JRyan

Daystar Television Network President Joni Lamb has died. She was 65. Official announcement from Daystar here.

Is Sinclair just incapable of branding things in a proper way these days? I have a hard time believing even consultants signing off on that idea. And here's a first look at the logo.

I have not seen it reported here yet. Back in April, WTVQ discontinued its own newscasts on the weekends and now simulcasts those from WLEX. As far as I know, WTVQ is still producing its newscasts for weekdays. Going by this clip, the only noticeable difference is the ABC36 logo bug in place of LEX18's logo on the L3.

I do not think it is the least bit wise of Kimmel to joke about the death of the President - how ever implied or mild the joke may purport to be. Even though Kimmel denied wrongdoing in his later monologue, he knew better than to make such a joke especially after last year's fiasco. I don't care who is the President or which political party he is part of. Jokes that hint at the death of the incumbent President should not be on television. Period. And that should be non-negotiable. Our society has never been more divided and making jokes about a President's death does nothing to unify the viewing audience on common ground and should never be accepted as part of our discourse in society. ABC management can fix this mess by talking to Kimmel behind the scenes and ensure he steers clear of such jokes in the future. And provided that a clear agreement is reached, then Kimmel should be given another chance. That said, this is bad for business at ABC and management will have to make some difficult decisions in the coming days.

Not surprisingly, WBNS has done a great job with choosing footage for the intros.

Julie Martin (formerly of The Weather Channel) is apparently joining WBIR, at least while Rebecca Sweet is on maternity leave. Martin also just did a short stint on WUSA, so perhaps Tegna has her on a retainer to fill in where needed. Facebook post

If this isn't the appropriate forum please feel free to move this post to the right spot. I noticed something in recent days that is very odd. I'm located in the Knoxvile DMA and I have Xfinity (Comcast). For reasons unknown they removed WATE and myVLT (WVLT 8.2) from the basic tier lineup. Historically you would have WKOP (PBS) on 2, WPXK (ION) on 3, WVLT (CBS) on 5, WBXX (CW) on 7, myVLT (mynetTV, WVLT 8.2) on 8, WBIR (NBC) on 9, WTNZ (FOX) on 11, and finally WATE (ABC) on 13. When channel 13 is entered, it instead reroutes to Antenna TV. For WATE, I have to go all the way to channel 1006 to get them. Not sure if this is something having to do with Nexstar or why this would be the case.

Am I just seeing things or why does the WIFR logo flash on screen for about a frame or two before the station logo actually animates?

Is DealsTV just an interim name for the feed or is that an actual network by TBN or someone else? The only network I can find by that name was based in Canada and folded as late as early 2017.

There's a lot more than "boomers" that are upset with WINK. Regardless of the truth, WINK handled this situation appallingly bad and the relationship that Matt Devitt had with the public was clearly underestimated. In all likelihood, WINK will want to settle before it goes to trial. Including immaterial claims about an alleged gambling problem is a new low I didn't expect a station like WINK to go to. WINK has previously been a station I long regarded as one of the best independently owned stations in the country. But sadly I cannot in good conscience continue to hold WINK in that regard at the present time. They have been nothing short of tone-deaf with the public about their handling of Matt Devitt. And acting like the public's outrage doesn't exist is not doing them any favors. And their segment "WINK Listens"? I strongly suggest cancelling that until they recommit themselves to actually follow through on listening - not to their ego but to the public who they claim to serve. A competent judge (assuming impartiality truly dictates the matter) will see it is little more than WINK's attempt to smear Devitt using court documents.

Far removed from the days WCNC would send an anchor next door to do live hits to cover national headlines.

I'll still take that over the TV shows The Weather Channel has in place of actual weather content. I prefer The Weather Channel when it is actually doing weather. But if AccuWeather offers a loop of weather graphics versus The Weather Channel showing "Highway Through Hell", I'll choose AccuWeather without thinking twice.

It's very ironic that Nexstar would want to keep its corporate town hall closed-circuited as they touted this deal as being in the public interest.

At this point why bother having newscasts at all on TV if they're just running a bunch of packages? It's almost no different than binge watching YouTube. And is it really that difficult to pay a technical director and ONE anchor?

As bizarre that it is for Nexstar/Tegna to be approved and yet Allen still waiting to sell the remaining "for sale" stations to Gray, I'm not complaining about that. And while Nexstar would likely merge behind the scenes and keep "visually" separate newscasts, the moment Gray gets its hands on WAAY it's over for that station. They'd merge the news with WAFF without thinking twice about it.

