mrschimpf

On 5/19/2022 at 11:21 PM, Weeters said:

People say "won't this confuse viewers?" while the same viewers are the ones who can't understand that KDKA-TV and KDKA 1020 are owned by two different companies. The viewers who might be "confused" are not the viewers the stations want.

If KDKA Radio's talk lineup and KDKA-FM's sports hot takes haven't made it clear KDKA-TV isn't a part of them anymore, I don't know what to tell that viewer; there are still misguided radio listeners who call in to yell at WISN-TV for whatever hot take was thrown out by Mark Belling on WISN radio, even though they haven't shared anything, much less weather forecasts, in 20 years besides a callsign. That's definitely a viewer you're glad 'will never watch your TV station again you (whatever insult they have)!'.

Stephen Marks, the owner of WBKB, KXGN, WBUP and WBKP, passed away on May 11. 

44 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I thought WDVM was already on a WDCW sub via 25.1 to provide D.C. coverage via the WDCW transmitter.

My apologies for overlooking that, they do simulcast in that direction. I don't know what's stopping them from simulcasting WDCW on WDVM though (contractual against WHP-DT3?), so the point does stand.

1 hour ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

I don't understand why it wouldn't be. If you have a station in the market, a second station helps you get critical mass. Even if all it shows are old movies from the Paramount library, it's something to attract viewers and advertising.

Plus it always gives you a backup when you need to push off programming for breaking news or push the bombs off the main station's schedule. Duopoly stations may be the last thing anyone wants, but you're glad to have them not competing with you, or to have a place to put in-house shows. Plus public places or parties still need shows on their TVs during the day that won't annoy everyone and it's free ad money for little outlay.

43 minutes ago, sanewsguy said:

I mean, can't they just stick WDVM on a WDCW sub and vice versa? Seems like a better use of spectrum to me and continue to give the people of Hagerstown some OTA broadcast outlet.

WDCW is in a channel-sharing arrangement with WFDC and its four channels/two HD channels itself pre-dating Nexstar, so they're stuck with that arrangement. And that map is a really optimal reality, as WWPX (which is a satellite of WPXW)'s contour just a few miles north has a shaky signal into the Beltway itself.

12 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

That is most likely. I think Nexstar will take the CW affiliation in all the markets where it isn't on one of their stations and place it on a subchannel or secondary channel as soon as they can.

At least for Indianapolis, WISH-TV will likely be precluded from that, as you know Circle City would immediately argue to the FCC that Nexstar would conspire to make them as a formerly-owned station a non-factor in the market and that nobody carries (or really watches) WTTV/K-DT2. And internally there will be WGN pushback, though sadly the personnel that would've been able to moot the move will be told by Perry they have no choice (even if the current primetime schedule of sitcom reruns is otherwise ignored by management and the public).

On 5/10/2022 at 11:58 AM, KS-IL-IA said:

Seeing the WBNX schedule is like Christmas morning! Neither I nor Google have heard of "iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas" -- anyone know anything?

A very odd spin-off of iCarly dealing with her true crime reporting cousin?

Actually, no, I'm not finding anything about it online. This is a total mystery of a show, and it's not associated with Fox First Run. The only thing I can think is former Bellum Entertainment staffers got together a new company and sold a new show, because outside Dateline and before Bellum's collapse (we're not counting True Crime Daily), they were the last to try a daily crime strip.

8 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

I’m surprised more VHF channels don’t move to UHF digital channels .

We're down to 22 UHF channels, and several (14-19) are already ruled out in military base areas due to land mobile radio use, along with medical radiology, so that's down to 17 realistically. And there's no realistic way that more channels could be added by reducing spectrum into smaller bits. 

13 hours ago, channel2 said:

 

They own a bunch of non-commercial licenses that I can't imagine it would be easy to strip of the non-com designation to widen the pool of potential buyers...unless it's more advantageous to donate them instead of selling them as prime real estate.

Yeah, I meant to leave out the obvious full-power ed licenses like KDTN, KLTJ, WYDN and KWDK; those aren't going anywhere anytime soon (and there's no way they're selling them to traditional educational interests). The low-powers acquired from bankruptcies like Equity's and Guardian are more likely to be sold off. And here, KDTL was duplicative to WPXS, and already carrying Retro TV instead, which seems to be an overall anamoly.

10 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

 

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.

That's good to hear at least. I do wonder if KPTV and KVVU have been able to genericize their More shows and just said to DDM 'well it hasn't been published in half a decade and it is an extension of our morning newscast, thus it's "more", so we aren't changing it', along with logo changes.

