tyrannical bastard

Hearst got a hold of WVTM for a measly $3 MILLION....(for the building itself) http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2015/01/06/hearst-pays-3-million-for-wtvm-channel-13.html Given WVTM's place in that market, i doubt the other assets added up to much. They are languishing in 4th place with a measly 4 percent market share. (from MG's annual report) And Hearst stepping in to immediately replace the GM with one of their own signals a change is coming... ...now if only MG doesn't send WIAT back into the basement where it languished for almost their entire existence. For comparison, Meredith bought WALA down in Mobile for $86 MILLION..... http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/81744/meredith-completes-wala-mobile-purchase

Cleveland is one of those markets where the slogans have re-appeared on other stations over the years. KYW (now WKYC) was the originator of Eyewitness News. It later lasted for almost 3 decades on WEWS from the 60s until 1990. Action News was WKYC's brand from the late 70s until 1983-1984, when they adopted their longtime moniker "Channel 3 News" which is still in place today. And "CBS 19" was the official station brand from 1996-2000. It replaced the inaugural "19 News" and "Cleveland Television News" monikers for their co-ownership with WUAB. It only re-appeared as the non-news brand when "Action News" was launched under Bill Applegate & Company... And if they really want to succeed, they'll choose the "Hometeam 19" branding. :bang: :bang: This was all Raycom's doing; as soon as WUAB lost the Indians in 2001, the branding was slowly eliminated until the great purge of 2002....

FTVlive agrees..... http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/1/6/cleveland-station-taking-the-action-out-of-action-news It would solve the identity crisis by unifying WOIO under the CBS 19 brand, but it's been done before, and failed. Action News has run its course, but the last thing we need is another news organization that thrives on the endless glut of social media and the web...

...my bad, forgot about Steubenville. I guess they would cheer on the Buckeyes, but due to their proximity to Pittsburgh (and getting some TV from there until recently), it's Steelers country.

WABM's "The Zone" is being simulcasted on WJTC-UTV44 in Mobile, since Alabama is playing Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. Are any of Sinclair's Ohio stations carrying this show? It's hosted by ABC 33/40's Mike Raita, and has columnists Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch and Kevin Scarbinsky of AL.com (Advance's Alabama newspapers). Since Columbus is a heavy Sinclair market, with stations in Toledo, Cincinnati and Dayton as well, it seems like a natural opportunity to capitalize on this game.

The likely scenario is that the old music package's license was up for renewal, Sinclair opted not to renew to save $$$, and said to the station, "Here, use the glass package we use on our other stations." The current graphics will likely be in place until technical upgrades are made to the new package, unless the former Fisher stations maintain some independence given the distance from HQ. As far as I know, many functions of the former Fisher stations are still getting services from Seattle for the time being. With a company like Sinclair, I expect these out-of-sync moves to be the norm as they slowly transform their acquisitions into the fold. And probably the biggest reason of doing things piece by piece and by contract expirations is because it SAVES MONEY.

Seems like a very basic set, compared to KABB's and the other Devlin Sinclair sets. ...and it could very well be a fraction of the size of KABB's given the challenge of shoehorning WOAI into the existing KABB facility.

http://www.sbgi.net/site_mgr/temp/Swaps%20Closing%20Press%20Release.pdf With the swaps in Providence, Tampa, Green Bay and Colorado Springs, Sinclair actually lost a percentage of reach! (mostly due to getting out of Tampa)

As the old saying goes, "You can't polish a turd..." It stands true for WNWO and all of the "effort" Sinclair's put into the station, drawing numbers that pale WTVG and WTOL/WUPW. Of course, being off the main cable system for almost 6 MONTHS probably helped.... http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2014/12/19/toledo-station-might-have-lowest-rated-newscast-in-the-country But wait....there's more! Down in Charlotte, our favorite O&O is pulling in EVEN WORSE numbers compared to WNWO (seeing as how Toledo is market 76 and Charlotte is 24) and to add insult to injury, FTVLive used the old "FOX Charlotte" logo from WCCB! While the other stations are raking in tens of thousands of viewers, WJZY is WAY behind the others, getting a measly 700 viewers for the 6am show and topping off with 7800 for their so-called "newscast" at 10. Here's the numbers from the Charlotte Observer that FTVLive is talking about... http://charlottemediascene.blogspot.com/2014/12/ratings-for-key-charlotte-newscasts.html

