mrschimpf

I didn't think it was possible to make a local news operation virtually generic and without life, but if you put a NonStop Local edition on in Central Mississippi, you could remove the weather forecast and nobody would know this is a news program about Spokane.

This should be in the Sinclair thread; there's nothing about Full Measure that merits it needing its own spin-off. It's a must-run opinion show ignored by most of the stations and their viewers (and you'll get a 'these aren't our views' spiel if you called in), and virtually ignored here.

Plus it's perfect to tie into 'one week until the election' 'down the stretching' coverage (which of course turns into a 2024 preview ...there are many people that don't care about elections after November 9 but they don't seem to be heard any longer by cable news).

It looks like Scripps has added a couple hours of the Morning Rush block to Ion stations daily (it seems to be market-to-market), which is a great move, really. I'm interested to see if an unheralded addition of Scripps News/Newsy content to Ion can outrate NewsNation (I'm sure Sinclair's National Desk does the same thing easily).

Why tear up a helipad even if it's dormant?! Knowing Tegna they'll just keep it a gravel pit because they can't afford to landscape it.

They did, so my original post now looks wrong.

Did not get to NBC Sports California and the Kings; they still had the old bug on their Wednesday broadcast.

I would've thought this would be used for "Fox 6's" own stick, but other than ATSC3 I'm confused with this one. Telemundo is already O&O'ed in Hartford and Springfield, and the 'Fairfield County' version of WFSB is just the main station with Fairfield ads now since they cut all syndicated product that could be claimed by NYC stations, so a hop down there doesn't make sense. Only thing could be expanding WSHM coverage south into Windsor and Enfield, but I'm absolutely stumped unless there's a second hop to Pittsfield to return CBS/ABC/Fox local coverage to the Berks after WCDC was shut down.

Even if you have the best news product in the market (and this certainly isn't it), that you have NO actual web video presence outside after-the-fact YouTube uploads and the rest of your schedule is made up of low-tier stuff nobody else will touch, they need to do a lot more. WFMZ is the gold standard of 'scrappy and solid indie news done right'; DCNN isn't even at a 1/3 of KUSI.

Fox has been pretty brutal in past disputes though in cutting off Hulu and FoxNow to customers of a disputed provider (and they forced a TNF game off NFLN because of a Dish dispute), which is why I'd like to know, especially if those customers use the 7-day free trial to round it, if they force the league to pull that offer and make it TV/ST-exclusive. At least with the other companies you have a streaming alternative, but FoxNow is it for them.

I am curious to see how a subscriber to both Optimum and NFL+ will be affected if this happens as they do provide in-market streaming.

In the ABC case, there's only two possible markets and six O&O stations each (plus Univision and Telemundo here) that can host a debate (because WMGM or the Atlantic City-licensed infomercial farms certainly aren't), or NJPBS. Both are universally available through NJ, and ABC usually deems it a news event where a simple courtesy is all they need, not this 7-bullet point list to protect a scratch-rating-filled opinion network which has most non-NX stations like 'we're just going to read excerpts and you'll be happy with it, Sook'...plus they were streamed to YouTube live. And C-SPAN airs most debate, which everyone with cable or satellite has. NX stations posted it to YouTube after the fact and NX refused to provide it to C-SPAN. Nexstar sites, outside of WGN's, are a nightmare to navigate the video from, they refuse to work with any non-IPTV TV news streaming services that people actually use on a big screen, and it's not an acceptable solution when YouTube is the video standard. I just don't think a debate should be reduced to being limited to one station group, nor should it be on a low-tier station nobody watches just for FCC backpats and brownie points, or should be protected by copyright. It is a public service and shouldn't be subject to overprotective restrictions designed to obstruct constructive use of clips within it. Either put it on the PBS station or a Big Four commercial station in primetime or after the 11 pm news, or don't bother organizing it.

Putting it on the MNTV affiliate is the Cincinnatian equivalent of Northern Mongolia (WBQC is Cincinnati's television Siberia, of course). Surely it could've gone on WKRC, a station people actually watch, or even it's DT2 CW, rather than being stuck in the Sheldon Cooper timeslot leading into SVU reruns on a station only watched by doctor's offices, people who just will never stream TV, and restaurants who don't want to deal with the cable news arguments. My point stands; Nexstar, and here Sinclair, should've allowed any station to air it like they do in Wisconsin and most states instead of this 'exclusivity' racket. This isn't Thursday Night Football, that the parties actually agree to this racket to prop up a failing cable channel is ludicrous, and it should be in the public domain and available to C-SPAN. End of.

I can't understand station groups keeping a debate to themselves; in Wisconsin the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association organizes the debate, with either Milwaukee PBS or PBS Wisconsin hosting it, and it basically being open to everyone to take; WVCY, the Milwaukee religious station, even broadcasts it both on TV and radio, about the only time they're neutral (though with a strong 'vote how God would want you to' message at the end). And Nextar's requirements for debate coverage? How any media org accepts them is just beyond stupid. They basically read 'radio can rot', and the big annoyance in campaign ads, where a clean feed isn't available so a station gets dragged through the mud with some PAC, is just completely self-inflicted idiocy.

