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You need to look at yourself in the mirror and realize the things that you're saying isn't in line with what the vast majority of the people on this forum is thinking. And I will tell you this, by calling on staff to have an ignore button is very childish of you because you clearly cannot handle a healthy public discourse or anybody who has a much different opinion than you, that type of attitude was what nearly drove me out of the BP Discord server, you need to learn how to agree to disagree on things, you have your own opinons and I have my own opinions, EVERYBODY on this forum has their own opinions but to go out there and just say "Oh I need to ignore this person because his opinion is not in line with mine" that's childish. I recommend either taking time away from this and getting yourself mentally right or focus on the other aspects of TV News that you're passionate about and just stay in that lane because mentally I don't think you're a good fit for at least this portion of the forum (or even on the Discord server for that matter), you can react with all the angry's and the haha's you want to but that's just the truth. And oh by the way there's no such thing as being cheerleaders for this company or that company or a hater of this company or that company it's just that we're calling it the way we all in here collectively see it, whether it's a good opinion, bad opinion, etc, it doesn't matter so for you to label people as "Hearst lovers", "Tegna haters", "Scripps haters" I think is also childish and you need to take that out of your vocabulary too. That's all I got to say if people want to gang up and attack me be my guest but I'm not going to change my approach just because people try to convince that their opinion is better than mine or anyone else's I will gladly respect everyone else's opinions as long as you respect mine and we can all have a good healthy discourse about subjects related to broadcasting because at the end of the day we're all broadcast nerds and we're all here to have fun and have a good lively conversation about things, if that can't happen why would I or anyone else be here partaking on this forum or even on the Discord for that matter.

If you really wanted to see a show, imagine if theyd have been sold to Sinclair, Apollo or Allen.

So, basically, you think Hearst, wasted MONEY on the "unnecessary" purchase of WBBH and the LMA of WZVN? Imagine saying that to the face of the Waterman family in 2023 when they sold them off. Hearst is more reliable. Also... At least Hearst isn't dumb and wanted to trash the stations.

WAKA Selma/Montgomery is launching a new half-hour morning newscast at 9 a.m. starting later this morning, and combining it with Daytime Jeopardy! at 9:30 a.m. will replace Dr. Phil in that timeslot as today's the day Dr. Phil officially goes away from syndication. https://www.waka.com/2025/09/03/action-8-news-expanding-again-with-launch-of-9am-newscast/ EDIT: Adding Seattle here... Today starts an interesting new era at KCPQ/KZJO (looking up TitanTV and OnTVTonight schedules for this information). First off, it looks like today's the day Good Day Seattle expands to 11 a.m., though they've cut the 4:30 a.m. half-hour as they promised in the summer news announcement of news expansion at KCPQ/KZJO. We already know about the 4-8 p.m. and 10 p.m.-12 a.m. changes at KCPQ. However, over on KZJO, they've turned it into a secondary news station. First, they're adding a 9-11 a.m. repeat of Good Day Seattle from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., then a simulcast of FOX 13's Local Live Desk (straight from the FOX Local service) from 1-4 p.m., and after a short break, a simulcast with KCPQ from 6-8 p.m. before delivering more Seattle News Tonight exclusively for KZJO from 8-10 p.m.

But how will we know what market this is?

Who knows... Maybe our FCC will actually show a backbone like Ajit Pai did by forcing the Sinclair-Tribune merger into an administrative law judge review. Whoever saw that coming? If there's any hope, maybe Chris Ruddy will convince Brendan Carr that all this consolidation is bad and sentence all of this forthcoming consolidation to the same fate... We can only hope...

Also, can we talk about the tantrums and the slurs that a certain person is throwing. Is this how grown people handle things? No amount of talking to people like they're beneath you is gonna make you look good.

This station sounds like the Temu version of Allen Media...or Bayou City Broadcasting to be exact (since DuJuan McCoy sold Bayou City to Allen Media) Sad that it was once LIN's flagship. But it goes to show you that every now and then, a too-big company is better than a crappy station owner who is wiling to let good employees walk just to screw them over if they go against them.

