Leaderboard

Story from today about Chuck commemorating today's anniversary at the Empire State Building. With a Sue Simmons cameo:

But if they add a show at 12:30, how do you get affiliates to pick it up or not send it to 3am so they keep the full hour? Compulsory carriage is the only way that works. And even then, I don't see them going to a fully straight newscast because CBS Deals is being pushed heavily and they aren't giving up that revenue source even if everyone else outside compulsive shoppers hates it.

In hindsight, the fact that the KAZT/Phoenix deal was a time brokerage agreement and not a sidecar sale with an LMA is a pretty big clue that Nexstar knew the FCC was looking at the WPIX situation seriously and may have been aware this kind of proposed punishment was in the realm of possibilities. It is now a waiting game until March 31 to see if the Mission purchase of WADL/Detroit gets blown up. Whatever happens with WPIX and WADL, the real winners are lawyers getting lots of billable hours.

Caught a promo earlier today celebrating Chuck Scarborough anchoring the news on WNBC for 50 years. Seems NBC4 has a lot planned next week. More info is on the station’s website: nbcnewyork.com/chuck

Certainly not the issue at all as they've done their best to improve the signal as far as they can get it and their facility is very modern. The problem is everyone else has had plenty of time to establish themselves and NBC Boston is pretty much a bodged-together combo of NECN and Telemundo NE with the addition of some other talent. Like in Milwaukee or Atlanta post-94, it's going to take an entire generation of talent to cycle out before they can consider themselves competitive, and where some stations were able to get a big syndicated show to lighten the load off news, that certainly isn't happening at all in 2024.

The WBTS facility is licensed as a Class A digital, but it is actually transmitting on spectrum leased from WGBX, the full-power secondary station owned by WGBH, the PBS station in town, so over-the-air coverage is not an issue.

WHDH does well since Sunbeam Television, its owner, historically does a great job and has a strong following. What WBTS (Comcast) did was to bypass them and install their own NBC Channel 10 (Really Channel 8 ) on a lower powered CD station. The viewers in the market have reacted adversely to this station and it has the lowest ratings in the market, allowing all other stations (including WSBK and WBZ CBS) better ratings. Being late to the party and rude about it will get you no favors.

I really miss Sade. Hope she’s recovering well from her knee surgery.

The best stations seem to thrive in spite of their networks, bad syndication breaks, and ownership initiatives, which is certainly being proven by the Coxpollo and Hearst ABC'ers, but it certainly helps if your station builds around the community first rather than the network that carries it, which WDJT and WANF have found out and WWJ is learning to do now. Meanwhile in reverse WWL-TV seemed to turn their back on NOLA when Gannett/Tegna took over (including the inexplicable "CBS This Morning" set emulation which backfired the moment they had to move the local morning show to WUPL) and WVUE is thriving on what used to be 4's bread and butter by just embracing the city and the Saints. And even though it has to deal with Sinclair, KUTV still manages to put out a good product which is strong against KSL and KSTU, while KTVX never seemed to find its way once non-local ownership muddled and meddled it to death; it certainly didn't help that its ownership pre-Nexstar was more used to running independent/UPN stations than a network affiliate.

It's too bad Sue is not there with him to celebrate, but that is the nature of the business. We'll see if Chuck makes the record for 57 years! Also here is a recent interview with Sue from Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/sue-simmons-chuck-scarborough-wnbc-ppsgedjt

It's also perplexing why many CBS affiliates struggle despite being the primetime leader for so many years and having the strongest daytime lineup. To the poster's original question, it is puzzling how *non-O&O* ABC affiliates , remain market leaders in many areas despite not having that impressive of a daytime or primetime lineup anymore.

The viewers lose no matter what it isn't going to bring back competition what you will is Apollo like that don't care for local news other than the $$$ is all. And Apollo has run Cox Media into the ground or Byron Allen buying TV stations I don't see it as good news it's lose lose no matter what. The FCC still thinks it's the 60s and not 2024 as broadcast has a lot of competition mainly big tech which the FCC doesn't seem to get. I'm guessing that you could see more brokerage deals with Nexstar or Sinclair if sidecars go away they will still have their grip on things as well. That is how I see it in my opinion.

Another 90-day extension between the two parties... (which, again, considering the FCC news last week feels like a moot point to close the deal) https://thedesk.net/news/wadl-termination-date-mission-extended-june-fcc/

Another thing to consider, specifically in the case of B&B, because I think we tend to think of things only in terms of how it affects us ("us" being those in the United States): The Bold and the Beautiful is one of the most-watched shows on tv internationally, which is where I think it makes its money. I even read someplace that Bold has more viewers on a daily basis in Italy (where it's known simply as Beautiful) than here in the States. It's also very popular in Australia, I believe, evidently pulling in higher ratings there than the homegrown Neighbours which was cancelled not too long ago. I would agree that if it relied chiefly on U.S. audiences, it would've gotten the ax a long time ago, unfortunately. But, its international presence is what's propping it up. Perhaps it might make the move to Paramount+ someday for U.S. audiences, but as long as the show is making money via international broadcasts and licensing and what not, it's probably not going to really go anywhere anytime soon, even it's not necessarily broadcast OTA on CBS.

Looks like this is probably an effect of IBM selling The Weather Company to private equity. Looks like the deal closed on Feb 1st, and just like that, the digital mets were gone after only one month. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240201709190/en/Francisco-Partners-Completes-Acquisition-of-The-Weather-Company It's a shame for everyone who lost their job in this process.

