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The 2025 holiday credits from CBS 2 New York

Some sad news out Houston, and we lost a weather legend in this country. Former KHOU chief meteorologist and Director of the National Hurricane Center Dr. Neil Frank has passed away at the age of 94. https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/dr-neil-frank-dies/285-26cc29fe-18ee-4e47-bdf3-5039367c021a

Did she make a mess or did she do precisely what she was hired to do? Perhaps she should have spiked the story earlier but regardless, she wasn’t hired for her skill set in shepherding the legacy of CBS News into the future. She was hired to be a hatchet person to that legacy. The degree to which we (the collective societal “we”) simply disregard and outright ignore what is happening around us as society falls is staggering to me. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. What has come out in the Epstein files alone would have brought down any other president. Now, it’s not even a blip. Setting aside the veracity of each individual claim, that preponderance of association and cloud of suspicion being utterly ignored by mainstream media is terrifying. Joe Biden slurred some words and the coverage was incessant. The current office holder rants incoherently, makes thinly veiled death threats against perceived enemies, wants to pull non-existent licenses from networks (and the president should actually know how thIs works, but I digress), is linked time and time again to perhaps the worst sexual predators in our lifetime — and the news outlets bring us the latest viral video, cute squirrel story, Taylor Swift gossip or what have you. Not a single one of the big three broadcast news operations is doing real journalism on a regular basis, and now the correspondent who did so has her story killed. Oh wait, I’m sorry, “postponed.” My time on this earth may not be all that much longer in the grand scheme of things. I look at the next generation in my extended family and fear for the world we’re leaving them.

Thank goodness! She’s the best.

Yay, Cindy has returned to the ariwaves as of today at noon! So glad it was just a long break, which we are all entitled to.

Scripps has denied Sinclair’s proposal to buy them.

Actually he worked Fridays and was off Mondays

Some of y'all are talking about Curt like he's 90 with one foot in the grave. Have to do one round-trip, cross-country flight a week at age 60, but it's only for 20-plus weeks out of the year, and you get Fridays off on those weeks? The horror.

Yeah, Curt probably couldn't handle the travel at his age. Strahan has been traveling back and forth for years but he's younger. And it played a factor in James Brown going back to CBS from Fox years ago, since commuting from DC (where he lives) to NYC isn't as strenuous as DC to LA.

Hopefully with a station like WEWS, they will stay put. Hopefully they don't cash out 3001 Euclid Avenue to a developer. Aside from the long-vacant building next to it being converted to apartments, there is little reason for WEWS to move and cash out, especially with all of the history that has taken place there. I know they have an Ohio Historical marker for Dorothy Fuldheim. I believe they have another for "Upbeat" which was an early syndicated music show that originated from WEWS and was hosted by Don Webster.

He been moved to so many shows over the years at CBS in New York he was on multiple timeslots until becoming evening anchor in 2010 for channel 2. They just used him

Well, that wasn't a good career move.

The only actual violation is if the ident at the top of the hour is wrong, as outside of identification call letters can be trademarked to stations.

For KMCI-TV, it was a logo rebrand, per se. It didn't stop being "The Spot", in fact, I dunno why Scripps even imported that brand to other media markets.

That's the simple answer. In reality, WTVH 5.1 CBS 5 is "moving" to WKOF 15.1, which is owned by Sinclair (WSTQ Licensee) instead of Granite. But otherwise, it will still be known as 'CBS 5". Since WKOF is a 3.0 station for Syracuse, WKOF 15.1 is still on WTVH's frequency as the ATSC 1.0 home. That's the biggest stretch I've seen yet under Sinclair, or pretty much any other owner to get a sidecar back in the home garage.

truly sad to see Scripps of all companies vulnerable to a takeover attempt by a slightly better performing company that it itself is not doing too good either but they did it to themselves.

I wonder if this branch of the Scripps family is as screwed up as the other half of the family tied to James E. Scripps (brother of E.W. Scripps). They're the ones tied to Scripps Health, the Scripps Oceanography Institute and were the original Detroit News owners. There was a good American Greed (season 10, Family Fortune Feud) that described how granddaughter and heir Melissa Scripps burned through millions of dollars...

Scripps itself is trading near all-time lows, so I'm not sure if that would be a big deterrent to the family wanting to sell. We're talking about a company that was trading at ~$145 a share in 2004, and $4.42 today. Frankly, this concept that the family doesn't want to sell seems a bit absurd to me. I said this in the Discord, but I have to assume that Sinclair is aware of something that we're not, and I would presume that something is that some of the "Family Shareholders" want out. The family shares have been diluted between roughly 75 members as of 2021, and I think it is impossible they are all unanimous in agreement on not selling the company. The Family Shares are so diluted at this point, some numbers I've seen shows nobody walking away with more than $8.6 million (at the current stock price) and, in fact, most walk away with far less than that (7 members hold exactly one share, 28 hold less than 200 shares, and the ones with the most all seem to hold somewhere between 200k and 700k "family" shares, according to a document I have found). tl;dr I'm wondering if the internal process for family members to sell shares has already begun, and nobody in the family wants to sink their own money into buying more shares of a declining asset. At some point, those shares can be sold to whomever they want, and the Board can't stop them.