Yes, the networks need to be more fearless and stop worrying about Trump messing with their assets. The assertion however that networks, Fox & Sinclair aside, are biased in favor of Trump is not true. The majority of network news coverage of Trump is (rightfully) negative. There's not a day you don't turn on an evening newscast with red breaking news graphics, ominous theme music, a picture of Trump frowning, and some sort of protest going on. Even if NBC News doesn't go as blowhard as MSNBC you don't walk away with a positive impression of Trump after watching any NBC newscast. I don't think any mainstream news network is trying to paint both sides as equal. Those accusations came up when networks rightfully questioned the previous president's mental agility for office, and held democrats to account for pretending he was okay. Yes one side may be lesser of two evils but EVERY side is subject to media scrutiny.

TV station management is disgusting. If stations are getting rid of long-term anchors and paying talent less because they "no longer move the needle", why do stations care if ex talent goes to other local media? It can't be protection of intellectual property because digital writers and photojournalists typically aren't under contract. It's control and jealousy.

I'm not sure if this should go to either the WCAU NBC 10 thread, the KYW Thread, or the Speculatron 9000 thread, but I kinda thought this one deserves its own. Anyway, September 10th marks 30 years since both WCAU-TV and KYW-TV traded their CBS and NBC affiliations respectively. Channel 10 was sold to NBC and became NBC 10 while KYW became part of CBS and later an O&O of the latter following the merger of CBS and Group W/Westinghouse. This was all the result of a nationwide network affiliation realignment that affected Philadelphia and many other markets as a result of the Rupert Murdoch clan at Fox snagging the NFL away from CBS. This makes me wonder if 'CAU and/or KYW is doing a 30th anniversary retrospective on The Big Switch. I don't think I should expect KYW to do anything on it though since they didn't do so for the 25th anniversary back in 2020.

Krista McEnany hasn't been seen on WXIN/WTTV since April. There's a reason why. She suffered a stroke, an ultimate health scare that took her immediately off the air. She is recovering nicely but will not return, at least not anytime soon, as she's also pregnant and is expecting a third child that's due late next month. More than likely, she won't be back on the air until next year after her maternity leave is over. https://fox59.com/morning-news/i-do-miss-getting-to-do-my-job-meteorologist-krista-mcenany-on-health-scare-road-to-recovery/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMsYudleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHou27Uetedm4e8i3IORc6l9GZFsyUjAZIBu1ZISHjvaxAzldwtuAuS_l43jT_aem_Xr2RHNjv-ly8bnsue2rjHA

That is so laughably not what I said at all. Get your head out of the sand. Yeah go ahead and cheer on a bunch of rich fatcats that are content with wasting a quarter of a billion dollars on one station and an LMA. You realize how stupid that sounds? Or that you're defending the fandom's love for a conglomerate that doesn't deserve it? This type of behavior—besides "oooh Tegna bad" "oooh Scripps bad"—is why I don't take the reasonable people such as you in the TV fandom seriously because if it isn't that, it's people either wanting to be forever stuck in 2008 or judging the performances of stations based solely on vibes, like one person in particular on here. And I'm going to call out @Weeters for not having the "ignore this poster" function in LNT, inasmuch as y'all think I'm an extension of him, you couldn't be more wrong.

I smell lawsuit for Circle City from those that got fired as they should I'd get a lawyer and take Circle City to the cleaners. I feel that Circle City will be sold in my opinion.

I'm not aware of this until now, and this must be new, but WPLG now airs repeats of their 6:30, 10, and 11 pm newscasts overnight as a replacement for ABC World News NOW and ABC ATM. Weekdays: 02:30-03:00 AM: Local 10 World News 03:00-04:00 AM: Local 10 News at 10:00 04:00-04:30 AM: Local 10 News at 11:00 Saturday mornings are the same except for the 11 pm repeat at 4:30 am. They don't do this on Sunday mornings, however, which is odd and weird, as they elect to air Comics Unleashed instead, except for the 11 pm repeat at 4:30 am.

Honestly there shouldn't even be any tape to these shows at all and that they have taped interviews now has denigrated the Sunday morning format because they all used to be all-live for years. Either these politicians get up on Sunday morning to make their case (and so many do), or don't bother. No government official in any party should get to make the determination they only tape interviews on weekdays and have any veto power and Kristi should've had to be ready to defend herself on Sunday morning.

It’s official. @allendevlin is taking the helm as @cbsnewyork Weekend Evening Anchor.

