tyrannical bastard

Another "local" news operation of Sinclair's is no more. Savannah's WTGS aired their last newscast on May 31st... Even though their news was produced by WPDE up in Myrtle Beach, it's yet another newscast replaced by TND.

More proof that the station groups are totally out of it when it comes to their practices. It may have made sense 20-30 years ago when they were riding high and salaries were above board. But now, there are more lucrative "at-will" jobs and careers where the relationship between employee and employer can be terminated at any time by either party, with adequate notice to condition any guarantee of earned benefits. That does pose the risk that the employer may exercise this option. Contracted employees are paid for the duration of the contract unless there is a breach that nullifies it. In some cases, an employee may be released and still paid for the duration of the contract.

Well, Thomas Geboy was supposed to debut as WPMI NBC 15's new Chief Meterologist today at 5pm.... But then the power went out.... So they had to simulcast WEAR's news out of Pensacola for 5 and 6. We'll see if they're back at 10pm.

It seems the contracts are getting shorter and shorter. Turnover is constant, and jobs in smaller markets are either stepping stones for larger markets or only stops for the journalists who take them. The recruiters are on colleges trying to snatch up any recent graduates (or even students) to fill the voids created by all of the turnover. In a way, this may create a future void, as current long-haul journalists and TV people leave the industry for a better life (and salary) because of their experience. When the experience goes away, these other jobs may suffer unless the schools teach for this kind of experience.

I think station groups small and large could be vulnerable. Small groups could be vulnerable because they lack the resources that the larger groups have. And the large groups could be vulnerable simply because they have grown so big that if they should fail, their failure would have a catastrophic impact on the communities they serve.

Looks like the old TVNewsTalk.net domain is active again. I accidentally typed it in, and it redirected back to here after being in limbo since the outage.

Broadcast TV is likeky long past its chance to be broken up by the government. When Ma Bell (AT&T) was broken up into the RBOCs, it only took 20 years for many of them to merge back together as....AT&T. By then, cellular phones were a regular part of life and customers had options. Nowadays, the very POTS that comprised phone service is a rarity that has been largely replaced by VOIP and cellular. At least we still have competition in TV, even if it's the same three owners and many markets. The stations are going to have to start falling before anyone intervenes. I think on the internet end we could start seeing some regulation since the content pool is getting smaller.

Fox is pretty well-known for their old and decaying buildings they run their stations out of. WNYW had issues several years back and even had carbon monoxide issues in their live trucks. Not to mention WHBQ in Memphis, which was so terrible that when Cox got the station, they basically overhauled it from the inside out. I can only imagine if Fox still had WJW, if they would still be on their 2007 set. Although, it seems that the prior set and current one were parting gifts before ownership change. Local TV took over shortly after the 2007 set and Nexstar took over shortly after Tribune put in the 2019 set....

That would be the quickest way to drive the network(s) into the ground. Especially if the Barstool people are actually entrusted with games.

WPMI has a new Chief Meteorologist. Thomas Geboy returns to the area after a stint in Utah at KTVX. https://mynbc15.com/news/local/nbc-15-welcomes-chief-meteorologist-thomas-geboy# Before moving to Utah, he was a dayside meterologist who worked at WKRG, along with his predecessor, Alan Sealls. ...and here's his bio from WKRG, which they forgot to take down years back https://www.wkrg.com/author/thomas-geboy/

Found this article about Kevin Adell being sued by family members over fraud and racketeering in the "theft" of land in Novi, Michigan. https://www.metrotimes.com/news/910am-superstation-owner-accused-of-fraud-racketeering-in-federal-lawsuit-34167968 This makes me wonder, how does this man even hold a broadcast license? Especially in a place like Detroit, he uses this as a weapon that has scared away major companies that have kept his WADL-TV from becoming a major factor becuase of his own ego, incompetence and greed. What does it even take to be stripped of a license anymore these days? This is even a picture the Detroit News pulled from Adell Media.

Do these WPBN/WTOM newscasts supplement the existing WBKB ones, or are they completely replacing them? At one time, WGTU/WGTQ was also owned by Tom Scanlan, but they were absorbed into WPBN/WTOM prior to Sinclair's purchase of Barrington.

