Recovering Producer

I don't have any insight or information, but having a new job and an ongoing relationship with the station makes me think this was a planned exit by him. A quiet and short notice without the pomp and circumstance is the ideal departure for many people. News anchors come and go, and maybe he didn't want to make himself the news or at least minimize the time when he is the center of attention. The tribute and retrospective PKGs are awkward and have no viewer benefit. Newsroom cakes and speeches are just painfully awkward.

Let's not start this game again. No ownership group planning to cash out of broadcasting, especially once the new administration, Congress, and FCC loosens or eliminates ownership caps on broadcast stations, will sell assets piecemeal. A company looking to sell wants one transaction, the biggest possible payday, and the financial/tax benefits of doing it all at once. Like every major merger we've seen in the past few years: Nexstar/Tribune, Gray/Raycom, etc... the surviving entity will divest any assets they can't legally keep to third parties.

That monitor on the noon is a few pixels away from being forced to air a Sinclair must-run with Boris Epshteyn.

WINK anchors moved to Gateway at approximately 3:30 PM. Meteorologists still at Palm Beach Blvd.

Looks like the deal closed hours after FCC approval. Convenient to have a transaction close at the start of a new quarter. (Or possibly even a new fiscal year, depending on how Forum operates) https://www.siouxfallslive.com/business/forum-communications-completes-purchase-of-rapid-city-tv-station

Because I'm a public records nerd, it looks like part of the renovation project at the new building is still in the permitting process. Building renovation is underway based on permits, but things like satellite dishes and STL Tower are still moving through the process. Granted, those can get built fast once permits are secured. Sun absolutely will be moving with FMBC/WINK. The two companies are more like conjoined twins than sidecars.

I haven't worked in that market in a long time, so much could have changed, but from what I recall - NBC was the favorite child, and ABC got the leftovers/looklives, at least in the evenings. And it makes sense, considering NBC has a much more massive news output. But creative lead choices can always lead to making things work. I don't recall how they handled mornings where there's the most overlap. (Although there was a time in the 2008-2010 recession that hit SW Florida worse than most parts of the country when they went down to one AM newscast simulcast on both stations) When I worked in a different market where there were dueling morning newscasts coming out of the same building, it required coordination among producers to make sure they weren't stepping on each other's toes. For a big enough story, you'd occasionally have two reporters on the same story so both could lead with it, and in very rare circumstances - a mini internal generic live shot where both producers agreed to a start time for a live shot and the reporter would get counted down - and they'd start talking whether both stations anchors had stopped talking or not.

The new building renovations for WINK can't be finished fast enough it appears. I don't have screen grabs, but at some point late Thursday while Helene was off the Gulf Coast, newscasts were moved into the newsroom. When they were back in the studio on Friday, you could hear drying fans very loud in the background of studio shots, which makes me think the creek next to WINK overflowed into the building again.

For events like this, almost every station and network that's more than one person and a camera is paying to have their own bandwidth for communication in/out of the United Center. Whether it is hardwired phone lines or some IP solution for IFB/headset. And the cost is not small. This has happened before for Fox stations in cities where the DNC is hosted. It's not because of the normal people attending the convention. It's because of the protesters who don't understand the difference between Fox Local and FNC Prime.

DirecTV wasn't carrying WHAG. However, when they entered this retransmission agreement in 2015, DirecTV agreed to pay Nexstar what they called an unlaunched station fee until that station was added to DirecTV (page 13 of the linked agreement), which my read between the lines is that compensation was comparable to what they'd pay for a big-4 affiliate in the Washington DC market. DirecTV argued Nexstar knew WHAG was losing NBC at the time this agreement was made and deliberately didn't tell them about the upcoming change during negotiations, and also didn't tell them during the course of the agreement even when other stations had programming changes. Nexstar argued the unlaunched station fee wasn't contingent on the NBC programming on the former WHAG, now WDVM. DirecTV believed otherwise hence the lawsuit. According to Wikipedia, WDVM wasn't added to DirecTV until 2020, which is past the expiration of this agreement.

It is even more complicated than that. DirecTV agreed to pay Nexstar a fee even though they were not retransmitting what was then NBC affiliate WHAG starting in 2015. The $10.5 million is what DirecTV paid to not carry that station from when it lost NBC on July 1, 2016, to November 2018, when DirecTV learned it was no longer an NBC affiliate. Because I am a nerd... all the filings in the case are here.

