l_miro

my crush on Brian Unger notwithstanding, this was a big bullshit reel. "Family" ... blech, they're making glue for the ads

True, however there's a 2012 unsealed document showing Daystar finances that gives hint overall [https://trinityfi.org/investigations/profiting-from-death-daystar-squawks-church-but-waddles-business/] Hal Lindsey Ministries has a form 990 from 2023 listing Daystar TV broadcast expense at $381,519. That would be 30 minutes on a Sunday evening in his case. Benny Hinn is on record, on a Daystar broadcast no less, saying he was paying them $40K+ a week. Another pastor who recently left Daystar after their scandal blew up said he was forking over ~$43K for a half hour or hour-long Sunday timeslot. There are agencies who publish ratecards and they run inline with the rumors

the FCC licenses stations to a given area - WCVB (RF 33) is licensed to Boston, MA and WMUR (RF 9) is licensed to Manchester, NH. Some Boston viewers being able to pick up WMUR, and vice versa, is because of how signal propagation works and FCC rules on signal emissions, antenna height above average terrain (HAAT), and contour dBu, power, ERP Hi-VHF channels 7-13 has 36 dBu noise-limited contour (blue circle) and 43 dBu city-grade contour (red circle) UHF channels 14-36 have 41 dBu noise-limited contour and 48 dBu city-grade contour As long as those stations are staying within the designated boundaries for their zone (Zone I in this case), and ERP/power limits, they are in compliance, regardless of who else can receive them "outside" of their market. Similar case in South Florida, Scripps owns WPTV (RF12) licensed to West Palm Beach, FL and WSFL (RF 27) licensed to Miami, FL but each enroaches almost 50% into the other station's licensed area, much more than WMUR and WCVB do

Makes sense once you know how much they have to fork over to TBN and other station owners to air them. Form 990 for one of the pastors doing TV showed he was paying $381,519 to Daystar to air his program once a week for a year. CBN airs daily, so they're probably well over into the millions in fees just to have someone else air them

You would think that, logically why not I guess, but TBN is also losing money, at least as of the last 3-4 years they're heavily in the negative. They also have only 3 stations on designated non commercial channels Their focus is now on tbn+ and the apps anyway

mildly awful. They're going to make their anchors stand for 4hrs a day now surrounded by green glare

the FCC non-commercial licenses are very rigid since they take taxpayer money, and PBS itself has made no attempts to push for a change that maybe replicates European government-owned broadcast stations as those by law set aside 20 minutes a day for commercials. Depending on the market, that much airtime could pay a nice amount of the expenses. I thought we could make a go at non-commercial licensed station but every idea you throw at it that is not a beg-a-thon or an underwriting announcement could result in license violation. You can't even ask cable for retrans fees, they are must-carry by default.

WQED has had its own share of financial struggles going back to $17 million debt and only stabilized itself around 2018-2019 they probably don't have the money because going off WHYY's reporting- WPSU ran a $4,000,000+ deficit for years, even with federal money coming in, and the university trustees had to shore that up using university funds. WHYY CEO said "WPSU has no revenue production capability". So that $17 mil offer from the trustees is really $77K w/fica for 44 people's salaries, leaving WHYY to pay out of pocket for transmitters, poewr, programming, a studio with equipment etc.

so, WHYY wanted WPSU-TV, and also wanted to get paid $17 million over 5 years to operate it. But... WHYY also wouldn't commit to keep anybody from WPSU-TV employed an for anyone who doesn't know, WPSU is on a reserved non-commercial educational broadcast channel designated by the FCC as such. The station can only be sold to an non-profit with educational mission, the channel can't be converted to commercial license so it can broadcast commercials. So the trustees can't just sell the station.

Had to look up what changed. No protections were put in place and then reversed, it was reinterpretation of statutes more than likely. - Obama FTC: changed the agency's enforcement to only take action on non-competes if there's some (I think undefined) broad consumer harm. And on sr employees making at least $151K I think. - Biden FTC: went the other way, reinterpreting enforcement ability into a broad nationwide ban-all. One side argued FTC exceeded it's statutory authority -- a federal agency can't usurp congressional lawmaking power, and congress can't pass it's lawmaking power off and let someone else deal with an issue. This went into pending appeal. - Trump2 FTC: just recently withdrew its appeals saying Biden-era FTC rule reinterpretation overrode state laws. Yeah but... then turned around and went after 'Gateway Pet Memorial Services' because they had 1 year long, nationwide, non-competes for all employees with language the feds didn't like - even for drivers of deceased animals. Feds also said they're now pursuing a "steady stream" of non-compete cases using antitrust laws instead. Trump2 FTC forced GPMS to null and void all non-competes from 2019 onward, notify employees individually their contracts are null and void, post a big notice to new employees that GPMS are not allowed to use non-competes for 10 years, except with "director, officer, or senior employees" and some other definitions to tie their hands. This is probably what WISH/Circle City was referring to as "change in the law". A change in FTC enforcement interpretation more like it. Could be an excuse, could be really the advice their counsel gave them, we haven't seen the language so can only speculate. The way I've seen these things worded though, more than likely Circle City/WISH and the employee have unilateral right to quit if the contract is amended due to change in law. And this is how you see 14 people gone. My best guess based on the above: Ashley Elliott sued Circle/WISH-TV, judge declared the contract overly broad. Great timing right when Tump2 FTC, both, drops appeal and goes after GPMS for ... overly board non-competes ... Circle City/WISH-TV had an oh shit moment, and didn't want to get lobbed with an antitrust review by the FTC that will end up similar to GPMS hwere only CC/WISH-TV execs and senior producers have non-competes but on-air talent will be free to go wherever they want in town.

