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Rusty Muck

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Everything posted by Rusty Muck

  1. Rusty Muck
    That is not a ringing endorsement for a company that will supposedly own conventional network affiliates that don’t overtly program to the 65–dead demo.
  2. Rusty Muck
    KSL is an aberration, they are technically autonomous of Bonneville but have been News Specialists for decades and have operated KSL radio for a century. They have cache INSP will never have.
  3. Rusty Muck
    You NEED a mechanism to make streaming a viable option. Anyone who bothers to look at the structure of ATSC 3.0 can automatically tell you that it provides WiFi so it can work. Otherwise you’re paying through the nose with Comcast, Charter/Spectrum, Verizon… the usual suspects. It’s not my fault that people can’t grasp this. The technology is by definition complex and heavily prone to technobabble, which is why I defer to @Samantha or @channel2 to explain it. Depriving local television service so 12 full-power stations in predominantly small (and in the case of the Mississippi Delta, heavily Black) markets can carry INSP turnkey with no local programming whatsoever and make money with a shell of a station with no overhead at all is not “fresh blood”. It’s a nail in the coffin that is the US-centric network-affiliate model that deserved to be pounded in back on May 23, 1994. Scott Jones is fucking fooling himself in thinking nothing will change at those stations.
  4. Rusty Muck
    Oh come on. This might just be the shortest-sighted, Pollyannaish, most ridiculous take I’ve ever seen because you and the rest of the M&A advocates who want to go back to the “good ol’ days” of TV news are going to be caught with your pants down on this deal. It’s the biggest technological advancement in decades. How in the hell can you be so thoroughly out of touch with the medium‘s future and host a podcast supposedly about the future of the medium?
  5. Rusty Muck
    I’m gonna be blunt. This whole “give INSP a chance!” is what me and @Weetersfeel is a yearning for some on here and in the Discord to “undo” what has been called “Tegnaitis” which is seen as “bad” because it DARED to not be the same old garbage newscast stuck in the same old goddam presentation of 1991 that only caters to old people. You’re not going to get that with INSP. You’re not going to get anything. You know better than to say that to A Stubborn Raccoon.
  6. Rusty Muck
    INSP is a religious-tinged western cable channel. THEY ARE NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF OPERATING CONVENTIONAL NETWORK AFFILIATES. You want another ValueVision embarrassing themselves operating an ABC affiliate that they had no business doing so?? How bizarre is it that someone so chronically negative and dour on stuff is telling me to give a fucking Godcaster twice-removed a chance? This deal is outright poisonous and I feel badly for the staffers. You also should feel badly for the staffers at the rest of the Cox chain and WFAA and KHOU as Apollo doesn’t give a shit about who or what they sell their stations to as they carve that company up and sell it for scrap, Toys R Us-style.
  7. Rusty Muck
    That’s a very … dubious … strategy. Hell, standing pat and letting other groups buy up their affiliates which then cash out to private equity vultures who offload them to Godcasters is itself a dubious strategy.
  8. Rusty Muck
    Jim, with all due respect, INSP has no track record running a conventional network affiliate and they bought a bunch of stations from a private equity vulture wanting to cash out. They bought the stations solely for the spectrum and nothing else. They have only one fish to fry, and it’s INSP.
  9. Rusty Muck
    I remember when ValueVision—a freaking home shopping channel that had no business running a conventional TV station—tried to operate WAKC 23 Akron as an ABC affiliate because ABC extended their contract. It was UGLY. INSP didn’t buy these stations to run them as conventional network affiliates.
  10. Rusty Muck
    Apollo was never going to be a long-term owner. This is a breakup that will take 1–2 years to complete as Apollo cashes out. Make no mistake, INSP bought these licenses solely for the 3.0 spectrum. The station operations and news departments are all either going to be shut down or sold to existing groups. If I’m at ABC, I’m fucking terrified. Disney’s long-standing “we won’t buy our affiliates” strategy is going to bite them in the butt when WSOC, WSB, WFTV and WFAA are offloaded to a spectrum hog and/or a Godcaster because no other buyers exist beyond the networks.