I do think though eventually they'll take on the common Gray direction where an ad/traffic guy will host the segments with the sponsor.

Greta's been rumored to be moving to Newsmax, so the end of FCP definitely tracks.

As for RTM, you can just assume that nobody would've noticed they stopped production until it didn't have a schedule slot in September. As they inherited their share from Raycom I assume they would have gotten out earlier if COVID hadn't got in the way and taken out some Fall 2020 premieres, and because it was just Zoom reactions mixed into clips for the last two years it was cheap to make.

The other thing to watch in the next few months is if the Meredith stations retitle their versions of Better and More so Atlanta doesn't have to pay licensing fees for those magazine titles to DDM, or just because Gray prefers blended up-front advertorials in their newscasts to an outright hour lifestyle show, just cancel them for news extensions.

Also interesting to see that station sale from Daystar; I get the feeling with Marcus Lamb's strong-arm tactics now gone, like TBN did after the elder Crouches passed, they're going to start taking a deep look at whether outside their Texas full-powers, they really need to own television stations when selling them to others and leasing a subchannel KOCE-style will keep their reach while saving them money.

Seriously, it's good that Nielsen isn't the monolith they were in the past and that ratings are now not only day-to-day in most markets, but often lessened as the 'rat race' has been de-emphasized. It always seemed stupid to 'hold back' an important story until a sweeps period because you had to have it backed up by some NBC disaster movie or tie somehow to an ER episode, and although there are still some sites (Deadline and TVNewser specifically) that still think people care about the night-to-night 'ratings battle', we're now in an age where those big stories are on YouTube or turned into a web series/vertical.

If people need to take time off; let them. I'd rather see a happy anchor rather than one grumping through the last part of sweeps. Also don't forget that NBC station folks probably had to hold back summer 2020-2021 plans thanks to the Olympic delays and COVID, and are finally able to get those vacations in just now.

17 hours ago, TVNewsLover said:

Have they mentioned what’s going to replace The Good Dish? Maybe Rachael Ray from overnights?

Tamron is moving to 2pm, then Jennifer Hudson at 3pm in the fall, so outside sliding back their lineup an hour, there's nothing to move.

5 minutes ago, Breaking News said:

Why exactly do they need another 4pm news?  At what point does someone in management say this is overkill?

WISN has always been the 'hard news and people you know' station in the market, and it's always felt like if it was up to the news side and not the bulk deal corporate had with Warner/Telepictures, they would've done so in June 2011 after Oprah ended rather than sliding Ellen up an hour. A lot of local news seems to happen in that 4pm slot and WISN has been handicapped to balance covering it with not getting "AngyAngie13030' yelling at them on Facebook because they missed one of Ellen's games or the 'secret sweepstakes keyword' during sweeps.

WTMJ has had the timeslot in 1993 but over time their news in that slot deteriorated due to corporate mandates/egos, as Journal and Scripps were more interested in making it light and forming their shows to the whims of the siding/window companies that advertised on it (also when they had WTMJ radio, promoting that and their hosts to absurd points), while WITI and WDJT took to the timeslot in order to counteract that and Ellen to be the hard news option in the hour and just all those talk shows bombing at 4pm after 2012 just forcing their hand.

Honestly though, WISN was very limited in the middle of the decade, still only doing morning/5/6/10, and the expansion has sorely been needed for years. They've expanded much more judiciously over the years and they have an anchor roster/weather staff that will have no problem handling it.

4 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Another Hearst outlet is launching the 4pm. WISN (Finally!!) will launch the new show, beginning June 6.

 

Weekend Anchor Kristin Pierce and 9pm anchor Derrick Rose will anchor the new broadcast.

 

Program lineup will also change

• 2pm - Tamrom Hall
• 3pm - Ellen DeGeneres (will be replaced by Jennifer Hudson in the Fall)
• 4pm - 12 News at 4pm

Looks like The Good Dish would probably be burned off in the overnights for the remainder of the run.

 

I feel like this was the worst-kept secret in Milwaukee once it became clear Kelly is stuck on 'TMJ for the foreseeable future and they never got any real viewer pushback on Ellen pre-emptions for breaking news. Also glad to see Derrick will be on with Mark (they're like a Laurel and Hardy at 9 so it'll be nice to get them at 4 now).

2 hours ago, noggi said:

So… what the hell are they doing in their other shows then?

