWC gets new owners. They don't deserve this either.

Probably just one newscast a day I would buy WDNI Telemundo Indy. Obviously Telemundo hasn’t yanked there affiliation for not having a newscast. So obviously Telemundo doesn’t force it’s stations to do news unlike the English networks do especially before and after network news shows. Univision appears the same too.

Something Nexstar would probably consider doing as a workaround to having actual duopolies in some markets.

Benedek was the last company to really go into a bankruptcy auction?

Did TEGNA drop the design hub too? Also, do you have an example of the ads? I think this will bite them in the ass, honestly.

There though it mostly involved stations with no infrastructure whatsoever in the News Central format, and at least even in the TND era they still use mostly local folks on downtime to deliver forecasts and general breaking weather news. That I have no issue with because they still have that staff for the most part deliver breaking weather, even in the KTUL and WNWO situations. Just having everything come from TWC...say if you're watching on WAOW, are you going to have to deal with severe weather non-applicable to you from WKOW because master control doesn't know the distance between Beloit and Wausau? How do you know local landmarks and street names? And how on earth do you have viewers submit videos and photos now, because they have to go through TWC's national system rather than the known local system? There are a lot of dangerous unknowns in hubbing weather nationally even in a well-planned transition over a couple of years, and it's worse in this ad hoc setup where now you have bitter ex-staff either on a new station or just starting their own efforts online.

WCBI could scoop him up without even thinking about it...

If all of the meteorologists at Allen stations are history, a boneheaded move will be if it goes down at WTVA. Not only is it an established station in a place known for severe weather, but is in Mississippi State's backyard, where MANY meteorologists get their degrees from. Allen better have a good plan for their chief Meteorologist (Matt Laubhan) since he's very well regarded (and almost like a James Spann Jr. even down to the suspenders!) or this station is toast.

Look to the Equity bankruptcy and WLNE circa Great Recession for a little insight; they didn't shut down right away, but just let unpaid expenses and payroll claims escalate to such a dangerous level they start losing programming outside the network, then staff who are tired of them, and eventually it gets to actual satellite transmission, then IP, newswires, then the network finally gets to the point of revocation and then you're down to a sky cam shot until THAT contract gets revoked too. Allen at least has fallbacks, but viewers will NOT be happy to see 15 year-old car, pet and media junket shows in prime time.

I know he won't listen to this, but Allen... SELL NOW. Its obvious AMG can't manage anything for shit. At this point, anyone is better than them.

Noticias suficientes para hacer feliz a la red. That's Spanish for "Just enough news to make the network happy." You're welcome.

The FCC has renewed WTXF's license, swatting down Media and Democracy Project's challenge with ease: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-57A1.txt The upside is that the settlement in the Smartmatic case can't be considered because it doesn't rise to the level of a criminal conviction, and even if it did, lying on cable news isn't severe enough to affect broadcast license ownership as per the 1st Amendment. (The FCC refused to due MAD's homework in combing over the WTXF archives for objectionable material.)

I just don't see how you adapt the Weather Channel Radio model to TV at all; they get on during emergencies on radio and do fine there, but radio weather outside full service and all news has become one of the lowest priorities (either just by tossing TV audio or just having the EAS butt in and get back to Hannity), which is why Weatherology is thriving now. Replacing local forecasters with staff in Atlanta already overwhelmed by so many other network and station commitments is going to bite them hard. And we may be entering a dark age for stations and the FCC. Like Townsquare and Alpha just turning in licenses and refusing to sell to someone who will put effort in, I'm very scared. Also, Allen runs the state TV network for WIAA high school sports, so I feel like that's next to be in the lurch and Sinclair (who carries the network in Milwaukee) or FanDuel may have to jump in last minute for the hockey and basketball tourneys.

Chapter 11 is likely lurking for them.

Griffin will shut down the tv stations before they ever sell.

I doubt this would happen with Hearst, but it would be nice to have... They can be like Griffin and have 2 strong stations

So when severe weather strikes, will we get coverage or will we get reruns of Storm Stories?

well that was quick. Guess they’re ok selling piecemeal instead of “all or nothing “

Kinda figured that Imagicomm would ultimately decide to cash out after a few years. Outside of INSP and a production company that makes direct-to-video films, them owning TV stations didn't really make much sense other than just holding assets for a company in Cox/Apollo that was looking to dump stuff in order to make its own portfolio more attractive to potential would-be suitors. With ownership rules expected to be loosened (if not outright repealed), nothing should be considered off the table as to who buys who. There may be a trade or two along the way (I'll discuss the rest over in the Speculatron).

Changes are effective February 10th. Vargas moves to 7pm ET, and NewsNation Now with Connell McShane expands to three hours to cover the 5pm ET hour that Vargas's show currently occupies. Really surprised they're actually not adding a new personality to the schedule.

I always believed it was like the 'minority owner' racket in the 2010s where a distant woman or other racial group were suddenly 'running' stations stripped to do-nothing subchannel farms in the middle of the Great Plains until Gray and Nexstar could buy them back under a GOP FCC. INSP was so hands-off I was shocked and pretty much ran the stations status quo, so it feels like Imagicomm was actually Legacy 2.0.

It's interesting that they bought them together from CMG and are now selling them to whoever will buy them.

During the Hulman years, WTHI had a strong lead in the market. Cause the Hulman had this little race track in Indianapolis, they made a little money off of it and spent a good amount of money and resources for WTHI-TV and radio. They had the first live trucks in Terre Haute, more anchors, reporters, a farm reporter, and nice sets. WTWO was so bad that at one point, the opening credits logo was the welcome sign in the lobby. Today, WTWO is putting on a better product than WTHI and is starting to grab more people.

I could have sworn that TheGrio was still running ads on their Weather Channel Roku app as recently as last week, promoting all of the sitcoms they carry. Even if it was still running ads for a dead network, that's probably about as Allen Media as you can get.... ...aside from cheaping out on toilet paper and gas for station vehicles.

With Hoda Kotb and New Orleans in the news, here's Hoda Kotb anchoring WWL 4 News (1992).

September 12th, 1994 is also the same day that its former sister station in Kansas City (WDAF-TV) switched to Fox.

September 12th, 1994. Good Day Tampa Bay debuted at 8:00 a.m. on WTVT Channel 13. 30 years later, it remains Tampa Bay's most popular morning newscast, even if its six hours long now on weekdays, and has since added weekends on both Saturdays (four hours) and Sundays (three hours). https://www.fox13news.com/video/1515429

Quite the contrary. This is the Saudi's basically buying control of world golf.

I still don't understand what they're going to merge...the team golf concept nobody understands or has any loyalty to, or making LIV a part of the FedEx Cup? The Champions Tour just being yeeted out of existence? I am just left with more questions than answers about what this merger will do except confuse the rights holders, the PGA loyalists, and the clubs that host events already on the edge (your BC Opens) who may lose their tour stops. Maybe this is more PGA tossing money at LIV to just go away and get back to normal than anything.