Rusty Muck

Exactly. Excessive amounts of local news only works in LA and even then those channels use the almost-daily live high speed pursuits as agonizing filler. More local news only shows the sheer brain rot from overpaid high-ranking executives who have no other ideas. It never translates into better working conditions or higher wages among the staff that have to front the burden while the fatcat owners don't give a rat's butt. Unlike others who seemingly are unable to ever see the point, I don't need to know where you live. Cleveland has an excessive amount of local news, as does Toledo or even Tuscon, Arizona. It's endemic.

It'd be rather fitting if this Free Press whacko causes NewsNation to lose viewers in that timeslot. Which tends to be their MO.

I have the second the deal was announced. I'm repeatedly on the record declaring that deal ridiculous and stupid. You cannot change my mind. The Watermans are still laughing all the way to the bank at how they got Hearst to spend a quarter of a billion on ONE STATION AND ONE LMA IN A SMALL MARKET IN A STATE WITH NO RELEVANT POLITICAL AD REVENUE.

That is so laughably not what I said at all. Get your head out of the sand. Yeah go ahead and cheer on a bunch of rich fatcats that are content with wasting a quarter of a billion dollars on one station and an LMA. You realize how stupid that sounds? Or that you're defending the fandom's love for a conglomerate that doesn't deserve it? This type of behavior—besides "oooh Tegna bad" "oooh Scripps bad"—is why I don't take the reasonable people such as you in the TV fandom seriously because if it isn't that, it's people either wanting to be forever stuck in 2008 or judging the performances of stations based solely on vibes, like one person in particular on here. And I'm going to call out @Weeters for not having the "ignore this poster" function in LNT, inasmuch as y'all think I'm an extension of him, you couldn't be more wrong.

It doesn't and won't matter. Ruddy's protests are not going to change anything in this deal and simply allow him the convenience of being "independent" while in reality, he's no different than the rest of the lot. Yeah it's nice that he's against this merger but he cannot change the outcome of a rigged game.

And you're wrong on assuming that things are going to be peachy keen for Hearst when any rudimentary knowledge of basic economics will tell you that the McBrides have a major advantage in the market and will dominate. But I'm not a bootlicker for Hearst, so...

This forum is a non-stop lovefest for Hearst, the company that can do no wrong, ever. Math apparently takes a vacation here as well. Hearst was dumb and foolish and it bit them in the butt. They had no idea what they were doing setting a quarter of a billion dollars on fire for no reason.

I can assure you that Nexstar would not have wasted $220M on WBBH and a lease for WZVN.

I don't see how Mission doesn't cleanly merge into Nexstar at this point. The pretense of needing a sidecar company would be gone altogether.

Are you not looking at Fort Myers??? They have a major scale disadvantage going against five television stations and eleven radio stations!!! Does anyone in this platform have any inkling as to how horribly lopsided the playing field has been thrown in the McBrides favor? Forget about ratings and all that garbage. I'm only talking about revenue and the McBrides can bully Hearst out of the market completely with scale. Of course, after Nexstar swallows up Tegna and Gray gobbles down Scripps, Hearst and Graham will be painfully small and easy takeover bait. It is. I said it the day it was made and I'll say it to my grave, Hearst screwed up buying into a older market like this with no hope for any political ad revenue. And plunking down that amount for one station and one LMA? Waterman is forever laughing all the way to the bank at how stupid Hearst was.

It makes CBS prime takeover bait for Nexstar... maybe they can use the vacant slots used by CBS's soon-to-be-gone news programming for NewsNation simulcasts. I wish I was kidding.

Shirtless, with a gigantic q-tip by his side.