It's possible that they are doing this as a legal contingency plan if the merger is ultimately ruled unlawful in its present form. But we should not forget that Tribune Media Company still technically exists in name only within Nexstar for holding some station licenses. For example, WJZY is technically "licensed" to Tribune despite never being owned by them for a single day. So this move may not entirely reflect Nexstar's lack of confidence in the deal's survival. That being said, one can hope that this is still a good sign that Tegna still exists in some form for now.

I'm glad that the rollout is being allowed to go ahead on the ex-Tegna stations.

As much as I don't want to deflate any hope in people, the chances are near zero that any court would rule the entire transaction void ab initio and require Nexstar to re-launch Tegna with all its stations. Technically speaking, the transaction itself is not unlawful. What makes this questionable at best is the entire company being bought without immediate and absolute divestures. If the courts bother growing a spine, the best case scenario would be that the courts rule that Nexstar must divest in markets that have conflicts (Knoxville, Charlotte, San Diego, as well as in addition to the markets Nexstar nominally pledged to). Tegna as a company is not coming back. It's in the history books. One can only hope that a suitable buyer would step forward in that scenario to buy the conflicting stations.

It makes one wonder how it is that a media company cannot exist unless they literally break the law as currently written (or a thinly veiled "waiver"). Either the law itself needs to be changed in some way or the company is conducting itself in a manner that is predatory and inherently illegal. I think the answer is clearly the latter. Last time I checked, companies not constantly looking to buy up smaller ones seem to be running well on average. Hearst comes to mind as a great example. Companies that are not being run well is usually the fault of poor management that leads to bad decisions and outcomes - not market conditions. Is there a decline in TV? Absolutely. But consolidation does nothing but pour gasoline on the trend away from linear TV. It fosters more mistrust by the public. As it currently stands, a small business owner cannot simply just launch or buy a station - except very rarely. Why? Not because TV is actually unprofitable. Nexstar or a similar sized company will stop at nothing to block out any small competitor. If you own all but one viable station in a given market, the huge disproportionate market share means that the small contender will face untold opposition just to exist. And even the best sales team will have a tough time trying to sell spots to clients for a station that only gets 20-30% of the market share. Any business looking to advertise is going to go to the one that has the larger reach that offer prices deliberately priced low to put further pressure on its competition. This is a wake-up call to all that the decades long trend of weakened ownership rules needs to be seriously addressed. Markets in general should be filled with small business owners (single market contenders). Indeed, the trend of meteorologists successfully moving toward independent streaming is a sign that people do not want more corporate control of the media they consume. People want trustworthy media that is responsive and accountable to its audience - and most usually only a company with true local ties to the market is going to care.

My local Tegna (or ex-Tegna) station reported on the Nexstar/Tegna merger at noon today. It was clearly scripted in a way that was written by corporate with barely mentioning the Nexstar station in town at the end. The kind of fill-in-the-blank script that reminds me of the infamous Sinclair "dangerous to our democracy" promos that aired several years ago. The anchor, meanwhile, understandably sounded under duress reading the script.

You would think that they would be just as bold as to drop the ownership cap rules, because this deal flies in the face of any standard against a monopoly or excessive market control. Yet, they give numerous waivers and not make a rule change. At this point, what good is it to have any written rules by the FCC on its books?

I'm genuinely finding it surreal that the deal was both approved and closed at the same time, for a deal as large as this. Did I miss where the FCC actually changed the ownership cap rules? All I know is Commissioner Carr was floating the idea, but I don't recall the rule being amended or changed formally.

Evening News has been in 47 since their relaunch in January 2025. The only change now is that Evening and Weekend are both back on the video wall side of the studio. I haven't watched the full episode, but going by those screenshots it feels a lot like they are almost going for a mashup of the 2019 and 2022 graphics on the videowalls. While I liked their attempt at nostalgia by bringing in an older anchor desk with the newsroom backdrop, the video wall presentation is a lot more compelling and feels more grounded.

Longtime Knoxville meteorologist Matt Hinkin has died. He was 62. He retired from WATE in 2021. https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/retired-storm-team-6-chief-meteorologist-matt-hinkin-dies-at-62/

That is going to be a massive loss for Knoxville. She has been with the station longer than most people at all three stations in town. But I'm not surprised. She has had a great run. She will be missed.