scrabbleship
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Posts posted by scrabbleship
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12 hours ago, Nelson R. said:
Congratulations WBTV’s Molly Grantham and family! Her third baby arrived last night! https://www.facebook.com/194220537255104/posts/4472321692778279/
Not the only news anchor baby of July 14th: WNYT's Karen Tararache gave birth to her second on Tuesday as well.
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4 minutes ago, NowBergen said:
What a sad day here in NY. And using a sidecar to skirt FCC regulations yet be controlled by Nexstar is total BS. Hopefully if a change in control happens in November, this may get caught with new appointees to the FCC.
I don't necessarily see a Biden FCC being something that puts in new regulations and stops the endgame of consolidation. Do you remember what happened the last time a Democratic president was in charge of the executive branch? Nexstar went from being a company with nothing in the Top 50 markets to being in Top 10 markets and Sinclair tripled in size.
if anything regardless of party I see a greater reversal, especially if you end up with certain companies stuck in a catch-22 where they are too big to acquire yet too complicated to break up without causing a bigger mess (see Hearst, Meredith, Coxpollo). I'm certain Nexstar is trying to come up with some plan to enter Atlanta and Boston by some means necessary, especially with both a gaping hole in their networks and markets Tribune foolishly walked away from.-
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4 hours ago, Breaking News said:
What exactly is their deal? Wasn't he married to Maria Stephanos?
No, it was Bianca. They met while both were students at Emerson in the early 90s, married while both were at WXXA in Albany, and divorced back in 2009.
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2 hours ago, Breaking News said:
What exactly is their deal? Wasn't he married to Maria Stephanos?
No, it was Bianca. They met while both were students at Emerson in the early 90s, married while both were at WXXA in Albany, and divorced back in 2009.
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On 6/16/2020 at 12:08 PM, newsbot said:
Former WCVB/WFXT anchor Bianca de la Garza sued to recover $15 million in (allegedly) embezzled funds.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/06/16/alden-shoe-bianca-de-la-garza-lawsuit
Somewhere David Wade is happy at the debacle he dodged.
Seriously her leaving WCVB was one of the more bizarre moves to happen in that market.
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14 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:
WALA's Studio 10 went on hiatus for about a month then returned at 9:30 for a half hour of repeat/encore content, but has since returned full-force, only with the necessary social distancing changes.
They also have added a lot of Meredith content to the show (People, Recipes.com, etc...) but have never been associated with the "Better" brand...the show itself was launched in the LIN era and has only had a time shift to 9am and several co-host changes.
Isn't KMOV in the same boat with Great Day St. Louis?
If Better KC is truly dead and Better Connecticut doesn't come back, it may add fuel to the fire of Meredith tapping out of broadcast. Especially if they'd kill the cash cow of the latter as that was winning its slot back in the 3:00 days and all signs pointed to a return to that time/60 minute length was a "when, not if" deal pre-COVID.-
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1 hour ago, Breaking News said:
I see them keeping it, because ABC desperately want the cache that NBC has with the Today franchise and remember is cheaper for Talk Show or Game Show in that time slot than a soap opera. I see them once again retooling it to make it a more of a carbon copy of GMA.
The huge problem is that the consistency they want to one-up Today is impossible because Kelly & Ryan is in the way.
How toxic would it be to bring back The Chew, or was that name sullied fully because of Mario Batali?
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1 hour ago, plzstandby said:
KCTV5 has pulled the plug on BetterKC (KC no longer has a Pay-for-play Lifestyle show) and debuted a 9am hour of KCTV5 News today. I’ve been watching this and it is a nice alternative to not having to listen to Mark Alford on Fox4.
This, for now, is curtains for Meredith's "Better" concept as Connecticut has been on hiatus since COVID hit.
Also, Better KC was pay for play? From what I've seen of Connecticut they seem to strain to hide anything of the sort.
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3 hours ago, TriadMetrolinaNewswatch said:
The man himself (Romines) came from WTEN in Albany, so it could be interesting.
Romines came in during the reign of terror of René LaSpina when they tried to become a smaller version of WHDH with Scott Chapin and the dreadful opens of the period. When he got actual power, he took WTEN from a competitive #3 to being #1 in the market by investing in talent and newsgathering which Media General and Nexstar saw as worthy.
He's a good add and I think he'll right the ship. Remember, late 2000s WTEN was a debacle a few rungs ahead of "Hey Hey Carolinas".
