Sinclair...Again

[sanewsguy 511]

As I posted back in July:

 

Sinclair on their station's websites, now have a new survey up called the "Your Voice Survey". There are eleven categories:

then from there, there are subcategories within the categories. You can then vote on a scale of "least interested" to "most interested" and help decide what the newsrooms cover on a daily basis.

 

They won't really listen to you, but go ahead, Sinclair's "interested in what you think! Take our poll. your answers will help us cover the news that matters most to you."

 

Yeah right. Even if the "Waste of Tax Dollars" and "Government Corruption" categories get low marks, Sinclair will continue to cover those kinds of stories... That's their specialty and this is a nice way for them to cover themselves...

 

Did KATU label it as a "Viewer's Voice" news survey? I'm curious, since KATU uses that name for a segment on their newscast (predating Sinclair). KABB refers to it as the "Your Voice" news survey. It's been linked on all the Sinclair sites since July (or September for the Fisher ones; only on the Fisher sites, it's real small and tucked away in a corner while on the Sinclair CMS it's a very large banner near the top of the page, there's no way you would miss it on those sites).

 

The banner from the Fisher sites:

 

While we're on the topic, they updated the survey:

 

so the image above is actually outdated now. Here's an updated image.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

No, they are a distant fourth place as of May sweeps (July doesn't really count, but the picture was the same). KVUE and KXAN continue to battle it out for first (with KXAN usually second) while KTBC third. They do well at 10pm (still last place, but more viewers than their other newscasts), but only because of CBS primetime as lead-in. KEYE is the worst newscast in Austin anyways, by far. They have the most watched primetime lineup, but not the most watched late news (although they do better than KTBC at 9), with KVUE winning, which tells you most of their primetime viewers think their newscast sucks so they switch over to KVUE or KXAN.

 

It should also be noted Austin itself is VERY liberal (probably the most liberal in one of the most conservative states in the country; the lifestyle and culture can easily be compared to Portland, OR, Seattle or similar cities), so I doubt the strategy would work anyways. The suburbs and surrounding areas are more conservative so it makes sense KEYE is targeting these areas instead.

 

Does this strategy even make sense. I understand Sinclair likes to push an ideology with it's newscasts somewhat (and I'm being nice when I say "somewhat"), but you'd think that the desire to get the most ratings and revenue would trump trying to push a political agenda. Limiting your target market to only a specific geographic region doesn't seem to make too much sense to me unless your market covers a big geographic area (like WEAR covering the FL part of the Mobile-Pensacola market and WLOS covering the NC part of its market). It's like when WCNC brags about having the most viewers in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) but still has WSOC and WBTV creaming them in the overall ratings in the entire market.

 

BTW: The fact that KEYE's newscasts are doing so bad even with the strong ratings during the CBS Primetime lineup is further proof that this strategy and it's management is not working. Same thing goes with WGCL (another CBS affiliate that is poorly underperforming).

 

 

Keep in they have very successful stations now like WKRC and KUTV which they are basically signing the checks and caretaking them, and they have stations that dominate parts of their market like WLOS in Asheville, WCHS in Charleston and WEAR in Pensacola

I for one get a kick out of Sinclair bragging about stations like KUTV, WPEC, and WKRC because apparently the stations they've owned for longer than a couple of years aren't worth bragging about.

 

And you're right, outside of the mandated segments and town halls, Sinclair hasn't done much else in terms of tweaking these stations which is probably the one smart thing it's done lately.

[PTVNews 194]

 

Did KATU label it as a "Viewer's Voice" news survey? I'm curious, since KATU uses that name for a segment on their newscast (predating Sinclair). KABB refers to it as the "Your Voice" news survey. It's been linked on all the Sinclair sites since July (or September for the Fisher ones; only on the Fisher sites, it's real small and tucked away in a corner while on the Sinclair CMS it's a very large banner near the top of the page, there's no way you would miss it on those sites).

 

Yes, they did call it a "Viewers voice survey". It caught my attention because usually their "Viewers Voice" segment, which they've had for several years, is just a question that they want people to answer on Facebook or Twitter.

[CircleSeven 1955]

cnyradio.com stated that it appears that WSTM, as of Friday's newscasts, is now using the closing copyright under Sinclair Broadcast Group.

