CircleSeven

The three related transfers are all tied together with the big Tegna deal. If the big deal gets scuttled, the other related deals are also scuttled as well. Soo continues to make a complete ass out of himself, begging the FCC to vote, after they just handed him that HDO paper. Once they hand that paper, it's no longer in the Commissioners' hands. It's in the ALJ's hands now. What Soo needs to do right now, while he's barking at the FCC, he needs to be pleading with the Tegna board to not sue him when the outside date hits in May for all that wasted time.

That's only if the current leaders of Tegna don't walk away from the deal once it reaches the Outside Date. I wouldn't give Soo any breakup fee before then. This was his mess. He wanted Tegna so bad.

Well?........ Two days after it extended the cut off date, the FCC gave Soohyung Kim a real surprise tonight. Hearing Designation Orders usually be the "death kneel" of any transaction. It's even more of a rarity if the parties to actually go to the hearing itself. Because that process could take up to a year to actually see the judge. The craziest part about this is that a couple of days ago, Standard General was so confident that this deal would get to the finish line. The FCC waited until after trading day ended (4pm) to make this HDO announcement. Talk about Friday Night News Dump. How does Mr. Desperado feel now?.....

One R&O. Gray's soon-to-launch Yuma outlet. KAZS (11 > 27)

But don't they blockout the network/syndicated programming from that feed for Macon viewers?

New callsigns for the three allotments it won from last year's auction. Winnemucca, NV (7) - KWNV Flagstaff, AZ (32) - KAZF Yuma, AZ (11) - KAZS Already mentioned Freeport (WSLN), so that only leaves Eagle River. The calls above will be in effect next Tuesday (2/21). No word on when any of these new stations will launch. Gray has active petition to move the Yuma outlet to UHF 27.

Gray already has a little LP for Telemundo (WTMH-LD). I wouldn't be surprised if it gets move to the full power signal......

New M&A. Looks like Gray and Marquee are swapping. From TVNewsCheck, Gray is selling its Boise, Idaho Fox affiliate KNIN to Marquee Broadcasting. Upon the closing of the KNIN deal, Gray will then acquire Macon, Georgia's MeTV outlet WPGA.

New week, new petition. PBS member station KDIN in central Iowa wants to vacate VHF 11 for UHF 34. Also, I was unaware of this news until this past weekend, Mizzou-owned KOMU lit up its UHF 27 signal last month (1/9).

The 55kW is the wattage of their current VHF 7 signal. On the engineering PDF, it states 1000 kW. So that 55kw is an error on the filer's part. Anywho, two new signals was lit up this week. Looks like Savannah's WTOC has lit up its UHF signal on RF 23. Also BEK's new station in Grand Forks, KNGF filed a license to cover app on Thursday (2/9). That usually indicates the signal is up and running. No word on if they launched programming on the new signal, as of yet.

New Petition. Lockwood is switching one of its signals in Knox. Indie station WKNX is vacating VHF 7 for UHF 21.

After he left Channel 9, he also anchored that financial news block that aired on WCIU for several years. May he rest in peace.

No, their opening up the market for linear (OTA and Cable) and streaming (SVOD) platforms beginning 2024. It doesn't look like its leaving syndication anytime soon.

On the second week of its debut, 62 has launched the 5pm hour tonight. Rachelle Graham & Terrance Friday are anchoring the hour.

I'm thinking it goes by the OTA numbers (not cable allotments) 8, 10, 39, 69. But even then, its still not in numerical order because PBS is 15.

Longtime college basketball color commentator Billy Packer passed away at the age of 82. Packer called every NCAA tournament from 1975 until his retirement in 2008.

Forum wants to use a waiver of the top-4 rule to acquire the station, the same way Gray was able to get KDLT in Sioux Falls a few years back. The problem is nearly 14 months later, the deal is still pending and you have Democratic-run FCC that isn't too kindly to deals like this. Don't know if they'll ever get the greenlight. But with this FCC and given how long this deal has gone, I don't like their chances.

Fox 11 announced that Extra hosts Jennifer Lahmers and Melvin Robert will join the morning program Good Day L.A. The changes will be in effect starting February, as the ratings period begins. 4-6am - Brooke Taylor & Bob DeCastro 6-9am - Jennifer Lahmers & Melvin Robert 9-11am - Araksya Karapetyan & Sandra Endo Araksya, Bob, Brooke, Jennifer & Sandra "will contribute enterprise news content throughout all seven hours" of the show. And Melvin and Jennifer will keep their roles on the syndicated newsmagazine. Almost forgot to mention that Lahmers is no stranger to the Fox family, as she spent several years as an anchor and reporter at Fox 5 in New York.

The FCC has just proposed a fine of $504k to Fox for a violation of using EAS tones outside of an actual emergency. I believe this was the incident in question.

With all the talk about KCBS & KCAL these recent weeks, let's not forget how it started. Twenty years ago today (1/20/03), the on-air consolidation of these two stations at Columbia Square began...... Videos are from Sloan's YT Page.

Shouldn't that time/temp bar be on the other side?......

Isn't Olga is filling in for Amber Lee since she's on maternity leave?

The long-awaited channel switch in the Mid-South is one step closer to reality. On Monday, the FCC granted WMC's petition to change its signal from VHF 5 to UHF 30. It's been a long time coming. Since the digital transition in 2009, they've been trying to get off that VHF hellhole. They even tried to move to UHF 17 back in 2011, only to be told after the auction & repack that they're dismissing that petition. It wasn't until after the freeze was lifted two years ago when WMC tried again and filed this petition. And even that was a long process. I think the reasoning for the lengthy process was FCC probably had concerns for the viewers in those far fringe areas potentially losing WMC after its move to UHF. So Gray had to come up with a remedy by launching three small translators serving some of those lost coverage areas (contours). WANF-LD Dyersburg (serving the northern fringe) WDDY-LD Jackson (serving the eastern fringe) W20DW-D Clarksdale, MS (serving the southern fringe) So what's next? The station has to file a minor change app to get the construction permit. The R&O actually says once the order gets posted in the Federal Register, they'll have 10 days (not the usual 30 days) to file the app. I should also point out that Gray also has the permit to light up that new LP WTME-LD (formerly WYMP-LD) on the same tower as WMC's new UHF signal. So once the construction process is completed, Gray will be launching TWO new signals in Shelby County. That LP will likely be used to launch Telemundo (the webpage is already up, even though the station hasn't launched yet). But I'll tell you this right now. This should've happened before 2011. WMC should've filed at the same time Nashville's WTVF filed to move off of that same allotment. Hadn't it done so back then, we wouldn't be talking about this today. But better late than never.

New petitions. Sinclair filed three of them in the West. KCBY (11 > 34) - Coos Bay, OR KCFW (9 > 17) - Kalispell, MT KENV (10 > 20) - Elko, NV EDIT: Big News in the Mid-South. After more than 25 months since its filing, and basically nearly 12 years since this process began, the FCC have gave the greenlight (R&O) to WMC's move to UHF. WMC (5 > 30) I talked about this in detail in the Gray thread. There's one more R&O today. WWDP (10 > 36)

Mission & White Knight stations are blacked out by Dish Network.