CircleSeven

You're not alone. I thought it was pronounced that too, until a few years ago.

And the Trib station's newscast expansion trend continues...... WXMI announced that they will start its 11pm newscast on June 2nd. This station which coin-phrased this slogan "if it's at 10, its news, at eleven, it's history" is now saying "we've changed our mind".

They're probably waiting on the KFQX to Mission app (KREX/KFQX are on a grandfathered LMA). They even amended its application back on May 12 to state this: I dunno if this would finally convince Wheeler's FCC to budge, but ever since the FCC went with that Public Notice "Guidance" back in March (before they voted on that new JSA rule), the FCC hasn't acted on any app that included a sharing arrangement with contingent financial backings. But this is not the first time where approvals don't happen simultaneously. When Nexstar acquired WFFF/WVNY, the WVNY one was approved before the WFFF one did. Gray is still waiting on the Excalibur apps (KHAS, KXJB & KAQY), and they has modified their apps to eliminated its put/call and option agreements. And they didn't even have a JSA in its original application.

The Paperwork of KMTF have been posted, which Gray filed a failed station waiver, they're paying $150K for the station. Gray is paying $1.75M for KTVH. Also, we have an FCC approval. The sale of two CBS Alaska station's KUBD Ketchikan & KTNL SItka to Denali Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Alaska's telecommunications provider, GCI, was greenlighted last Thursday (5/15). Just like their last deal to acquire KTVA & KATH/KSCT, this deal also had a petition of deny. Specifically by the City of Ketchikan. The FCC shot down their POD and granted in GCI's favor. So GCI have Anchorage & Juneau locked. Will they head into Fairbanks now? _____________________________ WJHG's longtime anchor Joe Moore retired earlier this week after 43 years at the station. Hoping all the best in his retirement.

Well we have a New M&A this morning (well new to me, but the news was posted two weeks ago). Back to Oregon we go. It appears the owners of Zolo Media (owners of its cable/broadband system and Bend, OR's broadcast stations, KOHD & KBNZ-LD) is selling its company to a midwestern firm Telephone & Data Systems, Inc. (TDS) for $261M.

No harmed done.

I thought they go on until 10am? And anyway it would've been wise to stay on the air past 10 until the end dedication ceremony.....

The sale of two Sunbelt stations (KPVI & KXTF) to Frontier was completed on Tuesday. Frontier is waiting to close on its acquisition of Sainte Partners' remaining station, Eureka's KVIQ. IWCC still have stations in Nevada & Montana. Gray announced that they'll buy the Montana cluster, while the Reno properties are still awaiting for the FCC greenlight.

Well, I kind of suspected that KTVH would get sold before they sell its big station. But I wouldn't thought it would be Gray. I strongly don't think that they would acquire this Helena station for nothing. And I said this back last October that I would love to see KTVH clustered up with Bonten's NBC. I dunno what's popping with Frontier, because they've been buying, but they've also been selling as well. And once they close on the KPVI/KXTF deal, would they resell it to another buyer, like they did with the Yellowstone properties? So I wouldn't be shocked if they want to pursue going further into Montana. And should they follow that path, which avenues will they go, Bonten's NBC or Cordillera's CBS/Montana? If Gray picks the latter, Gray would have control of NBC, CBS & CW in little Helena. But since KXLH-LD is a LP station, it's not affected by the ownership limits.

Here we are. May 6. Exactly one year after the paperwork of the ComCorp deal was posted. Now we'll see if we're still going to be in this holding pattern within the next six months. I believe this deal, along with WICZ & the Grant deal would probably hit their outside dates around that time as well, this fall? And I forget to mention on my last posting above about the JSA attribution vote, Nexstar holds the most stations that are involved in these sharing arrangements (20). So it will be interesting to see what Nexstar has to say when they announce their Q1 earnings on Thursday.

The KOTA Territory sale to Schurz has been consummated. It was completed on Monday (the date they said they would close). No word on which radio stations they are planing to divest as it was stated on the order last month. I just check out their guide a few hours ago, and it appears that they don't have a 3pm news now. I'm not sure when that occured. It appears that they probably moved one of the syndie shows from 11am to 3pm and place an hourly 11am news with the Wagners in its place.

