tyrannical bastard

WWSB has lost internet connection from their remote studio. (They were feeding via LiveU). In the meantime, WCTV is supplying weather coverage. They must be hubbed out of Tallahassee since the ABC7 bug has been constant the entire time.

WWSB is set up in a conference room at the Gold Coast Eagle distribution center. They're the local Anheuser-Busch distributor. (photo from Ted Noah's facebook page, shared on WWSB's facebook page) I wonder, is it a trade?

It looks like WWSB has evacuated their facility and set up a makeshift studio elsewhere. (Lakewood Ranch)

Tampa may finally be going wall-to-wall with coverage. All stations are on live now. It looks like WTSP is on a virtual set. I wonder if they have relocated their staff elsewhere in the area (WMOR) or out of town? The southward shift may be a blessing for Tampa/St. Petersburg but could be devastating for Sarasota. Hopefully WFLA will begin live-streaming soon. They also have their "WFLA NOW" digital stream that's only on their website.

I don't understand the lack of coverage in Tampa. Not even on screen weather warnings. WWSB is the only station that has them constantly and WTSP is the only one to have a crawl. Everyone else is basically status quo with the occasional cut-in. Even from a business sense, local storm coverage would be an ample opportunity to run the plethora of local political ads. The Orlando and SWFL stations are enjoying that opportunity greatly. It doesn't make any sense. Edit: Basically every Waffle House location in the Tampa / St. Petersburg area down to SWFL is closed. If that's the case, this storm is going to be BAD.

With only the Cavaliers and the Blue Jackets held by Bally...I mean FanDuel in Ohio, I could see both the "Ohio" and "Great Lakes" channels merging into one. Baseball was the only thing that made them separate. To think once upon a time SportsTime Ohio split from Fox Sports Ohio when the Indians were a partner in STO.

10am check on Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota. Only WFTS and WWSB are on the air now. WWSB has their 10am/10:30am newscast and WFTS is pre-empting Morning Blend. Everyone else is in normal programming. Even WFLA is status quo with Daytime. Did CBS ever have a newscast of any sort in recent years (even piped in from somewhere else?) No news of any kind is on WTOG. Meanwhile in SWFL, WBBH/WZVN is wall-to-wall and WINK is simulcasting WXCW's 10am newscast. WFTX is in normal programming.

This morning, It looks like Tampa is beginning to ramp up coverage. Generally, stations in a direct path of a hurricane tend to go wall-to-wall at least 24 to 36 hours out from landfall. Currently all stations (WFLA/WTTA, WTSP, WTVT, WFTS and WWSB) are carrying the Ron DeSantis press conference. I don't know about WMOR since they aren't carried on YouTube TV. Anyone in the area know if they are simulcasting either Orlando or Fort Myers coverage?

If Southwest Florida is affected (again), it will be another test of the WINK facility, as they even took on water from Helene. At least the other stations have out of town resources to fall back on if they have to abandon their facilities. Given the vulnerability of Tampa and St. Petersburg, how much at risk are their stations there? WFLA may be in a bad spot, so I'd bet they get WKRG or WMBB on standby to help out with coverage.

Dan Coughlin, longtime Cleveland sports journalist who wrote for the Plain Dealer and has worked at WJW since 1983. passed away earlier today. https://fox8.com/news/cleveland-legend-lost-dan-coughlin-passes-away/

Gray, CBS and possibly Tegna are likely salivating at the prospects of adding MLB teams to their stations in those markets. Some markets already have stations or channels they could land on, especially in Dallas and Cleveland. If the Braves deal falls through, enter Gray to swoop in and bring them back to "WTBS".... (since Gray now owns WPCH and it's associated sports subchannel) Not sure about CBS (and their current situation) but Gray and Tegna are more than willing to work with the leagues to bring a partnership to their airwaves.

The supers have the FOX O&O, and even the Cox vibe to them. It even seems like a modern take on Media General's "circle" package that WCMH debuted in 2011. But it would be a good look to roll out to other markets. The existing looks are beginning to look a little stale by now. And the WDCW package needs to go...yesterday.

Looks like the Scripps-cast technique will be the future of WKEF-WRGT in Dayton, as 14 employees are laid off. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/10/2/ax-swings-at-sinclair-station This could be the future for other marginal markets where Sinclair is just "scraping by"....if it hasn't been totally decimated yet.

Their successor? CHSN. https://chsn.com/info/ It will include OTA coverage in Chicago along with cable and satellite, as well as carriage deals with Gray in adjacent and regional markets.

CBS has been dealt a lot of blows over the past few years, but after what Brian Williams did at NBC, he's still not fit for a network newscast again. Now when (or even if) Matt Lauer ever crawls back from the mess he created. Sad to say, he's more credible then all of the Trump-nets put together, and that's not saying much....

By now, I thought all markets had access to a Fox affiliate. Even Glendive pipes in the Fox afflilate from Billings. FOXNET must truly be a network feed that's filled in with other FOX sources, unlike the channel it used to be with old series and "The Fox Report" at 10/9pm.

That coverage may have had the dual purpose of serving Fox Weather (and even Fox News) as well, which has really been on top of things moreso than the Weather Channel.

Likely due to the connectivity and power issues in and around Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, Fox Carolina is not available on YouTubeTV or streaming online. WLOS in Asheville is available. The devastation there may be difficult to cover because of the access issues caused by the flooding that washed out the roads leading in and out of these places. So when people ask "why is this not leading the news?" the access itself is so limited that it is only for the locals and those able to help them. That's why the outside is being encouraged to stay until the immediate issues are tackled.

Longtime WIS Anchor, weatherman, midday host, and "Mr. Knozit" Joe Pinner passed away. He retired in 2018 after serving WIS-TV for 55 years. He was 89. https://www.wistv.com/2024/09/23/legend-community-remembers-life-joe-pinner/

Anyone want to bet that Scripps won't be around this time next year?

I'm surprised the Trailblazers agreed to a deal with Sinclair, given their involvement in the Bally Sports mess. Then again, if it's a partnership (like many of the Gray deals and the Marquee/Cubs partnership), that's the way of the future as opposed to RSNs owned by an entity not connected with the teams it carries.

At some point in the evening, YouTube TV lost both WTWC NBC and "Fox 49". They've been replaced by a feed of WNBC New York and FOXNET. I didn't know FOXNET still existed! I thought it went away after Greenville, MS started a subchannel affiliate in 2006.

WTWC has coverage now. It may be WPEC feeding them (with a CBS 4 bug) like they did last year.

It's 5pm ET and WTWC has a NBC News Special Report about the Hurricane. Afterwards, they went back to Dr. Phil, already in progress... Come on Sinclair.... At least "FOX 49" is relaying WCTV's coverage....

Update: WTXL and WCTV are live with storm coverage. (Cut-ins only) If WTXL doesn't do live from the field, they may stay in the weather wall or feed packages or look-lives as they come.