nathannah

I think this is equivalent to the situation they have in Denver, where their networks got booted thanks to Scripps, Nexstar and Tegna, so they bought KREG to make sure their networks had a place in the market, while keeping MeTV on KCNC. Hearst (and ViacomCBS) is a big Weigel advocate and outside the ShopLC, Estrella, Cozi and True Crime Network deals sprinkled throughout the chain, isn't going into the subchannel business themselves and are happy to take the DRTV split. Likely this is more about getting H&I, Start and Movies! a constant home in the market, since outside Hearst, the rest of the market is Scripps/Nexstar/Tegna and their networks, and the days of them giving space to Weigel are sadly over (same in Salt Lake with Nexstar/Sinclair/Scripps, thus the purchase of KCSG). MeTV will stay on KCCI, but both Weigel and Hearst don't want to bit-starve stations to get the sister networks on the air, in turn.

It certainly doesn't help that a portion of the Fox affiliate base is owned by Sinclair. I know the difference easily even with a Fox O&O in WITI (and they do their best to split the difference since they were able to dodge the majority of the Ailes takeover of the O&Os), but one market over where WLUK is now well insulated into their SBG ownership, there's hardly any difference between their local operation and the SBG/FNC must-runs since they're going hard into the current corporate mandate that crime is seriously up everywhere (when it's just more population in the market=more crime). For a subchannel Fox station though which is mainly all-entertainment (say, WGGB), it's easier to know 'yeah, they just run whatever during this 10 p.m. newscast because it's the Fox daily business rundown where ABC or CBS's report would usually go'.

It didn't help they were oddly concerned about wanting to keep their 87.7 FrankenFM signal and the FCC kept having to tell them that they couldn't transmit digital with an unlicensed analog subcarrier at 87.9.

Oh, I knew he couldn't resist it and I'd see a story this morning, there was no doubt!

This is no Charlo Greene/KTVA "(Bleep) it, I quit" situation...at least there she was in control of her story (and was successful). This dimbulb was quickly forgotten by most of the audience who cared more about ERCOT than whatever comes out from some fringe site tomorrow. Also, on the one week in seven years FTVLive takes time off.

The FCC approves event licenses for stadiums to broadcast radio audio on VHF channel 5, like the Packers do (they say you have to buy a 'special radio' but all you have to do is get a tuner like one that gets the Japanese band or an old Walkman with TV audio to listen to the 'stations' they air over the 6 MHz of channel 5). I don't understand why the FCC just doesn't abandon 5 and 6 for TV and expand the FM band. Outside a few TV stations in limited regions, it's not a good frequency for digital TV, but it would create a new land rush for radio, be it analog or digital-only...and it would please radio manufacturers (or car dealers that would re-program radios to get the expanded band).

Already questioned this on Wikipedia; there's no way it would be stuck on a .8 channel where cable providers can reject carriage. It will be on there as a .2 or .3, probably replacing Charge. WJZY/WMYT's map has always been a mess, and that long-term agreement with Capitol to carry SonLife before they sold to Fox certainly didn't help.

Kari Lake, ex-KSAZ'er, is running for AZ governor. Of course, she totally expects to win the race by refusing to talk to any media, so we'll see how that goes.

The TVNewser spin that "tapping the former executive in charge of GMA to run the newsroom will put any fears among staffers to bed" is...not great at all. I was hoping for just a 'news and weather' basic morning show, but now all I see is "NewsNation's STEALS and DEALS!" and yet another news outlet amplifying minor local crime stories to national 'outrages' like Today and GMA already do. There's just no real direction out here outside of 'offer big contracts to network talent and hope they move the sticks'.

Yet another network that GOLtv, a network which pretty much carries niche Portuguese and South American soccer, has lasted longer than. They've outlived Fox Soccer, and now undoubtedly beIN.

There's no way this goes further than a few months. Some of these stations have been carrying double-blocks of The Simpsons, Friends, Family Guy, and Seinfeld in these timeslots since the minute they went into syndication, and have been dealing with MNTV becoming nothing and The CW now being out-rated by the Spanish nets and Ion. I know that the first-run sitcom market is beyond anemic at this point, but risking the last steady local ratings for a national newscast likely to be ignored feels like such a dangerous risk to take, especially in markets where SBG doesn't have a sister Big Four station.

I'm still waiting for Roku to settle their tantrum with Spectrum that resulted in their app being removed (though it has stayed on for subscribers who haven't hit 'delete' yet, so I have to be very careful when I need to organize my Roku screen). More and more, I'm glad I decided to go with Apple TV and Chromecast as my main stream boxes.

If you go back to a certain point on WFLD's Wikipedia page before they banned lists of 'non-notable' employees (here, anyone without an article), you might be able to look up folks; hope this link might help you out.

