scrabbleship

If Deborah ends up a Sunday Morning contributor, I will howl.

Bob Prather has been nominally running the zombified two station remains of Heartland Media while running Allen. I'd have to think that if he comes back or not that Gray would take KQTV and WKTV off his hands as both stations fit Gray like a glove.

To replace Kevin Hogan? Maybe. The station has enough young talent that are probably anchor ready that it might be good to take a chance on them. WFSB management has been high on Ayah Galal and if memory serves me right she'd be the first regular anchor of a local newscast anywhere in the US who wears a hijab. To replace the second weeknight anchor pair that has been vacant since Erin Connolly and Mark Zinni defaulted into the A team after Denise D'Ascenzo died and Dennis House was cast off? Perhaps. I don't think the sentiment is that Gray is too cheap, is that a lot of the people who were there when Denise/Dennis were would see being in that spot as de facto replacing them and they left some pretty shoes to fill even if both have been vacant for two years. I think the Stephanie Simoni hire is a backdoor way to fill the Denise hole - she started on a new newscast so an expansion might not be seen as directly replacing her. Whether the obvious move (pairing her with her husband Roger Susanin who IMO should've been made the second weeknight anchor 18 months ago) will be done remains to be seen.

A couple of Connecticut moves that flew under the radar. First, former WFSB/WTIC traffic reporter Rachel Lutzker has resurfaced at WTNH to do the zombified CT Style segment that closes out their noon news. Second is a bit bigger. WFSB weekend evening anchor/New London Bureau chief Kevin Hogan is retiring at the end of this month, already having gone off the anchor desk effective last weekend. This caps a 50 year career split nearly evenly between radio and TV. Given how WFSB still technically has two BIG vacancies on weeknights dating back to prior ownership (and a base of prospective anchors who might not want those spots given the implied shoes they'd be filling), it'll be interesting to see who they get to do weekend evenings if they decide to find someone even.

Better is a dead property, the last full-on show with that name - WFSB's Better Connecticut - rebranded as Great Day Connecticut last September in advance of the split of Meredith as a company. The Better-branded segments on the morning and noon editions of Western Mass News at WGGB ended around the same time as well. In the case of Connecticut, the show needed a refresh due to the circumstances of its last couple of years as Better between being cut to a half hour, going on hiatus for six months because of COVID, and returning to its old timeslot without the same vibe it had prior. Of all the Better series it probably was the most successful because it didn't end up delving down the pay-for-play road though with current news talent hosting it it's a slippery slope.

A change in Hartford, as WTNH's Steph Simoni is heading up I-91 to join WFSB where she'll solo-anchor a new 7:00 newscast starting 5/2.

Another day, another departure from WNYT. Jerry Gretzinger, who anchored the 4:00/4:30/6:00 newscasts, will be leaving the station as of March 11th after 4.5 years. Gretzinger is the tenth on-air personality to have left WNYT since December 2020, on top of longtime GM Steve Baboulis and several longtime photogs, and is the second departure this year after reporter/fill-in anchor Jacquie Slater left the business in January.

If it was about retrans it would've been easier to make KPVI or KYMA be the fall guy to be honest.

When Emmis had KHON and KGMB in Hawaii, their newsrooms were kept separate. Doesn't Sinclair have a degree of separation between WOAI and KABB in San Antonio as well? Though not a true duopoly the same could be said if WEAR and WPMI if anything for the geographical quirks of that market.

Has anyone tried a sidecar approach in a market that large?

The FCC seems content with an obsolete and broken status quo regarding E/I and Hearst has a practical Industrial Complex to keep it alive because without it they'd be hosed.

The anchor changes at WNYT weren't the biggest news to come out of there today. Steve Baboulis, GM since 1996 and an employee of the station since 1977, is retiring. Steve is much of why WNYT went from also-ran to powerhouse and while his "it worked I the 90s" attitude has been a little detrimental as of late, this is a huge loss for a station that's had a rough year personnel wise.

