tyrannical bastard

Friday and Saturday are the weakest TV nights of the week, so that does make sense to use the "B" team then as opposed to the standard M-F and weekend teams. Some ABC affiliates tended to do this in the past when they had strong shows back then...

The nice thing about syndication is that it's scheduled and it doesn't preempt news programming. However, with all the crap sports that Fox (and CW) are introducing to their lineups, It's pre-empting newscasts that are pretty much exclusive to their time slots. It's expected on the weekends with the network affiliates but with these it's becoming commonplace on Friday nights.

We're getting closer to the days when the local affiliate is no longer necessary for network television. Case in point, my local CBS and CW stations are not on YouTube TV at the moment (but still on the air otherwise). YTTV just pops up a network feed that fills in the local slots with CBS News programming and PSAs, and on the CW, their eastern feed. Given the garbage that passes off as network television these days, I'd prefer a hyper-local station that doesn't have to pre-empt things for whatever crap sports or garbage programming is being sent to the affiliates to run.

I'm just going to throw this out there..... With the current state of our government and it's concentration of the financially elite (and the maxed-out state of our current TV ownership situation with their regulatory and financial limitations) Billionaires tied to the FCC could go after TV stations and groups to start pushing out state-controlled propaganda, or through "favorable" companies despite any past indiscretions? It's a potential disaster that could very well happen at this rate. Once they weaken the FCC or bow to their demands, it's all over folks.

It's the sad truth. It's very apparent with Fox and CW going all in on sporting events at all hours. I'm getting tired of Fox putting crap sports events on a Friday night simply to drive viewership because it's consistently pre-empting newscasts that haven't usually been touched before, aside from events like the World Series. Don't even get me started on the UFL... It's literally a league invented by the networks to put crap sports on TV.

Warren Buffett, perhaps? Especially in Atlanta and Dayton to keep their newspaper/TV combos intact. These stations are strong enough (aside from Jacksonville) to lose their network affiliations given what just happened to WPLG. The station market can't handle any more at the moment given current cap space and their finances. Outside financing or financiers like BH is a must.

https://www.thewrap.com/fcc-chair-threatens-company-mergers-over-dei/ Completely out of bounds under FCC jurisdiction. This administration is out of their minds.

WSVN can get away with this since they were pretty much the first FOX affiliate to join their network as a strong news-producing station. This alone inspired Fox to mandate newscasts on the majority of their owned and affiliate stations. Those stations have the most to lose since they may not be able to meet a network's demands. However, certain stations (like WFMJ) have the advantage since they are the ONLY competition in a market, given that the rest of the market is controlled by Nexstar. Losing an affiliation to them would trigger market share issues when a group of full-powered stations controls virtually every affiliation in the market. Also, NBC seems the easiest to deal with network-wise, given the WRAL/WNCN switch. CBS got a bigger company to pay for network coverage despite a smaller audience and NBC finally got a good station in the Triangle after decades of failure on UHF stations. That seems to be the case, unless NBC wants the affiliation for itself, which happened to happen against Sunbeam in both Boston and Miami, as well as shutting down duplicate affiliates in Hagerstown and Atlantic City.

This move could be the future of television as we know it. If it can happen in Miami, it can happen anywhere. WSVN was the only logical choice since they are the only major station not owned by another network with a dominant news product. I don't think ABC was willing to gamble with a Scripps station that can't even handle a newscast, yet alone a CW affiliation. Probably the biggest irony of all is that ABC is pretty much going to force them to brand WSVN 7.2 as a network affiliate, unlike WSVN 7.1 being able to do for decades with Fox-less branding since losing NBC decades ago. Maybe WPLG will be the next home of the CW when Paramount gets cold feet with Nexstar...again!

They could also relaunch WJKW...WJW's infamous place-holder calls from 1976-1985 because of Storer's sale of WJW radio. When WJW-AM changed to WRMR, Storer restored the calls to TV8 and they've been there ever since. But what's probably keeping that from not happening is an FM station in Athens, Ohio with the WJKW calls that brands themselves as "Ohio's Christian Superstation". Even though it would be perfectly legal for Nexstar to do so for WBNX. Another thought....WJCW? (exists as an AM station in Johnson City, TN owned by iHeart Media)

AM Radio seems to be headed for extinction. Lots of stations are turning in their licenses and broadcasting otherwise.