This coming May 6 would be the one year mark since they filed the paperwork, but one year ago TODAY was when Nexstar formally announced their proposed acquisition of ComCorp. And as you see, they are still waiting for that greenlight from the FCC. This May 6 would be the longest period I've seen where a deal is still waiting on that greenlight in recent memory. The last time a deal had to wait this long was that proposed Schurz acquisition of South Bend's 3 LPs from Weigel, and after a year of inactivity from the FCC (they did approved one of the three LP apps), they'd called off that sale in 2009. Of course this is not helping them much, because since the FCC made that letter that they would be closely scrutinize deals involving sharing arrangements and last month's JSA attribution vote, they'd only made one small amendment on one of those deals. They made an amendment on KLJB application (which is the only station from the Grant deal that's going to Mission), but they'd only removed its option agreement on March 24. But it still have a "Form of Agreement to Sale of Commercial Time" (just like all the other related deals) which I think that constitutes as a joint sales agreement. But if there's any good news, Yesterday, Nexstar did get the greenlight on its acquisitions of WMBB & KREX and its satellites from Hoak, where Gray spun off its stations to Nexstar back in December. But they sit have to wait for the greenlight on KFQX going to Mission. And let's not forget, KREX & KFQX have a grandfathered LMA which dates back to 1994. Of course they still have a long way to go......

TVNewsCheck state this afternoon that KSAZ Fox 10 is expanding its weekend morning offerings. It will add is Saturday Morning news by an hour. It will air for three hours between 6-9am. It will also air a two hour Sunday Morning news show between 6-8am. The changes will be in effect the weekend of April 26.

Follow Up Time!!! On Monday, the FCC greenlighted the Schurz applications to acquire KOTA-TV and its satellites. But the FCC ordered Schurz that it had 60 days to divest at least two of its radio stations (they currently own six radio stations) to come into compliance with the radio/television cross-ownership rule in the Rapid City market. Hoping for a temporary waiver for either 6 months or pending the outcome of the 2010 Quadrennial review, the FCC decided that the waiver would only be for 60 days. It also stated that they found buyers and have already started the process to sell, I wouldn't be shocked if Schurz would divest one of those stations back to Duhamel, since they won't have any TV stations post-consummation. KOTA-TV states that Schurz will take over station operations on April 28th.

And as expected, WSAZ will move it's 10pm news to WQCW this Monday. Also, their 10pm will be on for an hour.

KVUE was one of the five stations (Texas cluser & WWL) that went with the new Belo graphics in late 2012.

The FCC has greenlighted Gray's deal of WQCW today. In November, they proposed that Excalibur would buy the station, and Gray would provide services. But on February 7, Gray itself re-filled to acquire the station outright, since it had enough stations in the Charleston/Huntington market to form a duo, plus WQCW in not within the top-4 higest rated stations. I would not be shocked if they move WSAZ's 10pm news to WQCW within days after it closes.

WKTV sale to Heartland Media is now closed. It was consummated yesterday (3/20). I'm happy that Boston Ventures kept the Smith name alive, after founder Robert Smith passed away in 2003. Smith Media. RIP. And RIP to Robert Smith.

Yeah, that was January 6, that extremely cold day. Yeah, to me this was very shocking, to do all those newscasts that day morning and evening, on her birthday. Good that she wasn't on the "four-shot" at end of the 10pm show. But last night, when Jerry was on, he wasn't sitting with the anchors (Karen filled in for Kathy last night) at the end of the 10pm show. I dunno why, but when I saw him doing the weather last night, it looked like he had a cold.

Tracy was filling-in for Jerry on the 10pm show tonight. I don't think I'd ever remembering seeing her filling-in on the evening shows during the week. Although she'd done so on the weekend evenings when Phil was off. Last week, Phil filled in for Jerry on the latter part of the week.

The Nexstar/Citadel deal appears to be closed. Consummation papers of WOI, WHBF & KCAU was posted on this morning (3/17). Nexstar still has a long way to go......

The FCC approved the three stations (KPVI, KXTF, & KVIQ) going to Frontier Radio Management, as of late last week. Upon closing, Sunbelt will still have stations in Nevada & Montana, while Sainte Partners won't have any more stations. _______________________________________________________ The FCC also approved today (3/13) the reassignment of the Pappas trust to Harry Pappas. Also, paperwork of the Chambers stations KEZI & KDRV/KDKF is now been posted. The full price for the Oregon cluster, $30.26M.

If it's done right, it might have a chance.

Looks like Nexstar is ready to start in-house ops in the Upper Peninsula. TVNewsCheck states that in April, WJMN will have a separate 6 & 11pm newscasts on WJMN Channel 3 in Marquette, MI. The new newscasts will be house in a "new state-of-the-art facility" which will be known as "WJMN-TV Plaza". Former WBKP-WBUP news director Cynthia Thompson, will serve as an ND and news anchor for the separate "Local 3" newscasts. Meanwhile, Nexstar has also announced that it will be acquiring Internet Broadcasting Systems for $20M.

WCSH/WLBZ is still with the old design.