tyrannical bastard

WBTV has FINALLY overtaken WSOC in the ratings for the first time since 1990. Here's the numbers from the Charlotte Observer In the 10pm race, WAXN still has a solid lead over WCCB, but CCB's numbers are down from last year. WJZY is still in the basement with anemic numbers despite some gains (and a sharp decline at 10pm). If only WBTV and WCCB joined forces....then they would be a force to be reckoned with. But given Bahakel's refusal to sell (and causing a total monopoly in Montgomery, AL if they did so), a merger with Raycom would never happen.

I would imagine it was a error on James Spann's behalf. After all, it is a lot to comprehend....before AND after the changes between swaps and sales. James Spann getting into "storm mode" simply recited what he had been doing for close to 20 years before Sinclair took over.

Youngstown was a very late market to get a FULL HOUR of news at 5pm. If I remember correctly, WYTV was the first to do a 5:30 news back around 2004 when they were a stand-alone station. WKBN had a 5pm half hour show for years, and only went a full hour when WYTV's newscast was rolled over to WKBN a few years ago. WFMJ never had a 5pm show, thanks to Oprah, and now Ellen.

The Akron Beacon Journal looks back twenty years after WAKC in Akron, Ohio aired their last newscast. http://www.ohio.com/news/local/20-years-after-wakc-s-news-ended-its-makers-remember-it-fondly-1.664971#

LONGTIME former WMBB and WJHG anchor and News Director, Tom Lewis is returning to WMBB as their news director. He worked at various roles at WMBB all the way up to Primary Anchor, then crossed the bridge and served as WJHG's anchor from 2001-2014 with a stint as their news director from 2005-2010. He replaces Heather Kretzer who is stepping down for family reasons.

So now it's official....WTVC swallowed the non-broadcast assets of WDSI....AND entered into a JSA with WFLI.... All without a single word spoken to the FCC... http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/92352 Welcome to the future of broadcasting!

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the smaller groups that haven't been sold yet form one for the purposes of negotiating retrans and reverse compensation. It's their only chance at survival unless they want to be stripped of their affiliations or sold off...

Some of these may be the former Allbritton stations that used Livestream to begin with. NewsON's stations are primarily ones that also use Livestream for their newscast streams (Hearst, MG & Raycom).

Sinclair is partnering with NewsON... http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/91618 Props to them for making this move....considering their awful live streaming taking over some of their acquired "livestream" operations...

And most importantly, Arial has no place on broadcast television.

WALA is now OFFICIALLY a Meredith station (for now) because of this.....

It makes me wonder if they will ever make something out of WDHN. It's stuck out like a sore thumb long before they bought WMBB down in Panama City. WTVY has ruled the Dothan market since the beginning of time, and in recent years, has virtually sucked up all of WDHN's more experienced talent, including Kim Allen (now the ND) and made longtime media fixture Ken Curtis the senior reporter at WTVY.

Joe was a legend in the Panama City market...working at WJHG from 1971 to 2014 and mentoring many longtime employees of both WJHG and WMBB. He will truly be missed.

I wish Bob would have ditched his rug sooner. Can you imagine what James Spann would look like if he followed the conventional "wisdom" of anchor hair?

Another bombshell out of WVUE in New Orleans....days after chief meteorologist Bob Breck ditched his "rug", he announced that he is retiring at the end of February, but will be sticking around as a "hurricane expert" Here's the story from WVUE: http://m.fox8live.com/wvuefox8/db_354681/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=JBmWQ9j9

Hopefully HD and other technical upgrades were part of the plans. This is one station that is LONG overdue for a change.

And in many of these, Gray and Nexstar own ALL of the major stations in the market. A few more have Sinclair as a third owner. Grand Junction and Panama City have Nexstar owned stations because they were the Hoak leftovers when THEY merged with Gray! It's just like radio did years back, the same 3 companies owning ALL of the stations.

Gray and Nexstar have lots of room to consolidate in the smaller markets. But if one goes after the other, it would cause a slew of conflicts. The smaller groups or individual stations are sale bait now more than ever. Even if Nexstar gets Media General and becomes maxed out, the WVMH sale is a stopgap solution that doesn't give them immediate ownership, but operational control. Expect this to be the next Nexstar exploitation of the rules like they did with Mission before.

Too bad they dumped the "Your Town....Your State...Your Future" branding. That would have made for a great Nexstar-esque web site header! This would reunite WOWK with their former Gateway/SJL sister stations in Altoona and WLYH in Lancaster. Its only a matter of time before the Maag family cashes out on WFMJ. That's another station with Nexstar written all over it SHOULD they not get Media General. But if not, this time brokerage agreement is a loophole should they prevail in their mission to overtake MG. If they get turned down by Media General, expect them to be VERY aggressive in their pursuit of stations....

I nailed this one a while back when their CEO was sued.... And like I said before, Nexstar would be an improvement over WVMH. They have a good set of logos, but all of these stations (maybe not WBOY but especially WOWK) need some desperate help. It is disconcerting that Perry Sook once worked here, but so did fellow Ohio University alum Matt Lauer....

Former WPXI and WKRG morning anchor Jennifer Abney is now a primary anchor at WOWK in Charleston-Huntington.

WFMJ getting Bob Black was a major coup after WKBN was sold to out-of-town owners and the new management parting ways with him. He was a large part of WFMJs success over the last 18 years.

....basically anywhere Sinclair has a third or 4th wheel. Move the primary stations on to the strongest channel and put the secondary stations onto the strongest station outside of the top 4. Deerfield then can have all of the diginets on the other station in the top 4 and the 4th station is spectrum bait.

And yet they STILL don't have an 11pm newscast....not since they were a CBS affiliate.