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To be tragically fair it wasn't like KYUR wasn't doing much before this. That station has sadly been a basket case since the change from KIMO a good decade or so ago after Smith sold it to Coastal.
Literally anyone would be a better owner and put in more of an effort than Coastal has.
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2 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:
Pretty much their entire lower-market portfolio.
So the heritage Nexstar stations pre-2012 and some of the ex-Newport stations.
There would be 32 conflicts if you assume that WUSA/WDCW/WDVM wouldn't pass muster, going from markets as large as Houston to as small as San Angelo.
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On 4/15/2020 at 9:38 PM, Georgie56 said:
Who would take those? Disney/ABC would be really stupid to sell those off.
If we're not bundling the network with them, Hearst. They and ABC already cooperate with ESPN and the A&E Family of networks and there is zero broadcast overlap.
The issue there: Newspapers, namely the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, plus their four newspapers in Fairfield County, CT.
This could end one of two ways: Hearst finally spins off print and broadcast into different entities to end-run the NBCO rules or Hearst goes the the government and says that the NBCO rules are a undue burden on them and that their repeal would do zero harm. Remember, Hearst still has a sterling reputation, just don't tell that to their smaller market TV stations or to E. Jean Carroll.
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On 3/18/2020 at 3:10 PM, MadMan400096 said:
For now.
The second Tegna finds a buyer, I just know they're gonna unload WBNS radio.
If its Apollo I have my doubts.
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24 minutes ago, Samantha said:
I see that the congressional delegation got in on this one. It's being noted in local media as a "return" because WWLP was on the system until 2017, when WNYT must have pushed Charter to remove WWLP for network reasons.
What remains to be seen, and we won't know until 30 to 60 days from now, is what exactly the feed has besides the station's local output and presumably anything WTEN also has the rights to.
From those I know in the Berkshires, the two parties were fine for years, even when WNYT began signing translators on in the Berkshires and running a (since closed) Pittsfield bureau. WNYT pushed it more out of sour grapes once WWLP and WTEN ended up under common ownership and WTEN began beating them marketwide. Pure Club 13-level spite.
I'm more interested in what led Spectrum to drop WCVB there. Their carriage in Pittsfield wasn't that grandfathered - added 1996 - and the "it's the alpha city of the state" angle made it a curio that was tolerated if anything.
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15 minutes ago, Samantha said:
Curious little partnership here. Charter viewers in the Berkshires — a long-aggrieved orphan county in the Albany DMA — will get news from WWLP, and WWLP will add more features relevant to the Berkshires.
https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/245389/nexstar-charter-create-wwlp-local-news-deal/
I know that WTEN picks up some WWLP stories and vice versa but clearly it wasn't enough.
If this feed could get the Patriots preseason games, which Albany stations stubbornly refuse to carry, it would be a proper salve.
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58 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:
WRAL and WTVD are some of the few stations that have affiliated with all 3 major networks at one time or another.
I believe the record stands with WTTV in Indianapolis, having not only affiliated with ABC, NBC and CBS, but also with UPN, WB, CW, as well as their time as an independent.
(They were actually owned by WRAL's parent company from the late 80s to early 90s, before being sold to River City Broadcasting)
Fun Fact: WTTV is now reunited with former sister WJZY. Both former Capitol stations that ended up triggering affiliation swaps in the 2010s.
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27 minutes ago, TheRob said:
Just for fun, here's a bagful of mic flags from Nexstar at the Super Bowl. They will have done more than 1,600 live shots by the end of Sunday.
John Kucko can't even do his mic flag garland anymore and that speaks a ton.
What would it take to demonize Perry Sook?
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45 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:
We have yet another Tegna station dumping a traditional newscast (sigh..)
KTVB has officially launched "The 208" in the 5pm timeslot and it's meant to take a conversational approach to the news of the day
I'm not entirely sure what the 208 is referred to since I'm not from the area but all I will say is it's either going to work the way KUSA's "Next" has worked or it's going to be an epic disaster.
"208" refers to the area code for all of Idaho. Not the first time Tegna has gone full state area code, granted WCSH/WLBZ's 207 is more a Chronicle wannabe.
This is the first time Tegna is pulling this stunt on a station that is market dominated. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out, if the sterling reputation KTVB has dating back to the King days will still shine or if this will make Boise a competitive market.
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2 hours ago, channel2 said:
Network-owned stations do strike me as playing it safer than affiliates tend to...
New York is a special flavor of this. Even LA versus NY and the NY stations always seem to have more going on with them.
