mrschimpf

In the meantime, Fox now owns TMZ, so they have their prime access locked in for the O&Os (along with the Extra deal with Warner) for at least a few years. That rules them out for the next Sony cycle.

In the past, station groups like Scripps have experimented with internally-originated programs or news before primetime rather than syndicated product to save money from those carriage contracts...only to soon realize the shows paid for a lot on the station through their higher-priced ad slots on those shows than the national-local or 100% local split they get from lower-rated programming. Most of their stations are non-entities before primetime with positive news shows, plain extensions, or Access. The thought is Allen or activist shareholders would force them to dump WoF or Jeopardy. Which after looking at Scripps, is highly doubtful. Byron Allen is in the business and 100% knows the value of syndicated programming, and there has to be one top 4 station in the market airing the show. Even if CBSMV has to ease up the fee, they'd rather either show be on a top 4 rather than burning off all its lead-in outside -28s on KIAH, and even if a new GM of KHOU would want to cut it off, the ad department would 100% campaign to keep the schedule as-is, with WoF.

It's a move-in; it's what used to be channel 59 out of Peoria, WAOE, which is now licensed to Oswego and has suburban translators. They would've been better off buying paid programming time rather than doing this.

Judge Judy was probably a contractual timeslot lock at 4pm when it was first-run (along with ratings justifying it) ; with it out of production, WDAF could move J! to 4pm.

I'm surprised the Iron Mountain channel 8 allotment (that formerly of WDHS/Withers) wasn't a part of this package. If it wasn't for the Withers estate just spinning the license and turning on the transmitter once a day every year until 2015, you would've thought Barrington would've picked it up to put WLUC-DT2 on its own signal (the license was cancelled just before Gray bought WLUC). A lot of cancelled/spectrum-surrendered licenses I recognized are back up for bids; I see within there the infamous KCPM/Grand Forks allocation that Gray couldn't get/convince the FCC to give them during the pandemic because the station hadn't actually had a licensed facility since 2014. KCWK/9 in Walla Walla, KFXF/7 from Fairbanks, WNYS/15(?) in Syracuse, and KCCO/7 in Alexandria, MN, along with Equity's old Fox Montana network. That's what I can remember off the top of my head.

If you don't like something you can just choose to watch something else. There's limitless choice out there for you. There have been much worse newscasts than NewsNation, both in the past and currently, and it's just a plain exaggeration to say it is 'the worst of all time'. Comparing a national cable network to a guy's daily podcast just isn't fair in any metric, which is why no reputable ratings agency would do so. And I'm just going by this forum and the general public; RAV is an ugly and low-quality partisan product that I wouldn't even be able to enjoy if they were a straight news network, and the lack of buzz or talk about it outside of 'alright, here's what Steve said on his podcast' today check-ins that some poor intern has to grind through proves it.

I was merely comparing the two shows as both being on A&E and how that network keeps going in a downmarket direction with each new show they put out, and saying NewsNation should not be doing that with their programming or trying to court that audience, because it'll end in disaster or irrelevance. NewsNation as-is puts out a good, if not extraordinary product, and is hardly 'the worst ever'. Frankly, "Real America's Voice" is the worst 'news' network out there right now...but nobody cares outside its base because it's such a blatantly awful and partisan product (and soured my view on their sister network, WeatherNation). There's also the American News Network from the 2000's, which was an awful network news service with cheap production values. Thankfully that nadir will never be reached again, even by NewsNation.

But would we even care if they said 'pre-recorded' in the top bar? A bunch of stations have scripted 'live' pharmaceutical interviews or advertorial 'steals and deals' that are aired all the time without any outrage. Unless some loon comes barreling onto the set and needs a security tackle, I only care about the news and concerts being live. Morning television is a formula, and anything that doesn't stick to the script makes for a bad day behind the scenes. It's basically the same as a sitcom, reality, or drama show being 'all new'...which is impossible unless you change the opening titles and credits too every week. There are branding labels that are broadly applied, and we've accepted that for 'live' and 'all new' because it's impossible to be 100% of those titles on any given day or week.