May this Louisville hire work better than the last (ex-WHAS'er Paulina Bucka who left after only four months).

That Freedom stayed on 6 in the name of tradition was always a frustrating move as you ended up with a signal that had better coverage of Rutland, Brattleboro, and Poughkeepsie more than much of Albany and Troy. The 720p simulcast on WCWN's .3 only could do so much.

Another day, another person leaving WNYT. And this one is a big name. After 42 years at WNYT, 4:00/4:30/6:00 PM anchor and health reporter Benita Zahn is leaving the station to work as a certified health coach. Her last day will be May 28th For those keeping score, this is the sixth departure at WNYT in as many months. A near unreal period of tumult for a station once known for being atypically stable.

Jill Konopka, formerly of WFSB, WVIT, and WNYT, has resurfaced at WTIC. She had spent the last several months in Boston, trying to enter that market. Come to think of it, this puts her in relatively exclusive company to have worked at three stations in the Hartford market; the only others I can think of would be Al Terzi (original WTIC/WFSB, WTNH, current WTIC) and Janet Peckinpaugh (WTNH, WFSB, WVIT).

All with Karen Meyers, now of WMUR's New Hampshire Chronicle (with stints at WTTG, WLNE, and NECN in-between).

WLFL left Fox for the WB because Sinclair gave them a sweetheart affiliation deal, not because lack of news. What you speak of applies to what happened in Norfolk at the same time with WTVZ (I can't remember of WAVY already had a 10:00 on WVBT when they were WB). That same sweetheart deal also triggered UPN to WB switches in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio. WLFL's news did well even into their time as WB, it was Sinclair want to force everyone Fox/Netlet (and WXLV) onto News Central that led to its demise.

Sinclair is a bit different. They built themselves on Fox and netlets, not the other way around.

WRDC to Nexstar would fit like a glove. They could run the station a la WCTX with an expanded morning news and a primetime block with MNTV going to late nights. Bahakel would be too big to re-enter Raleigh (they owned WKFT before selling it to Univision). The company I'm thinking that would be a better fit for WLFL would be, oddly, Tegna. Owning a standalone CW would be a bit unconventional but their approach would stand out in this market and would give the market the fourth OTA outlet it should have. Also, it would be able to draw from and benefit WFMY and WCNC so a win-win of sorts. Hey, it can't be any different than the WZDX's, WATN's, and WOI's of the group. With enough work they could reach WPMT/WTIC tier.

Four. Jill Konopka took a "dream job" (which seems to be outside TV) in Boston though she seems to tweet like she's still a journalist. Perhaps it's a stepping stone of sorts, Boston is one of those markets full of alumni from Albany stations. If this was anyone else on the morning team or any of the remaining veteran anchors, I'd be a bit concerned. There is a huge chasm between "market vets" and "twentysomething kids" on both fronts there.

Another month, another anchor leaving WNYT (and television altogether). This makes four anchors to leave in not even three months. Something...is going on there.

Wheel/Jeopardy are on WCNC, not WSOC. And the order is reversed on WLOS vis a vis WCNC.

6:00: Very outside chance. From the looks of every article I've read, it seems like any anchoring would be solely fill-in. 11:00: No. Dennis stepped down from the 11:00 at WFSB a few years back to spend more time with Kara and their kids. If I had to do a shot in the dark, the only way I see him regularly going back to the anchor desk is if Kara comes over to 8 which I only think would happen if Better Connecticut was given the axe. Weirder things have happened but I think Dennis' days as a main anchor might be a thing of the past.

In much happier but relevant news, WTNH has hired Dennis House as their chief political anchor and as a fill-in anchor as of January 11th. WTNH also will be launching a second Sunday morning political show hosted by House to go along with their longtime Capitol Report. This is a good move for both sides and only helps WTNH in the northern half of Connecticut where the battle for second place is a three station race. The transplanted CT folk getting paywalled out of WTNH's stream is going to be egg on their face though.