tyrannical bastard

It's not even wall-to-wall at this point with ANY station. Maybe because of the "total evacuation" of coastal counties, or the general state of TV itself. Or it could be the timing of the landfall. Several years ago, being this close to landfall without wall-to-wall coverage was unheard of. Even the Weather Channel stayed with regular programming after midnight to 6am ET. Fox Weather went with full coverage. And from what I saw with WTXL, it was mostly Scrippscast with their chief meteorologist leading coverage in the studio. I would hope Sinclair starts something real quick. There's no excuse to have NOTHING for a storm of this magnitude, especially in an area that's never had one like this before.

This record-breaking storm is heading directly for Tallahassee, and could have far-reaching impacts in surrounding areas including even Atlanta. Tallahassee being the media market that it is, there's Gray's WCTV and Scripps' WTXL. And then there's Sinclair's WTWC. Last time (during Idalia) they piped in dedicated coverage from West Palm Beach. Their Fox channel still gets their news from WCTV. Not even a weather warning so far on the NBC side. Hopefully Sinclair is prepared, especially since they have to pipe in coverage and if there's any local effects to the stations this may actually be an advantage. I'll be curious to see if WMBB in Panama City and WFLA in Tampa actually offer live coverage online...since it's a hurricane and people need to evacuate out of their market areas...

A sale-leaseback deal may help them now, but it could come back to haunt them when that sale money runs out. They will now have to pay rent to the owners of the building. This was one of the expenses that helped bury Red Lobster because the rent was an additional expense on top of sagging sales. If the property becomes more valuable, then the rent goes up too.

There have been some fringe counties that have bounced back and forth between DMAs. One notable one is Athens County, Ohio. It's been part of Columbus and the Charleston/Huntington DMA over the past 20 years, and has switched back and forth several times. Even in the digital era, it has fringe TV service from either market, as well as from Zanesville, OH and Parkersburg, WV. Back before they got DirecTV/Dish locals, they actually qualified for distant locals on satellite due to their remote location from either market. Another switch was with George County, MS being included into the Mobile-Pensacola DMA about 15 years ago. Biloxi-Gulfport may have gotten them back for in-state TV service as opposed to service from Alabama and Florida.

While not a dispute, this could be a future problem for network affiliates. More and more money for less in return. https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/will-stations-revolt-over-network-payments/ Let's just say Nexstar has had it coming ever since they started shaking down cable companies for carriage dollars.

This one slipped by me. Longtime WEAR sports director Dan Shugart retired back in June. He had been with the station since 1981. https://weartv.com/news/local/iconic-wear-news-sports-director-dan-shugart-retiring-after-43-years I don't think they have a dedicated sports person anymore since Steve Nissim was let go back in 2021. This leaves WALA and WKRG as the only stations covering sports with dedicated reporters in Mobile/Pensacola. WKRG has two (Simone Eli & Gerhard Mathangani) and WALA has Emily Cochran, who only appears in their 10pm shows.

You know Broadcast TV is circling the drain when the networks (Fox & CW) are airing college football on Friday nights. I get it maybe the first couple weeks, but this is a bit much. Friday nights are for high school football and I'm sure the affiliate stations that have newscasts (with extensive high school coverage) are not too happy about it. And with the Sinclair CW stations that do high school football on Friday nights... Do they send the NASCAR race that airs right before packing (in the eastern markets) in favor of their Friday Night Rivals game?

I"m surprised CBS didn't try and do this 20 years ago, when they could have seen the writing on the wall for Guiding Light and As The World Turns. Passions was still on the air as the newest of the daytime serials and would last until right before CBS pulled the plug on the other shows. Sort of ironic that the filler show (The Talk) is being replaced by a soap opera.

I'd be curious to see if any of these market shifts (or even the changes in TV households) are markets adding/dropping counties or parishes from their DMAs.

It's already active on WALA 10.5 in Mobile. The365 was moved to a new subchannel on WMBP-LD (31.5).

Pittsburgh couldn't do the same with KDKA and WDKA since the WDKA calls have been in use since 1997 in Paducah, KY on the MyNetworkTV station Sinclair once owned with KBSI.

