tyrannical bastard

Ron "The Ghoul" Sweed, the successor to Cleveland TV legend Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson, has died. https://fox8.com/2019/04/02/ron-the-ghoul-sweed-legendary-tv-personality-has-passed-away/amp/ His show was carried on 10 stations across the country owned by Kaiser Broadcasting including Detroit's WKBD and Cleveland's WKBF (which signed off in 1975 and was re-incarnated as WCLQ several years later... it's now Univision owned WQHS). His show made a comeback at WCLQ in the 80s and later in the 1990s at WBNX.

Well, technically 2002-ish.

Scott Jones has a doozy of a jaw-dropper on today's FTVLive... ...and happy April 1st everyone!

Was WeatherRate a Raycom decision on WOIO? In the post-Goddard era of Cleveland television it may seem a little more tolerable, but nevertheless, one of those things a company pulls out of their "bag of tricks" to try and make the station better again. Consultant-laden drivel. IIRC, the WeatherRate folks do their own research, and go to the "most accurate" station. If the station buys into it, they can proclaim that they have the "Most Accurate" forecast. (if it wasn't for Sinclair, I'm sure some snake-oil salesperson would do the same thing with the "most accurate" news coverage....too bad the Poynter Institute doesn't do this with Politifact for TV too much....) Back to topic, A decent graphics package would be nice, but there are much more things Gray and WOIO need to do to make WOIO a contender in Cleveland. Inertia (the fall of WKYC and WEWS...along with general ratings declines) will probably play the biggest part. Nexstar potentially messing up WJW could help as well... Action News put them on the map, and while it was sensational and over-the-top, it worked even when its competition was still putting out a quality news product. (WEWS was in an alternate universe in the time that only a "Circle 5" could save them from) Raycom shot themselves in the foot when they killed "Action News" and later chased off all of their recognizable...cough cough "highly compensated" talent right before Gray took over.

It would be a change of pace for Gray to go out of house for a new look. (It looks like they fell for the WeatheRate scam too...ugh) We all know that Raycom had their in-house Limerick package, Wasn't most of Gray's graphic efforts in house as well?

Interesting. It's almost a hybrid of the last Raycom package with Graham (and the Sinclair colors).... At least Gray is starting at the top with WOIO since it needs the most TLC....

Hopefully CourtTV will either replace Grit on WJTC or WFNA (or LaffTV on WKRG) in the Mobile/Pensacola area. Why Nexstar added these affiliates when WJTC already had Grit and WALA already had Laff is beyond me....

If she still owned KFMB, could that be grounds for an FCC license violation? It's no longer an issue since Tegna owns the station and is no longer under her control.

WALA has tweaked their morning newscasts.... The 4:30-7am portion still remains as Fox 10 News with longtime anchors Eric Reynolds & Sarah Wall, but now, the 7-9am portion is now "Good Day Gulf Coast" with Studio 10 co-host Joe Emer adding anchor duties alongside Sarah Wall. I haven't seen too much of a shift of content (like other Fox "Good Day" shows) since the WALA morning news has been very news-intensive, but that could change. Studio 10 is the lifestyle pay-for-play show where all of the "filler" has gone....

It looks very good for WSYX. Let's hope they leave the flags out of the supers this time once and for all (not bloody likely.....) WSYX and WBFF have always been the golden boys for Sinclair. WSYX has been in the fold since 1996 when their original Columbus station (WTTE) was shelled into Glencairn and by way of their purchase of River City. Being a "Big 3" station in Sinclair's fold for so long (especially in a market like Columbus) means there has been much attention focused on it. It may be in 3rd place, but it has been a cash cow ever since. WJLA, despite being in the nation's capitol and a virtual flagship, still needs a lot of work, as given by all of the turnover and ratings issues since Sinclair took over.... Of course down in Cincinnati, someone is doing a good job of keeping Sinclair off their backs....how they have managed to escape the "Sinclair-i-zation" is beyond me......

Interestingly enough, the coverage has ramped up in recent years to keep up with WKRG's day-long coverage. WALA didn't even do coverage until WPMI and WJTC started ramping up theirs. And WPMI's remote location is based out of WALA's longtime studios in Downtown Mobile (they moved in 2002 and the building houses an engineering firm). WALA sets up shop on a hotel balcony across the street and WKRG"s has been based out of the Exploreum museum.....all of which are on the parade routes.

Over in Mobile (where Mardi Gras actually started), they do their fair share of parade coverage as well. WKRG has always blown out their schedule from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with live coverage, while WALA and WPMI do 4 hours of coverage from 10 to 2. WEAR doesn't do anything on Fat Tuesday but they do air a parade the Saturday before from Pensacola. WJTC takes things a step further and actually airs many of the parades in the days leading up to Mardi Gras.... I don't think even any stations in New Orleans do that. As for costumes, WPMI plays it up the most, but instead of characters it's the traditional Mardi Gras garb with lots of green, purple and gold.

