tyrannical bastard

How many homes does NewsMax reach versus NewsNation? If NewsMax can pull in five times the numbers that NewsNation is pulling in for their shows.... The question is, how much better would NewsNation be if they gave up and went back to doing Matlock reruns? (as good old Superstation WGN)

Joce Sterman has jumped ship from Sinclair to Gray, where she'll be part of the "InvestigateTV" unit: https://www.investigatetv.com/page/meet-the-team/

In a way, Western Maryland loses out again. The DC market stretches all the way to Cumberland, and Hagerstown has basically been reduced to a "bureau" to compete for coverage of the exurbs of DC and DC itself. WHAG could have survived as a standalone NBC affiliate had the Hagerstown market existed separately. It definitely filled a role covering that part of the state and other areas of West Virginia not part of an in-state market. Will "West Virginia Tonight" continue? That part of the state is absorbed into the DC market as well, and is pretty much forgotten about in the scheme of Maryland, DC and Virginia.

Sounds like it could be the nucleus of an upcoming national news channel that Nexstar could start. Oh wait....

The "new set bug" has hit Nexstar's WMBB in Panama City, they are replacing their set that's about a decade old, introduced under Hoak when they were in Widescreen SD. https://fb.watch/dd2aXDbpMU/ I don't think it was mentioned on here, but WJHG recently got "Gray-Hounded" with their bus-station-like set, similar to the one WABI got, and was discussed about earlier. Nexstar can easily produce something better. I'm amazed the set and studio held up after Hurricane Michael since the rest of the station literally had to be rebuilt from the inside out; a process that involved temporary trailers and took over a year.

Does WSET have issues on their tighter shots where the video background looks pixellated? It's like you can see the dots of the image behind them, much like a projector that's been blown up too much. WEAR has this issue and it looks AWFUL.

Given the pattern of Nexstar sets over the past several years, I can see where WKRG is heading... Like most people on this forum, I hated the old set, but Nexstar really did a good job of getting some mileage out of it with the re-configuration they did a few years back. Hopefully, WALA's refresh this past winter was a band-aid that Gray will take care of in a year or two....much like the WKRG refresh was.

MNTV is basically a turnkey brand for an independent station, that just happens to have a primetime schedule. Stations like these rarely exist on their own anymore, and are basically a duopoly partner with another broadcaster in a market to extend newscasts and to air syndicated programming geared towards a different audience or day part from the primary station. Many places have even cast aside the primetime repeats for something more useful like a primetime newscast (like what WXIA does with WATL). Unless there is some serious decay in the other "Big 4" networks, I don't see Nexstar (or any other owner) casting aside a major affiliation any time soon for the CW, (that is, if this rumored deal happens)...

If Nexstar does prevail in getting the CW, it's almost like they could be trying to turn the CW into what Tribune tried to do with WGN America, import some cheaper programming. How long are the CBS O&O's (and stations like WCIU) tied into CW? And what would CBS do with their O&Os should they lose the CW? It may be a nice place to put their CBSN local streams OTA for at least part of the day, since many markets are duopolies to begin with.

For WTRF, it's an improvement. Not much of one given the station and market, but nevertheless.... Given the station's freefall ever since they swapped affiliations with WSTV/WTOV, even ending up as a WVMH station qualifies. With their dual-affiliation status, I figued that the KOIN package would end up here, since all of the others (sans ABC & FOX) are in use by the former West Virginia Media stations.

It sounds like all of the Georgia stations they are launching will all be part of a network based out of the affiliate they are launching in Atlanta. So this may be the way that Gray is entering Macon without having their own full powered station in the market.

Somebody must have checked the wrong layers in the AfterEffects file.

At the very least, in the places like St. Louis and Denver with a shared operation with the FOX look, give the CW stations the WDKY variant? That way it looks LESS lazy than the way it is now with BOTH stations sharing the same look. They have the unfortunate distinction of having the same schedules (and counter-program opportunities vs the others) as network affiliates, so they need to be as different as possible.

