Rusty Muck

Not to mention that Armstrong Williams (head of pseudo-shell company Howard Stirik Holdings) is the spokesman for one Ben Carson. Grifters R' Us.

Unless the plan is for WKYC to launch a 5pm newscast (which they should, and it shocks me that they haven't), where would Denise go? Robin, outside of the April Fool's Day stunt at WKYC and her "Throwback Thursday" guest appearance at WJW last May (alongside Tim Taylor, Dick Goddard and Tony Rizzo), has mainly been absent from the local airwaves. I was somewhat surprised that she didn't make an on-air cameo during Dick Goddard's "final forecast" last month, given that the two have been friends for decades... (so much so that, when she initially left WJW in 1991 for a New York NBC daytime strip that went nowhere, Dick offered to take a pay cut for her to stay!)

Strange as it sounds, it seems like Scripps may have done the right thing in spinning off their cable networks.

Keith is doing video podcasts for GQ. It's probably the best avenue for him: he gets total editorial control and no fixed length of time... the run times range between 5-10 minutes. He wouldn't have that degree of freedom anywhere else (while he HAD control of Countdown, I don't think that he enjoyed the task of having to fill an hour with airtime; that in itself begat the "Special Comment").

It's actually not that big a surprise. Channel 24 has languished in last place since... what... the early 1970s? Had they remained under Raycom ownership, it's possible that they could have been somewhat competitive against long-dominant WTOL and WTVG. Channel 24 has been snake-bit ever since it was the (not kidding) flagship of the Overmyer/United Network. Creditors even owned it throughout the early 1980s when owner Don Overmyer defaulted on loans! It was a miracle that WTVG was bought by ABC, thus giving WNWO the NBC affiliation on a silver platter. (WXYZ would outdraw channel 24 in Toledo during the ABC years, and I wouldn't be surprised if WDIV outdraws WNWO today.)

What's the difference between that and the radio conservatalker KDNL runs at 6 and 11?

At least they are still offering something resembling a news product. S!nclair easily could have canned the newscasts entirely and run it as another KDNL.

11 and 13 own the market. Not a surprise. That makes S!nclair's retrans fight with Block/Buckeye Cable two years ago even more pointless and stupid.

How. Does. This. Happen. [MEDIA=twitter]799017010080452608[/MEDIA]

The same Dick Oliver lampooned by Bill Hader as "Herb Welch" on SNL several years ago... The original incident... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-a5B6xM5s4 ...and the parody... (which unfortunately I can't seem to embed)

Pretty much. WKYC found success in the late 90s with Ramona Robinson at 6/11 and the early evening talk duo of Ellen at 4pm and Dr. Phil at 5pm. Aside from their turnover between 2008-2012, they have shown remarkable stability. WEWS took forever to find a successor to Ted Henry, lost ratings powerhouses Oprah, WoF and J! in the span of a few months, and has been blowing up the roster of their morning show ever 15-18 months. (Note that one-time morning anchors Macie McInnis Jepson and Josh Boose are now newscasters/reporters for WTAM/1100 and iHeartMedia's 24/7 Total Traffic/News.) So in short, WKYC finally took advantage of WEWS's weaknesses and slowly ascended to #2 in the market, behind WJW.

Took them long enough for them to put the lottery ball logo on their iOS app. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's possible that ratings are a factor. WEWS seems to blow up "Good Morning Cleveland" every 12-18 months. If it weren't for WOIO/WUAB, they would be dead last.

FFS. Excuse me for a minute...

Who would buy WGBA and run it any differently? S!nclair, Nexstar and Gray already have stations in the market and are not going to trade down for what is effectively a pseuo-semi-satellite of WTMJ.

Yeesh. And I thought the "Power of 5" was silly.

Yeah, I meant expanding on their second place position. They'll effectively own 11. Which is pretty remarkable considering that WKYC has no news at 4 and 5, and their noon timeslot has a heavily sponsored infotainment show instead of a traditional newscast.

WKYC easily can slide into a solid 2nd place and make serious gains at the expense of WEWS. Should WOIO rise to third place, it will be due to inertia.

I half-expected to see Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor and Al Borland behind the anchor desk.

This is a screenshot of their new 11pm open. The G3 graphics remain as-is, though.

WEWS's Instagram profile name has been altered to "news5cleveland." That would leave their Twitter account that still uses the "NewsChannel 5" name. I have a feeling that the rebrand will take place next week (also the start of the fall TV season). And it will be nothing more than a simple phase-out of "Channel."

John was WEWS's first **star** anchor after market legend Dorothy Fuldheim. Later on he went to WTVJ to face the unenviable task of succeeding another broadcasting pioneer, Ralph Renick. John's brother Judd later went to WJKW (the former and current WJW), then to WKYC for two stays in the 80s and 90s... where he was initially paired with Al Roker as chief meteorologist (NBC ran WKYC as an AAA team for WMAQ and WNBC until 1990). Lisa joined WKYC shortly after NBC sold off majority control of the station.

As opposed to S!nclair or Nexstar? Even Cox isn't universally loved (**cough** WFXT **cough**) and they have a better reputation than most. Also remember that KMGH's previous GM was reassigned to WEWS before the "Denver 7" rebrand.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the most recent ratings postings. Typically, WKYC and WEWS have been battling it out for #2 at 6pm and #1 at 11pm (WJW doesn't have an 11pm newscast.) If I were to hazard a guess, WEWS is #3 or #4 at 4pm** and #3 at 5pm, behind WJW and WKYC's durable talk block of Ellen and Dr. Phil. The only time period WEWS really struggles is in early mornings... WJW's "Fox 8 News in the Morning" often doubles and triples the competition. Likewise, "Good Morning Cleveland" has been rebooted multiple times over the past decade. **That depends on how badly WOIO has flopped with "Cleveland 19 News" across the board.