CircleSeven

Can't say I'm surprised of this news.

From Feder, Longtime anchor Steve Sanders is retiring, after 37 years at Channel 9.

His last day will be February 28th.

A couple of notes tonight....

On 10/28/2019 at 11:29 PM, CircleSeven said:

 

Speaking of WYCI....

 

Gray will be acquiring the station for $1.1M. And it'll use the pre-2017 "failed station waiver" rule to acquire it. 

 

The FCC granted them the waiver last Tuesday. And were able to close the WYCI & WYCX-LD sale on Friday.

Also, not sure when it launched, but it appears Presque Isle's new NBC Affiliate WWPI-LD is on the air. The FCC granted an STA to launch the LP back in December. 

It appears some cable customers complained that didn't like them replacing that nearby Tegna station (WLBZ) for this new station.

1 hour ago, PelicanGuy said:

I feel WVUE will be unveiling a new look very soon...maybe even tonight after the Super Bowl. Their latest "Local First" promo hints at it.

No new graphics on Fox 8 tonight......

1 hour ago, Gavin said:

 Good WVUE needs it after all there hard times they need it, especially a new set.

Why do they need a new set, when they just got that a few years ago?

13 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Why is WATN there? What station represents the First News at 9:00 mic flag? I don't remember that one.

Looking at the pic closely, there's a little sticker where it states that city. It looks like its says "LACROSSE"

Yep. From the "wiproud" website....

On 1/28/2020 at 3:03 PM, CLETVFan said:

Terrence Lee is leaving WEWS, and is headed for Chicago.  His final newscast on Good Morning Cleveland is February 7.

19 hours ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

I wonder where in Chicago he is headed?

19 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

If it's as a reporter, it could be anywhere. If as an anchor, WBBM and WFLD have had job listings for awhile, though the former has recently taken down the position, implying that CBS 2 may have filled the position.

14 hours ago, Greggo said:

WFLD maybe? They've got a fresh opening after booting the previously suspended Rafer Weigel earlier this week.

Feder says its WFLD. 

Also WGAL reporter Brittany Garzillo is also joining the station as a reporter.

New M&A.

Tegna is acquiring KTBU in Conroe, TX, from Spanish Broadcasting Systems (owners of Mega TV) for $15M.

Once the deal is complete, it will become the sister to KHOU.

A couple of M&As. One is TV-related, the other is paper-related.

Lowcountry Media, owner of Savannah GA's Independent station WSCG is selling its station to religious broadcaster, TCT for $3M.

Lowcountry tried to sell the station last year to HC2 Holdings for $2.6M. But the deal fell through back in November, despite getting FCC approval that July.

WSCG was the former CW affiliate under the callsign WGSA.

____________________________________

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is selling its newspaper business to Lee Enterprises for $140M. Lee has been managing BH's papers since 2018.

As you may know, Buffett bought most of these papers from Media General in 2012.

Okay. The Sinclair/Nexstar settlement talk is in this thread.

WAFF, WTVM & KCBD are also using the Gray Ticker, while still using the Raycom L3s.

I know KCBD have been using the ticker for like a few months.....

As of now, KCPM is not a top-4 ranked station in Fargo. KVLY is a top-4 outlet. But because of the reinstatement of eight voice test (which mean it suppose to have 8 unique owners after a deal is completed), Gray can't acquire KCPM without acquiring the "failed station waiver". The 8-voice test was nullified under Pai 2017 dereg order, until the courts vacated that order back in September.

It would be speculative to say which programming (either new or existing) to be moved to KCPM, since they haven't made any post-closing plans. But they do plan to change the callsign of KCPM to KXQK once the deal is over.

Here what they said in the press release almost two years ago:

Quote

After FCC approval and closing in a few months, KVLY will rebuild and upgrade KCPM so that it can serve the entire Fargo market. Over the coming months, station management “will evaluate the best programming to broadcast over this station and will be selecting new call letters, according to KVLY.

When they'd announce they were acquiring KNCT in late Summer 2018, they didn't announce that they were going to move The CW from KWTX to that stick under the deal was already finalized.  

But the question is why the deal is still pending almost two years after the deal has been announced? The FCC could've easily gave this deal a greenlight, given the regulatory relief throughout most of that time. That's because the deal was challenged by the current owners of KRDK-TV (which was the former KXJB-TV). They say that the current owners of KCPM kept the signal off the air for more than a 12 month period. And that would trigger an automatic forfeiture of the station's license, if it stays off the air for a full calender year. So in their eyes that station's license should be revoked.

51 minutes ago, JCB4TV said:

Since this deal was announced, Raycom, WWNY, KECY, and WVIR have come and gone, among others. Should this deal not happen, my logic says that KCPM along with KXJB should go to Nexstar thus placing the KX stations back under one roof.

What? Gray is not stupid to give up an LP station/CBS affiliation to a group that's not even in the market. I'm sure if the KCPM deal falls through, the market will stay a status quo. It would be a better chance that KCPM would be shut down completely than to be acquired by another broadcaster.

So follow-up regarding the KCPM deal, which has been going on for almost two years.

They posted an amendment tonight and they're now in a process of filing a "failed station waiver" to acquire the station. 

This is because FCC ordered last month to go back enforcing the 2016 ownership rules after the Third Circuit struck down Pai's 2017 dereg order last fall.

6 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

The Live Well Network name is finally going away, years after ending national distribution and mainly being a repeat-focused lifestyle network.