Another passing to report. Mark Leff, a former CNN Correspondent (from the network's inception until 2001) passed away in Shanghai, China. After CNN, he was a Journalism professor at Ohio University who taught broadcast news classes and assisted with the WOUB news department. He later became a consultant for Shanghai Media Group's ICS News. I had the pleasure of working with him, and his teachings still resonate with me to this day, especially his pronunciation of Iraq (eh-ROCK). He will be missed. http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2014/12/15/former-cnn-correspondent-mark-leff-is-dead

and for only $60?!?!?!?!?!

WOAY in Oak Hill, WV is off the air due to a "catastrophic failure" with their transmitter.... http://woay.com/Alerts.aspx?aid=637 I remember years ago when Newsblues allowed anonymous reports from TV stations. WOAY's account was about how on one of their pieces of transmission equipment, a screwdriver had to be inserted to keep a button pressed in order to keep the station ON THE AIR. It then proceeded to show a picture of a broomstick propped up to keep the button depressed! Maybe someone lost the broomstick ;-)

In Newport's case, their private equity firm Providence is very much alive and well, even though they have completely divested themselves of Newport's former assets. I think coughing up $35,000 is not a problem for them I would think that Nexstar would have been the responsible party, since they acquired the license of the station, and shouldn't the liability of the license transfer with change of ownership? It would have to be the case if the former licensee no longer existed in any form...

Same can be said in Harrisburg...where their web address is local21news.com. This was done under Sinclair when they dumped the Inergize platform for their own. As for WHP....they're still CBS 21 and aside from a stripped logo, little has changed since.

Too little too late in my opinion. Sinclair has let this station go too far down the toilet to even try to be viable. If it wasn't for the expansion binge that's happened over the past 3 years, this station and WTWC would have been dumped by now.

More sad news out of New Bern and WCTI... Longtime former morning anchor Virginia Foye has passed away. http://m.wcti12.com/news/virginia-foye-former-newschannel-12-anchor-passes-away/29518026

Well, it looks like Gray is about to seriously overhaul KALB....by the looks of their website. www.kalb.com. I've been less than impressed with most of Gray's on-air products, but this looks to be a massive improvement over what they've had over the last few years under Hoak. And it makes sense that they would totally blow up any remaining resemblance to their days as a Media General station....they compete against each other in a lot of places....

Broadcasting LEGEND Luther Masingill has passed away at the age of 92. http://www.wdef.com/news/story/News-12-s-Luther-Masingill-Passes-Away-at-Age-92/QYD1o5j1D0Kg4bpaIJ84rQ.cspx Not only did he have a broadcast career in radio and TV that spanned SEVEN decades, he had the unique distinction of covering BOTH Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The final installment of the Akron Beacon Journal's 6 part expose on the Ernest Angley ministry ran in today's paper: http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ernest-angley-s-for-profit-grace-cathedral-buffet-using-volunteer-labor-again-after-feds-said-to-stop-1.533069 From forced vasectomies, abortions, brainwashing, molestation, alienation, talking about the massive expense of running a 747, and now, one of their subsidiaries forcing employees to be "volunteers"...it doesn't paint a pretty picture for the future of WBNX as a TV station, especially if these allegations are true. One of these "volunteers" claimed to work for WBNX, where he wasn't paid at all. Those who were paid were paid at minimum wage and only paid for 40 hours a week, while being forced to clock out "on time" and forced to "volunteer" another 10 hours a week in lieu of being properly compensated for overtime. And this wasn't the first time they've been caught doing this. Back in 1999, after a dispute with two "volunteers", one stabbed the other to death, the labor issue was brought to light, "resolved", and when the feds stopped looking, they went back to doing things the way they've been done. If some of these allegations in this article are true, and they've been fudging timecards and even EEO reports, then WBNX is in deep, deep, trouble. Could employee issues like these be grounds for the FCC to revoke their license? Essentially, WBNX and the Cathedal Buffet are for-profit enterprises that keep the Ernest Angley Ministry alive (along with all of the suckers who send in a check every month!) Perhaps this place is so screwed up, that no one wants to buy this station and why it remains as one of the last stand-alone CW affiliates in the country outside of the top 10 markets.

