Rusty Muck

I'm actually pretty happy to see them do something with WUAB on the weekends, but their repo of the Gaylord-era 43 logo kinda hits the uncanny valley, ngl

WOIO's original studios on Shaker Square were clearly not big enough to support a news department, so they *had* to move anyway. What I’ve never totally understood is why WUAB abandoned their longtime home on Day Drive in the process. My impression was that it seen as more important to put 19/43 downtown alongside WKYC (then still at the old East Ohio Gas Building) and WEWS (at Euclid and East 30th) but Day Drive could have housed both stations accordingly. Maybe Steven J. Cannell wanted to simply sell the land? Parma did redevelop that area and the former Parmatown Mall nearby. Fun note: from 1975 up to 1990, Reserve Square housed studios for WWWE 1100 and WDOK 102.1, I want to say in the same area 19/43 calls home now.

There's two ways Gray could go with WOHZ. One would be as a fill-in translator for WOIO/WUAB, but I'm not sure where they'd put it... up north to Lorain or Huron? Remember that WOIO/WUAB has a pretty good translator in Akron, so it wouldn't be needed there. Leaving it in Mansfield seems a bit... weird, as it IS a border market between Cleveland and Columbus (and to some extent, even Toledo to the northwest). The second possibility is... relaunching WOHZ as a semi-satellite of WOIO for Ashland/Mansfield, relaying almost all of WOIO's programming except for a Mansfield-area newscast or two (and it's not THAT ridiculous a concept when you realize that 1) WMFD has thrived with a Mid-Ohio news department and Sunbeam-level program inventory for 30 years, and 2) Raycom built and signed on WMBF from almost nothing 14 years ago). Because WOIO (RF 10) and WBNS (PSIP 10) have to avoid signal overlap by any means necessary, there's a small gap in OTA CBS availability between the two signal contours that Gray could exploit to an advantage.

It's a rip-off of the 1970s-era Meredith "5".

Nexstar is desperately trying to stay under the 39% ownership limit* with the Tribune deal. With the planned divestitures (complicated by the failed resale of several other stations to Fox, including WJW) they're barely at the limit. At the rate this is going, I wouldn't be surprised to see WBNX taken over by the creditors. From there, they could 1) sell the station to another entity, or 2) sell the license to one party and the IP to another. Either way, it's out of Ernest's control. *which is an absolute farce because of the so-called UHF Discount Actually, MyNet is on WOIO 19.2 between 1am and 3am in an obvious contract burning, sandwiched within the rest of the MeTV lineup. MyNet has no tangible value beyond being a white-label rerun block in prime-time. For all intents and purposes, WBNX is better off remaining an indie with spillover program inventory from whatever duopoly partner they wind up with, if they wind up with one.

This is already very disturbing even by Ernest Angley standards. I’m actually reluctant to see the second part.

Mark Nolan already has a full plate hosting the morning show on WMJI Majic 105.7 (where he succeeded the legendary John Lanigan in 2014). His anchoring the 4pm and 6pm news on WOIO were almost like a side project. This had everything to do with clearing the decks before Gray took over on the 2nd.

I’d laugh if the CourtTV IP deal with Katz includes the exclusive rerun rights to Forensics Files, given that it was CourtTV that commissioned the show in the first place.

To piggyback on that, did Sinclair ever mandate a standard graphics switching system for their stations? I remember seeing that the lack of one was partially the reason why the Glass/Curves look had such an uneven and prolonged rollout.

Can you retroactively insert a morality clause in the event there was never one included?

Megyn has 69,000,000 reasons never to work again. She got more than the last laugh.

Forcing Megyn on MSNBC would have made things infinitely worse. Best to cut your losses.

And she keeps all that money. Literally laughing all the way to the bank. Played to perfection. Someone within the higher-ups at NBC has to be thrown overboard for this. If it's not Andy Lack, it's gonna be someone.

Life comes at you fast.