WAVE is launching GrayONE an hour from now at 11/10c. They've been running promos teasing of it over the last week(s). As an aside, can we change the name of this thread to "The GrayONE-ification Thread" or something similar?

Looks like WAVE is next on the list!

This is a long-awaited reversal of Borkian Philosophy outlined in the book The Antitrust Paradox, where he insisted that monopolistic practices that harmed consumers would be sorted out naturally by the Capitalist system.

an update on the world's first television station... WRGB (CBS 6) Schenectady/Albany, NY is moving it's longtime 6:30pm news to 7, and moving the CBS Evening News from 7 PM down to 6:30 PM. Previously WXXA (Fox 23) had a 7pm newscast produced by WTEN (ABC, 10) which it moved to 6:30 presumably to compete with CBS 6.

The problem with Scripps stations like Fox 4 Ft Myers removing all talent (minus weather) from newscasts its that they're axing some of tv's last stand--personality. In the era of information overload where you can get news from anywhere, WHO is giving you the news definitely draws an audience. I used to tease my mom for always turning in to a specific channel to see a specific weather man when all stations give the same forecast. But that's what gives tv stations and talent power---the ability to command an audience.

Given that the CW is already on WMYD, I don't think Nexstar is going to do any fighting as far as WADL is considered.

Good question. So to my understanding Mission Broadcasting is Nexstar's shell corporation which it uses as loophole to own more stations than the FCC ownership cap? Overall, I'm surprised local television owners were allowed to get this massive in the first place. With the industry effectively being dominated by less than 10 companies, not only is it bad for the viewers but bad for the employees who want to leave a crappy company (like Nexstar) only to be confronted with them in almost every TV market.

I might be in the minority, but I think it looks cool, especially if it's a play on the New York City flag colors. It elevates it from plain white and dull.

The viewers too. Let's be clear. If we see what I hope are many unwinding of side-care LMAs, the viewers will be the winners. This entire mass consolidation of stations has been awful for the viewers of local news. I know that these groups try to sell us synergy, but that doesn't work in local news, unless you are shutting down whole departments and consolidating their operations, but that's never good for local ad sales and local news. You can see this in the grocery industry as well. Kroger's ownership of all of their stores is a disservice to the vendors and consumers. Their stores, regardless of state, look, sound and sell all of the same things. There's nothing local.

How many nails can this coffin fit?

A shorter summary: https://www.nexttv.com/news/fcc-orders-mission-to-sell-wpix-fines-nexstar-dollar18-million

50 years is quite an accomplishment! Newsday also had something on Chuck today, but it's paywalled unfortunately: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/chuck-scarborough-wnbc-k6wsvksw

Kelly Costa posted on social media that she was offered to relocate to NYC and stay with FOX Weather, but she turned it down and hinted that she will be returning to New England and working at a station in her home state. Stay tuned

SB...Wow WHDH is still doing well as an independent even beating NBC's ground-up operation at WBTS. To @carolina4's point, CBS's lack of aesthetic investment is evident on the national level. Just look at CBS Sunday Morning's 2000s computer graphics and formerly chroma key set. Their outdated graphics totally work for that homely program, but comparatively, it did not on the CBS Evening News. Norah's current set is the best they've had in years. I will however credit local stations like WCBS who do have a great set.

I think they will do with KING5 does it doesn’t give their second station its own online. They do list KUNS schedule in their live section

It's still just one YouTube playlist on KOMO's YouTube channel three months later, and they still have no website. I wouldn't be shocked if KUNS gets a traditional "CW 51 Seattle" branding come fall and ARC WM quietly goes away after the next Xfinity negotiation cycle, and ARC stands for 'Almost Ready to Close' here. It's also telling that it hasn't been launched outside those markets because other Arc organizations have pre-emptively stopped them from doing so after these two launches.

A recent interview in Newsday featured Katiy Tong: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/kaity-tong-wpix-qhg4zhj3 She reflected on her time at WABC (where there were protests in 1991 when she was dropped as anchor) and WPIX (where she reminisced about her time with Jim Watkins). She also mentioned that her recovery has not been easy. Hoping for the best for her.

I truly appreciate that you care about visual presentation standards. But I don't see the lack of a high camera or the shift to chromakey as the lowering of the bar for local news. Endless "local" newscasts filled with national stories from network news services, repurposed packages from ownership sister stations, and copious time spent on television talking about "what people are talking about online". Local newscasts with a shrinking amount of actual community news. That's lowering the bar for news. Not a few tweaks to how a newscast is shot.

If I remember correctly, Chuck didn’t do much to move the needle at WNBC. It was the addition of Sue and their pairing that made 4 a ratings contender.

I could see it more like this (These are based on Eastern Time) 10am - Deal 11am - Price 12pm - Local News 12:30pm - "CBS Afternoons with Natalie Morales" (Because everyone else is doing it...also, this is just a hypothetical) 1:00pm - Y&R 2:00pm - B&B 2:30pm - The Gates (I assume this will have a 30 minute runtime if this goes to fruition.) That way they squeeze in a new daytime news program - making the noon hour like a daytime version of the 6:00 hour with Local/CBSEN w NOD -and add a new soap. And Natalie gets moved to a new role with The Talk being eliminated.

She’s been passed over so many times for a weekday gig.. she’s probably just phoning in most of the weekend work at this point.

Weird. Perhaps they were taking after the NYC flag? But I agree, that gradient does not look good.

Sade had been anchoring solo at 11pm on Fridays since last year, she’s out right now. Mike is also largely viewed as Bill Ritter’s eventual successor and they’re not subtle about how they’ve positioned him for that.