tyrannical bastard

Some sad news out of Cincinnati, as Elliott Block, the owner of "WKRP" has passed away. https://www.wvxu.org/post/wkrp-tv-station-owner-elliott-block-dies-71#stream/0 WBQC-LD has been known as "WKRP" for the last decade, capitalizing on the infamous sitcom about the easy listening station turned rock and roll. It was the original home of the WB, and switched to UPN after Sinclair dropped that network in favor of the WB. When the CW was launched, WKRC added it as a subchannel and WBQC returned to independence. It was always a station that tested their limits with coverage, launching a campaign to get a slot on Time Warner Cable, long before the retransmission boxing matches we have today. When DirecTV picked them up as a UPN affiliate, they did a parody of the Verizon "can you hear me now" commercial, using a guy and a satellite dish asking "can you see me now?" Even as an independent, it has been a repository of subchannels, with RTN replacing regular programming on the main channel in 2011. I don't know what the future holds for the station, unless he established a trust or heirs to run it. Up in Cleveland, W16DO, formerly W35AX was sold by Media-Com television to HC2 Holdings. Media-Com (the Klaus Family) still owns WNIR-FM, one of the longest running FM talk stations in the nation.

It pretty much involves building out the new site and configuring it with all of the feeds and programs, of course this involves some redundancy in the transition phase where materials are fed to both locations for operations and testing. And it should pretty much be a flick of a switch where the old site no longer feeds then the new site kicks in. And as a safety measure, the old site is usually kept going a little while longer (if it was automated) as a backup in case there are hiccups or failures.

If only more management agreements worked like this. Then again, Berkshire Hathaway is a well regarded public company with solid and stable investments. Private equity on the other hand loads up a company with lots of debt and the product suffers to keep costs down and profits (ROI) up.

How tied to Graham is WPLG these days? BH may be exerting some independence.

Yep. While Tom McGee was canned each time after his DUIs, Bob Solarski was suspended just long enough to do an apology sweeps piece the following November. Tom McGee's antics involved driving the wrong way the first time and with a flat tire the second. Bob Solarski? He was passed out in his vehicle after ramming into several cars in a parking lot.

And just like that, once Alan Sealls joins WPMI in 2020, the anchors at WPMI will become the most experienced anchor team in the market Mobile. (WEAR over in Pensacola's anchors are the most seasoned...and Bob Solarski is still kicking it 11 years after his "Tom McGee" incident!) It's been a very tumultuous year in the Mobile area.... Bob Grip started the year by stepping down from longtime home WALA. Flash forward to May, and the 50th year of Mel Showers turned into his last as he announced he was stepping down from WKRG. After Mel's "final" newscast (he filled in a few more times), then Alan slipped away when his contract negotiations broke down. Makes me wonder if this has been in the works for quite some time. Right before Alan's bombshell, WPMI and WJTC disappeared from AT&T along with the Sinclair sidecars. A month later, so did WKRG and WFNA along with the rest of Nexstar. Nexstar returned earlier in the fall and it was only a week or two ago that WPMI and WJTC returned. The day after, the "teaser" promos began airing (a coincidence?) Back to WPMI...they have been "short" ever since Kelly Jones left and went over to radio. She was brought over by their now-former GM who both used to work at KCTV in Kansas City. It's gotten even worse with the departures of Jake Dunne, who served as a semi-morning meteorologist (3 days a week & weekends) while Kelly Foster did double duty 2 days a week as anchor and morning met, and as morning/noon anchor when Jake was on the show. Jake left for Wichita and was soon replaced by Kyle Hanson from El Paso. Then Chief met Chris Dunn exited after 4 years "to spend more time with family." Methinks his contract was not renewed and getting Alan on board was kicked into high gear. Kelly Foster has been filling in evenings, and on weekends (or when no one else is available)....WEAR has been filling in with pre-taped forecasts with their weather people, and weather has even been read by the weekend anchors if it's a clear day that just requires the 7-day. So with all of this austerity, could this have all been the reason? Or was Nexstar simply that cheap and needed to pare six figures from their WKRG payroll? (It was rumored that Mel Showers was making that much after that many years...) Viewers were distraught when Alan left WKRG. Will he be able to single-handedly lure viewers over to the forever doormat WPMI? As long as Sinclair doesn't screw this up. 12 years ago, they were reeling (under Clear Channel) when they canned all 3 prime anchors (Kim Mcrea, Drexel Gilbert and Peter Albrecht)...the latter 2 used to work for WKRG, and they do, once again... And an interesting footnote... While Alan was going viral over this..... WPMI was going viral over THIS...

And the earth-shattering major announcement is... Alan Sealls will be WPMI NBC 15's chief meteorologist starting in January. https://mynbc15.com/news/local/alan-sealls-the-gulf-coasts-chief-meteorologist-joins-nbc-15-as-chief-meteorologist Surprised his non-compete was only for six months after leaving WKRG.

