tyrannical bastard

This is probably worthy of another thread, but how has the Microsoft/Crowdstrike outage affected your local stations? The irony is that Crowdstrike was implemented after the Sinclair hack in 2021....and probably other places as well.

Not to mention Graham is small enough for such an arrangement, and it's BH's only TV station, so their continued assistance keeps things status quo.

I've lost track over the years since WPLG was sold to BH....How much of the station is still operated by Graham or is it basically a perpetual outsourcing agreement?

Aside from a few shows like Ayman Mohyeldin, isn't most of their weekend repeats anyway? And due to the gravity of the situation, it makes sense to simulcast the mothership.

In general, stations send staffers to their sister stations for extra coverage of natural disasters or if there is an urgent need for a staffer if there is no backup available. I don't know if this is still the case, but back in the 90s in Cleveland, there were a lot of "Vacation relief" people, especially in weather. People like Shane Hollett, Jon Loufman, Dan Deely and AJ Colby did this back then when the staffed meteorologist was away. Since the stations (except WEWS) are unionized, they were probably freelancers or contractors and not part of the union or station staff. I know at WJW, they still post jobs for "vacation relief" positions, so this is probably because of their union their department belongs to.

Well, a lot of producers are going to have to find some new "kickers" for their newscasts. Jeanne Moos has retired from CNN. Well, at least there's still "take a look at this!"

Our favorite destroyer of networks (and possibly our democracy thanks to his former BFF) may be waiting in the wings for Skydance's leftovers.... https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/7/8/skydance-to-buy-paramount As Moe Syszlak once said, "Oh dear god, no!"

Basically live news and sports. CNN may have thrown the gauntlet first with putting a live feed of themselves on Max. (which is basically the same as linear CNN). This is likely because they've pushed themselves into irrelevance unlike the others. Until Fox News and MSNBC do the same, cable tv has a lifeline. ESPN may be helping to break the system once they go fully a-la-carte. But yes, the Paramount channels are mostly rerun vats. And basically added value for the clueless cable tv subscriber who wants their fix of shows readily available on streaming or on-demand.

Let me guess, lots of people running for office in Iowa and they want that sweet political $$$. Of course, with the presidential election, if someone drops out, all the better.

I wouldn't normally expound on this, but there is a lot of the story that has not been reported on yet. The two articles out on this have Michael's side of the story with none of the other information reported on...yet... With the word on the street, he was definitely fired for cause after many people have come forward (even co-workers) with accusations. Look up Mobile, AL on reddit and you'll see what I mean. This could get ugly. That's why I'm not expounding on this here and giving you a chance to judge for yourself.

AM radio needs to be more accessible for what Griffin is doing. A simple, inexpensive AM receiver is infinitely more valuable than trying to stream breaking information during a severe weather or other emergency. Less margin of error when things go down. I wish the industry would stop putting on the garbage it does on AM radio. Make it useful instead of trying to be profitable.

Michael White, longtime morning meteorologist at WALA FOX 10 in Mobile is out, stating they are going in a "different direction" https://1819news.com/news/item/meteorologist-michael-white-out-at-fox-10-in-mobile EDIT: This could be interesting....lets see if FTVLive picks up on this.

At least KOTV-AM is a 50KW clear channel. That's very nice to have since their potential audience is many times larger than their TV footprint at night. Great for severe weather coverage.

Northeast's Ohio Family SuperStation! (if they really wanted to be one....) Now that Angley's a thing of the past aside from their Sunday morning program. Do any markets outside Cleveland and the religious broadcasters/channels even carry it anymore?

Fox did such a poor job in Charlotte with "Fox Carolinas", "Fox 46" and whatever else....that trading for Seattle and Milwaukee was almost a certainty. Besides the Panthers have had a rough time in the NFC.