How is this bad? Nobody really breaks news during publicity interviews, and maybe a few of these people just aren't morning people excited to walk into a crowd yelling at them in Times Square at 7:30 in the morning. S&P also loves it; fewer opportunities for Jane Fonda to lay a C-bomb, because it's simply edited out before it goes out. Especially now, you need publicity tours and appearances to be a well-oiled machine. The less time someone outside a show's bubble is in the building, the better for everyone, which is how you got Taylor Swift last night on Fallon and Seth Meyers without a sweat.

That bar really needs some shrinking...it looks absurd. Watching a BTN game, there's way too much empty space wasted.

We'll know if she becomes Wendy Bell's co-host on her daily radio show (yes, she's back on the radio...in Altoona and a wacky St. Louis translator trimulcast).

Yes it does; even though it could be at Radio City with WTMJ, WPXE (along with WTPX, which WPXE previously handled studio ops for) is out of Scripps Center. Looks like more of an organizational move to have one team handle Ion issues, so what FCC stuff WTMJ has to do is confined to that. Not sure of their engineering though, since many Ion stations are still on different towers (WTMJ's is behind their building, while WPXE pretty much has to work with Fox since they're on the WITI tower).

I still remember when SBG almost went bankrupt the first time, but somehow survived that (and we still don't know really how!). It's obvious though that despite all appearances, their expansion beyond the Fox/CW/My tier into major affiliates hasn't really worked out outside basically leveraging ABC into being their major affiliate base. Whenever they fall, the Benedek and Combined falls are going to look like child's play once all the dominos fall. The other worry; they're one of the corner studs holding together the tennis industry too through Tennis Channel. But their + service has been an unmitigated disaster (nobody subscribes to it), and they've angered every one of their carriage partners by forcing it for broadcast carriage. Their coverage is awful, and they took forever to convince Justin Gimelstob to leave after his domestic abuse. The future of the tennis circuit outside the Grand Slams, if there is any, looks to be a boxing-like fall where entire tours are stuck behind paywalls if Tennis Channel ends up failing with SBG, because ESPN could pick up a little along with ESPN+, but it's not the 80s where they'd air anything. It doesn't help that SBG is all-in on gambling when organized tennis is fighting to keep it out, especially on the low end nobody pays attention to where anyone on the court could be in on fixing matches. The company's been a nightmare back to the days of the Glencairn JSAs. They were pretty much the last resort; Fox had to sell off the networks to another party because the RSNs would have led to rejection to the deal if sold by Disney. And they sold them to Diamond long after they wanted them off their books.

WGNA already tried that with Dog, and it bombed because he was regarded as 'leftovers from A&E', and rightfully so (which is why outside the quick pop during the Laundrie case, he's back to irrelevancy). When A&E took off Live PD, it revealed a network over-dependent on one show that had a schedule built on nothing, and now it's struggling. Same with MTV/Ridiculousness. The cable networks that remain strong don't depend on one show or one type of show to keep themselves going, like USA, TNT or HGTV, and right now, it's all but counting the days until finally, the A&E's, Viacoms and NBCUs can no longer justify keeping FYI, MTV2 or Oxygen going because they're throwing empty money at non-existent audiences. Nexstar is trying to mine any value out of NN they can...and they won't do that picking up another network's leftovers. Eventually, we'll see if NN is around in another couple years, or there will be a merger down the line with another low-end outfit like Real America's Voice or Newsmax, or they take on the FAST model and put their network up on Pluto, Stirr, Tubi or the smart TV channel portals.

Sorry for the double-post, but it looks like Scripps has also sped up the process of getting rid of the remaining physical studios Ion had (if you can even call them that, as they were mostly all office suites with a public file binder in them) after the FCC repeal of the Main Studio Rule. Many of the stations are now en masse 'based' out of Scripps Center in Cincinatti, though the Ion Media HQ in West Palm Beach is also seen in several public files.