Scripps board voted to insert a temporary poison pill that expires November 26, 2026. aimed at unapproved outsiders who gain 10% or more in Class A shares, cancelling their rights but allowing anyone else to buy SSP at 50% discount. tl;dr Sinclair, or any entity, or Sinclair acting with another shareholder as a 'wolf pack', will get automatically diluted if they go up in ownership from the 9.9% now. If they're already at 10% and gain another 0.1% or more the poison pill is triggered (https://scripps.com/press-releases/scripps-adopts-limited-duration-shareholder-rights-plan/)

it looks like a short fuse tactic to pressure the board into acting without giving them enough time to seek other bids. Or, Sinclair knows/guesses the family may be infighting and this would prevent them from ironing out any disagreements, splintering the vote enough to get over the 50.1% hurdle. The board can ignore the bid as they can also be sued for lack "due care" if they accept it without getting bids from Gray or anyone else who might be interested. Imo the offer isn't that good for Scripps family. They control 93.3% of the vote, if they accept, over 60% of what they get will be in SBGI stock that is trading at a 13-year low. With a 3-5 year lockup they could very likely end up worse off by the time they're allowed to cash out

Channel 11 would be the big winner in the end...

Arguably Nexstar and Tegna made the worst of an already bad hand because of streaming. The entire TV news infrastructure (including national and major international outlets) has been rocked by streaming, and none them have really recovered.

Don't give them any ideas! Hence my wondering.

Although not directly related (as of now), Sinclair's current music/graphics are getting up there in age. Perhaps Sinclair decides to move forward with Scripps' new music/graphics and expand it to other legacy Sinclair stations if they actually manage to pull off a Scripps takeover. On a different note, last time I checked Sinclair is not in the best financial shape either - which makes this situation even more bizarre.

At one time Scripps was the largest. 30 years ago, their deal with ABC in the throes of the New World-Fox deal set off other sub-deals like Westinghouse and CBS (after WJZ getting spurned by ABC in favor of WMAR) and even the market swaps caused by that deal alone. It's tragic to see what has become of the company that Edward Willis Scripps founded almost 150 years ago. What was once a beacon of journalism has morphed into a bungled series of assets on life support after over-extending themselves over and over, while doubling down in the worst ways possible.

Very hard to tell at this early stage if this deal can even be done. There was a time until very recently that I would've considered a deal like this to not only be impossible but also a downgrade for Scripps' stations. Honestly, I'm at a point that this may be marginally a good thing for the majority of the remaining Scripps' stations. While "Scrippscasting" may have been an attempt at cutting costs, it has done far more harm with watering down newscast quality and making it nearly unwatchable. Whatever Scripps had as being a premium brand has all but been thrown down the toilet by corporate consultants. It's been very sad to watch but also undeniable. I am concerned for certain markets, especially in Nashville where Sinclair already has a significant presence. I'm sure Sinclair has its own intentions with cutting costs (i.e. merging adjacent market newscasts). But Gray and Allen are also guilty of the same thing to varying degrees. I'd rather watch a newscast produced live to air with decent attempts made at covering stories of local interest. If this deal were to materialize, I hope the first order of business by Sinclair is to rescind the Scrippscasting model and put live news back where it belongs. One thing I'll add is I do see this as a downgrade for WFTS in Tampa Bay. That has been the one station that hasn't been significantly harmed by Scripps overtime. I'm not so sure that Sinclair will continue to steward WFTS as Scripps has done there.

Meanwhile, Reuters is chiming in. Saying that this is a bully tactic. https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/sinclairs-brash-tv-ma-script-could-use-rewrite-2025-11-17/ I see 4 scenarios: 1) Scripps gets dragged in and accepts a Sinclair deal, despite being a horrific thought. 2) Scripps goes for Chapter 11 to try to stave them off. 3) Scripps talks to another company and attempts a merger that avoids Sinclair, although the choices are limited. 4) Scripps tries to wait it out, although the pressure may be too much.

I didn't have this on my BINGO card Sinclair taking a stake in Scripps at just 8%. Seems like Scripps is having none of it really what the Scripps board needs to do is fire the CEO why does Adam still have a job? Running Scripps into the ground shouldn't have bought ION a few years ago that was their undoing in my opinion. Sorry for beating that dead horse once again.