 

As of 6:30am/EST, Sinclair have yet to announced the official closing on the deal. But I assumed it will be coming soon. I wouldn't be shocked if they announce that closing later on today. The last three deals (Cox, Fisher & Titan) were consummated within a very short time after FCC greenlights it.

 

If we remember last year, the weekend before the Newport deal was getting ready to close (December 3, 2012), many stations started using the new copyrights on the air.

 

EDIT 6:45am/EST: Looks like Pilot Group has shutdown its Barrington website. Hell they didn't update it anyway since like 2011? They should've shut it down eons ago.

 

Okay two consummations have been posted on the FCC site this morning. WYZZ to Cunningham & WWMB to Howard Stirk's. Both were consummated on Friday.

[tvjay 6]

 

It seems to be a vicious cycle for Sinclair.....the more successful a station is, they tend to leave it alone. The more screwed up it is, they "fix" it, only to screw it up some more....rinse and repeat....

 

 

This isn't just a Sinclair thing. Corporations "know" how to run a corporation, not a LOCAL TV station.

[tyrannical bastard 3953]

The question is, is Sinclair actually capable of creating success at their stations that they've owned or acquired?

 

If Sinclair (and other companies) were put into a vacuum and didn't have any outside influence or success to ride on, would they still have successful stations?

 

There are groups where success is created, and others that take a good idea from these stations and replicate it in mass quantities hoping for their own success.

 

I know broadcasting is a heavily derivative industry, but there are clearly groups that have modeled their stations after successful ones, sometimes with not-so-successful results....

[CircleSeven 1955]

Alright y'all. It's Done. Sinclair has announced the completion of the Barrington acquisition. Sinclair also announced that those LMAs in Syracuse & Peoria will stay in tack until March of 2017, when that term expires. After that Sinclair will not renew those LMAs.

 

I still think the Peoria situation will probably end earlier than that. Should Nexstar acquire Granite, could we see an early withdrawl with the LMAs? and if so how much they want to get out of the deal early? And it shouldn't be too long before that WMBD/WYZZ LMA expire.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

 

Alright y'all. It's Done. Sinclair has announced the completion of the Barrington acquisition. Sinclair also announced that those LMAs in Syracuse & Peoria will stay in tack until March of 2017, when that term expires. After that Sinclair will not renew those LMAs.

 

I still think the Peoria situation will probably end earlier than that. Should Nexstar acquire Granite, could we see an early withdrawl with the LMAs? and if so how much they want to get out of the deal early? And it shouldn't be too long before that WMBD/WYZZ LMA expire.

 

 

I highly doubt Granite will be around in 2017, in fact, I'd be shocked if it is still around at the end of 2014. That might have been the first hint there - maybe Nexstar is in the process of acquiring Granite and a reshuffle is forthcoming?

[sanewsguy 511]

 

Alright y'all. It's Done. Sinclair has announced the completion of the Barrington acquisition. Sinclair also announced that those LMAs in Syracuse & Peoria will stay in tack until March of 2017, when that term expires. After that Sinclair will not renew those LMAs.

 

I still think the Peoria situation will probably end earlier than that. Should Nexstar acquire Granite, could we see an early withdrawl in the LMAs, and if so how much they want to get out of the deal early?

 

They probably closed Friday and are just announcing today. This was the case with Newport. November 30 will be the one-year anniversary of them closing on the Newport acquisition, and also when Sinclair announced internally they were purchasing Barrington (it was not publicly announced until February, presumably because some financial stuff had to be worked out). So this deal took nearly a year to complete. At least it's done. Next one for them: Allbritton.

 

Can you elaborate on the LMA ending in Peoria? Which one, the Granite or the Nexstar one? 2017 gives these stations plenty to find new facilities. WHOI could just move back to their transmitter facility in Creve Couer which is where the studio/office was co-located before they moved in with WEEK. WTVH's old studios are still owned by Granite (they're up for sale but nobody's interested) if they ever wanted to move back.

 

On WEYI's site, they have not yet updated the copyright but added new ownership info:

WPBN has added similar ownership info on upnorthlive.com pertaining to ownership of WGTU. as does WPDE, who is owned by Howard Stirk, while WWMB is owned by Sinclair proper.

