tyrannical bastard

When WHNS joins the fold, that will add Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina as well. Gray may as well add a digital presence in Raleigh/Durham to fill out the rest of the state. And they could do a much better job in the Triad than Sinclair does with their so-called "local" news being piped in from San Antonio. Those moves fill out both of the Carolinas right there and how Gray can compete in markets they aren't in already.

If NBC really wants to get something out of this, they should allow their paying Peacock customers free access to the channels they're taking away from YTTV. I"m a YTTV customer, and these are key channels for why I still even pay for TV, so this one sort of hurts. I think Google is going to cave in and eventually offer a Peacock option.

I just hope Gray isn't planning on switching ALL of their stations to this. Hopefully another package is waiting in the wings for some of the others? You just have to wonder what WVUE is going to end up with.....and when.....

Taking it back another step, I believe the "First Alert" design in itself was an FX/Giant Octopus thing back when many stations were going HD and getting new sets. A similar "Storm Tracker" graphic was used on WALA's 2012 HD set, but never used on air. This was back when they were LIN. However, over in Biloxi at WLOX, they used the "first alert" (and still do) and it was part of their look both on set and graphics. Bottom line, Gray and Raycom ran with it, and it's like a part of them. A decade ago, much of Gray's on air looks were basically small market ripoffs of others. But how the tables have turned in our industry....

Hopefully any pending sale of Tegna will enact some sort of change in these stations. Hopefully it's not just a financial one that looks only at the bottom line, but with Apollo being a suitor, it's a real possibility.

I have to wonder, was the inspiration for "Morning in America" the 1984 campaign slogan of the same name that Ronald Reagan used? You know, since NewsNation is supposed to be a "fair and balanced" news operation? Just give Tom Skilling his own show. Bring Bozo out of retirement. And it may be easy to wrestle back the Cubs from the Sinclair/Diamond dumpster fire that is "Marquee". The ratings would go through the roof!

Well, it looks like the two options for Tegna are the overlapping letters, and the WVEC / . Hopefully WKYC is next, What i've seen thus far is promising after the a-bomb that went off there with the "elevator 3" branding.

The format fits the former WLFN-LP, as it was a prior Franken-FM (on 87.7 FM) broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Having a local news department gives it some credence against WQHS, which has basically been a pass-thru for Univision and their partners ever since they got the station from Barry Diller/USA Broadcasting. Still think it needs to relay WOIO in some form to Cuyahoga County, since WOIO/WUAB's VHF signal has been problematic from day one.

Considering this station's tortured history under Clear Channel/Newport, and Nexstar "copying and pasting" the WKRC branding AND graphics package (despite the fact they went to Sinclair in the Newport breakup), I actually like it. The ABC 24 they had before they became WATN was an abomination, along with how the station was run before then. Will it bring them out of last place? Probably not, but at least it stands out from the other stations in the market, at least logo-wise. WREG's (NewsChannel 3) logo is blah, WMC's logo is pushing 25 years (even with the recent updates) and itself is still in the vein of the WSB knock-off as it is. And WHBQ may as well still be a FOX O&O (logo-wise with their WTVT "13") despite all of the sweat equity that Cox has put into the place. Certainly doing a lot better than their other trade up north! And at least the Nexstar website at the time wasn't a bad one (localmemphis.com). It could have been something more awful like MemphisProud.com or WeAreBluffCity.com. Thankfully Nexstar stopped this by the time they traded up to WREG.

Media General simply traded up to WPRI/WNAC for the same reason NBC dumped WJAR in the first place....it was a solo station without a duopoly opportunity, (and one of their smallest markets at the time). Even though it was a heritage station, the allure of having a grandfathered duopoly persuaded Media General to sell out. I believe it was part of a trade between Sinclair & Media General as well. Maybe when WTTA was traded to Media General after being Tampa's lone Sinclair property?

WOIO did tweak their lower thirds slightly... This is a screen grab from their web video, but the left bleeds off the screen and the "19" bug covers the right end. The new Gray Ticker is right below the lower third.

Too bad Raycom let WUAB's former UHF home on 28 go in the spectrum auction (which they probably got a handsome return on). So now that leaves Gray with the always problematic channel 10 allotment that both WOIO and WUAB share, and their gaggle of low power repeaters, including the recently acquired WOHZ in Mansfield and the former Franken-FM WLFM in Cleveland.... Is there any hope of WOIO/WUAB moving off of 10 onto a full powered UHF facility in the area? Even on one of their translator stations?