Perry's gloating about the merger in this puff piece softball interview with Deadline. He's also confident that Carr and Trusty will give him everything he desires. https://deadline.com/2025/09/nexstar-ceo-perry-sook-tegna-ma-local-media-deregulation-1236508050/

It is being sold to WINK. There is literally no difference between the two companies except for the chief executive. And that news department is gonna be vaporized. They desire to live in a permanent right-wing hellscape run by morons and at continuous risk of being destroyed by hurricanes, and may be uninsurable in the not-too-distant future. Not that Youngstown is any better. You don't spend $220M to wind up in a severe scale disadvantage. It's absolute lunacy to assume Hearst is content with now being in a totally uncompetitive position.

Can't wait to see the headlines about how the Evening News is once again losing viewers with the new (old) format lol

LNT Truthiness strikes again! In the real world, any simple economic class would tell you this is a disaster for Hearst, which is unwilling/unable to buy to keep at scale in the market. The only option is to sell. Let's actually post data supporting such claims before making them. Look, I know there's an adoration for Hearst in this sphere but it always comes off as seeing them through rose-colored lenses. Practically no one else aside from maybe @Weeters looked at their purchase of WBBH-WZVN critically.

You'd be surprised at how superwealthy people don't want to waste money unless there is an ROI.

It might surprise you but this level of hyperconsolidation is rendering companies like Hearst as takeover bait. They were once big but after Nexstar-Tegna is ramrodded through will become painfully small.

WBBH remains a folly, a foolish waste of $220M in a small market in a deeply red state. Whoever pressured the family to blow that large amount of money with no ROI should have been fired. If it was a family member, they should have been disinherited. Are you familiar with economy of scale? The McBrides are going to bully Hearst out of the market so quickly it won't be funny.

The FCC was not run at the time by weaponizing political hacks like Carr and Trusty. Those past failed transactions mean nothing in this Brave New World dicated solely on political patronage.

You want them to stick around and be unable to compete against such a crushing monolith? Well okay then. It was a mistake for Hearst to have ever bought into that small market to begin with and it is even worse of an idea now. In the economy of scale game, Hearst is now going to be losing in Fort Myers, and losing dearly.

Perry Sook wishes Mission and Nexstar could be as incestuous as Fort Myers Broadcasting and Sun Broadcasting are. Those two are literally the same company. I can't imagine Hearst is wanting to invest any more in such a small market where they are going to be a permanent second fiddle to the McBrides. It is in their best interests to draft up an exit strategy and fast. Sell WBBH to the McBrides at a fire sale price and walk away if they have to.

Jim Schwartzel is a stooge for the McBrides who, thanks to them now having total control of the media, will ensure he gets softball coverage as he gets anointed as a congresscritter. Not that the election will ever be in doubt because Fort Myers is an uncompetitive super-safe Republican seat in deep maga territory as Donalds gets anointed as governor. That is the other dirty little reason why Carr and Trusty will greenlight this deal in six months. And why Hearst is better off cutting bait, selling WBBH-WZVN or shutting them down outright, and walking away with the ginormous L.

Lol. Lmao. Lmfao. Not when the McBrides can price fix to their hearts' content with 11 radio stations and five television stations. Hearst has only one television station and a long-term LMA that they grossly overpaid for and they are not going to be able to compete. I said this the second the deal was struck and I'll say it now, $220M for WBBH-WZVN was an absolutely terrible and grossly irresponsible deal that never should have been made by Hearst in the first place. Why would they when it's an older market that is in a permanently red state? Plus that area got devastated by Ian (wouldn't surprise me if the insurance payout the McBrides got is fueling their purchases as much as having a good ol' right-wing buddy in charge of the FCC).

The McBrides already have a monopoly on radio in the market after Beasley bailed and split up their cluster between Sun and Fort Myers Broadcasting, which have been far more incestuous a pairing than Sinclair and Cunningham (or Nexstar and Mission). Now they are poised to have a near-total monopoly on information dissemination in Fort Myers, which is a very, very bad thing. They're also far-right, guaranteeing both deals will be rubber-stamped by Carr and Trusty. At this point, when does Hearst bail and offload WBBH-WZVN, taking a major financial bath in the process? There is no way that they'll be able to compete with the McBrides in economy-of-scale.