CircleSeven

No. It looks like this was extremely rushed. Anyone can make a logo like that these days. I wouldn't even call "that" a logo. But as always, it's Sinclair we're talking about.

I saw this earlier this week. It appears that Sinclair has replaced its longtime "SBG" logo and placed its "SINCLAIR" in big letters on the header of its website. How uninspiring. But the big shocker is that its shell Cunningham Broadcasting now has its own website, and it looks like Deerfield Media might be getting one too. But I'm thinking what's the point in making these website now?

Pittsburgh's PBS outlet, WQED, received $9.9M for its spectrum. And it will move to a lower frequency in the repack. What Scripps is getting in the auction? Nada. Zilch. Meanwhile, the clock phase of the forward auction was closed today, racking up $19.6B. Now after the assignment phase of the forward auction (which that could take up to a couple of weeks), then the FCC will release the final Public Notice stating the results of the auction (winners of both reverse auction sellers & forward auction bidders), and the post-repack table of allotments. Hmmm... Wonder why our "Spectrum Speculators" are so quiet. How much of the $10B they got? 50 cents per station? LOL!

The groups probably won't say which stations was sold, until the FCC releases its post-repacking "Table of Allotments". That'll happen at the completion of the auction. EDIT: Two college-owned PBS outlets are going away. WCMZ & WUSF announced that they're going dark once they receive the auction proceeds.

......another Tegna departure. Shame.

Programming Changes are happening at Orlando's CBS station WKMG. The Orlando Sentinel stated that the station decided to move Let's Make A Deal from 10am to 3pm (after The Talk). The station hope this show would lead viewers to its 4pm newscasts. Rachael Ray will move from 9am to 10am, and Crime Watch Daily will move from 3pm to 9am. The changes will go in effect next week. _____________________ What was not mentioned in that TVSpy piece, and mentioned from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser is main anchor Yunji de Nies, who'd recently had a baby late last year, will be leaving the station at the end of the month. Also Mike Cherry (I thought he was the main anchor for the late news) will be sports anchoring the 5pm show, while Higa will do the 6 & 10pm shows (why they need two sports anchors, I don't know). The question is who's going to anchor the 5pm with Paula? Every since the ownership change, there been a slew of on-air folks that have left KITV 4. Yunji becomes the latest one to leave the station.

They've been using that (fleur-de-lis) variant for nearly a decade.

The FCC has partially lifted the "quiet period" among the broadcasters. The lifting of the hush period, broadcasters can now communicate amongst themselves on post-auction issues such as repacking. But this will also open up the floodgates for new M&As. Full write-up from the FCC.

I think WJW is just "Cleveland's Own". But KWGN's slogan was "Colorado's Very Own" for years too; now just "Colorado's Own".

And the "E" stands for?....

Okay. So remember about three years ago, the FCC (under Wheeler) made a public notice to scrutinize transactions involving stations with sharing arrangements (LMA/JSA/SSAs and the like)? Well new Chairman Pai's FCC has rescinded that provision today. And Commissioner Clyburn wasn't pleased. Remember because of this notice, Sinclair had to modify its deal to acquire Allbritton several times.

Another one of the greats is going away. That's a shame. All the best in his new endeavor.

Yeah. I thought that same way when WSYR with News Station after the Newport deal. And look what happened months later... We'll just have to wait and see. Anywho, Nexstar has (finally) closed its acquisition of West Virginia Media Holdings today (1/31). Its only publication The State Journal, was acquired by a local firm called NCWV Media back on December 1. WVMH.

I've mentioned it last month about Frank Mickens' arrival @ WTTV. At that time, they didn't say if Doty's was also leaving the station, but that appeared to be the case. Lyles left the station right around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yeah. Gray acquired Schurz, but kept the incumbent WNDU and spun-off WSBT to Sinclair (which it swapped WLUC for it). Then later, Sinclair & Quincy swapping affils in SB/Peoria, and placing them on their subs. My thinking is just like what Quincy did with their new set design, I think Gray did the same thing in buying this design in bulk. And the hire-ups at 16 probably wanted an opportunity to get that set while its being installed on other Gray stations. It is very rare for a market this size to change sets in a short period of time.

Gray has owned WNDU for over a decade. Many Gray stations have went with this set design recently.

WCVB's weeknight newsmagazine reached a milestone this week. Chronicle reached its 35th anniversary on Wednesday.

Tribune Media's President & CEO Peter Liguori is stepping down from his post in the next couple of months.

New M&A. It appears that the SagamoreHill is buying another LP. They're buying KGLU-LD in Ottumwa, IA from DTV America for $71K. No telling what there'll be doing with this new LP.

38.9%. They're basically stuck like Sinclair & Fox, unless they try to lobby to raise the 39% cap. And they would have to get approval from Congress. The FCC greenlighted the WVMH stations back last August, but Nexstar didn't close it, probably waiting for the greenlight for the MG transaction. Since the MG deal is done, it shouldn't be too long before they close this one out.

That deal has not closed yet.

Yeah. It was suppose to be separated, thanks to Wheeler's original JSA attribution rule (which got shut out by the courts last year). Then in 2015, Congress place a rider on a bill that grandfathered the current JSAs until 2025. Wheeler's JSA rule was brought back after completing the 2010/2014 quadrennial review. But stations that had legacy JSAs can keep them for another 8 years. Another thing to point out. If you were a former Emmis station that didn't get sold from them LIN, but was sold by Montecito, you've already saw ownership changes more than FIVE times within the last decade. Emmis > Montecito (SJL) > New Vision > LIN > Media General > Nexstar

Yet another prominent name in the broadcasting industry has gone away. Media General. RIP. And RIP to J. Stewart Bryan. Oh. And RIP to LIN, Young, New Vision, Spartan, Park, ComCorp, Grant, Newport, Quorum. All the former names that have now been absorbed to the new Nexstar Media Group.

Get ready for another diginet. Sinclair and MGM is launching an Action-related diginet called Charge!. It'll launch within Q1 of this year. Also MeTV has a new affiliate in the Atlanta market. Marquee Broadcasting's WGTA will be the primary affiliate of the MeTV Network, replacing Cox-owned WSB, effective March 25. But here's the issue. WGTA use to be former CBS affiliate WNEG in Toccoa, and its signal doesn't reach the immediate part of metro Atlanta. So people who don't have cable or satellite, (or have an outdoor antenna pointing to the east) won't be able to receive MeTV programming in Atlanta. I strongly thought Cox have a group deal with MeTV, since they carry it on their other stations (WPXI, WHIO).

Follow-up. As of eight day ago (1/9), the FCC has greenlighted the Gray Fairbanks deal. And since announcing the deal, the CBS station has changed its calls again to KXDF-CD.