Looking at the pay-tv options, it's a hodgepodge of how networks are provided. Spectrum has both WHIZ and WCMH in SD & HD, with the other Columbus locals filling in the gaps. They have "WBZL" in SD (cable-only) and WWHO in HD for CW. Both Hulu and YouTube TV offer a generic ABC feed in lieu of WSYX. Only YTTV has WBNS while both offer "Fox 28" (WSYX 6.3) Fubo offers WHIZ, but no CBS, and "ABC" and "FOX" (likely network feeds) Things get weirder with AT&T & Dish.... DirecTV does not offer Fox 28, but the TV listings claim that they offer WTTE (the old FOX28 that's now TBD), so that may be an oversight for the Zanesville market. WHIZ is there with WBNS and WSYX 6.1. On DirecTV stream, only WHIZ is offered, and the only Columbus station available is WOSU. Dish claims to offer WEWS, WJW and WOIO on the channel numbers for Columbus (6, 28, 10) but NO WHIZ at all! (That has to be a glitch)

102.5 was likely kept (for now) because of the existing Urban One deal. Once that lapses, or Urban One makes them an offer, it's likely to remain with the Litticks for the time being. Prior to that, 102.5 was the home of WWCD, displaced after Ohio State purchased their 101.1 frequency to start a classical music spinoff of WOSU. Over the last 25 years, Columbus has had many "move-in" FM stations from the surrounding counties to supplement the ones based in and licensed to Columbus. They would change their COL to something closer to Columbus, so they could move their signals closer. TV-wise, Columbus survived having to shoehorn UPN & WB on WWHO, orginally having UPN secondary on WTTE and later the WB programs secondary on WWHO when Paramount bought WWHO, This lasted until both networks merged into the CW, and WSYX added MyNetworkTV as a subchannel. Years before, WCOM (now WMFD) tried and failed to reach Columbus with an alternative to WWAT (WWHO) and WTTE. The station re-formed as WMFD and serves the Mansfield area to this day, being distant enough from Cleveland and Columbus to have it's own newscast and advertising base. In the event that WHIZ ever loses it's NBC affiliation (which probably isn't too likely), it would likely be re-positioned towards Columbus much like WGTA out of Toccoa is. I wonder if networks have "virtual" deals now that preclude any prospective stations from trying to start an affiliate there. Sinclair and Tegna may be doing this to keep their presence in Zanesville.....or does being in a separate market give stations the right to start their own affiliations there?

Going back further into history, the Littick family was also the publisher of the Zanesville Times-Recorder, the daily newspaper for Zanesville. For a time, they had all 4 media outlets in Zanesville, TV, AM/FM and the newspaper. They sold the T-R in 1970 to Thomson, who sold them and their Central Ohio newspapers to Gannett. By this time, they had amassed virtually all of the smaller daily papers in the county seats and larger cites surrounding Columbus. And WCMH actually partnered with them for news coverage, forming the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio. This included Zanesville, so in a way, it was a backdoor way for WCMH to cover Zanesville at the time, along with the other cities. Eventually, Gannett swallowed up virtually every other newspaper in Ohio, including the Columbus Dispatch, which came to them by way of the Gatehouse merger, who bough the Dispatch from the Wolfe family. Somehow, Zanesville has survived as a market of its own, and WHIZ has kept it this way for many years. Had WAKR succeeded in creating an Akron (Canton) market, it would probably be a stand-alone network affiliate of its own to this day, with a full compliment of network affiliates. Canton stumbled in getting a station on the air at the time (50s-60s), so this probably was the reason they were lumped into Cleveland. Because Akron was lumped into Cleveland, they had to compete directly with the Cleveland stations, and was at the bottom of the pecking order of getting programming. Zanesville being on it's own gives them the ability to purchase exclusive top-tier programming at a rate that corresponds with their market. And since it's a 200-ish market, it's way cheaper than it would be if it was part of the Columbus DMA.

Straight from WHIZ themeslves: https://whiznews.com/2022/04/20/littick-discusses-sale-of-whiz-media-group/ Henry Littick basically saw the writing on the wall with all of the consolidation. Selling to a micro-owner like Marquee actually gives them a little more leverage while being able to keep their local flair to the Zanesville area. Given the spectacular decline of 10TV under Tegna, it may not cause a major stir if Marquee decides to add a CBS feed to WHIZ. Sinclair is likely more invested since possibly losing Muskingum County could affect their current dominance. And Nexstar isn't showing any signs of trying to invade their territory with WCMH. Another takeaway is that the family is keeping 102.5...the original home of WHIZ-FM that's currently being leased to Urban One as "La Grande 102.5" serving the Columbus area. I am trying to find the FCC filing they reference on their website as an "involuntary" transfer of control last September. It makes it sound like they lost the station to the bank or another party. In FCC-speak, could that translate to Marquee driving a Brinks truck to Zanesville to "make them an offer they couldn't refuse?" Before that, the last "voluntary" transfer of control was from Norma J. Littick and her trust to her son and current owner Henry Littick. And an interesting sidenote..... Eric Land, who serves as the GM for 33/40 and the stations Sinclair owns in Birmingham, actually started working at a young age for his father who was the general manager of .....WHIZ. https://woub.org/2022/04/12/woub-experience-helped-prepare-eric-land-for-career-in-television-management/ He was also the general manager of CBS 42 under Media General who led the charge of remaking it from WBMG into WIAT.

