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The crapification (there's another word) of television advertising, especially on the local side, has been swift in the last few years. If you go by television ads alone, we have a crisis of wasted energy from bad 80s insulation, old window glass that is a national crisis, and roofs ready to leak any moment, that can be fixed with no finance charges for six years and your bath can be fixed for one day (often now illustrated by false AI in a violation of every single ad code/consumer law in the state law library), along with SonoBello ads which just scream 'women, you are terrible, weigh too much and you need to freeze this fat off but if you need it removed, we don't know how to!' (love that one for being an ED trigger that can't be stopped by any ratings system). Meanwhile, things that used to be in ads (fast food specials and special hours) are now being reported on as news instead because it's cheaper to put out PR about it than film an ad about said changes with actual people...and that's what now makes up these thinner and thinner newscasts. I wonder why old standby advertisers aren't doing commercials now...because your newsroom literally let them have your anchors do the commercials instead as 'overtime' with full knowledge that they are.

Elections have consequences. And one of the consequences of the 2024 election is Brendan Carr serving as FCC Chair and the chapter of a certain project he wrote becoming reality. There may be optics of scruitny over this deal, but the reality is this is just a matter of how this merger gets approved, if there are minimal areas in which this government says it goes too far (and if there are divestures, expect them to be license only to spectrum speculators, sidecars, or godcasters with all non-license assets staying with Nexstar), and if ownership cap changes need to done legislatively or through rulemaking. TEGNA doesn't want to exist any more. It hasn't wanted to exist since Standard General offered $24/share in 2022. A $125 million breakup fee isn't going to reinvigorate TEGNA if this deal doesn't get regulatory approval. That's 2% of what TEGNA is valued at in this merger. TEGNA is, for all practical purposes, a zombie company with stockholders and executives who just want to get their money and peace out. They have made cuts and staff reductions with the intention of having a lean balance sheet for whoever wants to absorb them in one piece. A benevolent broadcasting company with billions in credit to purchase a large station group doesn't exist in 2025.

The endlessly copy-pasted passages in the paperwork got so grating and repetitive that I couldn't stand to read all of it. It wasn't like what Scripps and Gray sent to the FCC over their swap with regards to market dynamics, it was just the same thing over and over again with figures they may or may not have pulled out of their ass and the same find-and-replace writing.

With how poorly put together these documents seem to be, is there a chance this merger goes to an administrative law judge?

Put another way, they've been waiting 3 or 4 years longer than expected to get their golden parachutes to retirement and never having to do something ever again while the rest of the world burns.

Someone needs to do an independent investigation to find out where everyone ranks at. Like, there needs to be a third party who does this.

After (trying) to watch WJW at 10pm, I can see why they're slipping in the ratings....maybe the whole "Cleveland's own" schtick is getting old.... Add in Nexstar's self-serving drivel coupled with the fumes that WJW has ran on for years, times have changed. Your senior talent from the "old days" is basically Wayne Dawson (still on medical leave recovering from cancer), Stefani Schaefer, David Moss (on New Day Cleveland), Jack Shea, Lou Maglio, and newer additions from the 2000s like Tracy McCool, Kenny Crumpton, Dave Nethers, Todd Meany and Scott Sabol. Then throw in a few more veterans that joined in more recent years like Ed Gallek (and his wife Peggy) and Roosevelt Leftwich. But the old regime has passed on and/or retired. Some left because TV has become what it is today. And for whatever reason, John Telich's bio is still up (he retired in 2022) along with those of Carl Monday and Tom Meyer...I cant' recall the last time either of them has been involved on TV. Plus, your old ads that seemed like comfort food have been replaced by others that are probably just as tacky and overplayed with the usual suspects (lawyers, car dealers and third-rate furniture stores and home improvement "contractors") And adding newscast after newscast over the years only stretches things thinner.... I still cringe when Nexstar makes the station fully theirs when they replace the parting gifts that Tribune gave them...their set and graphics, both of which were LONG overdue at the time...

At minimum, they could have at least volunteered to sell one of the larger stations in the conflicts like example WGNO, WTIC, KTHV etc. I'm just saying that just to put out there what some people may be thinking.

Quite a few of the pieces are straight-up perjury. That is especially true with the competition statistics and not telling the truth about the SSAs, LMAs and the like. The lack of candor should be disqualifying in the end.

Sounds like the WGN Morning News was referenced in a new promo for WFLD's morning newscast. WGN had a great response to that...

Pam Cook posted on her Instagram story mentioning that KTVU’s Morning’s on 2 Meteorologist Steve Paulson is retiring tomorrow after 25 years at KTVU.

Anything can and will happen between now and then. Billionaires love to sit around talking about mergers and acquisitions. It is one of their favorite things to do. It makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside to announce to the world they've agreed to one.