They usually have more studio stuff in the 5 and 6 shows and more live shots in the morning and at 9 and 10 (with 11am and 9pm where you see Hearst must-runs and verticals), so this will be a slight change as they get in more live coverage at 4 permanently.

7 hours ago, Hazim said:

A sponsored call of prayers commercial for one of the TV stations in Malaysia. This only happens during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. This practice is also used in Bangladesh.

Joel Osteen has his Sunday shows on broadcast stations sponsored by Lifelock/Norton (including ads at the beginning and end), so sadly this isn't an alien concept to American televangelism either.

1 hour ago, Yankees4life said:

Well...why not. Might as well move one of your 100 cable networks to OTA. I wonder if the gameplan is to set up an ATSC 3.0 subscription which will give you MSNBC, CNBC, USA and Syfy

There is a DRM update coming to current tuners that will enable that, along with adding broadcast flag-like protection on network feeds (which shouldn't be a thing but we're in the age of secretary-designees and not passing FCC commissioner nominations, thus they'll try to get away with it).

3 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

From this Public Notice:

 

Gotta give them props for trying at least; it's not like the FCC can take away their other license.

As for the bidders, it's shocking that Sinclair doesn't have everything in order, and good to see that Weigel is still using that spectrum auction money from WMLW to up their reach. We can immediately rule out Renard (one of Craig Fox's companies) getting anything, along with Rxdio, which going by this site has no real business plan for their Muzak service in the middle of the desert outside 'get TV spectrum...profit?'. Estrella might have their name in the hat, but with their struggles right now they'll be out early.

It'll be interesting to see how Spectrum and Altice react to a channel going from cable to broadcast, even if it's a declining network forced down to 480i; Spectrum and Altice dominate NY, thus why it might not be on there, but it's on in a bunch of markets where Comcast or Cox is primary.

But if they decide to dump the cable carriage and go all-in on broadcast, you could see Tegna/Standard throw in the towel on True Crime Network and take Oxygen as Snapped does fine on whatever platform it gets put on.

3 hours ago, EricTheEnthusiast said:

Two questions: 1 - is that normal to show the times in 24-hour format? (i.e 04:35) 2 - are we stuck with that giant Grey news ticker on the bottom?

Going by the test closing they're still getting the hang of things, so Zulu time won't stick around...but the Gray ticker is here to stay (though looking at it clear they should try to make that permanent with a better font color to stand out?).

I had a feeling something regarding a deal was happening as the Grammys had promos for her in full-throat on Sunday; they wouldn't have done that if they were pushing her out the door.

39 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

I never remembered a time where so many "longtime" syndie show get the blade like this. 

 

But Fox is going to have to reshuffle the deck. They're losing alot of shows. I know they're getting Jennifer Hudson & Sherri Shephard. Maybe move Divorce Court from the MyNet side to the Fox side since Star Jones will be the new host. But it would be asinine to fill those empty slots [on the Fox side] for another run of TMZ & Extra.

With Fox launching a hip-hop focused TMZ pilot run this week think we'll be only seeing more TMZ extensions. I eventually think we'll be seeing the original TMZ extend to an hour or a Drew-esque split format since the Live show already easily fills an hour on the Fox stations (if not for required breaks and downtime I'm sure Fox's stations would be eager to go 4am-7pm with all-news).

On 4/7/2022 at 12:26 PM, Spring Rubber said:

Gotta love when everyone just runs with the same format because ESPN did it.

Along with even more gambling info . I know the game's become all about statistics, but some people actually watch the games and don't care about laying money on them.

Called it in the NN thread when the departure PR came out, and am holding off my Brainy Smurf impression that he'd end up at 'BBM.

14 hours ago, TVIntheDesert said:

I would say Rachael Ray's talk show, which should have been axed in 2012. Also, has "Cheaters" produced any new episodes since its previous distributor passed away and the syndication rights were bought back by its creator?

I have no real issue with Rachael's show as it still has a base of good to mediocre stations, even if its in late night or early morning timeslots and they still put in effort into the show, and Cheaters...well, that's another evergreen format that can continue as long as low-tier cable networks and MyNet stations need filler content.

But, there is Celebrity Page, which you'd think would have been gone four years ago, but continues to air despite a fully lousy affiliate base and timeslots.

7 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

The Doctors and Daily Mail TV have been axed.

No more getting to mock The Doctors...what show will I use to be the zombie example of syndication now?

As for DMTV it was on borrowed time once WPIX got bought by Nexstar; they'll be happy to add newscasts when they had to get off their own set for it to tape.