Let's just hope it's Sinclair acting like they're a powerful company (again) and all talk and not enough action to pull this deal off. Yes, both companies have seen better days, but Sinclair getting Scripps could easily kill both companies. Scripps can barely manage all of what they have including all of the glut from the Ion deal. And proven in their disastrous management of the former Fox/Bally RSNs, they should not even be entrusted to run a lemonade stand. But in this FAFO world that's once again open for business, pretty sure our lord and savior will greenstamp this deal before the "files" can be released. TegStar too...

Scripps responds:

It would be suicide to move what is WJAR to 6, or to change its call letters. WJAR historically is the dominant station in RI. Dead air often beat Ch. 12 and 6 combined. It is one of NBC's oldest affiliates going back to radio and started using the three toned chime that is synonymous with NBC today. It's a long heritage and habit in RI despite Sinclair's attempts to destroy the station. I assume Disney isn't too happy with this move, but they have no where to go. The Providence market is the future. All anglo commercial stations (not including ION), are now owned by Nexstar and Sinclair. Welcome to the future if both companies get their way with a compliant FCC. RI viewers are the losers.

To be fair, it was NBC that decided to brand as NBC10 Boston because of their position on cable. I doubt most people would get the two stations confused with one another. WJAR has historical precedent as well as having an actual full power license of its own. The only reason WBTS has full power coverage is because they have a channel share agreement with WGBX. But, knowing Sinclair, nothing would surprise me concerning moving feeds around between stations in a single market.

They should change the calls to WHNE, because the love is certainly gone. Also they could've finally settled the NBC Boston channel confusion on channel 10 by just moving to 6.1 and 6.2, but we're talking about Sinclair, who just loves to bungle things as of late.

And WLNE is still going to be owned by Standard Media... correct? While "totally separate" from Sinclair in terms of their other semi-relater sidecars, it seems like these deals don't smell quite right. In the eyes of the FCC, everything else is a non-licensed asset and can move to WJAR and Sinclair. And given "ABC 6" and their place in the market, their presence is so minimal it doesn't raise any alarms about market share either.

In this case, it's likely the first time that a separate operating unit (WPMI/WJTC in Mobile) has had to shack up on a co-owned rival's frequency (WEAR). Most of the other cases have been the same operating unit for years(WSYX/WTTE, WCHS/WVAH, KBTV/KFDM etc...), they just did the switch from the "shell" station to the parent as a subchannel. Probably the closest things have been the Fox move-ins like with "Fox Chattanooga" being the old FOX 61 that used to live on WDSI, and the "Fox Michiana" that relocated from WSJV "Fox 28" to WSBT 22.2. The others have kept their long-term branding in place on their new OTA home.

As is often the case, I wouldn't be surprised if this was Sinclair being in a hurry and not waiting until the Ts and Is had been crossed and dotted. There are examples of this, particularly with streaming: a station launches their platform but only some TVs can actually download it. (Seems to me that stations always launch on Samsung TV months later).

Several weeks after "NBC 15" moved from WPMI to WEAR 3.2, viewers are confused as hell... I wonder why? From the looks of things Sinclair has royally bungled this switch especially if the only way to watch NBC15 is in digital siberia on the main Xfinity service in Mobile (which was WEAR 3.2 while WPMI has always been on channel 11)

What an awful thing to say. If you do not mean any “disrespect” and “think she’s great” then why qualify why you think she doesn’t have the look for a major market? This is no better than unwanted viewer letters that tear people down. And in case you didn’t notice, there have been a number of weather folks in major markets with the trait you listed, notably at WNBC and WGN. SMH.

It also has nothing to do with her capabilities as a meteorologist. She is highly popular. She was more than competent considering she had stability throughout NBC and Media General ownership.

WPMI and WJTC have until December 2027 to choose to exercise an agreement to be acquired by Sinclair per their FCC filing. It was executed in 2012. As the clock is ticking on these agreements, expect Sinclair to cash in on them while they can. This one's a 15 year option.

Since it is the only remaining non-Sinclair operated Standard Media station: KLKN's public file shows a Rincon option agreement.

oops, its an autocorrect typo I did not check. Nexstar was the intended name. My apologies.

KNTV Sep 1994 6pm open. Intro dates to late 1990 and was retired in 1995.

KMAX's Good Day's 30th Anniversary special as aired last week during their 10am hour.

Here's Sinclair's press release https://sbgi.net/sinclair-launches-comprehensive-strategic-review-for-broadcast-business/ Reading this, it almost sounds like they want to be a buyer, whereas the CNBC article spins it as them wanting to cash out. I guess Sinclair will see it their way, and everyone else will see it for what it's worth.

Bonus points if Cox is the survivor or at least has more influence.

Reunited and it feels so good... Jerome Gray and Lisa Foronda, both formerly of KHOU-TV Houston. https://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2025/03/lisa-foronda-and-jerome-gray-reunite-in.html

I don't know why they just don't get absorbed into the O&O stations??