Also in the analog era, WLWC/WCMH was the centrally located station on channel 4 causing both WTAE and WTTV to be located further away because of short-spacing, and WTTV, licensed to Bloomington was only able to move to Trafalgar, requiring the need for WTTK to fill out the northern part of the Indianapolis viewing area.

Another precedent.... When Allbritton started ABC 33/40 with WCFT 33 in Tuscaloosa and WJSU 40 in Anniston, both were former CBS affiliates in their respective markets. They provided each city with their own reliable CBS affiliate since the one in Birmingham at the time (WBMG) was weak and grossly inferior. When ABC went to 33/40, it played a major role in collapsing both Anniston and Tuscaloosa into the Birmingham market. Media General was basically forced to make something out of WBMG, so they maximized the signal and basically blew up the station to start over again as WIAT. During this transition, another Anniston station filled in the gap with CBS (WNAL) but once the market collapsed, they went PAX.

Since Zanesville is a one-horse market (only Muskingum County) that is completely surrounded by the Columbus DMA, it does fuel the speculation that this station is numbered as an NBC affiliate in the shadow of WCMH. Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that prior ownership leased their own FM frequency and moved it closer to Columbus to capture listeners there. On the flip side, Marquee could fill out the rest of the market much like has been done in Victoria, TX with Morgan Murphy and Block in Lima with "Your Hometown Local Stations" and "Your News Now". It all depends on how entrenched Sinclair and Tegna are with carriage deals with providers there piping in WSYX and WBNS. YouTube TV already pipes in WBNS and WSYX 6.3 (Fox) but provides an ABC feed like they do in the other markets without an affiliate. I'm sure the locals would want to keep the Columbus locals they've enjoyed for years as well, and not be stuck with Zanesville news from a single source. It just depends on who's going to make the next move. Zanesville is it's own market so they have that protection for any network that wants an affiliate there. And to keep things status quo, it wouldn't be out of the question for either Sinclair or Tegna to start a low powered repeater there to officially claim affiliations for Zanesville by just relaying their Columbus stations.

For the severe weather outbreaks that have passed through the Meridian area the past several weeks, THIS is the coverage they have been providing on both WGBC and WMDN I think it's a local thing they use exclusive to that market. Meanwhile, WTOK is like any other station when a tornado warning is issued....wall to wall coverage.

The "honeycomb" look is probably the closest thing Gray has for a national package right now, only because it's the package they're using for their "Local News Live" channel that uses their stations' content to fill time on each other's streams. Outside of the Southeast, are there any other major clusters of stations that have picked it up? The only other two I can recall are Clarksburg and Harrisonburg...

That's better numbers than Nexstar's NewsNation for sure.... Maybe they should run a Matlock marathon? It could easily double or possibly even triple their current numbers... And if they make it available on OTT...oh wait...

I"m looking forward to a MythBusters episode where they test the Tom & Jerry antics (they did one on the Simpsons years back!) Same goes for Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote since they've always been a Warner Bros. thing, while T&J came thru the Turner/MGM purchase in the 80s where he ended up with most of the MGM content post-purchase and kept after the re-sale of MGM/UA. And someone earlier mentioned that Jabberjaw and Shark Week are now under the same parent company Next move, could Nexstar trade in their 31 percent ownership of the Food Network(s) subsidiary in exchange for all or part of the CW? We shall see....

I"m hoping the WBTV package is the one that WVUE eventually ends up with. It's probably the most "major market" look they have right now. Then again, it would look a lot like WGNO's package, especially with the way the lower thirds are designed. Graphic packages aside, as long as it doesn't look totally awful and makes the on-air product look like garbage, WVUE should be just fine.