 

The name may not have changed yet, but minutes ago the copyrights were 2006-2013 Barrington, now it's just 2013. So they're probably working on changing the name now.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2013/11/24/sinclair-to-takeover-barrington-stations-this-week

 

Not sure how much I believe that, is it really true or just a fear tactic?

[hathawaynson2 39]

They probably closed Friday and are just announcing today. This was the case with Newport. November 30 will be the one-year anniversary of them closing on the Newport acquisition, and also when Sinclair announced internally they were purchasing Barrington (it was not publicly announced until February, presumably because some financial stuff had to be worked out). So this deal took nearly a year to complete. At least it's done. Next one for them: Allbritton.

 

Can you elaborate on the LMA ending in Peoria? Which one, the Granite or the Nexstar one? 2017 gives these stations plenty to find new facilities. WHOI could just move back to their transmitter facility in Creve Couer which is where the studio/office was co-located before they moved in with WEEK. WTVH's old studios are still owned by Granite (they're up for sale but nobody's interested) if they ever wanted to move back.

 

On WEYI's site, they have not yet updated the copyright but added new ownership info:

WPBN has added similar ownership info on upnorthlive.com pertaining to ownership of WGTU. as does WPDE, who is owned by Howard Stirk, while WWMB is owned by Sinclair proper.

 

The name may not have changed yet, but minutes ago the copyrights were 2006-2013 Barrington, now it's just 2013. So they're probably working on changing the name now.

correction: WPDE is owned and operated by Sinclair and WWMB is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

correction: WPDE is owned and operated by Sinclair and WWMB is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings.

 

[Samantha 2895]

Speaking of Howard Stirk, I found their website (which consists of a WordPress blog with one entry, dated November 1). It explains where the name came from, too (it's not a whole name):

 

"Howard Stirk Holdings, LLC, (HSH) is owned by veteran media producer and opinion maker Armstrong Williams. HSH is a combination of the maiden name of Williams’ mother, Howard, and his father’s middle name, Stirk."

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

They probably closed Friday and are just announcing today. This was the case with Newport. November 30 will be the one-year anniversary of them closing on the Newport acquisition, and also when Sinclair announced internally they were purchasing Barrington (it was not publicly announced until February, presumably because some financial stuff had to be worked out). So this deal took nearly a year to complete. At least it's done. Next one for them: Allbritton.

 

Can you elaborate on the LMA ending in Peoria? Which one, the Granite or the Nexstar one? 2017 gives these stations plenty to find new facilities. WHOI could just move back to their transmitter facility in Creve Couer which is where the studio/office was co-located before they moved in with WEEK. WTVH's old studios are still owned by Granite (they're up for sale but nobody's interested) if they ever wanted to move back.

 

On WEYI's site, they have not yet updated the copyright but added new ownership info:

WPBN has added similar ownership info on upnorthlive.com pertaining to ownership of WGTU. as does WPDE, who is owned by Howard Stirk, while WWMB is owned by Sinclair proper.

 

The name may not have changed yet, but minutes ago the copyrights were 2006-2013 Barrington, now it's just 2013. So they're probably working on changing the name now.

 

Just wait until they get those Sinclair style websites, they won't have much to worry about.

 

When I mention about the Peoria LMA, the press release said the Sinclair won't renew the Peoria LMA (WHOI/WEEK) past 2017. I also mention about when does the Nexstar LMA (WMBD/WYZZ) end. I would assume that WMBD/WYZZ LMA shouldn't be long before that one expire. And I said, should Nexstar get WEEK, could that current WEEK/WHOI LMA terminate early? It sounded like from the press release, that Sinclair is going to be stuck until the end. And I don't see Nexstar keeping it a status quo longer than 3 years. But yes sanewsguy, that would be more than enough time to get their facilities done, or even build a brand new facility (not likely), to facilitate WHOI/WYZZ.

