NewsMaster

 

The first Monday since the reopening of FCC site and we have a NEW M&A Tonight!!!

 

Anyone thought that Bob Prather was going sit out after he left leading Gray Television, you have another thing coming. Hell, I didn't see this coming.

 

Through the paperwork, Prather through his firm Heartland Media, LLC, is buying Smith Media's last station, Utica's WKTV for $16M. The APA was made out on October 1st.

 

I knew Boston Ventures weren't going to hold that sole station for long. And I did state that Gray should've gotten it. But I never thought a former Gray leader would even come close to acquiring a station after he left from a company that had a massive chain of stations. Now I'm not sure if he's going to even try to acquire more stations, as it's getting even harder to form a new group, while many groups that are already here are trying to merge with each other. It's going to be a very hard sell.

 

At least he's getting it. I was SO worried that Sinclair would grab WKTV.

KTVK has debuted new graphics and music; they're the new Belo graphics that WFAA is using, and the music is Propulsion.

WKMG has posted on their Facebook page that there is a "big announcement" on Monday. Not sure what that means…

KFMB's new logo is on their Facebook page:

 

https://www.facebook.com/News8

 

What a strange transaction. Is Journal strapped for cash? Are they going to make some sort of acquisition?

 

I wonder if it had something to do with the repercussions of the TWC retrans deal. Probably not, though...

 

I would actually love to see KTVH clustered up with KECI/KCFW/KTVM so it would be an almost super NBC Montana network, similar to CBS's MTN. I'm not too sure if Bonten want to unload, or could pursue buying any other properties. They did get the Sainte Partners Cali cluster last year. But if they're not buying, and if they probably want more dough, it'll probably be best to unload the Montana cluster, to another entity. Frontier has gobbled up most of the Sunbelt properties thus far (sans KYMA & KENV/KRNV). If Frontier eyes KTVH, why not pursue KECI/KCFW/KTVM? Now if Cowles want those, they would have to form a shell at that point.

 

If Frontier does that, they could also get KSVI / KHMT from Nexstar to complete the statewide network. Those are probably Nexstar's weakest stations and really don't fit into their regional footprint at all.

According to the NMSA, WENY in Elmira, NY is the first non-Gannett station to use the This Is Home package from Gari Media Group.

Compared to Sinclair and possibly Nexstar, I'm not sure you can call Hearst a "mega-chain".

If that's the case then WBNS (and possibly WTHR) are probably up there too.

A Phoenix station almost caused a mistrial in the Johnathan Doody trial. This article from KSAZ didn't specify, but that station was KTVK.

 

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/23222891/jurors-shown-crime-scene-photos-in-temple-slayings

 

At least WVIT is the third place station in CT so not too many people will have to be exposed to her amateurish reporting...

 

WVIT may be in 3rd place but WVIT actually has more Facebook likes and Twitter followers than WFSB, WTNH or WTIC-TV.