Another group of the Sinclair shells are back....the MPS Media stations. https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/att-re-adds-4-local-cw-nbc-affiliates-to-directv-att-tv-now/ That just leaves Second Generation of Iowa (KFXA), Waitt (KMEG), Tennessee Broadcasting (WNAB), Mercury Broadcasting (KMTW) and Roberts Broadcasting (KMTR). Interesting facts: The Waitt company that owns the KMEG license has no ties to the company that once owned it. One of their former stations, WFXL was once owned by the original Waitt who was acquired by Raycom, who divested it to Barrington when they merged with Liberty (since they owned WALB). Mercury Broadcasting was the founder of WJTC in Pensacola. They formed an LMA with Clear Channel who owned WPMI, then a FOX affiliate. They became a legal duopoly in 2000, and BOTH were shelled to Deerfield in 2012 with their sale by Newport Television since Sinclair already owned WEAR and WFGX. Back to Mercury, who Clear Channel recruited when Paramount wanted out of running KSCC (now KMTW) and ran them out of KSAS. The arrangement lasts into this day through Clear Channel, Newport, and now Sinclair.

It seems like around the time he was last seen on WKRG. Could have very well have been Mel Showers' last newscast as a main anchor and may have been working without a contract just to see Mel off during the book.... It was a week or two later that Alan announced he had left WKRG after failing to reach a new contract and that they were very "far apart" in negotiations. Alan has been saying on his weather Facebook page that he WILL be back on a Mobile television station very soon....and with Chris Dunn leaving WPMI opens up a slot since Allen Strum (WEAR) and Jason Smith (WALA) seem to be staying put....

I'm thinking the latter.....they've been teasing in promos with a guy wearing a "barrels of buttery sunshine" button. With Alan Sealls leaving WKRG.... With Chris Dunn leaving WPMI.... I'm willing to bet WPMI just scored their greatest hire ever.....

10.4 could likely be Justice. It's owned by Tegna, even though it's on the low-powered reincarnation of GTN after they sold WSFJ to Trinity.

Hmmmm....

Armstrong Williams points the finger at Duane Lammers, the agent most of these groups hired to negotiate on their behalf. https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/howard-stirks-holdings-at-t-strike-retrans-deal A deal was only made after Howard Stirk used another negotiator and was able to work out a deal. Deerfield and Gocom Media of Illinois likely did the same. As for Waitt / Second Generation and Roberts, they're probably still in limbo under Lammers.

Well, looks like the rumors are true in Mobile... (The button on the right is pretty much a dead giveaway)

It's a good fixer upper for Nexstar since FOX put so little into launching it. But given Seattle, it wouldn't surprise me to see FOX re-enter the market years later by purchasing....wait for it.....WCCB and reverse the move they made 6 years ago.....

I'm getting reports that Mobile's WPMI and WJTC have been restored to DirecTV, so the impasse between Deerfield (and the other shells) & AT&T could be coming to a close..... UPDATE: Official confirmation from WPMI: https://mynbc15.com/news/local/att-and-directv-customers-nbc-15-is-back WHAM: https://13wham.com/news/local/directv-deerfield-media-reach-agreement-for-rochester-tv-market No word on KMTR and KMEG appears to still be off, as well, since they are separately owned but still run by Sinclair.

Looks like they still have the old ticker....I know when WLOX switched, they immediately switched to the new Gray-style ticker.

While they're making strides with the on air product and execution, The back office strikes again, and taketh away the company credit cards....

Doubtful. They went from a station that ranked near the top of WB/CW affiliations to an independent station that has been increasingly overshadowed by a ministry rife with allegations of abuse and growing financial problems. I say it a thousand times, but the endGame for WBNX (see what I did there?) will likely come as a merger with Tegna or Scripps, or a group like Marquee that will leverage all of their subchannels and add even more....

Many of "Cleveland's Own" have jumped on the gravy train of endorsements ever since they left the anchor desk....Tim Taylor, Wilma Smith, Connie Dieken, Jim Mueller and many others.... Some have been around so long they were allowed to endorse things alongside their news duties. Don Webster shilled for a bunch of things (since he was a weatherman and hosted Upbeat in the 60s) and even Dick Goddard did some car commercials in the Canton area in the 90s that only aired on WOAC-TV when they were a Canton independent station.... In Don & Dick's case, weather people weren't considered "news talent" back in the day, and got away with stuff like that, and so did many others across the country....

The growth of Nexstar has been more beneficial since it takes some good practices from the companies it acquires. To a lesser extent, the same can be said with Gray buying Raycom. Then there's Sinclair, running things their way. I'm sure if they succeded with the Tribune buy, Boris and the Terrorism Alert Desk would have been running in a week....

Money must have been the issue. Up until last year, WBNX was a "must carry" station and changed to "retransmission consent". Gray could have simply offered more money and with the financial troubles at the Angley Empire, they obliged and sold the affiliation to Gray & WUAB for some well-needed cash.

Looks like Nexstar's happiness with WGN is sort of carrying over to WGN America. I saw a WGN America promo on a legacy Nexstar station, so it looks like they've inherited that practice from Tribune...

More fun facts about WBNX..... Looked in their FCC file, and their CW contract was supposed to go through 2021. WUAB's agreement with them goes through 2023. Also, the entity that owns WBNX (Winston Broadcasting), a for-profit entity is 100% owned by Grace Cathedral, Inc, a non-profit entity. And Dagmar Midcap (formerly of WGCL CBS 46 Atlanta) started her career here in the 90s. I think she tagged this promo too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga15wlTr1O8