NewsMaster

With FOUR 9pm newscasts in the Mobile-Pensacola market, you figure how long that would last.....

 

Well, the first shoe to drop is the WPMI-produced 9pm show on their sister station, WJTC UTV 44. The final show airs tonight, and beginning on Monday, will move to a half-hour show at 7pm.

Sinclair probably didn't want one 9pm newscast competing against another 9pm newscast on their sister station, that being WEAR's 9pm newscast on WFGX, which does much, much better in the ratings being the only Pensacola-focused 9pm newscast in the market.

here's WFFT's open with the new logo.

Ick. That's pretty bad. The worst part about it is that this is Heartland's first go-around at re-branding a station and this could roll out to their other stations. For a group that I was fascinated to see what they would be like, this is extremely disappointing.

The sale shouldn't have even been needed in the first place though; remember, they had KXJB but the then-strict FCC then had them sell it off to become a subchannel machine under other ownership. But in any case, Retro TV is dead in North Dakota the moment Gray takes over.

Agreed. Basically Gray is doing now what they couldn't do during Tom Wheeler's commissionership.

They also say that they'll be selecting new call letters for the station? Could it become KXJB?

Quite possibly. I would have to imagine this station would have a much better signal than the LP currently carrying the KXJB calls; I bet the CBS affiliation and KXJB calls will move to the new station and the LP will change its calls to something else, and that'll probably be where The CW ends up.

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/2/1/sinclair-wants-employees-contribute-to-their-pac

 

Color me shocked.......not. Something told me that they would do something like this.

This isn't a big deal in my mind. Many companies have PACs and just because Sinclair leans right it becomes a big deal. I guarantee if any of you work for any large corporation like Sinclair (broadcasting or not), they will have a PAC of their own that they will want you to donate to.

I'm not a huge fan of Sinclair but nobody can seem to give them a break. I guarantee if any left-leaning broadcaster did this nobody would give a da*n.

Scripps is performing a comprehensive restructuring, which includes selling its radio stations, as well as centralizing some services.

However, it sounds like Scripps is doing this so that they possibly could acquire more TV stations.

EDIT: A thread has been started on this topic.

Longtime owner of Salisbury, MD's CBS station WBOC Thomas Draper passed away yesterday due to injuries sustained from a bicycle accident. Draper was 76.

Awful news, especially the way in which he passed. Rest in peace.

It's even more awful considering that Sinclair may soon come knocking at their front door.

Between Raycom, Tegna and Nexstar, which do you think is the most likely to make a move?

Nexstar hands down.

Here's something interesting I saw recently. I did a TV query on Parkersburg, WV and found that Gray has a construction permit for what appears to be (on paper, at least) a WDTV translator in Parkersburg. Is Gray trying to replace WIYE with a WDTV translator for the market's CBS affiliate, possibly clearing up WIYE for an ABC affiliation? It's very interesting considering the Parkersburg and Clarksburg markets were supposed to be one large market in the late 50's.

It has only been a month since Marquee Broadcasting acquired WNKY in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and it now appears that they may be looking to start a full news operation for the station. A job opening for a news director at the station has been posted.

Tonight will be the final First Forecast for WWJ-TV chief meteorologist Jim Madaus. He is retiring after 33 years in Detroit television.

He may have worked for a joke of a station, but he is without a doubt one of the best in the business. Wishing Jim all the best in retirement.

WLNE sports director Ken Bell is retiring after a 35 year career at the station. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/104478/wlne-sports-dir-ken-bell-retires-after-35-years

WWNY and KEYC would be perfect for them thinking about it.

I have a feeling that Bob Prather's Heartland Media may be more interested in that pair. KEYC is often carried as an alternate CBS affiliate in parts of the Rochester, MN market (alongside KIMT in Mason City, Iowa, which Heartland owns), and WWNY would be their second station in upstate NY after WKTV in Utica.

WABI had been family owned since day 1?

 

There are still a few left - WRAL/WRAZ, WBRZ, KTBS, WOAY, WINK, WPSD, WSIL, WBOC, WMDT, WFMJ, WWTV/WWUP, WCAX...those off the top of my head...

 

How many of those will still be independent a few years from now though?

There is now one less of them.

Gray is buying WCAX in Burlington, Vermont for $29 million.