 

Instead, it'll become ABC's Local-ish starting February 17th.

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/243676/abc-oos-localish-expands-with-diginet-rebranding/

Certain shows listed (More In Common, Bite Size) are already airing on LWN right now.

This will be in direct competition with NBC's LX diginet launching on their O&Os later this year.

This is getting silly.

WADL is launching a new half-hour 10pm news program entitled News Now with Kevin Dietz, hosted by former WDIV reporter Kevin Dietz.  

But this will not be your typical news program. As explained by station owner Kevin Adell:

Quote

WADL CEO Kevin Adell said the newscast will play to Dietz’s investigative strengths. It will typically feature two long reports, and will not focus on house fires and burglaries. It will be produced at WADL. “It’s definitely local--what’s going on at the water cooler,” said Adell, who told Detroit Free Press Dietz will fight for the underdog.

The program premieres tonight, one day before WKBD's new 10pm show (produced out of Fort Worth, TX) premieres.

The B&C article states that KTVT will only produce the Detroit show (WKBD). 

The other two, WCBS will produce the Atlanta show (WUPA); and WFOR is going to produce the Tampa show (WTOG).

Also from Feder, the station's PM executive producer Dominick Stasi will replace Lyons as ND for the Channel 9 broadcasts.

This is really interesting.  

Remember Rockford, IL CBS station WIFR gave up its full-power signal during the spectrum auction? Its now on a LP signal.

Back in November, it moved from its out-of-core RF 41 signal for RF 28. And after that move, viewers in the northeastern portion of the area complained that it can't get the new signal. RF 28 is also used in adjacent markets (WISN Milwaukee & WEDE Chicago). So after a few days, it temporary went back to RF 41.

Starting Wednesday (1/15), the station is going back to RF 28 signal. But it has also announced that Weigel Broadcasting's WFBN-LD (RF 23) will simulcast WIFR's main signal on virtual channel 23.11.

If this sounds familiar, that's because Weigel has also simulcasted Chicago's CBS-owned outlet WBBM for about a few years on WMEU-CD 48.3. This is due to some viewers who aren't able to receive WBBM's main VHF signal.

New M&A. Weigel continues its buying spree.

They're acquiring Hartford's WHCT-LD from Venture Technologies for $1.5M.

Shockingly enough, Hartford is currently one of the very few markets that don't carry MeTV. But WZME in Bridgeport did carry the network to portions of the market prior to 2015.

1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

That is an error.

 

And the press release officially says... WGN-TV Political Report. The listings got it wrong. Actually sounds kinda lame, IMO.

I'm fully aware of what the press release says, as I first posted it last night. I was just mentioning what the guide said, and only questioned if that was the proposed name of the show before the release.

11 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Dang, I was hoping for more midday weekend news...something either at 12pm or 4pm. Nobody in the market is doing that.

We'll I'm glad they didn't. In my view, having a weekend midday show is kind of silly, given the lack of viewership in that time of day (I don't see how WSB, WSOC or WPVI (Sundays) can do it). And I don't think the weekend morning crew would want to stay on a couple of hours just to do another broadcast very few people are going to watch.

4 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Also, according to my program guide, they're going to end the Saturday 5pm news at 5:30pm instead of 6pm. That's only showing for this Saturday. The Saturday after that appears normal for now. Hopefully this is just a one-off occurrence.

I looked further into their guide, and looked at Saturday the 18th, and it list WGN Weekend Evening News an hour.

I'm hoping that's an error on their part on the 11th, because they're showing that same Living Healthy New Year episode at 4:30pm. Why reair it at 5:30pm?

I also see on the guide a show Sunday at 9am called "Chicago Pulse". Was that the original proposed name of new political show? IMO, that would be a better name than the generic "Political Report".

Channel 9 is adding local news & programming beginning 1/11.

• The station will debut a new half-hour 10pm on weekends.
• The Saturday morning news will be extended one hour, going from 7-10am.
• A new half-hour political show "WGN-TV Political Report" will air Sunday mornings at 9am.
• Because of the new 10pm, Backstory with Larry Potash & Chicago's Best will be moved to 10:30pm, on Saturdays & Sundays respectively.

Just now, TSSZNews said:

I beg your pardon - you are absolutely right. My fault!

Don't worry about it. I was confused myself between the two names before. WarnerMedia (CNN) is in Hudson Yards.

4 hours ago, TSSZNews said:

I don't know why they would go to the trouble of another remodel when they're a couple years out from moving to Hudson Yards though...

4 Hudson Square (Hudson Yards is in a different area).  They're going to break ground in that area sometime this year, and it'll take about four years to complete.

Since Jeff Smith filled in for Lee all week, he's off tonight.

Filling in for him at 11, WTVD meteorologist Brittany Bell. 

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

That would make KSAS one of the few stations (if not the only in the US) to have newscasts produced by all 3 of their local counterparts....at different times?

KLJB in Davenport, IA is another one I can think of.

After being produced by INN before INN original owner's bankruptcy in 2010, it was then produced by WQAD. KWQC took over on New Year's Eve 2012. And finally, WHBF took over NYE 2015, after KLJB's ownership change & SSA with WHBF.

With that being said, WIth KAKE now producing Fox 9pm show, they should've gotten new on-air graphics. This looks like the same package Gray gotten them before they switched stations nearly four years ago.