tyrannical bastard

Since WBNX has so many subchannels, if it is seized and sold to another party, it could be run as a turnkey operation without the main 55.1 (and likely 55.2) feeds. The benefit of Tegna or Scripps getting it would be a tool to compete against WJW at 10pm and even in the morning. If WJW gets it, that's out of the question (unless they pull a KPLR...)

Here's a link to the foreclosure case.... http://204.126.123.151/ssfweb/detail.aspx The plaintiff already owns a parcel of land that has a Taco Bell on it nearby, and has the mineral rights to a vacant piece of land across the street from Grace Cathedral under their ownership. Beck Energy Partners provided the loan to Winston Broadcast Network and is holding them in default. Given the neighborhood, I doubt the city of Cuyahoga Falls would allow for drilling for oil and gas, but the vacant land was once part of Northhampton Township, which was merged into Cuyahoga Falls over 30 years ago. As for WBNX, they could always flip it over to the Grace Cathedral entity, but it is non profit and may require WBNX to change their commercial status with the FCC...... translation, all Angley, all the time! (Could the subchannels remain if this happened?) Or a third party buys the land and flips the license to one of the other Cleveland stations....they may have no desire in running a TV station and could put in something else at the site....

WBN = Winston Broadcast Network, the Ernest Angley Ministries subsidiary that has operated WBNX-TV. Not sure where the Winston came from....was it Ernest's favorite brand of cigarettes before he found salvation? Also, the buffet (and the entire complex including the unfinished concrete tower) goes back to the Rex Humbard ministry.

We have a sheriff's sale! (sorta) https://www.ohio.com/news/20190427/former-cathedral-buffet-in-cuyahoga-falls-headed-for-foreclosure-sale What this means for WBNX itself is unclear. The article mentions only the buffet itself, but the entire building (and land parcel) houses WBNX's studios and offices. The cathedral is a separate property and the unfinished tower and a small piece of land connecting it to the main road is owned by Krieger Holdings, who owns a farmers market in Cuyahoga Falls and sells tower space to cell phone companies. If only the buffet portion is affected, WBNX would be safe, for now. They do have an inordinate number of subchannels they could continue on with if they are forced out of the building and have to set up shop at their transmitter in Parma. And the telecasts could all either move to the cathedral itself as well as any operations of WBNX....(IIRC the 90 and 9 Club is in the studio building while all of the services are at the Cathedral next door) But it would be great if Tegna or Scripps steps up and acquires channel 55. Since WKYC has some Indians telecasts, it would almost be like a re-incarnation of the good old WUAB we all grew up with....

As expected... https://www.wkrg.com/news/mobile-county/mel-showers-retiring-from-6pm-and-10pm-newscasts/1954122762?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WKRG&fbclid=IwAR2wuqUtQyQC0WGMxNR3seZvN-4LBvb0oJk75HEJ_eYfbQaPO18i8H4nR2A He will still be an Anchor Emeritus after May....and Peter Albrecht will add 6 and 10pm to his anchoring duties. And to think that Peter was one of the ones let go from NBC 15 12 years ago.....

Also, Cherish Lombard returns to Mobile to anchor WFNA's 9pm newscast (and possibly other WKRG ones) starting Thursday. She come from WKRN in Nashville and before that, she was a reporter at WALA and was the original co-host of Studio 10. She was also a longtime DJ on WABB 97.5 before moving to TV.

After 50 years at WKRG, It looks like the time is coming for Mel Showers.....

I'm sure eventually, IF Sinclair prevails, they will keep the FOX names on the channels as long as they have to, and likely change them to something else like Stadium or ASN.... Sinclair Sports perhaps? This could be the beginning of a major shift, now that FOX is out of the game, and New Fox doesn't want any part of it. But the regulatory headwinds against them and their penny pinching...er...inbred content will keep them on the sidelines. They could have out-muscled the networks they affiliated with, but that ship sailed away when they blew it with the Tribune deal....

Well...we'll have to see if gravity holds during May sweeps. Any gains 19 will see will probably only be from the declines of 3 and 5, and that's if there isn't a larger overall viewership decline amongst all other Cleveland stations....

With the relaunch, WOIO is the first former Raycom station to be available on SBTV. As of now, they still have a standalone Roku app (in the Raycom format updated with the new logo) and WOIO is still available on livestream and NewsOn (with the Cleveland 19 logo) Time will tell if they stay on NewsOn, but I believe they're going to stick with SBTV.

FTVlive's take....New look, same crap https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/4/9/look-look-same-crap I'd have to agree with him. You can change the graphics all you want, it's the content that needs to be fixed....and the hand held shot HAS. GOT. TO. GO....NOW! But even a crummy newscast can be made just a little better with a decent look, music and presentation. But it does seem Gray is fixated on research that chases their ideal viewer while the station that wins just covers the news, plain and simple.

Tiffani Tucker is sort of like a low-budget version of Romona Robinson. Being a who's who of poached Cleveland TV personalities alone wasn't going to work, so they all got slashed from the budget by the time they realized they've doped down the product too much... At least they weren't this desperate...

Ah yes....the story that actually put WOIO on top of the ratings....that one time....

And 19 News is going straight to the top with stories like this!

It feels like another omen that Meredith will soon be swallowed up by Gray now that WOIO has this package. The news supers still have the same layout and feel of the old Raycom look, but in the new colors. But it looks good so far! They still need a new set since the other one is so washed out by the lights and cramped, and I HATE the hand-held camera in the studio....they can't put it on a stedicam rig? But it's good to have the "Action" back in "19 News!"

This and the OSI theme lasting this long is a cost saving move for sure. Kind of like WKRG keeping the old Media General JDK theme as long as they did... (Someone had a good quote about a station owner keeping something around forever...please chime in...)

As dominant as WJW is, it desperately needs a fresh coat of paint. The set has lasted longer than their former O&O counterparts along with the graphics which have largely survived through Local TV into Tribune... It's a far cry from their best look, IMO, the 2002 Giant Octopus package with Arnold's Fusion. I think if WJW ever changes, you're not going to have the riots in the streets that occurred when WPVI tweaked MCTYW. If the ratings have held up despite all the retirements (cough cough Dick Goddard), a fresh coat of paint won't hurt them. Back to WOIO....they have a chance to finally steal the thunder from 3 and 5 and show Cleveland (and the rest of the country) that Gray is serious about their largest market station and just covering the news in a nice package is going to go a lot further than all the gimmickry that Tegna (and Scripps to an extent) have resorted to....

...or CBS Local. It sounds so much better than TITP and gives them just a little more edge they need back. I think both companies went "all in" with Stephen Arnold a few years back. There are a couple exceptions like WSAZ, which still has Gari's NBC Collection (which oddly enough, replaced Arnold's Signature in the great SESAC disaster of 2006)

Looks good thus far! He knocked it out of the park with his prior "19 Action News" work and did a great job on this upcoming look. It's a step up even for Gray. Hopefully it will be a long-term relationship that will ensure quality graphics to both legacy and former Raycom stations.

That's one way to get a failing station waiver...help drive the sidecar into the ground to do so...

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?