Wow. That's such a huge compliment. Thank you! Its something I live by every day, and its proof that I live by that. Thanks, everybody.

the new law only covers healthcare workers it seems But... On 9/4/2025 a judge found former WISH meteorologist Ashley Elliott's non compete unenforceable because it's too broad. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/judge-blocks-enforcement-of-former-wish-tv-meteorologists-non-compete-clause/ar-AA1LZ0Ai maybe WISH were anticipating losing the lawsuit, the updated non-competes they wanted everyone to sign barred employees from working in any form of media for 1 year after leaving WISH. They could've ran their contracts out, or modified during the out windows and offered more to pay more to have them stay exclusive, and less if they want to be at will.

IIRC, KYW came out of SNL and basically the top of the hour was akin to "Oh yeah. We're now CBS." Of course they did more at other times, when people other than those who hung out until the end of SNL were watching, but it was an amusing contrast to the amusingly over-the-top 1 am infomercial/"newscast" over at NBC 10. Respect to both orgs, they made what they were given work to the best of their abilities.

Doubtful that KYW or WCAU still has archival video from the switch, and they wouldn't bother digging it up from Temple's Urban Archives.

So much for Nexstar/Perry Sook wanting to be in every market. It hasn't bitten them yet. I mean, we've only had the announcement that Sun Broadcasting is buying WFTX. Whereas reasonable people such as yourself are upset that Hearst hasn't put up the white flag of surrender, sold all their stations to Nexstar/Sinclair/Gray/Tegna or private equity, rolled over, and joined the choir invisible. There's a simple reason so many of us love Hearst: As broadcasting companies throw in the towel and sell their stations to competitors or private equity, all indications are that Hearst is one of the very few really companies left. Could they someday disappoint us or even break our hearts by selling out to another company? Of course. But until it does, we'll keep cheering them on.

No I'm not dum dum

It is also worth noting the exclusive option for Hearst to acquire WZVN is at a 2023 base price of $4.46 million, with an annual escalation minimum of $133,800. Source: https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/25076f91874e5250018756995d3503e2 - last page I'm curious how quickly they'll acquire it once new ownership rules are in place.

Yeah they would have because they'd have to go up against the McBride's and you'd be saying the same thing you're saying about Hearst being "bullied" out of Fort Myers so you're wrong on that assumption

Yep. The population influx is evident the rising real estate prices. Despite all it's flaws, it's Florida. Offer people a year round beach, consistent sunshine, large houses and a tropical aesthetic -- as opposed to the industrial Midwest ----- and they will come.

That's because Sinclair - much like Nexstar for the most part outside of their larger markets - do a lot of their set builds in-house now as opposed to having a third-party vendor do it for them. And it's been the case since Park Place - the last company they worked with - went belly up a few years ago. At one point, when they were upgrading their stations' news operations to HD, they opted to have Devlin do their sets. Some of their in-house builds aren't as bad compared to others, but there have been worse setups. Albritton, for example, was notorious for going cheap when they upgraded their stations to HD.

Shirtless, with a gigantic q-tip by his side.

It is being sold to WINK. There is literally no difference between the two companies except for the chief executive. And that news department is gonna be vaporized. They desire to live in a permanent right-wing hellscape run by morons and at continuous risk of being destroyed by hurricanes, and may be uninsurable in the not-too-distant future. Not that Youngstown is any better. You don't spend $220M to wind up in a severe scale disadvantage. It's absolute lunacy to assume Hearst is content with now being in a totally uncompetitive position.

just checked. it redirects now.

Fox4 has always been a horrible news operation, with horrible talent. Scripps has improved it however in recent years. But no one will miss it. End of story. WBBH is one of the strongest local news stations in the country. Great investment by hearst and they dont need to do a thing. WINK absorbing an also-ran Fox station, is a non story frankly.

I think it's a crazy take, there's no way the McBride's is going to bully Hearst out of the Fort Myers market despite the internal issues that typically comes up in the Fort Myers market. If they have to settle for playing 2nd fiddle to the McBride's so be it, they're used to being in that role in other markets they're in anyway.

I actually think they're #1 in most cities now. From the three you mention, WLWT has done better over the years thanks to WCPO and WKRC's misfortunes, WAPT has become solid even if its not #1, and I think KHBS is the market leader there, if not close to it. WBBH is the market leader, which probably made it attractive for Hearst to get. Here in Florida, WESH is a VERY STRONG second in Orlando, and WPBF is now the market leader in WPB. I know y'all want them to sell to the McBrides, but then... that's how competition fades. I'll give Hearst a chance. They're one of the better national media companies out there IMHO.

In all fairness, Fox 4 News is a nonstarter in the market. Scripps decimated the station. While only two tv owners in the market is concerning from an oligopoly POV, from the viewers perspective, take this for what it's worth... IMO despite Gulf Coast News being market leader, WINK is the better news product.