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1 hour ago, ns8401 said:
What I’m saying is that to say Denver and New York which are only 16 spots apart (a drop in the bucket relative to 210 markets) are even on the same level would be ridiculous... all I’m saying is that there is a drop in quality overall that belies the market sizes. You would think that there would be very little difference. Maybe there isn’t enough really good talent to go around, maybe the revolving door effect where folks use the markets as stepping stone is in play and they keep getting green talent that needs to get better first. Whatever the reasons the drop in quality and talent is real... real quick. Go beyond maybe 75 and it’s really really noticeable... are they even doing the same job level noticeable... that’s not super polite but the truth hurts.
There are subtle differences but honestly having grown up with NYC TV it always felt lower quality versus nearby markets (Hartford and Albany from my own experience). Heck, even now stations in those markets seem to take some more risks than NYC stations.
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13 hours ago, ns8401 said:
They came from the same school of thought as KTVU and the 5 day forecast I guess...
13 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:Really? I find that hard to believe. It took WNYT until 2020 to finally take that plunge?
It's not that hard to believe. WNYT is a station which is still stuck in the 90s in many ways - that they kept their 1995 vintage set until 2018 is probably Exhibit A. They never have had a ticker at any time of the day, their morning newscast still starts at 5:00 versus 4:30, their use of WNYA pales to that of WRGB's of WCWN or WTEN's of WXXA even. Much of this is at the feet of their longtime GM, Steve Baboulis, who has been GM since Hubbard took over at 1996, was ND during their worst-to-dominant period, and has been at the station in some form since 1977. For all of the "when (Benita/Jim/Elaine/Bob/Rodger/et Al.) retires 13 will not be the same" talk, when Steve calls it a career you know that stuff's going to go down at the hands of Hubbard...or whoever ends up with WNYT down the road.
The "one of the newest members" caption makes me wonder if something else is going to go down. Bob finally calling it a career and someone new doing noon/4:00? Neal Estano re-calling it a career and someone new going on mornings? This could get interesting.
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WNYT has found their replacement for Greg Pollak, and has made history in doing so.
Allison Finch, a current senior at UAlbany graduating this May, is the first woman meteorologist that WNYT has ever had, a good 25ish years since WRGB and WTEN did similar.
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If this happens, I so see the TV assets of Hubbard, at least the non-Minnesota assets, in play. KOB is nestled in-between Tegna's assets in Texas and Arizona and WNYT/WNYA and WHEC would be joining this:
- Buffalo: WGRZ (Tegna)
- Syracuse: WSYT (Cox)
- Binghamton: WICZ/WBPN (Cox)
- Elmira: WYDC/WJKP (Standard)
On the New England side - and WNYT probably panders to the Berkshires and Bennington County the most of any Albany station - they'd join this:
- Boston: WFXT (Cox)
- Hartford: WTIC/WCCT (Tegna)
- Providence: WLNE (Standard)
- Portland: WCSH (Tegna)
- Bangor: WLBZ (Tegna)
The only holes that MechaTegna + non-Minnesota Hubbard would have in the Northeast would be NYC, Burlington, Springfield, Utica, Watertown, and Preque Isle. And I think that Utica might end up off that board as any of these successor companies have a decent chance of landing WKTV. This is nothing to sneeze at. Problem is some of the basket cases there (WSYT, WICZ, WYDC, WLNE) need tons and tons of work.
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16 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:
Many of these stations are low-powered upstarts built for the sole purpose of bringing affiliations to markets where they previously did not exist. Hopefully bringing some scale to these stations could be a major plus for them to better compete in their markets.
What you see is a lot of peeved viewers who lose an adjacent affiliate they've had for years replaced by a local one, that is grossly inferior.
Under Standard, under Tegna, or either? Under the latter case I can Tegna being a great help in Jonesboro (Memphis/Little Rock), Jackson (Memphis, reestablishing WATN/WLMT's links to that market), and especially Lafayette (Indianapolis).
Out & About
in General TV
Posted
WTEN's Nicol Lally, after nearly 13 years, has parted ways with the station, but not for the reasons you'd think. Her husband, Jason Tapp, is now the assistant men's hockey coach at Dartmouth College. Tapp had spent the last decade as an "associate" (goalie) coach at Union College, winning the 2014 Frozen Four in the process and helping make the idea of goalie coaches at D-I college hockey a mainstream idea.
Hey Hearst, if you want someone to staff your Upper Valley bureau for WMUR and WPTZ, I know just the person for it!