GoldenShine9

3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Makes me wonder if Nexstar or Mission is trying to fill out their presence in the top markets.  They would have to play the "mission" card if there was a full-powered station they wanted to get their hands on. Otherwise, they could stumble onto a Class A station, which Nexstar could acquire outright, and if it was part of a channel sharing arrangement with a full-powered station, all the better.

 

If such a station existed in Atlanta, there's your new CW station right there.

They could talk to CBS about acquiring WUPA there. Also that could be a way to fill market gaps as well.

I think that appears to be the case. I'm sure Nexstar would love a news-producing outlet there, but that is virtually impossible. I know Nexstar is capped out.

8 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

It ain't over yet. The FCC seems to be giving it one last chance to make its case. Standard has made a last minute effort to sate the FCC and get them to approve the deal by Monday, May 22, when it officially dies.

 

The Seeking Alpha article links to a response from Standard General about the FCC's concerns. Among other things is Standard making its depositions to the DOJ public, waive its rights to apply after-acquired retransmission rights, and memorandums of understandings with the various Tegna unions and civil rights groups.

 

Most interesting to me is they're now promising to not layoff anyone for at least three years instead of two, and supposedly will give all stations +20% budgets within three years of closing.

 

From the release:

 

The clock is still ticking, but it's inching closer and closer to midnight.

It still does NOTHING to either solve the conflicts in ownership in 5 markets, nor does it settle the issue of foreign money being involved. They could promise 10 years and that wouldn't work.

12 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

Likewise in Indianapolis. I would put the WLWI call letters on the ion station there, which I think they own but I'm too lazy to look up. Then I'd start running all kinds of old Avco things maybe once a month. Not that anybody would watch them (I doubt many would), but people do have fond memories of those shows. You could still build a great marketing campaign around those shows to build awareness of your station.

 

 

David Letterman doing the TOH announcement, "That's right kids, I used to do the weather on WLWI, Indianapolis, now Channel 63."

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.

6 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

CBS getting WSB in an asset swap would be the most insane thing ever and I can totally see it happening.

I mean them being SOLD to Cox Media Group.

3 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

They’d probably be penalized tax-wise for selling them and in the case of KSTW, there’s no one to sell it to. Ditto with WUPA.

KIRO and WSB could always use a duopoly partner.

2 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

The big thing here is pro football. There is a lot of money to be made by owning both the local and national sides of that programming. And with CBS now being able to show more NFC games, they would be crazy to leave that affiliation with somebody else. Those two stations are going to be CBS. Why put money in other people's pockets?

 

Tampa too!

 

They were doing 3-year affiliation agreements, so my read on this is that they expire in early 2024.

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.

27 minutes ago, Drew said:

I thought jurors owners just renewed a year ago but I could be wrong 

 

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.

On 5/2/2023 at 4:43 AM, CircleSeven said:

The swap was consummated yesterday (5/1).

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%.

51 minutes ago, Yankees4life said:

Can someone please buy this station?

 

This is bad

It's hard to expect much in Market 203.

24 minutes ago, hmaxhanson said:

I've gone through all of the Sinclair stations they own and found the stations that I most believe are on the bubble for being shut down in favor of syndie shows and The National Desk.

 

KIMA & KEPR: The fact that Yakima was able to handle three newscasts for over 50 years is surprising, but surely Sinclair will think that makes the two stations expendable. A full shutdown of KIMA & KEPR's news could also allow KAPP & KVEW to expand their 11pm news back to 35 minutes. But at best, Sinclair could just end all of KEPR's stand alone newscasts and fully simulcast KIMA.

 

KLEW: A real anamoly, as they're Lewiston & Clarkston's only commercial TV station. If there's not enough support from th viewers in those cities, it could be on the bubble.

 

WGFL: Sure, this is done out of WPEC, but still, this is a good choice to quietly shut down considering WCJB owns the market, and to a lesser extent, WUFT. All they have is a 6 and 11pm newscast, which can easily be replaced by an extra Judge Judy rerun or Daytime Jeopardy, and The National Desk.