 

Yes I say this because, WUHF is moving to WHAM on the first of the year 2014, because the WUHF/WROC LMA is going to expire. And should that WYZZ/WMBD LMA expires before the March 2017 date, it will mostly that Sinclair will immediately have WYZZ form a new LMA with WHOI at the least. And if it doesn't end with WEEK, then Sinclair would control three of the four mains in a period of those three years. So like I stated, I wonder if Nexstar would have the guts to terminate that WEEK/WHOI LMA early, should Nexstar grabs WEEK (with the Mission card of course)? It would not look right if the other's shell is in their LMA. Right WYZZ is owned by Cunningham, but with a LMA with Nexstar. Should Nexstar get WEEK (using Mission card), so that mean Sinclair operates a Mission station? And for another 39 months?

 

 

Speaking of Howard Stirk, I found their website (which consists of a WordPress blog with one entry, dated November 1). It explains where the name came from, too (it's not a whole name):

 

"Howard Stirk Holdings, LLC, (HSH) is owned by veteran media producer and opinion maker Armstrong Williams. HSH is a combination of the maiden name of Williams’ mother, Howard, and his father’s middle name, Stirk."

 

I remember when the he first stated about it days after he announced the new venture. Similar to David Smith's parents. Y'all know His father's middle name and his mother's maiden name.... While its most definitely a work in progress, at least he does have a website. Unlike Cunningrab & Stealfield.

 

EDIT: The date of the consummations of the Newport stations were December 1st, not November 30th, as per this consummation notice here. I still have December 3rd on my mind because of that date of the announcement of the closing. And of course there were a few station were still waiting for the greenlight. The KLRT app didn't see the greenlight until the following week. And the rest of the stations didn't get the greenlight until the start of this year, with KMTR being the last station on April 24, and ending Newport for good on June 1st (six months later).

 

The Barrington ones (the two that was posted this morning) were Friday consummations, however.

 

Here's two more closing notices posted today (11/26) (WGTU (Cunningham) & WSYT (Bristlecone)) which were also closed on Friday.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

Sinclair announced today that they've hired an FCC insider to be their "senior vice president of strategy and policy." She will most likely be Sinclair's mouthpiece on Capitol Hill as growing opposition toward their use of SSA's/JSA's (AKA "sidecars") gains traction and a movement to get rid of the UHF discount grows.

[Samantha 2895]

 

Sinclair announced today that they've hired an FCC insider to be their "senior vice president of strategy and policy." She will most likely be Sinclair's mouthpiece on Capitol Hill as growing opposition toward their use of SSA's/JSA's (AKA "sidecars") gains traction and a movement to get rid of the UHF discount grows.

 

She worked at the firm that's now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in the 90s; that firm, it should be noted, is representing Sinclair and sidecars in the Allbritton case. They prepared the identical oppositions from Deerfield and HSH.

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

Sinclair announced today that they've hired an FCC insider to be their "senior vice president of strategy and policy." She will most likely be Sinclair's mouthpiece on Capitol Hill as growing opposition toward their use of SSA's/JSA's (AKA "sidecars") gains traction and a movement to get rid of the UHF discount grows.

 

I thought Sinclair already had a series of lobbyists. With all those cluster of stations Sinclair now have, I'm shocked they don't have a lobbyist team, and not just one person. This is nothing short of monumental, as this is the first time I've seen a station group company appoint a DC lobbyist. This just shows how weak they are, since they've hired a former FCC employee. Sinclair wouldn't even do this, if they didn't see the change of gaurd thinking about possibly proposing to end these loopholes which made Sinclair the way they are right now. Why can't Sinclair just post a complain against the end of the discount. They still have time. I guess that's their reason to bring her to lobby against some alterations of their status quo. Of course this announcement comes after Sen. Rockefeller is asking the FCC to gather up data from the effectiveness of those JSA/SSA, and have asked to slow down on approving new pending deals that have those JSA/SSA until some report comes out on the effectiveness of those agreements. And it appears that the American Cable Association is backing Sen. Rockefeller.

 

Anyway, Sinclair is awaiting approval on five deals. The two major deals, New Age and Allbritton, the smaller deals WWCP, WPFO to Cunningham, and the Anderson/Cunningham TOCs. I think the New Age deal could see the greenlight before Allbritton, and they they'll piggy back and take the Chattanooga duo, using his two banker friends to acquire the licenses.