(sarcastic post) Coming early 2025: The CBS Evening ScrippsCast with no anchor.

Not WRC's first attempt at a 7:30 newscast. Hopefully more successful than their early 90s attempt on Channel 50. And good that there's going to be a real local newscast in DC in the 7pm hour. The Hagerstown station cosplaying as a DC station doesn't count.

(sarcastic) Wait, did Gray buy WXIN? Because those opens and supers are Gray One wearing a bad disguise. (end sarcasm) The Nexstar election supers not matching the height or placement of the bug is just sloppy and, in theory, preventable.

The time brokerage between the two stations started in 1994, and the terms of the TBA, while not allowable today, are grandfathered by the FCC because it was established before the federal government put new rules for the operation of TBAs/LMAs/etc. The transfer of WBBH from Waterman to Hearst included assigning the existing WZVN time brokerage agreement to Hearst.

The odds of a Capitals to broadcast deal are 0%, with Ted Leonsis/Monumental owning the former NBC Sports Washington in addition to the team.

Short of a sidecar LMA with commercially licensed godcaster WRXY, which seems unlikely, that market is full-power duopolied out. So a 36.x scenario seems most likely.

For your planned events like Super Bowl/Olympics: The network broadcasting the event will offer their stations access to a live/standup location, transmission facilities, high-speed internet, feeds of the event, and workspace for a cost. A friend of mine at an NBC affiliate told me the overall cost NBC is charging stations for this in Paris for the 2024 games is in the tens of thousands of dollars per person. Anyone else going may have access for a fee with a credential to a media workspace from the organizers, but not much more. Same for your political conventions/debates/inaugurations minus the network exclusivity part. Anything else: Pack your bags, grab your LiveU/TVU/DeJero, and either get the crew to the airport or get on the road and hope for the best.

Good journalism and responsible use of the public's airwaves are not Sinclair's objectives. Their endgame is more money for them and power for the politicians they agree with. They've done it every presidential election year since at least 2004.

The real toxic part of contracts many station groups are making people sign are financial penalties if you resign even if you are leaving the business. Thousands of dollars. A one-sided agreement like that should scare away any reasonable person. Stations will argue it is the cost of the training they gave you and recruiting/hiring your replacement. And you can maybe justify some of that cost on a first contract, but in a second employment agreement the training cost isn’t there.

Agreed. Should it happen, it will likely be part of a larger bill related to FCC rules and regulations. I'd compare it to the FAA reauthorization law that passed earlier this month, where lawmakers added five daily long-distance flights out of slot/perimeter restricted National Airport just outside DC. A small piece of a must-pass bill that got more noise than more consequential parts of the law, and was heavily lobbied for by an industry with a few big players. (In this case, most airlines that aren't named United, which wanted to protect its hub at nearby Dulles airport.)

I think any serious discussion of whether Mission has to sell WPIX needs to be put on the back burner of everyone's minds until after the election, and I'm guessing "get past the election" is their legal strategy as well. A shift in partisan control of the FCC or Congress passing a law that loosens or eliminates ownership caps could make this all moot. And even if things remain the same, the backup plan is certainly to extend the appeals process as long as possible in hopes the regulatory environment shifts.

Longtime KELO-TV anchor (and voiceover person post anchoring retirement) Doug Lund has died. https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/doug-lund-longtime-tv-anchor-dies-at-78/

I'm guessing they wanted a partner in North Carolina; WCCB was willing to take it and had the flexibility to schedule a limited-run show. Nexstar may make a lot of questionable choices, but they aren't going to enter into new contracts for limited-run external news programming in a world where NewsNation could do something similar, with all the potential revenue staying inside the company.

I have to wonder if any of the people wish speculating about future owners for stations that may or may not be for sale have set foot in a TV station as an employee or have any glimpse of the reality of the economics of local TV in 2024. I'm three years removed from TV employment, and it was bleak then. Friends left in the business (who are all looking to get out) say it has only worsened. I am cheering for the unlikely fairy-tale outcome of new financial success for the local TV business, but that won't happen with more of the same that got us to where we are today.