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It's so cute that everyone is just casually assuming that Nexstar would be obligated to sell anything when this merger is announced. The cold hard fact is Brendan Carr—a total right-wing hack of the worst sort—along with his lackey Olivia Trusty, will do all they can to get this cleared and approved as quickly as possible and will ignore any protests to the contrary. Why? Because Nexstar is the quintessential Republican company led by a typical Republican (Perry) whose lone purpose is to buy shit up. It's a company Brendan Carr loves and adores. We've seen in full display what he'll do with companies he doesn't like. Who cares if the current legislation doesn't allow it? No one else in this regime gives two shits about laws on the books they don't like, let alone one shit. Congress, who already just destroyed public broadcasting with a glint in their eye, wouldn't care if Carr superceded them (beyond the meaningless whining from the likes of Susan Collins or the tone-deaf tweets of an enriched, oblivious Charles Schumer) and you know it.

Oh no! A strongly-worded letter? That'll sway them.

I'm not sure a strongly-worded letter written by Newsmax is going to sway many opinions in Congress and at the FCC. What ulterior motives could Newsmax have for wanting a bunch of full-power TV station licenses to be available at low cost? Keep in mind, the FCC's mission is to regulate the wireless spectrum, not business and commerce. The cap exists to prevent a company from monopolizing available, finite radio spectrum. The stupid simple solution to this issue (which I suspect we might see play out if this merger is attempted and fails) is to make that work differently. Sinclair and Nexstar have been pushing ATSC 3.0 datacasting quite heavily, to the point that datacasting is often the only time ATSC 3 comes up in their quarterly and annual investor reports. All they need to do is make the argument that, because the spectrum can now be used for multiple purposes, they are no longer "television stations" but "data transmitters". Multiple stations sharing one transmitter is already happening (both "sides" of ATSC3 lighthouses, post-repack channel sharing), and the FCC has not really addressed the multiple questions this raises. If everyone is on one frequency anyways, what exactly is the FCC regulating? The next step is to decouple the transmitters from the broadcasters themselves (hey remember EdgeBeam Wireless?). The UK has been doing this since 1997, and I believe most, if not all, of the transmitters in the country are owned by Arqiva. The UK Government still regulates the use of the "Muxes" on these transmitters, but the US has a pesky "Constitution" that would probably make that difficult for our government to do. It would likely end up with "let the free market decide", and pitched as "anybody" can now operate a "TV station" over these transmitters, as long as there is available bandwidth, and you can pay for it. Not enough transmitters? Oh well! Should have formed a consortium and bid on the spectrum that was freed up when every television broadcaster consolidated onto 3-4 frequencies in each market. We're kind of already doing this. What are cellular networks if not wireless data providers, available to anyone who can afford a phone and the subscription to use it? We don't regulate what websites can be accessed on cellular networks, so why would we regulate datacasting differently? Something is going to give, eventually. Whether it be the scenario above, or the FCC/congress/etc. just throwing up their hands and saying it's pointless when all this is available online, anyways.

Good points. I hadn't considered the possibility that Nexstar and Tegna would find a way to make situations like this work. Also, as someone who believes we're eventually going to start seeing broadcast stations disappearing, Hartford-New Haven may actually prove to be an example what I expect to see in the next few years.

Exactly. It's meaningless Kabuki theatre just like the same crap Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell (no longer a senate leader) pull so they can give the illusion of acting under their own free will and give the illusion of a sure-fire passage of an awful bill being "in doubt". But when push comes to shove, they'll fall in line with the regime. It's in their DNA.

Janice Yu recently announced her departure from the station after three years https://www.instagram.com/p/DNDqWy7OoKz/?igsh=emtlNDRwcnR4ZG83

Just saw it on IG and came here to say that it definitely did not seem to be her choice ("some goodbyes are hidden blessings and nudges towards something new" and "I am no longer with Eyewitness News"). It's odd, since she was doing some anchoring. I wonder if something happened.

I remember what a mess it was when they merged KWGN with KDVR... Not eager for that sort of thing to happen again!

It seems like OnTVTonight has finally given us a first glimpse into what that will be like. Granted, its only next Saturday that's available for now but still... something. 07:00-08:00 AM: Local News Live Saturday 08:00-10:00 AM: ANF News LIVE Weekend 10:00AM-10:00PM: High School Football (Four matches back-to-back-to-back-to-back; they've done this for years though, mainly on WPCH, so no surprise here) 10:00-11:30 PM: ANF News LIVE 11:30PM-12:00AM: Investigate TV+ Weekend

The comprehensive exhibits will be so key.

