CircleSeven

So Mike filled in for Phil, last night. And this morning, Phil & Tracy were tag-teaming. Also new reporter Tanja Babich made her first morning show appearance today..... _____________________________________________ I know how you feel. Before the October 26 rebrand, the dropping of Ron Rolland was the worst move I’ve seen the station have done. I didn’t really like Roger Rose when he started, and don’t really like his VOs now, even as he’s now a secondary/WCL VO. I first heard Ratner on KABC in 2000 via on satellite (where he still does some news promos, while Charlie Van Dyke does the news opens and female announcer Virginia Hamilton does the show promos, do they really need three VOs at KABC?). So I mostly associate him with KABC than WBBM (which he VO'd the station for nearly a decade). Usually, I would find it strange to hear a voice-over on a competiting, after another station dumped him. But I didn't have that strange feeling, Okay, I did have it one the first day I heard him on the 5pm promo, but afterwards, that kind of slipped away. This happened before when WCBS had Ratner until like 2006, and then by 2008, WNBC started using him. I think this market is well known for using VOs that were previously used a competing stations. Scott Chapin (WBBM & WFLD), Van Dyke (WBBM & WMAQ) are good examples. Even Ron Rolland was on WBBM, and even did some staff announcing on Channel 7 in the late 70s. My problem with Ratner is that he is OVERUSED. You hear him on the station's newscasts, and then you hear him on a car commercial, then a vegetable juice cocktail commercial, then a cell phone ad, and then a movie trailer, then you hear him on a station’s promo, and then another commercial on a different station/cable network. He is used everywhere, and sometimes I feel that’s an overkill. But because he is everywhere, that’s why I stated and commend him that he’s the best in the business. I wouldn’t have picked Ratner as a replacement choice, and it did come as a surprise to me that they would want to use him. But I’ll say this, I rather take a familiar voice, than these “Johnny-Come-Lately” younger sounding voice anyday. If Dumbo Idler & Clueless Miles had guts enough to strip the longest-running theme song in the station’s history for Chris Gari’s New Generation themes (as I said many times, and I will say it again, that this was the worst move the station has ever done, thanks to that Dumbo and his sidekick."…but maybe that isn’t what would have been best for WLS." It isn’t what would’ve been best for WLS My Ass!!!), I had a feeling that they weren’t any chance in hell they would’ve bought Rolland back (I wished that Dumbo and his idekick knew that he was a competing station for almost a decade. Idler was the sales manager at the time Channel 2 dropped Cipriano for Ratner). And I can’t buy the station’s reasoning in 2009 that they were trying to get a younger voice, as my theory was that it was a cost-cutting move. You can’t escape that possibility. I don’t think they would drop him for nothing. I do understand your questioning, though. If they want to bring a more deeper authoritive voice, why bring back the voice who’s been synonymous to Channel 7 for most of the 90s and the 2000s? Hell, I wouldn’t be mad if they brought in Charlie Van Dyke, but I think he’s already have his plate full, as he’s already the VO at four other sister stations, and a countless other stations. But I’ll tell you one thing. I wouldn’t want to use Rolland’s voice while playing any of NG themes. They would have to go back to the 1992 theme. And I wouldn’t want him saying those “Starts Right Now” liners. (OOOHH I hate that shit. That’s my biggest pet peeve. I’m not mad when the anchor says “…..the news starts (right) now”, and then they go to the opening sequence. I hate it when the announcer says it. I know its 10 o’clock and I know the news is on right now. But I don’t want to be reminded that the news starts right now). And since they’d brought in Ratner and kept Rose, they cut loose Roger Thompson (he was the secondary VO for good 20 years), which I had that feeling that they would get rid of him after they dropped Rolland. Those two dynamic VOs Rolland & Thompson worked really well with the brand of Channel 7. I remember times where I would sometimes get the names of the voices confused if that one was that one or the other because Thompson’s voice is a tad bit higher pitched and not as booming as Rolland’s. And it’s a shame that neither one of them are the VOs at the station. You say it would’ve been a no-brainer to bring back Ron Rolland. It would’ve been a no-brainer if they wouldn’t have dropped him in the first place. It would’ve also been a no-brainer if they’d kept the 21-year theme song. But Dumbo and his sidekick saw a different approach. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking, but look where they came from? Stupid Asses. :angry: Why they didn’t promote Graves to GM?!! Hebel would’ve stayed and everything would’ve been straight. The day that Detrimental Dumbo leaves (whenever he leaves), you thought I was happy when Ahern left Channel 2…… And even though it won't undue any of the changes he has done, it would be a godsend whenever it happens. ______________________________ About this weather study BS........ This Dumbo can't even go for his own gut?!! He wants to spend more of Mickey Mouse's money to conduct another study to see which Channel 7 weathercaster viewers would prefer should Jerry Taft retires, or to replace/reshuffle any other personalities in their current assignments. So whenever Jerry leaves, he's going to follow through on a study? I get the Mike, Phil & Tracy have came around the same time, and I would love for them to stay at WLS, even after Jerry does retire. But it made me feel like this. If this Dumbo decision of Jerry's successor is because of this study, then I wouldn't be shocked if the two that didn't get pick would either leave the station, or stay in the near term and then leave to go through other avenues. Yeah, and to me, announcing this study so soon is almost like IMO, the Dumbo's way almost speed-up the process, almost like Jerry's days are numbered. I don't hope that Jerry won't be pressured to leave. But if I was Jerry hearing about this study, I would be feeling kind of bad, like a slap in the face. _______________________________ I have a strong feeling know she will recover from all of this. But when I first read the Feder article, I first thought in my head, "Why?!!" I think that she think's she "Superwomen" LOL. When I think of someone riding behind motorcycles, I think of younger folks doing that. So I'm kind of surprised to read that Linda would "allegedly" do that. That where I was shocked about. If any of you don't know, this year marks 30th Anniversary since Linda came to Channel 7. And even though she won't be back immediately, should she come back, hopefully later on this year, the station would acknowleged her milestone. Get Well Soon Linda!

