DirtyHarry

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.

WTVN-TV was a huge money-maker even back in the days when it was owned by Taft.

You nailed it. It always has some "freedom fries" fake right wing outrage feel to it. I'm a right winger, but I don't like schlocky TV, nor do I like being jerked around with obvious propaganda and phony outrage.

The other problem with those must runs is that they are not produced in such a way where they flow seamlessly with the rest of the newscast. It's very jarring, like you almost changed channels.

I don't see any political slant on the Channel 6 News. Their problem is more production value than anything else. There's just something about the way they produce those national segments that makes them look like something from a small market TV station. They need to work on the lighting and make up more. They're a big company, they should pay attention to these kinds of details. First time I saw that Sharyl Attkisson show, it looked like the kind of local public affairs show you'd see on TV in the 1980s, visually speaking that is. Just as one example. Mark Hyman's segments and that Jewish guy they had as a commentator also have a cheesy quality to them. I don't find anything wrong with the content though, if presented properly.

Sinclair does a great job here in Columbus and I would also guess in Cincinnati as well.

@MediaZone4K - local news is okay, but the national news media has become Pravda for the Deep State. Anything on the national level is not to be trusted anymore. All it is is talking points fed to the media from political flacks. The funny one is Hunter Biden, who is actually involved in illegalities, along with his dad, given a pass. But they gleefully go after Trump over and over again and can't find a thing. He may be the cleanest person to ever run for the presidency. Oh and we have that Scooter Libby and Valerie Plame thing. A nothingburger, but they started beating the drums. I have no respect for the national media at all. All these phony scandals have turned me off to all these people. Scandal against Republicans and throw the book at them for jaywalking, Democrats always get a pass for major violations of the law. I'm not standing up for Republicans -- I hate the DC Republican Party, but that's what I see.

P.S. Do you consider Allen Media a top rate broadcaster? LOL Tegna is light years ahead in respectability. Allen is right there at the bottom of the garbage pail with Nexstar, Scripps and Gray.

I read somewhere that he never made an official offer. That was all just talk.

He doesn't have the money. He didn't even make an offer then.

Maybe they were just there for the excitement of building a media empire. Working for a company that has a bunch of low end TV stations can't be that exciting compared to building a multi-channel behemoth.

I don't watch anything new, although I do admit that the commercials for the new True Lies series make it look like it would be an interesting show. But I doubt I will get into the habit of watching it. I miss the days of shows like The Fugitive. It was a pretty simple formula. 1. Richard Kimble and a new city tracking down the one armed man, 2. Worksa menial job, 3. Makes friends with a co-worker or somebody in that town, 4. Something goes wrong and puts him in jeopardy, 5. Moral lesson: He always steps up and does the right thing, even if it puts him in jeopardy. Shows these days either preach to us about something (race, gays, transgender) or incorporate too much of the gutter lifestyle. That's why I like watching the old shows. Simple and I don't feel like I have to scrub myself clean after watching them.

I like Comet when they are showing something old and schlocky, but they show too much of the new stuff and newer vintage sci-fi does nothing for me. Kind of the same with Charge. The older stuff is cool, but there is a lot of marginal stuff on that channel.

Doubt it. Their business has grown. They manufacture broadcast antennas now. They probably just want to separate those businesses out into their own unit. Diamond stayed with the TV stations because what's the point of moving it when it's going to get written off. But more to your point, maybe it's those ancillary businesses that get spun off.

What's the point?

I don't agree. I think it's part of giving TV and interactive angle. It helps with engagement. But yeah, using the same pictures over and over again is just lazy.

I was flipping through the local channels available on Tubi one morning. Several Scripps channels there. I was very surprised to see the same morning programming on a number of them. It may have been because it was a weekend morning show, but they were carrying the same feature about some entomology professor at a university at the same time.

What losses? They and their partners put less than a billion down. The banks are stuck with the loss. Unlike you and me, the big boys don't have to pay. I'm sure they got a non-recourse loan.

Where the cable companies get you here, they'll advertise $79.99 for cable. Then at the end of the bill they check on $22 for OTA TV and another seven bucks for sports. And nothing special when it comes to sports, just regular ESPN, Bally's and Fox channels.

Is that the full price or do they tack on local TV surcharges and taxes at the end?

LNL is a stupid acronym and their bug looks stupid. Not impressed with the boring graphics either. It sounds like an insurance company, Lincoln National Life. I said the same thing when Sinclair went to Curves that I'm going to say here. Sinclair has that overly serious sounding music. That's not who they are. The old Stephen Arnold upbeat theme songs fit them much better. Same thing going on here. Gray is a second or third rate broadcaster. Stay in your lane. This is not an insult, it's just who they are. Have something that better fits you and your viewership.

I totally agree that they've got the bigger problem of not having anything anybody wants to watch anymore and not having a clue how to create things people want to watch.

I don't care who's fault it is, I care about the damage to my wallet. I dropped cable when retrain and sports fees got tacked on to the bottom of the bill to the tune of $30. My cable and internet bill was roughly $165 and that was 2 years ago. I got rid of the cable and just do internet now and I'm perfectly happy with it. In fact, at the time, the cable company was encouraging us to do this so that they didn't have to fool around with these wars with the TV providers anymore either.

My argument is that this is just like a retail store. If they're not open when you need them, and you're forced to go somewhere else, sooner or later you get out of the habit of going there. So if Kroger closes at 9:00, but Meijer's is open until midnight, you're going to get into the habit of going to Meijer's and Kroger's fades away for you. Radio tried that. The argument is that they have so few listeners after 7:00 p.m. that it's not worth it to have live talent. You can see how relevant radio is everywhere except for the car anymore.

They killed the golden goose and are now in the process of killing the bronze goose. I'm not paying your stinking retransmission fees. If the online providers start with that garbage, I'm dropping them too, just like I dropped the cable company. And if they figure out a way to make me pay over the air using ATSC 3.0, I can live without TV.