I understand the building is an albatross, but...wouldn't you just let the real estate side of the business handle it and just keep the move going? Is a real estate transaction in Denver such a big deal for Scripps, they would be bankrupted, give up the ABC affiliation, shut down their news division, and become a Katz subchannel farm if they couldn't sell one building? Also the tone of this from the GM...nobody in the news and old entertainment divisions of the stations designed or built it, and this basically sounds like he's mad at them for his 'collaboration' issues in 2021. Finally...get real. Outside the few folks who need to see the public file in person or come in for an interview, 'access' to a news studio is not paramount. They're probably going to lease a boring office building's middle floors nearby and nobody is ever going to visit them.

WTMJ has given the death sentence to their The NOW as of May 7. I think we're on concept seven now of trying to fill the shoes of Wheel of Fortune since September 2004, this time, it's Milwaukee Tonight (since they bombed with Wisconsin Tonight and can't re-use that trademark); basically what they tried at 3:30 after the second COVID wave until last month (all positive news), now moved to before primetime. With one of the former contributors of Real Milwaukee on WITI on this show, it confirms the cancellation of the latter.

Robert Feder's eulogy talking more about Davis's role in vitalizing WGN News in their superstation era.

Really, does it need to be phrased so negatively here? They're in my market and they could be a lot worse, like WGCL worse or WWJ-TV non-existent, and they have management which is willing to spend. And when WTMJ is in the market continuing to drag it down, I'd rather watch a great fourth-place news operation trying hard than a third-place one we know can do 250% better (and has). They got to 25 years; there were times we were praying they got to 10 or even five, so it's a major accomplishment to me.

I still remember locally that Liberty Media had a great website and streaming presence for WFRV...and it was gone the moment Nexstar closed on their deal. In 2021, their video presence is pretty much confined to a hard-to-find link on their website, and their live player is so janky, it's better to just adjust your location on Paramount+ if you pay for it, and stream WFRV that way. I still remember a few years back the WFRV social media guy arguing on Twitter with public @'s towards the holder of the (at)wfrv account who was willing to sell it to Nexstar at a reasonable price (yes, don't take the offer and just get legal to dot those I's and T's to get it)...and now the account is suspended, meaning Nexstar will likely have to pay a lot if they ever want to reduce their address down from the bulky (at)wfrvlocal5

Seems like a contractual requirement of the LMA agreement or to fulfill some well-hidden public affairs remit as part of their license. It seems likely Spectrum also isn't happy to be carrying a Dabl station with main-channel two-digit carriage and asked them to air something local on that station. WHAM seems the closest that makes any sense and they already provide weather segments.

If not a station purchase, as WMYO-CD has always tried to program for the Indiana side of the market (including an INN newscast in the late 2000s on their old sister station WWJS-CD), I could see them push for WISH simulcasts on their schedule. WBNA is also a possibility.

How do you not realize that placing a TV studio next to a major highway interchange for a coast-to-coast highway, especially in Texas, where 12-lane highways are always in planning, is a bad idea? Then decide to expand that building without a simple check with TxDOT to see if they plan to expand the road in the next decade? Talk about the ultimate in bad planning. I know there are stations along interstate or equivalent highways, but they're usually placed on stretches where an interchange isn't ever going to go (WGBA or WMTV) or far and overlooking it (WWLP, WVIT, WCVB), not where a 0-digit interstate changes from north to east and is forever being finessed to fix a curve.

Likely related to Columbus, Cedar Rapids and Dayton; WCHS is Sinclair, WVAH is Cunningham. Both are on UHF, so there's otherwise no technical reason for it.

They probably would have kept Ion Shop if it made them money too. You know somewhere in Scripps, there's someone who currently has a lot of regrets they didn't keep Shop at Home or the O&O stations that used to make up that network (along with viewers, since most went to the RNN infomercial/one talk show network or TCT).

I forgot another issue; Journal used to be really stingy with subchannels with Charter and Time Warner, so in a few places like ex-Charter markets, they've never had any subchannels on their systems, and Scripps hasn't corrected that oversight, so they're going into a situation in some markets where they have to deal with both Ion and Journal's negotiating errors restricting thier leverage to get the Katz networks on. My system only has Bounce TV from WMLW, and lost Grit when WCGV went off the air, so we're literally missing most of the suite in my market.

End of an era in Milwaukee...master control for WTMJ/WGBA/WACY is now at WRTV in Indy (and KMTV in Omaha is now out of WTKR/Norfolk). With the Good Karma Radio stations beginning to plan a move downtown and no more HQ uses, Radio City is going to have the reverse problem from KMGH...too much room, but the space gained is likely way too small for personnel and television studio uses.