A little Follow Up....... TVNewsCheck said today that many communications attorneys are stating that the FCC is postponed any new station sale applications, (including those with sharing arrangements), until Wheeler decides on what he's going to do with those kinds of deals in the future. The folks at the FCC isn't commenting on the "rumored" hold. So It looks like Wheeler appeared to have "walked the walk" somewhat. I'm not too sure what his future plans on with these applications are going to be. But this is not good news for the broadcasters who have been waiting on some of the deals for a while. Not just the Allbritton deal, the Nexstar-ComCorp deal is the oldest app at over 8 months (5/6/13). As of now, the only station sale in this calender year have been greenlighted by the FCC so far have been the WMGM sale (1/7/14).

FINALLY!!! The Milwaukee Business Journal states that WTMJ will extend its morning newscast at 4:30am, starting this Monday. WITI & WISN have been doing news at 4:30am for over three years, while WDJT just started with their earlier show back in the fall.

I didn't know he'd showed up at the station three weeks ago. Although he'll never be like Ron Rolland, he's definitely one of the best VOs in the business. Now I wished they can get rid of that Asshole Idler..... He's been the detriment to this station since he showed up 19 months ago.

It probably would've been a very hard sell if KMBH was to convert to a commercial license, if that station was in a non-commercial allotment. So it probably wouldn't be too much of a long process. Remember Pittsburgh's WQEX wanted to reconvert its license to commercial after WQED wanted to dump it. But that took eons. Eventually the conversion happened, and its now an ION station (as WINP).

........And speaking of the devil, VistaWest will indeed snag KCOY for $1.175M. I knew Cowles weren't going to keep that one for long, as they're focused on Washington & Montana. The news director of KEYT stated from this Noozhawk piece, what his plans are for the merged KEYT/KCOY ops. Let's hope that this won't be an extremely lengthy wait, since Wheeler is vowed to looked closely into these shared arrangements. I think it was a good call on NPG to not include the KCOY thing to VistaWest, while trying to get NPG for the other Cowles Cali stations. If they would've done that, the FCC probably wouldn't have greenlighted the deal as a whole right away.

Follow Up Time!!! The KVIQ paperwork is up. As it was said before, Frontier (through another subsidiary Redwood Television Partners) will buy KVIQ from Sainte Partners for $1.25M. But also, Frontier is currently operating KVIQ under a local marketing agreement, while it awaits the FCC to greenlight this deal.