Media General tanking WCMH certainly helped WSYX's cause. But under Mitch Jacob, WSYX was Sinclair's golden boy getting all of the tools and expanded resources. Then along came the Allbritton buy and WJLA as Sinclair grew and grew and he was bumped up the food chain... Once the dust settles, WSMV will hopefully find it's groove again. What some of these managers don't realize is a "back to basics" approach can work wonders. Look at WVTM. And the same can be said with WAPT beating out WJTV in Jackson.

WSMV has a new news director...Mitch Jacob, who worked at WJLA and WSYX. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/2/26/news-director-change-in-nashville While his time in DC has been debateable (overshadowed by the fact of WJLA being taken over by Sinclair), WSYX was a solid #2 under his watch and has always been one of the most successful and profitable Sinclair stations. This and the new GM hopefully can move WSMV forward from the bad press it has garnered over the past year or so due to....well...we all know...cough cough....dk....cough cough....among other changes, layoffs and lawsuits... And could they bury the hatchet and decide to bring her back perhaps?

Well...since virtually everyone is in HD (and the HD News Thread disappeared in the last board upgrade).... It appears that little old WBKB-TV in Alpena, MI went HD sometime this past fall (around the beginning of September) Scroll down in WBKB's YouTube Channel to around September 7th and you'll see the last SD weather cast and the first one in HD... So who's left in Widescreen SD....and. even...gasp....4x3 now?!?!?!?!?!?

When it's the SAME teams over and over again.....of course it's bad for business (and anyone who is NOT a fan of said teams....) Bottom line, the more something is hyped, the more it better live up to it. And that goes far beyond football and sports these days...

It's about time for the sports empires built by the leagues and networks to crumble. Viewers are sick and tired of being held hostage and fleeced so these entities can get more and more money. The national championship and the Superbowl this year have been Poetic Justice. While they're at it, just give up doing the overproduced half time shows too....it worked SO WELL for Imagine Dragons during the national championship.... End rant. Thank goodness football season is finally over.

As anticipated, the Superbowl drew drastically low ratings, especially in New Orleans. Overnight numbers showed the game drew rougly HALF of prior Superbowls and even some regular season games on local New Orleans TV. https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/02/super-bowl-ratings-plummet-as-who-dats-strike-back.html I think the NOLA fans won the Superbowl. They got screwed by the refs by the no call, and the game was an absolute shit show for the NFL.

With this sentiment, I think WWL is going to have a lousy Super Bowl....ratings wise.... https://www.nola.com/expo/sports/g66l-2019/02/09ba5a36476103/25-reasons-not-to-watch-the-super-bowl-no-1-roger-goodell-.html

I thought about where I should be posting this, but with James Ingram's recent passing, I finally put 2 and 2 together in his involvement with the "Give Me 5" promo https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/legendary-r-b-singer-james-ingram-sang-in-promotional-video-for-news-5-in-1995 WEWS claims Carly Simon did vocals...but it is definitely NOT her. I believe it's Andrea McArdle, the then-wife of Edd Kalehoff who was the original Annie in the Broadway musical, and sang lead vocals on Edd's "4 New York" campaign released several years earlier. This was a great promo that had a limited shelf life due to the Browns' being yanked out of the city that year. Not to mention, it was probably expensive. (WJLA had a campaign with Jeffrey Osborne back in the 80s that wasn't renewed due to $$$)

Part deux.... https://www.ohio.com/news/20190121/split-with-ernest-angley-tough-for-his-assistant And here's an article from Cleveland Scene talking about Rex Humbard, considered the "founder" of televangelism, and how his former empire ended up in Ernest Angley's hands. https://m.clevescene.com/cleveland/jesus-for-sale/Content?oid=1503067 The article doesn't mention that Humbard originally had a permit to sign on WCOT Channel 55 and would have broadcast from the now-unfinished "tower" in the property. He started construction in the 1970s, and Angley's ministry resurrected the TV facility's construction and bought the Channel 55 CP to sign on WBNX in 1985.

Let's say this type of thing happened with a station owner of a major group. The investors would be calling for their heads, advertisers would pull their accounts, and the FCC could strip them of their licenses. It all depends on the "abuse" aspect....if it was consensual, that's one thing. It's a sin in it's context, but that's another ballgame in the eyes of the FCC beyond their jurisdiction. This saga will probably keep on going until Rev. Angley goes upstairs, or the money runs dry and the sheriff sale sells the property to the highest bidder....

Well...the Ernest Angley saga has taken a disturbing turn.... I'll leave it at this article posted in today's Akron Beacon Journal (and it's only the first part!) https://www.ohio.com/news/20190119/rev-ernest-angley-admitted-sexual-encounter

Bottom line, even if the ratings suck, WWL and Tegna will profit from it regardless of the ratings....making up lost ground from the damage they inflicted on the news product.

WSMV has a new General Manager (TVNewsCheck says she's leaving WIVB/WNLO, but she was bounced from there soon after Nexstar took over the station from Media General) I can only hope she can get WSMV back on their feet again, but her track record speaks otherwise.... The question is did the last guy quit, or did Meredith pull the plug?