A year ago, I posted about ABC 33/40's 24th anniversary. September 1st marks their 25th Anniversary serving as Birmingham's ABC affiliate. James Spann posted about it on his Facebook page, and the main difference between this year's post and last years, is that he threw in some good words for Sinclair (in addition to the prior owners, Allbritton) for allowing him to serve Central Alabama with severe weather coverage whenever warranted.

Just the ticker, but that's definitely a signature Gray thing.

I wish I could find the KSTP promos he did in the 2000s.

Even though Ed Asner played a fictional character on both shows, his "Lou Grant" character gave millions of Americans a view into a newsroom and how it works. Through his gruff and caring sides, it showed that a news director was a person too, and had the same life struggles along with their job duties.

Here's a thought... I like the sound of "CBS 6". It gives them a chance to escape all of the stigma of the years of "19" and their place in the basement. Since it's a UHF station with the PSIP of 6, it could be a chance of finally rebranding "WOIO". Almost like WBMA-LP was the source of the programming of ABC 33/40, WOIO's current signal could simply become another repeater of WLFM, just for branding purposes. WUAB could be as-is, shoehorned onto WOIO's signal with their existing "43" PSIP. Any other translators would relay like they've always done.

All the more reason for Sinclair and the others to start selling the RSNs direct to consumer. Let them pay for it and don't drag the cable/satellite companies (and their remaining customers) through being forced to pay for them with expensive fees.

If it really is that much money Sinclair is asking, I would have to actually agree with Dish for once. And if Bally is indeed tied into this, then that's another reason why people are leaving pay tv IN DROVES. It's too expensive, and for what's left is driven up by the cost of programming when the programmers demand MORE and MORE in each cycle. Technology is pretty much to the point of breaking apart the pay tv bundle for good. Consumers can download all of the "apps" they need to watch what they want, and subscribe to smaller platforms to get most of the channels they desire. The only hitch is when the platforms like Roku decide they don't want to cooperate with companies like Google, and for how long it took for HBOMax and Peacock to be available on Roku and Amazon. As I mentioned before, are there any cable, satellite or pay tv providers left that still carry the RSN's, and/or do NOT force a surcharge on their customers for them being stuck in the "bundle" of channels they're most likely to get?

Basically, all we see are these things happening, and then the owner gets a huge fine, and that's the end of that. These things are rarely ever undone, and the change becomes status quo in the place it happened. Given broadcasting is how it is, with a reduced footprint (frequency-wise) and a rapidly dwindling ownership base, it's unlikely to ever change it back to the way it was before the act happened anywhere.

For the news operations they run themselves, Lockwood has basically left them as they were from whoever they acquired them from. KTEN may be the only exception, and their only non "Gray castoff" station they bought from someone else with a major affiliation. Case in point, in Charlottesville, VA, where their stations still have a Gray package, while their current Gray station, WVIR recently got one as well!

As it appears, yes. Tom Lewis is anchoring the evening newscasts with Amy Hoyt. AGAIN. https://www.mypanhandle.com/author/tom-lewis/ Tom and Amy anchored the news together from 1994 to around 2001. Amy Hoyt began her career at WJHG in the 70s and switched to WMBB in 1994, and has been there ever since. I don't know if any market has ever seen as much crossing the street (or the Hathaway Bridge) as Panama City. There are lots of on-air personalities who have worked at both stations, multiple times. I'm sure on-air contracts and non-compete clauses are more prevalent these days, but it still happens to this day.

Same place that hired Lee Cruse from WLEX after his "Royal Baby" flap.... https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2019/05/23/wlex-18-lexington-kentucky-tv-host-lee-cruse-cuts-ties-british-royal-baby-comments/1203626001/ WTVQ is becoming the next "asylum" station, sort of like WVIR was several years back. Especially when they hired major market bounced talent like David Rogers. Speaking of Lee Cruse, he hosts a daily talk show on WTVQ with former his former co-host Hayley Harmon. called "The Lee & Hayley Show". Basically a re-do of their "Live with Lee & Hayley" from their WLEX days. That's another thread in itself I've been meaning to start one of these days. Many of the Morris stations carry it as well.

RSN's have basically become a "forced expense" on any cable/satellite customer that still has them. Does any service that has them NOT charge a "regional sports network" fee? DTC may be the only option left, unless the RSN's seriously consider that the jig is up, and be open to making their expensive content a choosable option for their customers.

Well it sounds like the fight to bring the Bally channels (BACK!) to Dish is going really well at this point https://www.nexttv.com/blogs/sinclair-rsns-focus-on-the-dish-dea