I guess after the Tribune acquisition, High Point, NC's WGHP will expand its midday and 6pm newscast by a half an hour each. B&C states today that it will expand its noon newscast during the 12:30pm half hour, and expand its 6pm into the 6:30 half hour (competing with the national news that airs on channels 2, 12 & 45, at that time). These expansions will be implemented on February 3rd.

Not when those said syndies move to other stations. They would have to get new syndies then. Certainly they won't get Wheel and Jeopardy back. I know he just sold Nevada's capital territory (KRNV/KENV) to these devils. And those fools are probably the one the beat for KSNV (although I personally don't buy it for a second). But it would be a somber day if Jim or his wife sell channel 3 to these heathens. And who would want little Helena anyway. I would say let Bonten link up NBC Montana stations and join that grid. Or if Bonten is willing to sell the cluster, give it to Frontier and link KTVH to KECI/KCFW/KTVM.

But first, I think KTVH will be sold before they do anything with KSNV. I doubt they want to have any other stations outside of Vegas on their backs. I strongly thought they would keep Reno (you know who's buying that cluster). So it's only a matter of time before they unload Beartooth. I just hope it wo't be too long. As for Channel 3, it's going to have to be an owner that would likely follow Rogers' current philosophy, as he plans to dump synidicate programming within the next two seasons (by 2016), and basically run local news/programming throughout daytime in the non-network hours. I doubt any big owners would want a station without some sort of syndicated fare. I was even thinking that once this NBC deal is done for, and with the plan to dump the rest of the syndie shows, could they possibly dump the network itself when the deal expires? Whatever it is, I don't think a prominent station group company would want a station that airs just the news & local programming, without a balance of other shows (network/syndie, etc.).

The Las Vegas Review-Journal stated Sunday that Intermountain West Communications-owner Jim Rogers is battling a second round of cancer. He didn't state on a specific kind of cancer he's battling. But he vowed to his employees at KSNV 3, that “whatever happens, the station will not be put up for sale.” In several months, IWCC has sold stations in Yuma, Idaho, Wyoming, & Reno. I'm hoping he'll recover from this latest health battle. ___________________________________ Also, we have the first FCC approval of a TV station sale of 2014. WMGM's sale from Access.1 to "Spectrum Speculator" LocusPoint Networks was greenlighted today, exactly two months after the paperwork was filed. This is not good news for opponents who were against a speculator to own this station. ___________________________________ EDIT 1/8/14 12:37am/EST: The KMIR/KPSE sale from Journal to another "Spectrum Speculator" OTA Broadcasting has beem consummated. It happened on New Year's Day. This was Journal's very first divestiture of a TV property in its history.

Follow-Up Time. This is from the article from the Yuma Sun. KSWT's station manager Julio Bermudez stated last Friday to the paper, that he "guesstimates" that the sale could close by the end of this month. As for post-transaction and the "likely consolidation" (which they didn't mention in the article, but we know what's going to pop), he stated that they haven't even started on the details, but he estimates by late summer before, as he pointed out, "all the pieces would be put into place". I wished they'd hurry up and get most of that stuff now, so they don't have to worry about the fall. But you know fall is a great time to show your new digs. So there's nothing to complain much about.

The word "Cold" is just an understatement of what is about to happen in the midwest region. I don't think I remember a time, (maybe January 2009 when the mercury hit around -10°). But this is a generational weather event, just like the Heat Wave of 2012, or that Groundhog Day Blizzard in 2011. Because of this cold, the station will start the morning news at 4am. And it will pre-empt WCL for a special 11am news.

Click on each of the applications (WHBF, KCAU and WOI). Each made time brokerage agreements on the date of the announcement of the deal (9/16/13). Last year KSEE 24 had a similar TBA, before they received the greenlight from the FCC.

I had a feeling that they were going to do that, after the end of the news-share with WJZY-WMYT. But never thought on an earlier hour like 8pm. I assume they don't want to mess with a messy pre-emption, as Bounce shows movies in that 9-10pm time range. Although I did wish they had a 10pm, even though it's a crowded field with 18, 46 & 64, and it looks like 46 will have a tough time getting their format together, and getting viewers flocking. ____________________ Looks like WISH-TV is making WNDY's 10pm news a full hour, with a 15-minute sports show at the end of that hour. Starting Monday.