what's going to happen? Only the copyright owners have the right to demand takedowns and only if it goes beyond fair use

the change in law Circle City mentions is Indiana only, allegedly only for healthcare workers.

my bad, I got them confused. I stand corrected. The Weather Company, LLC is Francisco Partners (formerly owned by IBM) The Weather Group (officially Weather Group Television, LLC) is Allen Media Weather Group Television, LLC shows up as owning Local on the 8s, Weatherscan, Storm Stories and a few others. The 'TWC' trademark is also owned by The Weather Company, LLC. So Allen Media do not own 'The Weather Channel' wordmark or logo, and more than likely pay roaylty fees. When Tribune and I squabbled over WSFL using my trademark, my lawyer at the time said typical royalty rate benchmark is 2 to 15% of revenue depending on trademark strength, with a hard dollar minimum. T-shirts and apparel with big tradermarks get 12-15% from sales, I doubt anybody would be paying 15% to use a TV channel name every year but who knows. And given that Weather.com is using TWC for filler content they could have a kind of 'paper' deal for services rendered, + % of revenue top up. Could be anything really. Either way around 2027-28 we'll see something announced. Typically these agreements start with a 10 year term, then one or two 5 year extensions.

better... how? Better is relative. Meaning survival as a business? Yes Out of the three, Accuweather would be most likely to make it. haven't watched much of it but they remind me of classic TWC form when I washed up on these American shores in the mid 1990s. They're a juggernaut - own their channel, proprietary data, proprietary forecast engine, specialised AI, do forecasting for third parties (the real money maker). FOX has cash. And seems dedicated to make FOXWeather stick. I wouldn't be surprised if they start integrating it more with their O&O stations. We watched it during the snowstorms, my spouse found them annoying and repetative, which I agree with - they chewed on the same two location for what seemed hours. Rolling that 'Alert' bumper after the end of every live hit or transition was a bit much too. TWC has no big cash money behind it, and doesn't own much of anything really. I checked the USPTO and it turns out Allen owns 'The Weather Channel' trademark so they got that going for them. They are trying to make LocalNow work but who knows if it has. that USPTO rabbithole though... Allen has applied for and has pending trademarks for: 'Storm Radar' - IC 009: Downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application 'What in the weather are you waiting for' - Downloadable software and mobile applications for providing weather forecasts 'Maverick' - IC 042: Providing online non-downloadable software for tracking weather patterns, weather data, and other weather-related information to improve air and airport traffic management, efficiency, and productivity.. 'Hurricane Central' -downloadable software, website that lets users create customized web pages and profiles (social network?) 'The Weather Engine' - software as serivce (saas), educational services, telecom services 'Athmosphere by The Weather Channel' - online store; online journals, blogs, reviews, hosting digital content 'Weather Assistant' - downloadable software, non-downloadble software (AI?) 'Weatherverse' - multi user access to information and data; hardware/software for data analysys and databases 'Reelsphere' - saas for creating automated videos and voice overs in the field of weather

akshuli, the sidebar spam on Allen's gfx demos (and WABC) is ATSC3 "enhanced" interactive content. There's a burger menu icon up right. In the ABC demo the user is on a tablet, so mobile ATSC 3 with extra spam (you have to dig in the smart tv menus to nuke that, some are reporting the atsc3 interactive menus don't go away during broadcast)

the new law only covers healthcare workers it seems But... On 9/4/2025 a judge found former WISH meteorologist Ashley Elliott's non compete unenforceable because it's too broad. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/judge-blocks-enforcement-of-former-wish-tv-meteorologists-non-compete-clause/ar-AA1LZ0Ai maybe WISH were anticipating losing the lawsuit, the updated non-competes they wanted everyone to sign barred employees from working in any form of media for 1 year after leaving WISH. They could've ran their contracts out, or modified during the out windows and offered more to pay more to have them stay exclusive, and less if they want to be at will.

