TVIntheDesert

This is the kind of "hard-hitting journalism" TEGNA's "Verify" team is churning out: http://www.12news.com/news/local/verify/verify-will-reeses-peanut-butter-cups-be-discontinued-this-october/476639565

That's all stuff for the Speculatron, in which I created a new thread about yesterday. So, how much did Weigel get for the WMLW spectrum? That should give you an idea of how much they have left for acquisitions.

As for Lockwood, Raycom would technically make more sense geographically when it comes to KTEN, KAKE, and WHDF (if shelled under American Spirit). WKNX and WSKY are probably worth less than $10 million for the two stations combined, but I don't know who would want to put money into a couple loser independents.

ROH's production values are so bad, they make TNA/Impact/Global Force (which has much less resources on hand) look like the WWE.

It's as if Vegas viewers didn't notice that KSNV went from a quite liberal owner in Jim Rogers and having left-leaning John Ralston as their chief political analyst to Sinclair, Boris Epshteyn, and Attkisson. Speaking of Sinclair and Attkisson, I would think if they were in total confidence in the show, they would syndicate it to other stations outside their footprint. There's probably a number of network-affiliated stations run by conservatives that would like to add some "fairness and balance" to counter their network Sunday morning programming.

"3 Wide Life" is an E/I show (but not necessarily shown in E/I permitted time slots) produced by Sinclair executive Steve Pruett, and is aired by their stations gratis.

Sinclair is bragging about the "ratings growth" it has made by its must-run Sunday series "Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson" (and some of the numbers they boast are hilariously bad!): http://www.tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2017/07/11/sinclairs-full-measure-gaining-viewers/

Is that the old "News Central" set he's using? It might as well be, since Sinclair is that cheap. They'll make a list of all advertisers that ONLY buy Fox News (like the gold peddlers) and try to get them to advertise on their stations.

I thought WCCO (and possibly KMSP) were ahead of KARE? Phoenix is still a four-way horse race between 3/5, 10, 12, and 15. No one's a clear winner here. KPNX is down, but not out. We can always pick on WTSP (a true dog in the TEGNA group, alongside KXTV and WXIA), because they decided not to wait until a Nexstar-owned WFLA implode to implement such an awful format.

Is there any station TEGNA hasn't driven into the ground yet? Sooner than later, we may see Meredith claiming victory at KPTV (sure, they're a FOX affiliate when that network is struggling, but they're up against TEGNA, Sinclair, and Nexstar).

Does anyone know if they've ditched the long time "24-hour news" format at the legacy LIN stations, in particular Indianapolis and Grand Rapids?

I'm surprised about that too. I don't imagine that show getting better ratings than "Access Hollywood Live." Plus, producing a show from SoCal isn't cheap.

It looks like Bob Sullivan's mark is being made at TEGNA like he did with "Right This Minute" and "The List" at Scripps.

Hearst did dabble in TV syndication as late as the early 2000s when the former "Kelly News & Entertainment" (KCRA's syndication division) became "Hearst-Argyle Television Distribution." Before that they also had Hearst (formerly King Features) Entertainment, which distributed weekly programs and movies.

Hearst buys majority stake in syndication company Litton Entertainment, best known for its children's blocks on the big three networks and The CW, according to TVNewsCheck. Not far from my prediction on another message board about Sinclair possibly buying a syndicator in 2017.

Sinclair is boasting ratings growth for its news magazine "Full Measure with Sheryl Attkisson," including in those markets that would be considered "liberal" (in particular, Portland, OR and Seattle). But, all we know, it could be from hash marks to a .3 rating. http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/sharyl-attkissons-full-measure-up-in-key-markets/177799 I know syndication must be popping up in Sinclair exec's minds by now.

I've seen ads on both KTVW and KTAZ claiming ratings victories, but nothing on other stations (I don't pay attention to KTVK or KPHO, by the way, but KPHO seems to claim they're the "most watched station" from sign-on to sign-off). If the reports are correct, I don't think KPNX wins any time slot these days. Fifteen years ago, it wasn't uncommon for them to flaunt their ratings dominance in press releases.

KPNX is not entirely a lost cause. Besides Resnick, they have one of the best sportscasters in town in Bruce Cooper. He's right up there with Jude LaCava. As for Linda Williams, I believe real estate might be her day job (she had been co-hosting a weekend real estate show on the radio). The Spanish stations KTVW and KTAZ tend to do better demo-wise then the English-language stations. There's no dominant station here (KTVK tends to own mornings; KSAZ early evenings and 9pm, and 10pm usually goes to KPHO just due to the laziness of viewers who won't change the channel after CBS primetime).

Which is strange in its own right. It's funny that KGTV most likely took a story from CNN NewsSource and not from sister station KNXV directly.

Absolutely. KPNX is the king of human interest stories and it seems that the ratio between fluff pieces as opposed to hard news is about 2 to 1. They have been doing this before Vanessa Ruiz even joined the station, and their numbers started to drop once she became co-anchor. There's no mistake that Ruiz was a bad hire, especially over Fay Fredricks, but they wanted their staff "to reflect the diversity of the Phoenix metropolitan area," and many of the Hispanics are already watching KTVW or KTAZ. As for KTVK, they still have fluff. They're just keeping it relegated to their morning show, where it's all about saying "good morning" to each other. Given their pretty conservative spending approach with their stations, I'm still scratching my head why Meredith decided to keep the two stations' separate identities, including anchors, weather guessers, and graphics packages, while consolidating their reporting staff. But Meredith is known for giving control of their stations to their local managers (other than the decisions with how they use their .2 and .3 channels). What KSAZ has going for it is consistency. Their main anchor team has been there for much of the past two decades. Sure, once Roger Ailes became Chairman of the Fox Stations Group, they decidedly started to lean right politically on the stories they choose, but familiarity keeps viewers coming back, despite their consistent technical guffaws.

Now that KPNX is struggling (see my post above), will Mark Curtis (who I believe is over 55 and has worked with the station for more than 15 years) be next to take the buyout?

News from Channel 12 in Market 12 from FTVLive: KPNX ND Sandra Kotzambasis resigned after the station had two bad books. Former ND Mark Casey takes over in the interim. Less than a decade ago, KPNX was the top dog in Phoenix. The two headed monster that is KPHO/KTVK can't be eating their lunch that badly these days (quite possibly KNXV may be the only bright spot in the Scripps legacy portfolio--no one ever posts the market's sweeps results anymore). Could it be that the station has caught TEGNitis, or isn't Vanessa Ruiz connecting with viewers that well? http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2016/3/8/phoenix

The wheel of uncertainty continues to spin at KPHO/KTVK: http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/11/10/news-director-out-the-door-in-phoenix

I think KUSI fits hand and glove with Sinclair, even without a network affiliation. I would take it that the McKinnons would like to find an owner with similar intentions for the station if they were to sell, and I think Cox or Graham would take the conservative lean out of KUSI.

Yes, but we all know that most cable/satellite TV subscribers will just switch to another provider if a dispute isn't settled in a timely manner. Eventually, that time will come when Sinclair will have a dispute with DirecTV, Cox, Charter, etc., and the viewer will have to switch again. Then this will lead to more cord-cutting, unless you're in a rural area where you might not get the over-the-air signal and your only choices are the two satellite providers. Broadcasters' hunger for more retrans dollars, along with the declining subscriber base of cable/satellite services, will eventually be the downfall of the large station groups. They'll make money in the short-term, but they'll have to continue to justify increased retrans fees (if they negotiate in cost per subscriber economics) even if the cord-cutting trend continues.