Too bad that WVUE didn't go with the purple in their package. I guess they're too engrained with the blue going all the way back to their pre-Raycom days under Louisiana Media post-Emmis. Beating WWL into submission and being the top station in New Orleans is probably something they don't want to mess with. They have the reach that the other stations simply don't have in terms of freedom to program newscasts. WDSU is all alone and anything WWL (WUPL) and WGNO (WNOL) even tries to put out can't even hold a candle to what WVUE can put out...

With the Reagan "original movie" that they've been hyping up, now they're trying to out-fox NewsMax..... I wonder if they still get double the ratings that NewsNation does...

If Graham is "blessed" with the CW affiliation in Detroit, they'll probably be forced to give it the KOMO treatment. Just keep whatever subchannel programming and they already have and blow out primetime for the 2 hours of CW programming a night. Once they pick up some Andy Griffith reruns to throw in here and there (or any other programs)....voila!

Yet another departure in the 'Land..... WKYC legend Jim Donovan is calling it a career at the end of June. https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/television/jim-donovan-retirement-wkyc-cleveland-channel-3-news-sports-anchor/95-7eb461dc-b705-44cc-852c-735792d496e7 Not only in Cleveland, people are heading for the exits all across the country. It seems like this is a turning point in TV.

Good old Detroit. Where desperate networks try and re-affiliate at the last possible second. At least CBS was able to buy WGPR at the 11th hour to christen into WWJ-TV. Perry Sook should try that with......oh wait....... At this rate, the only way to get the CW in the market is to try and convince the pay TV systems to bundle in the CW+ feed into carrying NewsNation . Nexstar could always start a streaming platform with their local stations and open it up to other owners..... Like Zeam, NewsOn, and what Sinclair tried so miserably with Stirr.... But we're all waiting for 1994 to repeat itself again, likely without a happy ending because Uncle Perry won't budge.....

That would be an ironic end-around, since Nexstar would basically be doing what the FCC severely restricted them from doing had the station been transferred to Mission.

All the while the customers are being invisibly gouged with an inferior product and the employees who keep things running are overworked and underpaid. Reinvest in the product and the employees a little more...

Basically we still have ownership rules because of companies like Sinclair and Nexstar. We still have ownership rules because companies not only try and game the rules to get more stations, but to use the stations in the pursuit of excess profit for the company and the benefit for the company of reaching more people to spread "their" content. Sell the airwaves to the highest bidder and give their cronies the mic to spread the word. It's a little more complicated than that, but this is TV ownership in a nutshell these days. The only way it will change is when the system breaks and viewers can no longer get the essential information they need because the companies have sold out to the point they can no longer afford to keep the lights on.

They do have an awkward and unwieldy logo (the "12" is much wider than the "Fox") so simplifying it for the mic flag was a good idea. Portland may also have a strong "anti-Fox" sentiment as well, so the less ties to the national news channel, the better. But if Gray is separating network identity for their affiliates, it may be a very tough sell, especially for their longer-tenured affiliates that have co-branded for decades.

Hearst being the same company that created "yellow journalism" by it's founder, William Randolph Hearst. And another pillar of early journalism, Scripps being a pioneer in ways that can be respected or reviled.... If Sinclair is still around next century, will they be a respected company? And Nexstar compared to these is an upstart company that was founded in 1996. Perry Sook worked menial roles at stations like WOWK and WPXI during the late 70s and early 80s.

With this, it throws Bally Sports back into question. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40153860/loss-comcast-tv-carrier-devastating Let it die. Comcast customers will not miss the RSN fees on top of all of the other "fees" they have to pay.

Back to Nexstar..... Basically, this is Perry Sook's show. He made 29.2 MILLION DOLLARS in 2023. https://www1.salary.com/Perry-A-Sook-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-NEXSTAR-MEDIA-GROUP.html All while his stations are stuck in a 2000s mindset of "pay TV first" and the employees are making scrappy wages and being nickled and dimed on top of that. Even if Nexstar goes under, he'll be fine. By comparison, Chris Ripley of Sinclair made a fraction of that....a paltry 9.6 million in 2022.

WVTM was an easy fixer upper that Media General squandered. As soon as Media General saw the opportunity to get WIAT back (which had been fixed by others), they jumped at the chance to sell off WVTM. Hearst immediately turned the station around. Not entirely sure about WJCL but I'm pretty sure there was an upside after Hearst took over. The only downside is They couldn't take on WTGS which became another half-station Sinclair runs in the market with news piped in from elsewhere. Bottom line, if Hearst can easily make a station work, then they'll buy when the opportunity arises.