MyNetworkTV.com says it's on Mondays 11-1am on WMYT

Just flipped the TV on to check and WCCB has been removed from YTTV. Youtube (Hulu too) only adds channels if there's enough demand from customers, or if the channel will generate signups and retain customers. WMYT officially a CW on 55.1 in 720p. I rescanned channels and there doesn't appear to be a channel for MyNetwork so maybe it's gone in the Charlotte area. WCCB renamed itself, new branding is gold-on-black, and they didn't go with news round the clock - 5am-9am, 9-11pm and some other local programming. The Edge is also coming back at 10:30pm with Ashley Anderson, Morgan and Fred https://www.wccbcharlotte.com/2025/09/01/your-guide-to-watching-wccb-charlotte-and-our-new-lineup/

looks like something you'd see out of Germany or Poland. Not bad but quite depersonalized from the current stations' identities. Except the Nextdoor and Whatsapp spam on the right

TWC is like the Allen local stations, no money for anything, mismanaged, low morale. Doesn't sound like they could compete effectively. They are probably paying $15-$30 mil of their yearly budget money to Francisco partners (used to be IBM) for the rights to use 'The Weather Channel' name, weather data, forecast engine, radar mosaic, etc since TWC is a shell, it doesn't own anything, including weather.com. And the way these agreements are set up, the cost probably goes up ~3% per year

Allen is destroying the value of an asset... by destroying EBITDA and the 6.3-8.1 multiple it would get normally for the stations - so they can sell it to ___________ for... 2.1-3.9 multiple a now distressed asset would get?! *facepalm* Why when Allen can simply JSA or SSA to Gray/Sinclair/Nexstar/Scripps/Graham and call it a day? Or sell at the top. Seriously. Intentional destruction of asset value is illegal. Byron owns nothing, his creditors own everything. In February 2025 he rolled debt over, so in the middle of an active asset value destruction he borrowed money? This would mean he committed fraud or his lender was stupid, and lenders are rarely stupid or lose money on purpose. His loans come with covenants that force certain things to happen. His sale of the stations could be from a loan covenant clause he had to abide by -- ie $x value of assets will be sold if Y happens in Z-period etc. At minimum it would open Byron Allen to fraud and breach of fiduciary duties claims from his creditors. He would have pierced the corporate veil and exposed anything he remotely controls to be ceased. Illegal actions are often not protected by bankruptcy. He could also go to jail. Officers down the chain from Byron could be sued for knowingly abetting breach of duties by creditors clawing back every red cent they loaned. Allen is stupid, but doubtful he's that stupid because the above is not an actual strategy

Patently and factually untrue, and easily disproven by spending 5 minutes to look things up. Such as: Newsmax/Ruddy objected to and opposed the Sinclair-Tribune merger in 2017 [ https://www.nexttv.com/news/chris-ruddys-newsmax-slams-sinclair-tribune-merger-167343 ], [https://nypost.com/2018/07/18/conservative-media-boss-told-trump-he-opposed-sinclair-tribune-merger/] on the same grounds he's now objecting the Nexstar-Tegna merger. Nexstar in 2018 swooped in and structured their merger so it would pass the FCC review. Chris Ruddy then wrote an op-ed in Politico lambasting ownership loopholes, called on the FCC to "communicate a clear national standard - one that respects the ideas of localism, competition and diversity" [ https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2018/09/11/tv-station-mergers-fcc-000697] hE's FriEndS wIt TrUmP is a childish argument. Chris Ruddy / Newsmax gave Bill Clinton a glowing, front page interview in 2007 [https://archive.nytimes.com/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/bill-clinton-gives-interview-to-former-foe/] telling the Palm Beach Post "we consider [Bill Clinton] a friend, and he considers us friends". Bubba dropped by the Newsmax crib later in 2010 while campaigning in the area. Then in 2012 Ruddy traveled with Clinton and his foundation overseas and blogged on the foundation's website and wrote glowing reviews of the foundation's work. Ruddy is not a Republican, nor is he "far right". He's libertarian. Who happens to have some overlap with "Republicans" on a few issues that cause some people's knickers to stretch into a wedgy.

Chris has friends in high places and not afraid to use them. he should just do the NewsNation shows shirtless

they aren't digging, NBC staffers are leaking because they didn't want Tom taking over, as if they should be allowed any say. As far back as his WTVJ days Tom had reputation for not putting up with lazy, mediocre people who phone it in. In those days, some these people would come to me at sfltv with "tips" to try and damage him by giving me "tips". So the story from college was known to me, which means it was known for a long, long time to people he worked with. As these "tipsters" came to me sometimes I'd ask the late WTVJ anchor Joel Connable about it and he told me, multiple times, Tom is ambitious, great reporter, who works hard and wants to earn his way up but he has no tolerance for mediocrity or behind the camera politics, so some of these people would tie themselves up into a knot if Tom dared to criticise. It was bad enough at times that Joel told me multiple times, unprompted, he'd had to step in and defend Tom from some of these scrags trying to undermine him with station management, sometimes inventing stories about Tom what he said or did, that never happened. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the same people are involved now. If my database on sfltv.com hasn't eaten the comments, there was a back and forth in the comments of one post between WTVJ staffers regarding Tom and since I didn't censor people, names were dropped about the situation.

Newsmax CEO, and friend of President Trump since the mid 1990s, filed a personal letter with the FCC on August 21, 2025, against expanding the ownership limits. He called on the FCC to leave the ownership cap in place at 39%, and remove the UHF discount because it goes "undermines Congress' original intent" --- https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10821310342987/1 He went after Sinclair personally: