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We saw that coming a mile away, didn't we? Gray will take over operations on June 1. http://www.wcax.com/story/35342251/wcax-sold-to-gray-television

As expected, station veteran (and longtime producer/contributor) Shayna Seymour will succeed JC Monahan as co-anchor of WCVB's Chronicle http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103793/shayna-seymour-to-coanchor-wcvbs-chronicle

MSNBC pretty much died for me when Jerry Nachman passed.

It really says a lot about WTSP when Detroit becomes preferable.

That's nothing - our local Hearst station (WMTW) has TWO METEOROLOGISTS in the morning - one in the studio and one in the field, regardless of weather conditions. This is the last-place station in market #81...

The circumstances surrounding the suicide of WCSH/WLBZ meteorologist Tom Johnston may be uglier than local media are willing to acknowledge http://www.nh1.com/news/possible-connection-between-sexual-assault-apparent-suicide-of-maine-meteorologist/

On the contrary, in this era of centralcasting standby slides have never been so needed!

WCSH/WLBZ meteorologist Tom Johnston found dead in an apparent suicide http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine/2017/04/06/wcsh-meteorologist-tom-johnston-found-dead-auburn/2107775

Compare that to how long it took for Tegna to find a new (long out of the business) GM for its basket case WTSP.

Sinclair news veep Scott Livingston is encouraging viewers to drop a dime on their local station if they see biased coverage http://abcnews4.com/news/local/content-concerns

Fox, it appears, is less than pleased about the purported Sinclair-Tribune deal and may (repeat, MAY) try to scuttle it by using its affiliation agreements as leverage. Meanwhile, Nexstar has emerged as another possible suitor. Shades of Media General? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-16/fox-said-mulling-ways-to-thwart-possible-sinclair-tribune-deal

Scott Jones is attributing the monkeying-around with some of Tegna's news departments to a consulting firm called Red Seat Ventures. Here in Maine WCSH/WLBZ blew up their 5PM newscast last week in favor of a social media-obsessive show called News Center Now, despite WCSH (at least) being the dominant news station in town for going on three decades. The stations' sports department is in tatters, with longtime sports guy (and, after the late Bruce Glasier's retirement a few years ago, its Sports Director) Lee Goldberg pulled off the 6PM newscast in favor of the new venture. They've done away with just about every vestige of sports coverage altogether, unless you count a decades-old humor piece voiced by Glasier featuring the late Bob Elliot (ex-NBC reporter-turned local features reporter) that ran during last night's 6PM newscast where actual sports reporting used to take place. Local station publicity would have viewers believe that these changes were all their idea, but you have to wonder if they're only doing this to fend off corporate's latest consultant-driven voodoo. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/3/17/here-they-come

Our long national nightmare is over - TD Jakes has been cancelled. The next audience-repelling must-run for Tegna stations will be "BOLD" http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/distribution/exclusive-tegna-s-bold-replace-td-jakes/164112

Nancy Chen is the latest departure from WHDH - she's headed to WJLA https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/3/13/dc-station-hires-boston-anchor

Ex-WGME anchor Adrienne Stein joins WCSH/WLBZ as a contributor to the "NewsCenter Now" reformat of its 5PM weekday newscast, which focuses on long-form pieces driven by viewer feedback (Stein has been behind the scenes as an Executive Producer at One Congress Square since last June.) Sports Director Lee Goldberg is co-anchor of the program with Amanda Hill - yet another "repurposing" of sports talent à la KUSA? Incidentally, at least for the NewsCenter Now program, the station bug including time and temperature is included in its live stream. Lots of 90s-evoking in-studio shakicam work. The program has its own unique graphics. And what would a "trendy" newscast be without its social media segment? The theme for NewsCenter Now is a variation on the "This is Home" package. Incidentally, NewsCenter also debuted new background music for the open of its 5:30P newscast.

Saw TBD for the first time today. Five minutes of my life I will never get back. What are they smoking in Hunt Valley? They got rid of GetTV for this crap.

WGME has the ice desk and the mobile green screen!

Saw a Katie live shot on WCVB's 12p news today. Kinda rough, but she'll get up to speed quickly.

And WCVB is pushing the "Ben and Emily went to Ithaca College together" angle.

Katie is Boston-quality talent who was wasted at WMTW, but JC's departure is a major loss for Channel 5. Emily Riemer can't begin to compare to JC.

Taking a page from their Denver cohorts, WCSH/WLBZ are about to launch "NewsCenter Now" in a reformatting of their 5PM newscast. Apparently a lot of selfie sticks are involved...are they experiencing some ratings softness with that wonderful T.D. Jakes lead-in?

The acquiring party might still be able to get a failing station waiver, which is how the WPME LMA was cleared at the FCC in the first place. The station has no chance of staying on the air without the support of a rich uncle. A wild card is the spectrum auction - we don't know if either WPXT or WPME (or both) put their license assets up for bid. I have thought that the only reason both stations remained on the air was as spectrum bait.

Gray has already indicated that there would be news and resource sharing between WABI and WAGM, but Presque Isle is 2-1/2 hours away from Bangor (a half-hour further away than even Portland) so there are limits as to what would be practical. http://www.wagmtv.com/content/news/WABI-Purchased-by-Gray--413988913.html

Sinclair might have an interest in WVII; they are not allergic to third-place stations, unlike Gray, and there's that existing news sharing relationship...

Unless Hearst wants out of Portland, of course...