I think this was missed and not talked about here but it looks like KWTV 9 in Oklahoma City has rebranded its sister Ind. station KSBI 52 to... you guessed it... News 9 Plus.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSBI

 

This took place two months ago and DESPITE that rebranding, KSBI 52 continues to only air KWTV 9's weekday half-hour noon newscast.

And here's their new logo. As dull as you can imagine.

At least that station is showing life. Maybe soon KWTV will start producing a 9:00 newscast for KSBI...er, News 9 Plus. (If it means anything to anyone, sister KOTV up I-44 in Tulsa produces a 9:00 for KQCW.)

It's already a competitive market, so they would be foolish to start a new operation IMO. Really, the station should just be sold to Tegna or Scripps and paired with an existing incumbent.

If they did it would be news department #5 (#6 if you count Bay News 9 and #7 if you count WWSB), so it probably would not be successful. I thought that it could have been spectrum auction bait but Hearst decided not to sell its spectrum, which I was very surprised about.

New Media M&A. John Malone's Liberty Media is acquiring Alaska's telecom company, GCI for $1.1B.

I'm assuming that this deal includes KTVA, amirite?

WMUR anchor / political director Josh McElveen is leaving the station today. He will move out of TV news to become the VP of Communications at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. I think that Adam Sexton will take his place as 5:00 co-anchor and he could possibly be promoted to political director, which is arguably the biggest job at channel 9.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1319662618113731

Folks, this has been a very difficult couple of days in the world of Local TV, we lost Rich Fisher on Friday, Jeff Jeffers on Sunday, and now a longtime Columbus meteorologist

is in the fight of his life. Yesterday, 10TV (WBNS/CBS) Chief Meteorologist Chris Bradley has been diagnosed with leukemia, and its already begun chemotherapy.

 

TVNT would like to send our prayers and get well wishes to Chris, and to his family, and to his colleagues at 10TV News.

 

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170327/chris-bradley-wbns-meteorologist-diagnosed-with-leukemia

http://www.10tv.com/article/message-chris-bradley

This is awful news. My prayers to Chris and his family.

Another new Telemundo affiliate is about to launch this summer.

 

Cox's WSOC 9 is launching Telemundo Charlotte on its subchannel 9.2 on June 1st. Laff is moving to WAXN 64.4.

 

The Observer said that it wants to add a newscast on the subchannel in the future, but wants to conduct research first.

It's about time that Charlotte got a Spanish network affiliate of its own. That market was long overdue for one.

Considering the competition, that shouldn't change anytime soon.

WPRI could overtake WJAR since they have a good enough product. WLNE, on the other hand, has no shot whatsoever.

I wonder if Tegna offered him that as somewhat of an apology/or if they gave him an internal transfer to start up at KPNX

I imagine he'll be the secondary (assistant?) sports director at 12 behind Coop.

The spectrum auction has claimed its next victim: WBIN. The station will go off the air and NH1 News will be radio and digital only. WMUR will once again be New Hampshire's only television news source. http://www.nh1.com/news/WBIN-TV-sold-in-FCC-Auction-NH1-News-to-invest-in-new-digital-platforms/

WABI has a news sharing arrangement with WMTW in Portland; it will be interesting to see if that arrangement survives the Gray takeover. WGME is partnered with WVII. I have to wonder if WVII is now in play. Will Sinclair or Hearst make Rockfleet an offer they can't refuse?

I highly doubt Hearst would be interested in WVII, considering that it is by far the last-placed station in what would by far be Hearst's smallest market. Sinclair could make the move though, because...Sinclair. Whomever purchases WVII would have to put a fairly large investment into the station considering that they don't even have a weather department.

The plus side to this is that WABI and WCJB will now finally have a decent graphics package.

And, in WABI's case, better music. CBS Local, anyone?

I wonder what becomes of WAGM's local ops. Diversified owned them for a number of years, so this move brings them back into the same corporate fold. I imagine WAGM will become nothing more than a semi-satellite of WABI much like WLBZ's relationship with WCSH. Apart from adopting the corporate website design Gray has done nothing to upgrade WAGM since their takeover; now their lack of investment makes sense.

Wouldn't be surprised. I almost think that Aroostook County (or, for you Mainers, "The County") could be folded into the Bangor DMA considering that WAGM is (and, considering that DMA's size, always will be) the only commercial station in the market.

When did they start operating WATM and WWCP? At last check, they never did.

They tried to, but I thought that sale fell through.