CircleSeven

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.

I know I'm about to go lenghty with the post, relating to WGN. So I'm going first post the two vids that's related to "WGNtertains You/WGN & You". Let me know if this is the piece of music y'all talking about. Here's one of the FuzzyMemories vids with the WGN ID. Yes, they'd played this same piece of music for their Late Night movie opens all the way to when that big swirl "9" logo debuted, and I think after that. Unrelated to this, they played the , even after the big swirl 9 logo debuted. And here's one of the movie promos playing what appears to be the "WGNtertains You" music. I was dying to know who made this piece of music. Video Courtesy of mycommercials from YT

How do you know that they're going to launch in August? Why wouldn't it launch before then? You know August is a good while.

Okay. Maybe there's probably some light in the end of the tunnel, yet they still have a long way to go. On Wednesday, the FCC did greenlighted the Citadel stations, WOI, WHBF & KCAU. They are still waiting for the Grant stations, which includes the two stations that are in the Quad Citites. They are acquiring KGCW through a failed station waiver, and KLJB is being assigned to Mission. Plus, deals from Gray/Hoak spin-offs, WICZ being assigned to Mission, and the big one, ComCorp, which those apps have been sitting their since they filed that paperwork on May 6 of last year.

Hopefully someday in the future, the composers of these following themes could be identified: (also used on ) (also used on WAKC) (used until '97) This posting could be edited if I think of another unknown theme.

And because of Wheeler's vote announcement, many broadcast groups stocks have taken a hit today. Including Sinclair, which were down 4.5%.

That expidited waiver review process kind of gives a little window for the broadcasters. But this will most definitely piss off the Heathens of Hunt Valley and the rest of the broadcasters who relied on these JSAs. The joint retrans ban is the one the cable operators really wanted to see, as it was their reason for skyrocketed retrans fees. But then I'm wondering if his timing to ban these JSAs/joint retrans is a way to finally persuade broadcasters to (or in an almost) participate in these incentive spectrum auctions next year. Since Wheeler is a former cable lobbyist, it made me feel that he's trying to do this so broadcasters would have no other choice but to participate. Should that Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal goes through, many broadcasters would call Wheeler "one-sided".

We are now at exactly TEN months since they filed those ComCorp apps, yet they are still waiting for that greenlight from the FCC. In fact about it, all five pending deals are awaiting the greenlight (ComCorp, Citadel, Grant, WICZ & Gray/Hoak spinoffs). Recenty, Nexstar (just like other broadcasters including Sinclair) filed comments to the FCC making their pitch to keep the status quo on those sharing arrangements, as Wheeler could be making plans to curb those JSAs as early as the end of the month. One of the paragraphs includes their pending sales that are still waiting for their approval.

It's sad to see another local establishment fold, on the accountance of this growing consolidation. Let's see how Prather can do in Oregon, competiting with Sinclair & COBI. I'm interested to see which stations Prather could get into next. The article states that he's in talks to possibly get two or three more stations (let's see if that happens). Although I would've liked to see him acquire WBNG, which would be closer to his soon-to-be closed Utica station WKTV, beyond that, he probably may not get anymore stations, unless one of the bigger groups divest some of their stations. And that's likely not going to happen.

Remember former KCAL 9 promotional director Marshall Hites, the one responsible for several 615 Music theme songs? Tribune Broadcasting president Larry Wert, appointed Mr. Hites as the new Senior VP of marketing and creative services. He will oversee all the creative service departments for all 42 of the Tribune stations, and will stay involved in the marketing ops at KTLA 5, where he's been at since 2011. This is nothing but good news. Some stations probably need it. I wish Hites can appoint a new CSD for WPIX. They really need someone to bring some liveliness to their brand. Like bring back its old theme song. What I don't want to see is if Tribune thinking about "standardizing" like these other groups. Please don't let that be the case. ______________________________________________________ It's sad that it has strong ties to the Heathens Of Hunt Valley. It would be nice to see more minority ownership, but having just that one wouldn't be enough. And even if Anderson, Mumblow or any other shell company are willing to sell their "license papers" to that Uncle Tom, it would probably wouldn't stop Wheeler for following through on his "so-called" plan to make JSA's attributible (that's if he's willing, and he has the votes to do so). Broadcasters better have their lobbyists to "lobby like crazy" all this month, if there's any chance to save their JSAs.

...And the new 7-day graphic is meh. It looks naked with extra background space. Why do it need to look slanted, instead of looking straight? Talk about tackiness. I remember when Channel 7 used the "Eyewitness Weather" line back in the early 90s. I strongly disagree that this new weather line "unify the brand better", as it sounds more way generic as it seems, since like you stated other stations including WCAU used it and WNBC formerly use it as well. And if the dumbos' plans to use it in a way to block WMAQ from using it, I would be thinking why would you want to use it in the first place? I wouldn't have mind WMAQ used the branding. It probably would've made more sense, than having WLS using it, because it screams overtones of WTVD, where those fools came from....... I'm sorry, but that weather line sounds too mid-to-small market for my taste. Hoping that this "gimmick" would just come and go, something tells me that this will be here for the long haul, whether if it works or not. Other than "AccuWeather", I think it would've been best to save these naming gimmicks and just do what's best. Report the weather and that's it.