CircleSeven

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.

Longtime WKRN anchor Anne Holt will be stepping down from the anchor desk at the end of the month, after nearly 37 years. She's not leaving the station entirely, as she'll be involved in other on-air & community projects for Channel 2.

An end of an era in the Northwest. It's lights out for NWCN. Video courtesy of Derek Austin from YT

Another Tegna departure. WWL's morning anchor Mike Hoss will be leaving the station after over 27 years. He announced his exit on his Facebook page on New Year's Day.

So WOLF-TV's Sinclair-produced "so-called" in-house newscasts has started. The reporters are reporting the news from PA. While the main anchor is anchoring from WSBT, which led to this giveaway..... [MEDIA=twitter]815035033228550146[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=twitter]815039787614740480[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=twitter]815042564277600256[/MEDIA] So this leads to this question. Are they're pre-taping this 10pm show on WOLF-TV? Or are they're doing it live from separate studio. Because WSBT also produces its own 10pm program on its Fox subchannel.

Any other NBC affils airing "Chi-Town Rising" after NBC's NYE coverage? The only two I saw from the guides are WTMJ & KXAS. COZI is also simulcasting as well.

As we're coming towards the second anniversary of the CBS Indy switch, there's already been changes to the morning talent. Indianapolis Business Journal stated yesterday that WFMY reporter & anchor Frank Mickens has been hired as a new anchor of WTTV's morning newscast. He'll start early next year. This comes after the late fall departures of morning anchor Marianne Lyles, and traffic reporter Katie Solove. Solove became the new morning anchor at Lexington's WTVQ; while Lyles took a corporate communications job at a firm outside of Chicago. The station has also dealt with abysmal ratings in the mornings. During the November books, it was ranked last among the five local AM shows in the A25/54 demo; while its sister WXIN was on top.

And this article I just read from The Washington Post says it all.........

You might be getting tropo.

And Nexstar & MG are still waiting for the FCC greenlight. Here's a write-up from the B&C yesterday (12/20). At this rate, they might as well wait until after the auction is over. Nexstar had deals that lasted longer than this. The ComCorp deal lasted 20 months. So they can wait.

They've done that with the old set several times.

Mowry was on yesterday morning.

Yeah, Give Light And The People Will Find Their Own Way. But that light from that Lighthouse is surely sending people in the wrong direction. But yes, that's the Scripps Way.

Looks like the NMA might not have to go through the courts to overturn the NBCO ban. Congress is composing a bipartisan bill to repeal it.

Small news expansion. This one is in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Gray's LP Fox station WZAW is now airing a half-hour 4pm newscast. It is produced by its full-power CBS station WSAW.

Okay. We all heard last week that WSBT will be producing WNWO's newscasts. Now FTVLive posted this morning that Scranton's WOLF's Sinclair-produced newscast could also be produced out of WSBT. _______________________________________________ Follow-up regarding WWL's morning show 7-9am switch to WUPL this morning. On the promo it hinted a brand new look. Well, believe it or not, their brand new look is their brand new morning SET!!! [MEDIA=twitter]805755481436332032[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=twitter]805764475194380288[/MEDIA] And the vid below is WWL's first tease of CBS This Morning during the Eyewitness Morning News. [MEDIA=vimeo]194349170[/MEDIA]

It's still an inconvenience nevertheless.