Hence why Fox dumped WJW (Browns), WDAF (Chiefs), KDVR (Broncos), KTVI (Rams at the time), WITI (distant market for the Packers) as well as non-NFL markets like Salt Lake City, Greensboro and Birmingham. The only reason Memphis was kept was likely LocalTV's desire not to re-sell WREG to another owner, so Fox kept Memphis until the KTVU/WFXT swap and Cox got WHBQ as a consolation prize.

Tallahassee is about as backwoods as a state capital can be, especially for Florida. Sinclair could have capitalized on that, but they didn't. Instead, you have WCTV and whatever's left of WTXL when Scripps stops stripping it (and their sister stations) for parts. Meanwhile, the less media, the better for all of the state politicians who bow down to Lord DeSantis and his regime over Florida.

The only issue with WALA is how they would brand themselves. Given Gray's penchant to de-brand their NBC affiliates, it would have to be something like "10 News" or even "10 News Now" (since they used "The News Now" in the 80s working in the "10" in "NOW".

If anything, NBC will walk simply because they want affiliates that can compete in their markets. Having stations that won't bother to create a viable lead-in to Today (a morning newscast) keeps the ratings and market share low. I'd keep my eye on Mobile and Pensacola. NBC could walk from WPMI and could easily end up on either WKRG or WALA. WALA having the means to produce local newscasts if they secure NBC as a .2 or WKRG making a play since the SEC package is gone and would greatly improve NBC's ratings in the market, and that CBS's deal with Nexstar is up alongside NBC's deal with Sinclair this year. Media General thought they won the lottery when they snagged CBS from WRAL but the opposite happened since WRAL dominates the market and NBC's fortunes flip-flopped since they have been beleagured for decades under 28 and WNCN. CBS may be willing to settle for a weaker affiliation simply because of their devotion to streaming. And CBS has less animosity towards Sinclair on the news side.

Fixed. But same issue for both stations cheaping out on local news. Sinclair is so cheap these days, they are cutting imported newscasts! You can only wonder how much longer the WOLF Scranton and WXLV Greensboro ones last...

There are certainly some dog NBC affiliates within Sinclair. Notably WTWC in Tallahassee and more recently, WPMI in Mobile and WGFL WNBW in Gainesville. WTWC doesn't even air TND during local news slots like the other stations that have given up on news. Also, their affiliations are apparently up at the end of the year. We shall see if they renew. It seemed like an eleventh hour thing the last time. But like the ABC affiliates keeping stations like KDNL the way they are, it's probably worth it to keep NBC around for stations like WTOV, WJAR, WCYB and WJAC.

An anchor and a producer from WEAR in Pensacola are gone. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/6/13/no-longer-with-the-station Yona anchored the weekend news, for both WPMI and WEAR since they produce the weekend shows out of Pensacola. I was wondering why Sue Straughn was anchoring on a Sunday...

While this sort of applies here, but also applies to Gray (if they follow through with de-branding ALL of their network affiliated stations) What are they going to do with "FOX Carolina"? For them, WHNS and 21 may be pretty foreign to their viewers bv now. Putting this topic back on track, it will be interesting to see how Scripps carries through with their soon-to-be independents. CBS is using news for many of them. Pre-1995, many independent stations (that became UPN & WB) ran a movie at 8/7 rather than programming serials or syndicated shows. Many still had sports deals before cable took them mostly away. Now, syndication takes up these time slots in many places. Some do news as well. Perhaps Scripps will program sports in the markets they have deals in.

Aside from a few that somehow still rule their markets (notably WSYX), Sinclair has tanked quite a few of them during their ownership tenure. WSYX leading the market has mostly WCMH and WBNS tanking under their owners, especially when WBNS got sold to Tegna. Inertia pushes ABC 6 & Fox "28" to the top. There's still some decent journalism at the local level.....for now...

When it comes to recouping their investment in employees, a lot of the so-called "training" is the corporate brainwashing that these companies pile on them. And therein lies the "trade secrets" these companies are trying to protect through non-competes and enforcing contracts. Just another example of top-down management trickling down to the average employee...