 

The last of the closing notices were posted today. Every station including WHOI posted November 22 as the consummation date. Let see if Sinclair is at their word and keep the Schaumburg offices for their new Chesapeake. Or did they forget about that already.

[CircleSeven 1955]

Some consummation notes.

 

First, Sinclair has renamed the licensee of the former Fisher properties again. For example, KOMO is now "Sinclair Seattle Licensee, LLC"; and KATU is now "Sinclair Portland Licensee, LLC", and etc. (why can't it be their usual KOMO Licensee, LLC, KATU Licensee, LLC and the like?). The changes went into effect on November 6th.

 

Now I wonder if they're going to do the same for the Titan stations. So far, all of their licensee names are still the same. Some Titan stations that went to NRJ, those were changed to NRJ style licensee names.

 

Also Sinclair has completed their divestiture of CBS affiliate KIDK & Fox affiliate KXPI to News-Press & Gazette's sidecar VistaWest Media, LLC. That deal was announced while Sinclair was awaiting FCC approval of the Fisher sale. Consummation happened on Black Friday.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

Some consummation notes.

 

First, Sinclair has renamed the licensee of the former Fisher properties again. For example, KOMO is now "Sinclair Seattle Licensee, LLC"; and KATU is now "Sinclair Portland Licensee, LLC", and etc. (why can't it be their usual KOMO Licensee, LLC, KATU Licensee, LLC and the like?). The changes went into effect on November 6th.

 

Now I wonder if they're going to do the same for the Titan stations. So far, all of their licensee names are still the same. Some Titan stations that went to NRJ, those were changed to NRJ style licensee names.

 

Does it really matter who the licensee of the station is?

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

Does it really matter who the licensee of the station is?

 

Not when everyone know who's the parent company of those licensees. But I do fine it fascinating that they didn't follow their typical KXXX/WXXX Licensee, LLC mantra on the Fisher stations. But of course their flagship station licensee is "Chesapeake Television Licensee, LLC" and not "WBFF Licensee, LLC". Almost like WGN's is "WGN Continental Broadcasting Company, LLC" and not the typical "WGN, LLC" or "Tribune Broadcasting Chicago, LLC/Tribune Television of Chicago, LLC" that the Tribune stations are using.

 

______________________________________

 

Okay. I found something out last week. WFGX is one of four stations that are operated by Sinclair in the Mobile-Pensacola area. Okay, y'all know that they carry This TV network during the weekends, and not on a dedicated subchannel, like most This TV affiliates have. According to the examiner.com website, WFGX release their statement as the reasons why they don't have subchannels on that station.

 

According to WFGX-TV, the reason they do not have a digital sub-channel at this time is because the channel would be without local advertisements, station identification, or Emergency Alert System alerts unless they were to purchase the equipment necessary for broadcasting them on the sub-channel. As for whether they would purchase the equipment anytime soon, they currently have no plans to do so based on the the revenue they expect to generate years in the future and would only consider it if it were to become economically feasible.

Now. What have WFGX's parent company have done these past 27 months? They bought two more stations in the markets, and over 100 more stations in the process. They want to buy more TV stations, but they can't buy a certain piece of equipment for a little station, that happens to share the station with Pensacola's WEAR 3, which operates that certain country channel on its subchannel. Are they're showing station IDs, local ads and EAS for the ZUUS country? If they are, then what they said by not placing This TV on its own dedicated subchannel is 100% Grade-A Purified Bullshit.

 

But this is exactly what I've been talking about. The Heathens of Hunt Valley can't invest on buying a proper equipment to have the EAS/IDs/local ad inserts for all four of their stations in the market and their streams (and for other markets that probably don't have the same thing like WFGX). But they can buy everything else but the kitchen sink, like full-fledge television stations.