Cherish Lombard is leaving WALA to become an anchor at WKRN in Nashville. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/cherish-lombard-leaving-mobiles-wala_b131496 She, along with former sports anchor Joe Emer host the station's lifestyle program "Studio Ten". With the transfer to Meredith happening in the near future, her replacement could be a placeholder for Meredith to relaunch the show in the "Better" format. They've even picked up the national version and are airing it overnight!

If it ever comes to WBNX going away in the spectrum auction, WUAB could end up with the CW and MyNetworkTV could be shoehorned onto a subchannel. Raycom really dropped the ball with WUAB by letting WBNX steal all of the good syndication and replacing it with infomercials and WOIO's rejects. Aside from a daily airing of "The 90 and 9 club" and their subchannel, WBNX is a completely secular, for-profit station that has been very successful with their WB and CW ratings. Since Rev. Angley is over 90 years old, and with these allegations AND the upcoming spectrum auction coupled with the ownership trends, it seems to be a question of WHEN it's going to happen....

I bring up those three stations since they are not owned by CBS or Tribune. Cleveland slipping to market 18 opened the doors to Phoenix and Minneapolis-St. Paul overtaking it. At one time before Sunbeam purchased WLVI from Tribune, WBNX was the largest CW station NOT owned by CBS or Tribune.

Scandal is rocking Ernest Angley Ministries....the owners of Winston Broadcast Network...which owns WBNX, the CW affiliate for the Cleveland/Akron area. (no surprises here...anyone who has ever seen his TV program is likely more entertained by it's phoniness and hokiness than its religious value....) Here's the story from the Akron Beacon Journal: http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ernest-angley-s-grace-cathedral-confronts-allegations-of-sexual-abuse-pressure-to-have-abortions-and-vasectomies-1.531094 Don't be surprised if WBNX is swallowed up either by Gannett, Scripps, or even Tribune as a duopoly partner in the near future....they are one of the largest stand-alone affiliates not part of a duopoly, or owned by Tribune or CBS (with the exception of Ed Ansin's WLVI, Sinclair's WUCW, and SagamoreHill's KASW) ...and by looking at the list of CW affiliates, Tribune and CBS could easily pare down their holdings in the Top 15 to expand otherwise!

WPMI's website is currently down, with a temporary page stating that "A new WPMI Local 15 is coming..." I imagine its just the website switching to the new template. I doubt that the graphics are about to change as well....

Sinclair has taken great advantage of the split-market game. This is exactly the case with these stations and the markets they serve. WLOS is 3rd in the market and is the ONLY station based out of Western North Carolina, and its distance from Greenville and Spartanburg perpetuates this. WCHS owns Charleston, but plays a distant second to long-dominant WSAZ out of Huntington. WEAR is 3rd overall, and could give a hoot about anything west of Mobile Bay. The opposite could be said for the Mobile stations, which rarely cross the state line for news. And with WPMI and WJTC in Mobile, it's like having a market within a market when it comes to Pensacola. A recent addition is KLEW in Lewiston, ID. It's in the Spokane market, but is another CBS affiliate that serves this portion. I'm not sure if KREM is available. And there's WICS and WICD...TWO ABC affiliate stations in the same market. WICD covers Champaign decently, and WICS is the home base in Springfield that fills in the gaps on weekends. Back to the ABC issue. They're not the hot property they used to be back in the 1970's when their success caused affiliation swaps in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and other places. And the last switcheroo in 2004 involved WKEF and WICS/WICD trading affiliates with WDTN and WAND. NBC had the upper hand since ABC was plunged into 4th place. However, soon after, ABC began to overtake NBC that fall and the moves especially benefitted WKEF into becoming a factor in Dayton.