scrabbleship

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Keep in mind that Soo Kim and Deb McDermott had the Media General and Young stations under their watch, and later merged them with Lin and if they had their way, they would have merged with Meredith instead of Nexstar forcing a hostile takeover of the above...

 

Had Sinclair gotten Tribune, they would have gotten some higher profile leftovers.

 

Sure, the former Citadel stations were a mess to begin with, but Tegna needs a serious intervention before they trash more stations with their so-called innovation....

However bad WLNE and KLKN are, whatever Tegna is doing now would be a marked improvement and both markets are so stale that it would be a breath of fresh air.

The real factor here would be the ex-Waypoint stations. Those are hot messes at best and lost causes at worst and would be a massive headache for anyone to deal with. The situation Cox management is facing with the ex-Northwest stations pales to this.

On that tangent: If Tegna/Standard becomes a thing, why does the idea of Coxpollo unloading WFXT and perhaps some of the ex-Northwest lost cuses (KYMA and KPVI come to mind) to Tegna sound like a doable transaction?

With all this Coxpollo chopper grounding talk, I wonder what the fate of WFXT's chopper is. Or would the volatile nature of that market make a grounding unfeasible at the current time?

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Here we go.....

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/243396/tegna-to-fight-proposed-board-changes/

 

“The board is also concerned that his significant investments in and influence over other broadcasting companies would create a conflict of interest as a Tegna director.

“Accordingly, the board unanimously determined that adding him to the board is not in the best interests of Tegna and its shareholders. Mr. Kim was informed of the board’s decision on Jan. 10.”

 

I smell a Tegna-Standard Media merger in the works....and as for the the "best interest of Tegna and their shareholders"... we all know the garbage that Tegna has been putting out.  Time to overhaul the board and make something out of Tegna.

 

Remember the panic when what was then to be called Terrier Media was announced, that the ex-Northwest stations would be an albatross on the legacy Cox stations?

This would make that seem quaint. Standard's stations are all bottom feeders and need work that some C Clarity and NXT graphics and Oooohs just can't fix.

27 minutes ago, newsbot said:

Dan Lampariello exits WGME for WBFF

 

Having known him since his days as an MBTA blogger back when he was a student at Suffolk, good to see a jump. One more gig from the inevitable gig back home (Boston).

3 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

This is probably worthy of it's own thread but I'll post my thoughts here.

 

I think the possibilities does exist as far as a potential affiliation switch is concerned the biggest question mark may come down to this:

 

How dissatisfied is Fox right now with WFXT? Is the negotiations between Cox and Fox not going well in Boston?

Speculatron thread made.

Part of me sees this as Florida Man doing Florida Man things or Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud. The other half sees this as potentially catastrophic for Coxpollo. Adding in the ex-Northwest stations, Cox has Fox affiliates in nine other markets. Some of those markets might be a bit difficult to find stations in, The Delta (where Cox has a monopoly) and possibly Jacksonville (WJXT seems to be fine not pursuing a network) among them.

6 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

We do have the first blackout in 2020.

 

Stations owned by the new Cox Media Group (acquired by Apollo Global Management) are blacked out from Verizon Fios systems.

 

The stations affected are WFXT Boston, WPXI Pittsburgh (plus cable channel PCNC) and WSYT Syracuse.

 

Coxpollo closed less than two weeks ago. Man, that was fast. I'm to assume the issue is getting the legacy Cox stations onto the generous Northwest-negotiated deals.

It looks like Daily Blast Live is slowly being picked up by the ex-Tribune/Nexstar stations. Looking at a schedule for the Hartford market, WTIC has picked up at 12:30 AM which is perhaps the best it can do unless they cut DailyMailTV (3:00/3:30 PM), Two and a Half Men reruns (6:00/6:30 PM), or Big Bang Theory reruns (7:00/7:30 PM) to a single rerun.

From the looks of it, WNEP and WPMT haven't picked up so WTIC may be the first to do so.

14 hours ago, NEOMatrix said:

And guess who's leading the massacre at WXIN/WTTV?

 

DOMINIC MANCUSO! The same GM that brought the beauty that was "Cleveland 19" to WOIO.

 

All I have to say is: Good luck!

Things like this make me seriously wonder what Tribune's game with WTTV was. It's like they never thought things through before triggering an affiliation swap that never should have been and has never been executed well. Nearly five years in as a CBS affiliate and what has WTTV really done to generate anything in the Indianapolis market? All I can think of was the stuff surrounding Nicole Pence and her goose had already been cooked back at WTHR even before family ties made her infamous.

At which point does Nexstar call it a day and go full WWJ there? Or would CBS not allow an affiliate to get away with that?

3 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

Now this is just blatant. KBCI ripping off of the KTVU laser 2 logo in the 80s

Fixed. The 80s were during the period when channel 2 in Boise was KBCI. That said, I wonder if KTVU ever made it out there on cable.

6 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

RNN National (owners of WRNN-TV) is acquiring eight NRJ TV stations for $81.2M.

 

I don't know what RNN is going to do with these stations other than keeping the "Revenue Frontiers" alive. Their parent station (WRNN) run infomercials most of the day.

What was done to WRNN 20 years ago was just wrong. They had a great reputation in the Hudson Valley and the Frenches decided that being a miniscule fish in a tiny pond was better than being a huge fish in a smaller pond. The Hudson Valley is an odd place and if it had the signals it could easily be larger than the other sub-100 NYS markets while not costing NYC its #1 position.

I'm thinking these are a means to park the cash they got from selling the spectrum of WRNN. The elder French is pushing 80, his sons have spent most if not of all of their adult lives inside the family ecosystem, but who knows what economical or regulatory changes could happen. 