The funny thing is, those “bad men” that Megyn threw under the bus also were the same ones who stood by her and never gave into Trump’s demands for her removal (after she asked pointed questions at him as a debate moderator). And it’s pretty simple as to why; she got ratings and revenue for the network, the flap with Trump never put her show in danger of cancellation, and actually raised her profile enough for NBC to lure her away. And given the prime 25-54 demo fights between Fox and MSNBC in primetime, it’s not a stretch to see Fox welcoming back Megyn as if nothing had ever happened. Shore up all the star power you can get your hands on.

And because of her inartful nature, the cynic in me starts thinking that she's trying to sabotage her own show. She couldn't and can't be that tone-deaf, FFS.

Methinks Megyn and NBC are trying to figure out their exit strategy to get her off Today and out of her contract. If not this, it’s gonna be real soon. I’m not altogether worried for Megyn; Fox would hire her back in a heartbeat.

KUSI is basically what would have happened if Weird Al’s “U62” existed in the present day. A scrappy locally-owned indie with nothing to lose, headed by... eccentric... personalities all larger than life. Mark Malthus’ style fits KUSI perfectly and he has a loyal following; that’s why he was there and will likely remain after this. Are they the market leader? Hardly, but their newscasts have a loyal, devoted following and cable carriage helps a lot.

If you flipped the story around where Sinclair was doing this stuff to favor Democrat candidates and opinion within the local newscast produced by their stations, and hired Jon Favreau** to give mandatory nightly commentaries with no chance for a reply, there would be justifiable public indignation from Fox, Breitbart, et al, just like liberal groups and organizations are indignant at Sinclair right now. It’s inherently wrong and dishonest, regardless of the POV. **Nothing against Favreau, he’s the closest equivalent to Boris Epysteyn I could think of at the moment.

Ah, yes... “NXT on #HTownRush...” If I didn’t know any better, it looks like TEGNA is trying to save money by removing what they deem as unnecessary extra letters and spaces from words.

The Dallas Police department is in enough of a mess as it is.

Given how much WUAB has been treated as a doormat under Raycom, this is a very pleasant surprise. I didn't expect any acknowledgement of their 50th anniversary. Of course Ramona Robinson returned to 19/43 in 2012, Jack Marshall retired not long ago after a stint at WEWS, Sally Bernier does holiday relief duties at WJW alongside her husband Andre, Jeff Phelps is at WKRK 92.3 The Fan and Fox Sports Ohio, Ron Jantz left the business to work and teach at Lorain County Community College, Dan Deely is at WNWV The Wave, and RIP Gib Shanley.

That, and Russ Mitchell was given a lot of pull when he defected from CBS. WKYC has long effectively counter-programmed with Ellen and Dr. Phil, so much so there's absolutely no need for them to have local news at 4 and 5. Which is remarkable for a big four affiliate nowadays.

Most of the younger generation has grown up around the internet. YouTube, MP3 players, the iPhone, Netflix... all game changers that have shaken up the entertainment industry and journalism to their cores. Think about how radically different the world is today as opposed to 1998. There are options today that would have been unfathomable, even as Matt Drudge was shaking up the journalism world with his news aggregation site that also broke news. Fox News will survive, but in order to do so, will need to adapt. Yes, there will be an eventual audience drop, but every outlet will be experiencing that soon. It's not rocket science. Comcast, Disney, Viacom, CBS... and even Nexstar, TEGNA and (gasp!) Sinclair... will all have no choice but to change with the times. Some will be successful, some won't. It's the nature of the beast. What Fox News has done by dominating the ratings in an unprecedented scale can truly be considered as the final hurrah for traditional linear broadcasting, regardless of the content or political viewpoint. It is a rather extraordinary achievement that we will never see again.

The content delivery landscape will be totally different by then. Fox News is already starting to seriously ramp up their streaming platform Fox Nation. CBS already has CBSN. NBC and ABC are starting to get into the game, too. The only thing that won't change is AM conservative talk radio, they're still stuck in 1988... and that will never change.