 

KRCG: They may have a purpose, given how they're licensed to Jefferson City and provide a mostly Jefferson City focused newscast, but still, KOMU is the big leader here, with KMIZ likely second.

 

KHGI: Yes, I find the venerable NTV as a station who's news is probably on the bubble, since most of their news goes out to rural towns and cities. A shutdown of KHGI for TND would also mean that KFXL's news would end up going to TND, and then Lincoln would have no 9pm newscast unless KOLN starts one for their CW channel.

 

KTXS: Somehow, Abilene has 4 TV news operations, since Nexstar has run KRBC & KTAB as seperate stations. This would be a easy cut for that reason, along with the fact they have no midday newscast unlike KRBC & KTAB. Incidentally, their CW channel is already carrying the morning and primetime National Desk broadcasts.

 

KEYE: Be honest, can Austin really handle 4 news operations, especially in the midst of a Fox O&O in KTBC? To add to this, they don't have a noon or 4pm newscast, unlike KTBC and KXAN. And said noon slot is occupied by reruns of Modern Family. KEYE does have the city's only 6:30pm newscast, but that can't be doing well against ET, TMZ and WoF.

 

KMTR: I'm surprised that Sinclair didn't fully merge KMTR and KVAL's newscasts after Newport sold KMTR off in 2012 to Fisher, and then bought the two. Their newscasts however have been produced out of the KMTR studios since 2020, so in my eyes it seems expendable.

 

In addition, I can see Sinclair blowing up the outsourced newscasts on WMSN, KDSM and KRXI in favor of TND, as well as the newscasts on KCVU, KJZZ, WCWN, and WTVX, as well KBOI, WHP, WWMT and KIMA's CW channels. I also think that WJLA 24/7 will close down as well, spelling the end of the network that was once NewsChannel 8.

 

If I missed any other markets or you have a differing opinion on my choices, let me know!

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?

1 minute ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

I was within their signal pattern in Iowa within the last year playing with my laptop tuner. Their news was so awful it was unwatchable. They had some old guy paired with some wet behind the ears news girl. It looked creepy. It was not a good newscast and it's a shame. You would think a CBS / Fox affiliate would have enough critical mass to put together a decent newscast.

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

3 hours ago, MD TV said:

In Tucson, it'll be on a newly-created subchannel of KOLD:

 

https://www.kold.com/2023/04/28/new-network-bring-suns-mercury-games-southern-arizona-viewers/

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).

54 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

With all of the stations expanding their newscasts, the syndication inventory has to land somewhere.

That's probably why stations  like WBNX are doing so well, despite losing the CW and being tied to the controversial Ernest Angley ministry.

 

And with third wheels like WPMI in Mobile, the syndication is "technically" programmed by the licensee (Deerfield) so it adds a little credence to it being something NOT tied to Sinclair.  But then again, Sinclair is the one who runs the station and sells the ads....

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.

16 hours ago, ColtFromGulfcoast said:

Sir, all y'all had to do was divest conflicts and be honest. 

 

Somebody fetch me my violin. 

Plus they had to fully resolve the foreign money questions, rather than try to hide them.

43 minutes ago, Adam MadMan said:

Soo Kim: "Am I so corrupt and hypocritical? No, it's the FCC who is wrong.""

Wrong. You did NOTHING to solve any of the complications, Mr. Kim. This was a hostile takeover with the help of another company who is *already in* some of these markets, and helped by foreign money.

It's Black Monday in the cable news world. I wonder if MSNBC has something up its sleeve too?

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?

7 hours ago, mre29 said:

 

For the record, I have no opinion about her. I was just wondering if GoldenShine9 wanted to see her and the rest of Standard Media's staff banished, too.

 

Although I never said that, they need to make sure they have zero ties to Soo Kim.