GoldenShine9

Honestly, Nexstar should use those call letters for one of their stations. They have two of the stations (the former WLWC and WLWD), although WLWT is pretty much off limits to them.

I mean them being SOLD to Cox Media Group.

KIRO and WSB could always use a duopoly partner.

If it were that easy...owners can easily retaliate too, especially in the case of Gray since they own the CBS affiliation in over 50 markets. They could make the affiliation agreement conditional on keeping CBS on WANF.

I honestly have a hard time seeing those stations losing the CBS affiliation, and their owners will probably try to package them to prevent it. The smartest move IMO for CBS is to sell the stations in those markets.

They still don't have 100% penetration in Georgia, as they need to get into Chattanooga and Jacksonville for that. Anyway, now the ball is in the networks' court. Will they bail on Sinclair to come over to WPGA? If Gray can promise newscasts, that might just happen (although they'd have to compete with the 100-ton gorilla WMAZ).

https://tvnewscheck.com/uncategorized/article/sinclair-1q-total-revenue-down-40/ Revenue is down 40%, but that is almost exclusively due to the RSN's being a serious anchor on the company. Without them, revenue is down about 5%.

It's hard to expect much in Market 203.

I agree 100% with that list, with the possible exception of KEYE given the size of the Austin market. If KLEW goes, would Boise, Yakima or Spokane lay claim to that area? Although the other central Washington area stations are all tied to Spokane stations, they could try to do more there too. In some of the other cases, another owner has dominant status and any missing newscasts otherwise they might fill for themselves (Gainesville, Columbia-Jefferson City, Lincoln-Hastings). For example, I could see KOLN/KGIN launch a new 9 pm newscast on their secondary station, or Gray could poach the Fox affiliation for themselves (I would have said the CW affiliation could be in some danger, but Nexstar is completely absent from Nebraska). North Platte has that and it's a much smaller market. In the case of Abilene (and San Angelo, by extension), that's an easy cut. I also think the CW affiliation there is as good as gone soon too. If those outsourced newscasts in Madison and Des Moines disappear, I'd think the station doing the heavy lifting might just decide to place those news on their own stations.

I know this is getting into Speculatron territory, but I have to wonder if they have a plan to make TND like a Newsmax on local television. Perhaps looking to hire Tucker Carlson for their newscast time availability?

I know KTIV is the ratings leader there, and I believe KCAU is well ahead of KMEG/KPTM as well.

I can think of at least 12-15 more markets where Sinclair runs a last-place news operation that I could easily see cut.

It appears KMEG/KPTH (Sioux City, IA) is also eliminating local news. https://kscj.com/2023/04/28/local-tv-news-to-end-on-cbs-14-kpth/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ&fbclid=IwAR0xyUYeYN2VfSMm-OJz2zidbydsdJv3Z12KOzIzOosHPHr6S5iG7msAkiQ

That leaves out Yuma though as Gray is not in that market. They could buy some smaller Imagicomm stations to help fill holes though (it would be fairly cheap too) and that gets them into Yuma, as well as markets like Pocatello and Greenville (MS).

I sense WPMI losing the NBC affiliation when it comes up...I could see WALA taking it back on 10.2.

Most Sinclair stations are very low rated, and the political slant probably has a role too. People - both conservative and liberal - don't watch local news for political talk. It might be an opportunity for KOBI/KOTI to bulk up, as they were the traditional dog station in the market but now would go up to #2 by default. I know they don't have a lot of money as an independent NBC affiliate, but if someone bigger took a chance on them, they could have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The MAGA crowd is mad right now, they are saying "Done with Fox". I wonder how many will actually jump to Newsmax or OAN, or farther to the fringes?

I wonder how much Newsmax and OAN will try to offer him...unless he is headed for RT, where he seems to fit in even better?

Exactly. That's probably a big reason why the price is over $200M as well. If it was only WBBH and not the LMA as well, it would likely have been around $125M to $150M I would think. I know the market is over twice the size, but what was the purchase price when Tegna acquired KFMB in San Diego? That was the last large market standalone station sold that I can think of.

I think the ideal logo would be the gold "5" of old, combined with the font from that WBTV proposed design.

Mentioned that in the Speculatron re: the McBrides.

This is about the most stunning announcement I have heard. What a big pickup for Hearst - a company that almost never buys stations. (Also, it pretty much wipes them off the "seller" list). It takes Fort Myers-Naples down to one locally owned station.

That may be more likely to happen now. I believe the plan is to completely eliminate local news on WGXA.

Many of their stations are very low rated too. They tend to be 3rd or 4th place in many of their markets.

Could that be some of the money burned by the Diamond Sports bankruptcy hitting their bottom line? Also most Sinclair stations are rated quite low in their market.