WINS's strength is in the City itself, while WCBS mainly appeals to the suburbs, New Jersey and Connecticut, but that's because of how their signals are; WINS has to bend southeastward to protect CFRB, while WCBS isn't directional. That difference has slowly melted away as digital has grown over broadcast. The newsroom merger had been inevitable since the late 90s and you had to assume that the stawarts of each station had to leave in order to actually get it done. As for Alt/Now/K-Rock...they had seventeen years to fix the station post-Stern, and it was long time for it to die; the morning show idiots who flouted their contract to whine about a WINS simulcast effectively (and finally) killed it.

They could do Friday, but Saturday nights with Notre Dame (and the Big Ten in the future), along with SNL live coast-to-coast, it's impossible there. I'd say more Tuesday since that's a struggle night for them, and Wednesday and Thursday are currently Dick Wolf territory with the Chicagos and L&O shows (I have no idea how they balance that out with three hours on each unless a show goes on the block at the end of the season).

There isn't one; the FCC is trying to find a new market map outside Nielsen so there isn't going to be one made until whoever they choose puts it out. The Wikipedia map was made in 2013 (and shouldn't even be up; Nielsen wanted to take legal action once so anything WP does is genericized to avoid Nielsen references).

I don't know how a 24/7 sports betting format (in a state without legalized sports betting and propositions bound to fail in November) is either in the public interest, or the best use of a 50,000 watt signal. It's a niche format that appeals to an even smaller niche and still has the stink of the 90s Sunday morning infomercial era and Jimmy the Greek all over it. Just move their KNBR overflow from 1050 to 810 and put whatever BetQL/VISN ripoff they're trying there instead. Radio has been real weird this week; they're trying FCC-compliant hot talk in Dallas/Ft. Worth, as if that format will rate any better than the music they previously played (and zero out the women completely).

Especially after Spectrum had to bump their Broadcast fee $4...it's time for reform. There's no justification for a MyNetworkTV affiliate running on autopilot to rate the same cost as an NBC station.

Doesn't seem like a very smart move to move from 'do anything you want except libel' cable/internet-only distribution to a broadcast model with FCC restrictions.

Also despite how much nobody actually considers them anything but a line in the syndicated section of the NBCU quarterly report any longer or an actual network, MyNetworkTV is a very direct competitor. I see that relationship[ being more realistically affected than Big Fox, and the latter is for down the line anyways; we're not seeing "The NBA on The CW" in the near future and all the other major leagues are locked up, plus Nexstar is looking for specifically cheaper programming. That and station managers in major markets wouldn't be happy to be cut out of the NFL to go back to the days of movies on Sunday afternoons.

WINK is actually the one down as WXCW-DT1 is currently airing that schedule. And I'm not ready to call them down and out and ready to be Nexstared or Apolloed. They've been in acquisition mode radio-wise, they're still a runaway #1 for news, and have a large number of radio stations (though I think their subsidiary taunted Happy Fun Ball by naming their radio stations 'Hell Yeah' and 'RIGHT All Along' ). And I'm sure they're well-insured enough to do a studio rebuild. These days you can easily build an interim setup that's acceptable for most viewers on a YouTuber budget. And the building only undertook low-level flooding damage; this isn't a KPLC/KVHF situation where they had roof damage, or when KHOU got flooded out. But I'm relieved they're back in-studio in some form.

The date I'm really looking at is September 2024, when the SEC moves to ESPN/ABC rather than CBS, and now instead of that conference, Bama, and the Georgia Bulldogs, WANF is stuck on Saturday afternoons carrying Big Ten games of little local interest. If WUPA does take CBS (and that CW schedule and down-market syndicated shows just move to their DT2 and isn't up for discussion for even WGTA), does Gray try to fold in their next ABC affiliation agreement contingent on stripping the affiliation from WSB and other stations in the SEC footprint, thinking the Hedge Fund Hell of Apollo and other PE-backed groups would refuse to just rubber-stamp a renewal and be happy to let it go for a WJXT-ish indie news op schedule? Yes, the move of these college football packages are small compared to the NFL, but there's still going to be some musical chairs in 2024. Gray knows those Saturday afternoon numbers will plummet for the CBS stations outside the Rust Belt and the West Coast, and however the NFL will distribute games starting in 2023 won't make much difference, even involving the Falcons, so they need to strengthen WANF before the SEC agreement is done. WANF needs a network that backs them up, and it's proven over time that CBS isn't that partner, just keeping WUPA going like some mob guy holding a pipe and pointing at 46 like 'we will ruin you in a minute'. Remember that they also own WALV in Indianapolis, which is low-power and doing nothing, but still somehow PG-owned to keep WTTV from straying too far from network mandates.

This is the best-case scenario for having your own owned Doppler. Otherwise if you have it 20 miles away from the NWS site or the area is just beyond oversaturated (just on first thought, Buffalo and Rochester being supplemented by Toronto or the Bay Area/Inland Empire), it's pointless; like there are Doppler sites which have nature exaggerations, like the Sullivan, WI radar which has Horicon Marsh nearby, where a station one works better for the area. But those are becoming few and far between. Though I do miss all the Doppler wars and things like "Doppler 2 Million"...that was a fun era in local news.

Like so many ironies of the Scripps/Journal deal that spun-off the newspapers only for them to get Gannetted then Apolloed into hedge fund hell (and now Milwaukee's Radio City no longer has a radio station in it), that a long-respected newspaper chain's name is now on a TV network is something I could've never pictured. Gotta use that brand equity and the lighthouse logo just has natural possibilities in any graphics package.