6 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

WFSB is reporting in a late update Sunday night...

 

 

That stuns me because it looks like she didn't have any massive health problems as of recently.

I took the liberty of rewatching her last newscast on Saturday night after the news broke while NewsOn still had it up. She looked fine at that time which makes this even more shocking especially since if there was a family history she sure, as a health reporter, wasn't vocal about it.

6 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

WFSB is reporting in a late update Sunday night...

 

 

That stuns me because it looks like she didn't have any massive health problems as of recently.

I took the liberty of rewatching her last newscast on Saturday night after the news broke while NewsOn still had it up. She looked fine at that time which makes this even more shocking especially since if there was a family history she sure, as a health reporter, wasn't vocal about it.

30 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

One question I have about her that I haven't found a clear answer to:   What years did she work at WIXT?

By process of elimination, I would guess 1980-82. If she was 61, that would've put a college graduation of 1980 and her arrival at then-WJKW was in 1982.

2 hours ago, hmaxhanson said:

Ouch. https://deadline.com/2019/12/denise-dascenzo-obituary-wfsb-news-anchor-1202803986/

Clearly Deadline forgot a lot, such as her husband of 33 years (which was why she left WJW for WFSB) and their college age daughter.

https://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-br-wfsb-denise-dascenzo-dies-20191208-2lu3tjuqeve5fmt3cw4cjrasq4-story.html

5 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

Am I the only one who missed Tegna buying WATN from Nexstar?

I think that all of the ex-Tribune/Nexstar stations that Tegna got have fallen through the cracks of attention outside of the potential situation brewing in NEPA.

1 hour ago, Info Junkie said:

Getting us back on topic, WNYT is losing around key staffer:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.timesunion.com/kristi/2019/11/27/john-craig-leaving-wnyt/amp/

I wouldn't put too much stock into this. He's left and come back before. Probably a work/life balance thing given his off camera role as Mr. Kumi Tucker and that the two had to be scheduled around each other.

If she left I might sound the alarm though. 

16 hours ago, Jared DiCarlo said:

Here’s Ed filling in for the weather after Bob fell off of the roof at home:

 

This video is stretching the bounds of this sub, but I think given the circumstances this applies. Never mind that a video from 2007 from this station would look near identical to one from when this was made but I digress.

For the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, Ed Dague did an interview recalling what went down that day. This was one of his last television appearances, prior to the WNYT tribute last night I thought it was his last but there was at least one more interview he did a couple years back. 

https://m.facebook.com/GPollakWeather/photos/a.682180311810536/2965268070168404/?type=3&theater

WNYT's Greg Pollak is headed to WOAI/KABB. His last day at WNYT was this morning.

15 minutes ago, TheRob said:

Yes, we have Office 365.

 

By the way, the story is now in the Washington Post. The world needed an escape, I suppose.

May this be the trigger to public knowledge that while everyone fretted about Sinclair, Nexstar passed them.

18 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Venezuela? Yes, especially in Doral.

 

Haiti? Yes, especially in Little Haiti.

 

South Florida is really really diverse as there's sprinkles of everyone in each city.

The Venezuelans are basically to now what Cubans were to the 60s and the Haitian community is a bit cemented from their first big diaspora in the 80s.

I wonder if WPLG's Havana bureau might be at risk given the current administration's want to undo everything out of spite. 

1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I think so many of us have it figured out.

14 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

Have you seen anything similar to that on WEAR?

Given the unique nature of the market and how these stations even got mashed up in the first place, I don't think this is going to work. There is just too much to lose by having WEAR turning away from its hyper Florida approach. 

A change is afoot at WBZ: Morning meteorologist Danielle Niles is leaving the station effective tomorrow (10/31) to be a stay-at-home mom. Having two kids in not even a year and a half and being married to someone with the exact same shift (WBTS/NECN's Matt Noyes) helped drive the decision.

My guess: Sarah Wroblewski, formerly of WFXT and a very good friend of Niles, gets the morning slot. She's been at noon for most of 2019 after Niles shaved that shift away after the birth of her second child last year.

https://www.boston.com/news/media/2019/10/29/wbz-meteorologist-danielle-niles-mom

44 minutes ago, KevCor said:

"Wake Up [Insert Region]" is the TEGNA name for all of their new revamped morning shows. Wake Up West Texas - KIDY/KXVA; Wake Up Washington (now Get Up DC)- WUSA; WHAS11 Wake Up -- all TEGNA creations, with the same (general) graphics created by TEGNA creative.

This has some variations: WCSH/WLBZ went from "NewsCenter Mornings" to "wakeMEup". This pun both works and is cheezy as heck.

55 minutes ago, effseesee said:

 

That's not going to happen.  Nexstar renewed their affiliation agreements with Fox in September.

 

https://www.nexstar.tv/nexstar-media-group-and-fox-broadcasting-company-renew-affiliation-agreements/

Question is for how long. I'm sure that if Gray wanted to extort Nexstar/WFFF for the affiliation they could.

6 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Speaking of WYCI....

 

Gray will be acquiring the station for $1.1M. And it'll use the pre-2017 "failed station waiver" rule to acquire it. 

 

 

I would perhaps pay attention to the CRTC filings at this point to see if Gray tries to get approval for WYCI to be carried on cable systems in Canada. That would be the next shoe stopping with regard to taking the Fox affiliation from WFFF.

5 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

That looks so much better; the Bell Gothic and stretching just seemed like a completely horrid design to begin with that screamed "2002" and only worked with MySpace profile logos. This looks so much better.

This logo actually reminds me of the logo they had in the last years under Jefferson-Pilot/Lincoln if anything.