Well, it wouldn't work under their current naming protocols... it's cbsnews.com/MARKETNAMEHERE... it would never have been cbsatlanta.com

I'm trying to make sense of your ramblings best I can, bear with me. I remember the Watercooler too... but let's ignore the fact that you're citing all of your knowledge from conversations in a toxic cesspool 15+ years ago... there's a reason why that message board isn't around anymore (and why this website was created). Public media has absolutely had layoffs, even during 2008. That said, when a beloved 50+ year old institution gets attacked and defunded, of course it's going to make the headlines. If you think public media doesn't report on the local media industry, you're wrong. Just because you didn't see it, and let's be real... you probably aren't a viewer/listener, doesn't mean it didn't happen. CPB's looming shutdown this fall is akin to Scripps closing up shop overnight and leaving all of their stations out in the cold scrambling to survive without any infrastructure support. If that actually happened, public media newsrooms would absolutely report on it. But that hasn't happened. Scripps, Allen, TEGNA... they're all still alive. Commercial media has been slowly bleeding out these past 15+ years like numerous other industries that public media newsrooms are also reporting on. The media industry across the board, public and commercial, is in a tailspin. Public media isn't immune to the changing landscape and has been doing what it can to reinvent itself, just like local news has been trying and both have been doing this as financial resources and viewership numbers drop. With PBS moving into streaming via Passport and NPR getting into the podcast game, their viewer/listener/donor base's average age is trending downward. If you think there aren't public media stations that have staffers doing the work of 2-3 people or that positions haven't been reduced for consolidated/centralization efforts like in commercial media, well, I really don't know what to tell you. Has your local NBC affiliate been reporting on that during the last 15+ years prior to the federal funding fight? Saying that no one is interested in public media and that people are flocking to local television news in droves is the most nonsensical thing you've included in your diatribe. One of the great things about public media is that it is for everyone. If you think an independent press and educational programming aren't worth fighting for or funding, I totally understand that. Not everyone values facts, nuance, or public service. Some people just want noise that confirms their biases. Please, just don't confuse your personal disinterest with the facts. Some of us still care about democracy and the truth. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/26/americans-more-likely-to-support-than-oppose-continuing-federal-funding-for-npr-and-pbs/ https://current.org/2017/02/farewell-tote-bags-pbs-passport-draws-younger-donors-as-membership-reward/ https://current.org/2021/06/how-to-build-the-next-generation-of-public-radio-listeners/ https://www.npr.org/2008/12/10/98098442/npr-cuts-jobs-cancels-programs https://current.org/2009/06/fiscal-year-end-layoffs-include-10-of-pbs-staff/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gannett-journalists-across-the-nation-walk-out-over-pay-management-issues https://www.pbs.org/video/how-sinclair-broadcasting-puts-a-partisan-tilt-on-local-news-1507678399/

I can’t tell if this is a joke lol. Is this the first time you’ve watched a television news broadcast?

Glenn Marshall speaks out on his departure citing he quit WGN for many reasons

WCTX channel shares with WTNH, and WCCT's main channel is hosted by WTIC as the area lighthouse. Subnets notwithstanding, it's a very manageable conflict as we all know WCTX is the CW affiliate once Tegna's CW deal is done, and WCCT (which had their 'site' hosted on the CW+ portal for over a decade) is all but a zombie station once the CW moves off there (the only issue with CW of course is if WTNH prefers to keep the primetime newscasts as-is and they move to streaming/WTNH+ down the line). Worse comes to worse because WCTX and WTNH channel share is both WCCT and WCTX get sold off to someone like RNN, Weigel or HC2/Innovate, and 59.1 becomes 8.2 in a renumbering and is your new CW affiliate. And Nexstar still has a wild card with WFXQ-CD, which could be moved from being a WWLP UHF repeater in Springfield to a Hartford station without any regulatory conflicts rather easily. WTIC could even be sold off to comfortably fit Fox onto 20.1 because hey, it's #6 in the market until Fox moves there, so then it's a 'clean deal' in technicality. They will finagle these deals and conflicts in a way that makes Sinclair/Tribune look like a clean merger in comparison.