Besides, no matter how much asslicking (excuse my language), someone does with the FCC or DOJ, that means nothing. Or did we forget what happened with Sinclair. And did we also forget that debacle with Soo Kim, Leon Black and Tegna and Cox.

I'm gonna say this with all due respect. The idea of suggesting that Hearst would shut down an ABC and NBC station is, for lack of a better term, insanity. Yes, what WINK, Sun, whatever you wanna call them, is doing is insane and there is no reason for someone to have that much blatant control over a market. However, Hearst knew or should have known going in how powerful WINK was and how weak WFTX might be. Also, suggesting they sell WBBH to the McBrides is just as insane. Hearst is 2nd and 3rd place in several cities. Should we expect a sale of WLWT, WAPT and KHBS next?

It seems that the CBS Evening News is slowly returning to its previous format... The headlines are back at the beginning of the newscast. output.mp4

But... but... the neighborhood reporters....

No, no, and no. This is a play by WINK and partner companies to increase revenue (both advertising and retransmission) in the market with as little operational cost as possible, and eliminate a competitor. Maybe a few MMJs will get carried over. But the realistic outcome is WINK newscasts currently on WXCW will be moved to WFTX or they'll be simulcast on both WXCW and WFTX. One other thing of note with this deal is Jim Schwartzel, the president of Sun Broadcasting, is a candidate for a U.S. House seat in 2026. Running in the crowded 19th District Republican primary to replace Byron Donalds who is running for Governor.

Wow. Up until Waterman sold to Hearst, Ft Myers was one of the few markets I knew of with majority local ownership in television I wonder if the news department remains, the scripps cast model continues, or do they try to make the news department more competitive?

Not anytime soon. They just acquired them. Plus, Hearst RARELY sells. The last time was selling Island Television (KITV/KHVO/KMAU) in 2015 to SJL/Lilly. If anyone will stick it out in the longrun, its Hearst. I'm surprised Gray didn't take a swipe into WFTX considering their recent swap with Scripps.

As if the market wasn't decimated enough with Hearst having WBBH and WZVN under one roof... If there was a market Nexstar could trade into, this could be a possibility "IF" there's any regulatory issues that beleaguer these deals....

Chris Ruddy should be dismissed as a crank just like the Free Press. And if he is a libertarian, then that says a lot about the movement. None of it good.

Huh... interesting. WFTX and WXCW together? You know WFTX's news department would go away in favor of WINK's.

Third-Rate newscasts, crap-tastic syndication packages (as @Megatron81 noted Allen foregoing Wheel, J!, TMZ, ET, etc. for lower-tier shows), and if your network can't deliver in primetime... You could very well get there at this point.

You have to wonder if companies like Allen have been making these moves on purpose simply so the stations can be so far gone, that the acquirer can legally acquire them with a failed station waiver. It seems the only innovation left in broadcasting is the boardroom manipulation to squeeze out any penny on the working level before cashing out and letting someone else deal with the carcass...

And would also think that instead of jettisoning local meteorologists, Allen would have taken a cue from the competition and integrated their local experience, as applicable, to weather situations- like Fox Weather has done with their O&O Mets. Alas, Allen does not think logically.

Agree with you on the channel basically being dead, but you'd think that having actual competition (AccuWeather, WeatherNation, and Fox Weather) would get the channel to rise to the occasion.

While I agree, let's be honest- The most likely buyers are a) Nexstar/Mission (cue the outrage), or b) Gray, who has competing stations in just about every Allen market and would certainly consolidate them into their existing (and statistically more successful) operations. There may be some single-sell options out there... For instance with KIMT, Forum has been building out their TV operation into South Dakota, and might see value having a station in Southern MN (since they own the Rochester Post-Bulletin, they could position news sharing like they do in Fargo), or Hubbard (who owns KAAL) could see a duopoly as advantageous... Not trying to speculate, but rather suggest there are some alternate options on the eventual fire-sale game board. The "C" in TWC is dead... The app and website are the only assets of value. People don't watch for Local On The 8's when you can get Local Whenever You Want on your smartphone. TWC has also slept through quite a few breaking weather events in the last couple of years. I know what you're thinking- "But what about Jim Cantore?" He will be fine- either go to a network, cable news outlet, or pull a James Spann of some sort.

Which was already established in the post your quoted and all the posts that followed.