WKBN and WYTV have been doing them for the past several years. Since newspapers are on the verge of extinction (and Youngstown's Vindicator is a zombie newspaper operated out of Warren) TV and web (funeral homes and legacy.com) are the main source now.

The combined MyUP News operation launched today with the Morgan Murphy graphics package originating off a renovated WJMN set. As evidenced by the final ABC 10 newscast, it really was a bare bones operation in the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hn1clTwcVk At least no one lost their jobs and everyone still has a role in the combined operation. In the end, this is a positive since WJMN can expand their news department over to WBUP/WBKP, especially since it was sidelined by losing CBS. You lose a voice in the process, but that voice was stretched too thin to begin with. Now that WZMQ has a functioning news department, the market now has 3 viable news operations.

James Earl Jones has died. For anyone who remembers CNN's glory days...you'll know it when he said "This...is CNN." Sadly, he outlived the network as it was a viable news source thanks to Jeff Zucker onwards....

Here's a free link to a Deadline article that confirms the number of stations (up to 60) as well: https://deadline.com/2024/09/sinclair-tennis-channel-ceo-ousting-dr-phil-1236080980/ Sinclair should have never have bought that many stations to begin with. Groups like Sinclair are in way over their heads right now and viewers are paying the price because of their greed, especially in markets where competitors have been consolidated and decimated.

More media happenings in Mobile.... WPMI and Sinclair have to cough up 200K in a lawsuit to a pastor that was erroneously identified as a predator. This even after the station immediately retracted the story and offered ample airtime to the defamed pastor, who was actually part of the group that OPPOSED the group of pastors in trouble for sexual misconduct.. And Lagniappe reports that former WALA morning meteorologist Michael White is starting his own weather subscription service. I'd post both stories here, but they're both paywalled by Lagniappe Mobile and why Lagniappe Mobile is enabling Michael White after all of the allegations against him. There's something not being told here and Lagniappe is the last true source of journalism in Mobile after Sinclair, Nexstar, Advance (AL.com) and even Gray have cow-towed to the dark side of things while companies like Alabama Power create their own news sources "Alabama News Center" to distract the people with feel-good stories while they raise rates (and enjoy record profits) and pollute our state. End rant.

And like Hollie Strano finally getting fired for her DUI, WMBF finally terminated sports director Dave Ackert. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/9/2/fired-in-myrtle-beach Why did it take so long for the stations to terminate these employees?

"Where are the cameras?" - Jim Fowler Hopefully they'll replay the last Pat Sajak episode before Ryan Seacrest takes over on the 9th. I haven't watched the show regularly in years but having Ryan Seacrest host it is very "meh" to me.

Merv Griffin must be "spinning" the wheel right now. Perhaps Kramer will find the set in the dumpster and host the show in his apartment!

Update... Jim Donovan is now stepping down from his longtime role as the radio voice from the Cleveland Browns as well. https://www.wkyc.com/article/sports/nfl/browns/jim-donovan-cleveland-browns-radio-voice-cancer-battle/95-3eb36612-c6fd-4234-8f60-2ff2137e4612

Starting a blanket thread since there has been so much change in college football especially on television. The major changes are CBS losing the SEC package to ABC and ESPN as well as the Big Ten's new deal, not to mention all the realignment and NIL, transfer portal stuff..... So (try to) enjoy the games and share your thoughts here!

WPIX's reach alone is probably about 6 percent. That's bigger than a lot of the smaller groups total reach. And it's full value since they're on VHF.

Graham and FOX are the only realistic buyers in Detroit since Scripps has 20. Gray could be a possibility as well if they want to run it out of one of their other nearby stations. Granite did the same thing with channel 20 and piped in news from Fort Wayne.

With cable and OTT, KCCW's presence may be minimal especially if the areas are covered by local translators that beam in the MSP stations to remote areas. WPKD is not one of the stations listed either. Since WPGH slacks in the market (thanks Sinclair!) WPKD fills a void with viable morning and prime time newscasts, and now the 8pm primetime newscast. KDKA has always been dominant and WPKD seems to extend it's dominance.

There are just certain things that you should never do, EVER. Especially if you work in TV... ...AND do it from work.