 

What are they're going to do when all these pending sales close? They have all that capital to get new equipment for all of the legacy and newly-acquired mid-market stations, while they can send their old equipment to the Barrington/Freedom/Fisher/Titan small market stations. They can hire they're own firm to get them new graphics. I doubt they're going to standardized, with too many stations under their belt, and several are duopolize with the big-4. While they're talking about the next ATSC standard and mobile DTV, why don't they focus on putting some effort into the stations they already have, and stop bullshitting in not doing any heavy lifting. It's like looking at the company with several different groups all in one. The Legacy, The newly-acquired, and the plethora of shells. I can't wait until we see which stations would be assign to the Steve Pruett side of the group, so they can start doing some heavy lifting. That's where they REALLY need to start on. But I would be pissed, if they don't do anything with the other big stations. Especially KOMO, KATU & WJLA. Hell, I wouldn't have cared if everything would've been piecemeal, and they would've spared those three. Sad that they'd sold those kingdoms to the devil. Shame, Shame, Shame.

[tyrannical bastard 3953]

Usually, these subchannel operations are turnkey operations that can run on their own and even pass through alerts and IDs. Methinks they just don't want to spend the $$$$ to give This their own subchannel. When they became a full market station in 2010, most of the programming outside of MyNetworkTV and Maury/Jerry Springer was ThisTV content. They only air stuff from them on the weekends and during the week for two hours a day usually anymore.

 

Even when they became full-market, WFGX once had TWO subchannels. They carried TheCoolTV on 35.2 AND the Country network on 35.3. Eventually Country moved to WEAR's .2 and TheCoolTV was dropped by all of Sinclair's stations over some kind of financial dispute. WFGX hasn't had a subchannel since.

 

Sinclair also dropped The Tube in early 2007 on all of their stations over the lack of E/I programming which became required on all subchannels in 2007. This likely led to the network's demise several months later since Sinclair was a large portion of their affiliate base.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

 

But this is exactly what I've been talking about. The Heathens of Hunt Valley can't invest on buying a proper equipment to have the EAS/IDs/local ad inserts for all four of their stations in the market and their streams (and for other markets that probably don't have the same thing like WFGX). But they can buy everything else but the kitchen sink, like full-fledge television stations.

 

What are they're going to do when all these pending sales close? They have all that capital to get new equipment for all of the legacy and newly-acquired mid-market stations, while they can send their old equipment to the Barrington/Freedom/Fisher/Titan small market stations. They can hire they're own firm to get them new graphics. I doubt they're going to standardized, with too many stations under their belt, and several are duopolize with the big-4. While they're talking about the next ATSC standard and mobile DTV, why don't they focus on putting some effort into the stations they already have, and stop bullshitting in not doing any heavy lifting. It's like looking at the company with several different groups all in one. The Legacy, The newly-acquired, and the plethora of shells. I can't wait until we see which stations would be assign to the Steve Pruett side of the group, so they can start doing some heavy lifting. That's where they REALLY need to start on. But I would be pissed, if they don't do anything with the other big stations. Especially KOMO, KATU & WJLA. Hell, I wouldn't have cared if everything would've been piecemeal, and they would've spared those three. Sad that they'd sold those kingdoms to the devil. Shame, Shame, Shame.

 

Unless they beg for a bailout from the federal government, this is the fate that ultimately awaits S!nclair.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

Unless they beg for a bailout from the federal government, this is the fate that ultimately awaits S!nclair.

 

They can let Clear Channel die. Horrible company that doesn't care about the community or their employees. Plus their stations (news/talk) regularly criticize the president (much more openly), why would they bail them out?

[sanewsguy 511]

Sinclair finally changed the copyrights on the Barrington sites. In no particular order:

KGBT, WPBN, WLUC, KXRM © Copyright 2013 Chesapeake Media I, LLC

KVII, WPDE, WACH, WNWO, WSTM, KTVO, KRCG, WFXL © Copyright 2013 Sinclair Communications, LLC

KHQA © Copyright 2013 Sinclair Television of Illinois, LLC

WEYI © Copyright 2013 Howard Stirk Holdings, LLC

 

WPDE corrected the ownership notice on their site so WWMB is the one owned by HSH and not WPDE (as the notice originally stated).

[TSSZNews 1051]

A ray of hope re: Sinclair and Allbritton:

 

 

The FCC’s Media Bureau has alleged that the sidecar transactions that Sinclair Broadcast Group has proposed in three markets as part of its $985-million pending acquisition of Allbritton Communications — Charleston, S.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Harrisburg, Pa. — would violate agency ownership rules.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/72517/fcc-targets-sinclair-sidecar-deals-in-3-mkts