  11. Rusty Muck
    It’ll be “CBS News Pittsburgh” for three reasons: 1) It ties in the O&Os as part of a major rebuild of CBS News (which, quite frankly, needs to happen) as the O&Os completely power the network news division. 2) Improved online SEO. @Samanthais better at elaborating on this. 3) Audacy pays Paramount Global money to use the KDKA calls as a brand with AM 1020/FM 100.1 and FM 93.7, those two stations have little in common with channel 2 outside of past history and some current marketing tie-ins. Same situation exists in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston (let alone the KCBS calls in both San Francisco and Los Angeles).
  12. Rusty Muck
    Sinclair was absurdly blatant trying to “offload” WPIX to Cunningham and WGN-TV to a freaking car dealership not named Big Bill Hells. That’s the equivalent of trying to rob a bank holding a bowling ball with a glued-on string “fuse”. It was so outrageous that Ajit Pai couldn’t even defend it.
  13. Rusty Muck
    Correct, low-power stations don’t count. KRDK is another “voice” in the market even though it is nothing more than a glorified diginet tree.
  14. Rusty Muck
    Yeah, and KMOX remained co-located with channel 4 until a few years ago.
  15. Rusty Muck
    I’ve mentioned it on the Discord server but with the “5,500 journalists” and hundreds of TV stations behind them, you’d think that NewsNation would have an inventory of documentaries to run as filler on the weekends instead of a marathon of Last Man Standing reruns.
  16. Rusty Muck
    I was also mocking the press release billing the lineup changes as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I actually like the moves but they are totally overselling it. (For those not on the server, NewsNation is referred to meme-wise as “Matlock” because 1) Matlock doesn’t actually air on the channel, 2) the channel’s highest rated programming is the rerun block of JAG and Blue Bloods and 3) the alternative is either crying or continually being very frustrated at something that never lived up to expectations.)
  17. Rusty Muck
    Looks like the press release was updated and... hmm...
  18. Rusty Muck
    WFXT is the sixth-place station in a five-station town and where WHDH kicks their butts in all the time slots that matter. This isn't about retrans, it's a practical joke Apollo is making to Soo Kim.
  19. Rusty Muck
    Soo Kim couldn't afford Tegna on his own so he had to sell two of their prime Texas stations just to cover the balance, and they give him a turd in WFXT. Tell me how that's a good deal.
  20. Rusty Muck
    Some stuff could not be more obvious, like the fact Soo Kim couldn’t afford Tegna in his own right so he needed another private equity vulture who already owns a significant station group just to pay the balance, plus the obvious footsy action with WFAA, KHOU and WFXT. I’m capable of making inferences and can already say this deal is putrid with no benefit to anyone but Soo Kim’s lavish bank account and should be rejected. I don’t even need to see the filing.
  21. Rusty Muck
    That Harry Jessell can see how bad of a deal this is and Scott Jones lets his personal hatred for Dave Youngee cloud his inner judgment is stunning. Jessell is pro-consolidation but he at least cares about the industry and its future. Meanwhile, Scott is stuck in a tunnel vision that newscasts from the early 2000s still work and that you shouldn’t even bother trying to reach younger audiences. News flash for Scott: it’s not 2002. It’s 2022. Harry Jessell won my respect today, and I never thought I’d ever say those words.
  22. Rusty Muck
    pictures always tell a thousand words...
  23. Rusty Muck
    Assuming this deal actually goes through, and I have a sneaking suspicion it won't ... just saying ... Soo will break up the company piecemeal in 1-3 years. And really, the only buyers left are the networks. Hearst, Graham and Hubbard are most likely to cash out, Scripps is tapped out, Griffin, Bahakel and Capitol are committed to their stations and nothing else, and Weigel is more interested in stations for their diginets. That leaves ONLY the networks as buyers.
  24. Rusty Muck
    Well I certainly didn't expect Harry Jessell to effectively reject this deal like he just did. If Jessell, one of the most business-friendly writers/analysts in the industry, is saying this, then it may be more doomed than you might think.
  25. Rusty Muck
    Not much of a factor, but it's that WHDH cleans WFXT's clock in all the time slots that matter most... especially in morning and 10pm.
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