Well, as of February 1st, WBNX is now a Nexstar station. Master control has since been moved and is likely being run out a Nexstar hub somewhere. Since it hasn't been added to YouTubeTV (yet), I'm told that they have started airing WJW promos on WBNX, and that Rewind TV will be added later this month to one of WBNX's subchannels. CW programming returns on September 1st, and we can probably expect a new logo from Nexstar. It may be a cut and paste of the old "CW 55" logo Media General introduced for WFNA in Mobile/Pensacola before reverting to "Gulf Coast CW" But this thread shall come to a close with the end of Winston Broadcasting. Even the WBNX signage has been removed from their Cuyahoga Falls studios and it may be safe to assume control and any continuing staff may (or has already shifted) to Dick Goddard Way in Cleveland. And as Ernest used to say at the end of his "Ninety and Nine Club".... YOU ARE SPECIAL.....YOU REALLY, REALLY ARE!

Todd Parkin was also a sales executive for Bally Sports... https://thedesk.net/2025/03/sinclair-sells-tv-stations-rincon/

WJW has had theirs (SkyFox) for well over 30 years, but it is a leased one (Helicopters, Inc.) I think at one point they stopped using it but resumed using it shortly after. Around 2008-09 after Fox unloaded them to LocalTV.

I wonder how this GOCOM ties into the GOCOM that eventually became Piedmont Television. Because in Youngstown in 2007, GOCOM sold WKBN to New Vision Television while WYTV was sold by Chelsey Television (post-Benedek instead of Gray) to Parkin Media. Seems more like a shell game to me...

Sinclair gets to run a station without having to deal with the FCC. That's the new owner's problem. Not to mention getting some cold hard cash they may need... Plus, it frees up more opportunities to buy stations even though this new FCC could give them a free pass to go nuts.

Looks like the buyer is Rincon Broadcasting, and Todd Parkin is listed as the Principal Owner. If the name sounds familiar, it's the same Parkin behind Parkin Broadcasting that bought WYTV in Youngstown and eventually SSAed them to WKBN back in 2007. Sinclair will likely still be in the picture, but made some cash selling some licenses... Either they're trying to slowly slide out of the business under the eyes of the FCC, or are slowly trying to generate cap space for...future expansion?

With things so bad at Scripps, they may have to file for bankruptcy protection. And even then, are they so far gone that stations could be auctioned off or go dark in a nationwide shutdown if they run out of cash?

It would great to see the Cleveland Ind...er...Guardians strike some similar kind of deal with WUAB and the Rock Sports Entertainment Group. I don't know how having an exclusively MLB package is sitting with the Cleveland fans. But it's got to be a slight improvement from having to deal with Bally Sports and all their issues. There are still some bitter fans out there after WUAB lost the rights in 2001.

They should rename "The Nest" to TCN ...

Although broadcast meteorologists and the associated technology are very capable of covering local and national weather events day-to-day, what kind of effect could these cuts have in terms of longer-term forecasting or in upcoming major weather events?

I"ll post this here since it does involve our new FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr. He visited Spanish Fort, Alabama today to climb to the top of WKRG's broadcast tower. https://www.fcc.gov/document/carr-visits-alabama-tower-workers-public-safety-officials-tv-station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEld4LA7f4U (The above links don't reference WKRG, but it was confirmed by WKRG reporter Debbie Williams that it was their tower) Perhaps he should have visited WEAR/WFGX and WPMI/WJTC to see what four stations under common management looks like!

It's been 10 years, so he's probably not renewing his contract (NBC probably cut what it would have been anyway). Maybe Jose Diaz-Balart moves over from the weekend to take over? He seems like a better choice over Tom Llamas.

For some of these smaller markets with umpteen hours of local news, the move sort of makes sense. Most of the material is C-block grade and local weather is much more appealing than the new "Krispy Kreme donut" or the latest "caught on video" story ...

Oh well. He had a good run before he went nanners. Then again, he could fall upward into some government role like Dr. Oz....