Completely unheralded, but Scripps has begun to add Ion in markets where a Scripps station exists, but an Ion Media station didn't; •For the first time, southwest Florida has over-the-air access to the network thanks to the fifth subchannel of WFTX. This was of the few places where Paxson never grabbed a station in the Sunshine State, and the network's only market to never have a network affiliate at the very least. •Ion moved from the sixth subchannel of Gray's WBAY to the fifth subchannel of WGBA in Green Bay. •WTVR in Richmond has it on their sixth subchannel, replacing Nexstar's WRIC-DT2. •Down in Corpus Cristi, KRIS-DT5 was launched for Ion, taking over for Tegna's KII-DT3. •For a bad trades-like pun, Ion is no longer KOLD in Tucson (where it was the fourth subchannel), and now is being shot out of KGUN's fifth subchannel. (ducks , and somehow a , really?! )

Considering their Pac12, Big 12, and B1G rights, that mistake shouldn't have been made at all (along with a missed opportunity to promote Fox/FS1/B1G games).

I'd assume that would start rolling out once the FTS stations start the subchannel rollout and they start adding local inserts. At this point, it's more important to get the network up and running. I expect WITI to be among the first in line. I kind of expected whatever their new GFX would be would launch with Fox Weather, but it looks like the wait will go on a little longer.

Exactly; there are people in New York who want to be doing something at 6:30 p.m., and will stir the pot however they can to get back to work. Viacom can't get a refund on the set work done in Washington at this point, and this reads as someone's book report on 'Why Norah O'Donnell is a Big Meanie and Should Be Grounded'...and they should have been failed because a lot of this report drones on and on about Gayle King's status to fill out the column inches.

Just got a notification the app is live.

Or else they seem to be very green and didn't get proper counsel about how to proceed. As I said above with the KMOV reporter (whose management moved heaven and earth to keep her on and she still tossed the toys from the pram), all of those who have left either have plenty to live on in retirement or think the industry has short memories and will just allow them to come back once a magic 'herd immunity, you don't have to get the vaccine!' line is crossed (and it's a hindsight relief that Ben Swann was canned from WGCL well before the pandemic). The Tegna and Scripps lines fall just before the holidays, so there may be a few holdouts who will likely capitulate for family gatherings or getting to be part of the year-end promos. I know I'll be interested locally to see how the WTMJ newsroom falls, remembering the lawsuit a couple years back where a former employee had issues with co-workers pressuring their beliefs on him.

KREM broadcast some certain images they shouldn't have on the Sunday 6 p.m. newscast through a weather center monitor, and of course, it involves police and corporate investigation, and no doubt, the FCC will be there soon. Speculation is suggesting a WDBJ-level fine, but even worse since it involved the type of nudity that's more than Cinemax-level. And she does happen to mention a 'non-disclosure payment', which I had a feeling the Gray folks who separated but don't go to the media are happy enough about to accept. So she agreed to full masking and testing...but not being a part of meetings except on Zoom? I'd be bouncing if I could just watch news meetings in another room and stay there.

I hope WTMJ picks up that theme. They seem to be changing around a lot of set pieces here and there and shuffling things around (there seems to be a new full-sized array monitor finally on set instead of TVs on wheels?), although whoever designed the color during this transition chose a very blinding baby blue background that just doesn't work.

Wendy Williams is back on next Monday...but with guest hosts as she continues to recover. Sadly, there gets to be a point where for her affiliates, DebMerc better just name a permanent guest host or give the time back. Guest hosts rotating in and out has only made the repeats they have age worse than most.

The majority of them who did have medical reasoning probably won't ever speak, and will eventually negotiate a non-disclosure settlement from Gray because at least they have a reason and they probably had the 'I'm really sorry, I'd love to keep you but my hands are tied' conversation with their local boss, understood, and corporate is in the same position. The only ones we seem to be hearing from probably had saner family members and lawyers advise them not to say a word, and disregarded it. And a couple (like the WLUC met) were likely out the door anyways due to age/job performance. As for these people getting back into the industry through SBG and Nexstar...the Internet will have reputable news of their Gray firings under their station bios and LinkedIn that no reputation firm will ever wipe out. Unless they do a 180º and get the shots, the legal and HR departments for those stations are likely ready to tell them the hire isn't worth the local PR headache unless the hire has got a shelf packed with Pultizers, Morrows and Regional Emmys.