Alrighty y'all. First full business day of 2014 and we have a slew of paperwork. First, we have two consummations. Both happened on New Year's Eve. NBC has completed its acquisition of Rio Grande Valley's Telemundo affiliate KTLM. Also, Gray has completed the sale of the Frontier's Yellowstone stations. Also, it appears that Power Television International wants to give up 51% control of Corporate Media Consultants Group to Max Media, which already had the remaining 49% (I think this TOC would lead up to a future sale of Puerto Rican station WMEI (and its satellites)). And finally the paperwork of KMOV, KTVK & KASW is up. $230.56M for KTVK/KASW, and $176.94M for KMOV, both totalling $407.4M. SagamoreHill will pay $12M to assign KASW. EDIT 11:09am/EST TVNewsCheck state that Frontier will acquire Sainte Partners' last station, Eureka's CBS station, KVIQ for $1.25M.

Damn. With so much news today. Gannett closing Belo, the spin-offs going to Meredith, and now this.... Hey Raymie, this one's for you. Are you ready? KSWT app to Brian Brady's Blackhawk Broadcasting, has been greenlighted. They'd approved the waiver today, and dismissed that informal objection Mr. Abraham was filing. I told you it was too late. :lol: Brady will have a big-3 duopoly with already approved KYMA, once it get consummated.

Even though I've been preaching about this Gray/Raycom thing, having Nexstar use the Mission card for WDFX & WPGX would be a massive improvement for both stations involved.

Gray is on the ball y'all!!! Approximately six weeks after the paperwork have been posted, yesterday, the FCC has greenlighted the AOL apps of Frontier Yellowstone stations to Gray. I wouldn't be shocked if they close this sucker by the end of this week. Damn that's quick.

NEW M&A This Afternoon!!!!! TVNewsCheck stated minutes ago that Gray is buying KEVN Rapid City, SD from Mission TV, LLC for $7.75M. SNL Kagan has annnouced that in 2013, deals ended November 30, they counted $10.9B in M&As this year alone, with over 270 full-power stations and 265 low-power stations. I don't think i remember a year that so many television stations have changed hands, probably not even that many since the mid-1990s. 2013 will be the year of the M&A wave.

This probably don't mean much but this is somewhat big news relating to a certain group that rarely use subchannels to air another's content. Back in late October, London Broadcasting's flagship station KTXD decided not to renew carriage of Weigel Broadcasting's Me-TV network on its main channel, in favor of more local programming. This cause a uproar to the viewers in the Metroplex who were fans of the network. Today, the B&C states that Weigel announce their new affiliate will be.....KTXA 21. They will carry the subnet on Monday. What shocking about this is, except for WCBS, KYW & KCBS which they're testing the CBS Plus service on its point-twos, CBS usually don't typically use any sort of subchannels. The last time KTXA used a subchannel was in 2009 when KTVT went back to VHF 11 and many viewers couldn't receive its VHF signal. That's when CBS had to temporary relay KTVT to 21.2. This would be the very first time that CBS is carry an outsider's subnet on its owned channels.

KEYT stated on Friday that the deal was done. Although I haven't seen any consummation notices posted as of yet, I assume that will be forthcoming. As you see the KEYT's site now features three station's logos, including KCOY & KKFX, even though KCOY's separate site is still up in running. (12/18, kcoy.com is redirected to KEYT's site). And although I still think Cowles would vacate KCOY and NPG use the VistaWest card, it's hard making that assumption while regulators are gradually trying to crackdown on companies playing shell games.

I think Mr. Abraham is a Johnny-come-lately that want to play counteroffer, three months after the paperwork was filed. Now he want's that payment one the record? He's SOL, and I hope this deal gets approved on Brady's side. I mean why didn't he counteroffer back when Brady made that $900K deal. That would've probably made more sense. Then I believed Brady would've paid more than the $1.125M this guy wants to buy it for. The worst thing that could happen at this point is if the FCC would accept this person's offer, even though he's too little, too late, and I doubt that they would even do that. But I still think it's Brady's time to shine. They'll greenlight it on his favor.

FCC has greenlighted the Cowles Cali stations to NPG, which includes KION & KKFX. And yes Raymie, I'm a half hour late after TVNewsCheck posted this news.

Well, Here's yet another article about these "shared" arrangements. This time, its from The Daily Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction. Of course this comes after Gray used their Excalibur card to acquire KJCT, becoming the sister station to competing station, KKCO.