CircleSeven

We have a plethora of closings tonight. All were consummated on Monday (12/1). First, the Gray acquisition of KMTF in Helena (sister to NBC station, KTVH) has been closed. IWCC is now down to just the Nevada properties that SInclair have the non-FCC licensed assets to. Second, the Griffin acquisition of KSBI in Oklahoma City (to become the new sister of KWTV) has also been closed. And the big one, (as posted on the Nexstar thread) the Nexstar's acquisition of Grant was completed. KGCW was acquired by a "failed station waiver", and KLJB is now owned by Marshall Broadcasting..

Alrighty. After over a year, the Grant deal has finally been completed. It was closed on Monday (12/1). KGCW was acquired by failed station waiver, and KLJB is now owned by Marshall Broadcasting. If there's any significance to this closing, the "Grant" name is now gone for good. Grant use to own stations in Chicago & Philly, and among other cities. Grant will always be remembered for those distinctive style logos. The "Super 66" logo will forever be lodged in my memory. Grant. RIP Milton Grant.

As I stated back in August, Mission withdrew its apps for the Tyler & Baton Rouge properties, and it won't be any "rocky creeks" in Shreveport. If Nexstar is wise, once this deal finally closes (and I say that with caution), they should let Marshall acquire WVLA, and move KSHV's programming KMSS's subchannel. And although I don't condone station shutdowns, who would want to buy a standalone-operated KSHV? As for Iowa, I think that it would be less of a hassle for Tribune to acquire This TV and place it on a sub of WHO (I know that would degrade the PQ of main channel), instead of getting the full channel (via a FSW). Because I have a feeling Pappas wants to keep at least one station, once the spectrum auctions starts.

Reuters stated today that the DOJ has allowed the Nexstar/ComCorp deal to go through, on a condition that they must divest WEVV. As we know, WEVV is being sold to DuJuan McCoy's Bayou City Broadcasting. So with this OK from thd DOJ, it should FINALLY receive the greenlight from the FCC, so this long-awaited ComCorp deal can finally close.

New M&A. This time we go back to Nebraska. It appears that Pappas wants to acquire KFXL outright, for $300K. As of now, Pappas operates KFXL under an LMA. But now its wants the station outright, and they're saying the station's coverage area doesn't overlap with its other properties out west. As of late, Pappas has been selling the remaining of its stations. So I'm thinking, them buying KFXL might attract buyers for the whole NTV cluster. It's their only cash cow that's left in their portfolio.

Follow-up in Montana. It appears that the FCC granted the waiver for KMTF today (11/21).

Okay, y'all. Remember that New Age deal from last September 2013? As of Halloween, it appears that the applications involved in the deal were DISMISSED. So that basically means Sinclair bailed out of this deal right? WRONG. They stated this, as they released their Q3 earnings report last week: So while (technically) the deal is dead, New Age keeps the papers, and Sinclair is now running the show.

A new crime-mystery related digi-net entitled, the "Justice Network", will be launching in January on the Gannett stations. I wouldn't be shocking if it launched, at the same time Live Well shuts down completely.

It is happening in Central Iowa. Nexstar is buying KCWI from Pappas for $3.5M.

This was from the pre-marathon coverage this morning.

Alrighty. There's no tricks about this. The FCC has conditionally granted the KLJB deal to Marshall. And because of this, the whole Grant deal has now been greenlighted. This was another deal (after Sinclair/Allbritton), in which it lasted a year (11/6/13).

RIP to Advantage on WOKR/WHAM. After 21 years.

On the 5pm tonight, I saw Jim Rose's live hit from MSG, as the Bulls is facing the Knicks for their season opener. He held a mic with a WABC mic flag. If I remember last year, Laura Behnke was here in Chicago, and she did her live report from the Cell. with the "just-new" WLS mic flag.

Nothing. That's just an old saying to not make much fanfare about it. That's all.

Well, not to cause alarm but today (10/26) was the first anniversary of the rebrand of Eyewitness News.

.......Just in time for the November books to begin on Thursday. So that basically completes the rollout of the G3 graphics Part 2, for the Belo stations. It's going to be very interesting with the rollout for the London stations. I'm hoping & praying they don't alter KIII's Circle 3 logo. The only two stations that implemented the graphics on a weekend were KREM 2 & KTVB (debut Sun. 9/28).

Well, we heard the news yesterday that Nexstar is buying Phoenix's KASW, which I didn't see this coming from a mile away. But this afternoon, Mike Malone from the B&C states his sources said that Nexstar might be getting Pappas' Des Moines CW station KCWI next. Perry Sook didn't confirm the news but the article states that he "said he hoped to do so "Very soon." Nexstar already owns the ABC station there, WOI-DT. And Pappas trustee wants to unload the stations it has left. The question is, should this stick and Nexstar does acquire KCWI, could it also include moving the program stream of its This TV affil on KDMI? But it is a good thing that the broadcasters ARE buying the lower rated stations and not these spectrum speculators.

It is that same exact cue! I still felt that the Deathstar could've had Gari do a 'Spirit of Texas' variant for just WFAA & KHOU. They ain't that cheap to do that. I noticed all the King stations, even KTVB is using that same opening cue. Even though I'm hoping KREM 2 would shock us, I wouldn't hold my breath. But Damn! What a summer of this G3 rollout Part 2! I don't think we've talked about the Deathstar this much, since the first infamous standardization in 2008. RIP Spirit Of Texas for good.

Paperwork for WLOV, Coastal is paying $1.6M.

KREM 2's new site is now live.

TVNewsCheck states that WMBF VP/GM Ted Fortenberry will replace the retiring Dan Modisett, as the new VP/GM of Jackson, MS sister-station WLBT, effective January. Fortenberry has been the VP/GM of WMBF since 2007, about a year before the station launched.

I noticed that the font on the time/temp bug was a bit bolder now. Remember, I stated that it was skinny as hell, when the new Graphics was implemented back in June. This caption was from Wednesday night's 5pm show (probably their first HD broadcast). I thought they were just upgrading the software or something. Didn't realized it was for their HD launch.

The list don't include the Allbritton ones.

I wonder which Chicago station is going to carry the syndicated ASN package. If I could guess which station that could carry it, it would be WCIU. They would no doubt cram it on "The U Too" subchannel.

Here's KTVB's news report about their HD launch yesterday.