Sinclair...Again

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

The Toledo Blade is reporting that WNWO, one of the stations Sinclair acquired from Barrington, has been pulled from Buckeye CableSystem after it and Sinclair failed to reach a new retransmission consent agreement.

 

Tis the Season.

 

(Seriously, these contract disputes always seem to happen right around New Years)

[sanewsguy 511]

 

New filing in the Allbritton case... It's not an exciting one though.

 

It's a guy in Yuma, AZ who simply seems to put in a lot of Free Press pieces as submissions for the record in FCC dockets like this.

 

None of that (in the complaint) has to do with the Allbritton sale and this guy's not even affected by the sale so it's pointless.

[CircleSeven 1955]

I guess this will be WUHF's new logo?

 

 

I guess they're doing a two week warning, that WHAM will take over Fox's newscasts.

 

Their morning newscasts "Good Day Rochester" will be two hours (7-9am). Their weeknight 10pm will be one hour (10-11pm), and their weekend 10pm will be a half-hour (10-10:30pm).

 

EDIT: Looking through the TitanTV Guide, It looks like WUHF will air The Simpsons & Seinfeld on the 10pm hour on New Year's Eve. If this sticks, then the final WROC-produced 10pm newscast would be on Monday, the 30th. I assume they want some time to make the transition to Henrietta.

[sanewsguy 511]

I like it, much cleaner than the current logo which more cartoonish in nature.

[CircleSeven 1955]

Prediction is it goes to Cunnigham since Deerfield and Sinclair proper already own there.

And as expected..... KRNV & KENV will go to Cunningham. Anderson will buy the license assets for $6.5M.

 

This is maybe SBG last buy of this year, as they wait on other pending sales to go through the regulatory process.

 

As for Rogers' Sunbelt, only Bluetooth, I mean Beartooth NBC & Vegas Channel 3 is left. I doubt he would sell KSNV immediately, but I have a feeling he'll unload KTVH soon. Come on Bonten, you have some pennies to scrape. Go on and buy KTVH and feed into your NBC Montana cluster.

[Big Country News 435]

 

I guess they're doing a two week warning, that WHAM will take over Fox's newscasts.

 

"Local Fox (WUHF) is not affiliated with the 24-hour Fox News Channel."

 

More and more steps by affiliates to distance themselves from FNC.

[Samantha 2895]

 

"Local Fox (WUHF) is not affiliated with the 24-hour Fox News Channel."

 

More and more steps by affiliates to distance themselves from FNC.

 

No, more steps to reduce viewers' confusion. No, seriously, viewers get confused.

[CircleSeven 1955]

Yesterday when I posted it, it said "Local Fox (WUHF) is not affiliated with the Fox network". That alone is confusing. They must've changed it last night or this morning.

 

Either way, the guides are posting on the first of January, the new newscast "Good Day Rochester" and "13 WHAM News at 10" with no 15 minute sports final show at 10:45pm.

 

But you gotta give kudos to Nexstar's WROC producing their 10pm news for eight years.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

I was bored tonight and stumbled on some history behind Sinclair and WBFF. One fun fact was that one point back in the 1990's, the Smith brothers were trying to petition the FCC to reject Scripps-Howard's renewal for WMAR and instead hand over the Channel 2 frequency to them because they're local.

 

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-09-13/business/1991256061_1_wbff-smith-family-channel

 

Also, I found another article when Sinclair acquired WNUV using their now famous sidecar techniques.

 

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-10-14/features/1993287169_1_smith-brothers-carolyn-smith-scripps-howard

 

It also seems to highlight a feud that went on between the Smith Brothers and Scripps-Howard. Either way, these old articles are fascinating to read.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

No, more steps to reduce viewers' confusion. No, seriously, viewers get confused.

Which makes it even more baffling that Fox went with the O&O standardization route they did, which was to directly copy the look of Fox News.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

Which makes it even more baffling that Fox went with the O&O standardization route they did, which was to directly copy the look of Fox News.

 

Fox went this way because Jack Abernethy used to work for the Fox News Channel before moving to head up FTSG. Copying the look is one thing, content is another. That and the local stations are tired of hearing viewers say that they're owned by Newscorp when they're not. KABB had a comment like this on their FB page last month (cached from google):

The station response (in the form of a google search result):

No matter how many times you tell the audience, as long as they see "FOX" a lot of them associate it with the News Channel. That's just the downside of being affiliated with Fox even though the local news here is nowhere close to being the level of Fox News (yes they air the Sinclair PKGS on weekends and Fox News PKGs regularly but ever since they got a subscription to CNN a couple of years ago they've been using that far more; they also inherited the remainder of WOAI's AP subscription so they use a lot of stuff from the AP as well now).

 

The affiliates (both O&O and otherwise), most of them have managed to stay away from emulating the content of Fox News. Some do have a conservative slant (by choice, not ownership), some have a liberal slant, and some do put a very balanced product (like KABB).

[mre29 1524]

People who think News Corp owns all Fox affiliates probably also think the other networks own all of their affiliates, too. Can you imagine KXGN as a CBS O&O? :lol:

 

That said, I wonder if NBC affiliates are distancing themselves from MSNBC. (I would hope so.)

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

Fox went this way because Jack Abernethy used to work for the Fox News Channel before moving to head up FTSG. Copying the look is one thing, content is another. That and the local stations are tired of hearing viewers say that they're owned by Newscorp when they're not. KABB had a comment like this on their FB page last month (cached from google):

The station response (in the form of a google search result):

No matter how many times you tell the audience, as long as they see "FOX" a lot of them associate it with the News Channel. That's just the downside of being affiliated with Fox even though the local news here is nowhere close to being the level of Fox News (yes they air the Sinclair PKGS on weekends and Fox News PKGs regularly but ever since they got a subscription to CNN a couple of years ago they've been using that far more; they also inherited the remainder of WOAI's AP subscription so they use a lot of stuff from the AP as well now).

 

The affiliates (both O&O and otherwise), most of them have managed to stay away from emulating the content of Fox News. Some do have a conservative slant (by choice, not ownership), some have a liberal slant, and some do put a very balanced product (like KABB).

 

Yeah, people make that same mistake with KTVU too, which is about the furthest a Fox affiliate can get in terms of branding and news content and still be a Fox affiliate

[GoldenShine9 1513]

With the Local TV-Tribune and Belo-Gannett deals done and just awaiting the final handshake, the Allbritton deal would logically be next, but will Sinclair even be allowed to keep everything? If the deal dies though, there isn't anyone obvious who can make a clean deal either. Also if the FCC or DOJ rules they cannot keep everything, things might get ugly - i.e. into court and everything.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

With the Local TV-Tribune and Belo-Gannett deals done and just awaiting the final handshake, the Allbritton deal would logically be next, but will Sinclair even be allowed to keep everything? If the deal dies though, there isn't anyone obvious who can make a clean deal either. Also if the FCC or DOJ rules they cannot keep everything, things might get ugly - i.e. into court and everything.

 

Something tells me that they'll have to give up something in Harrisburg. I bet that's been holding up the approval of this transaction.

[Samantha 2895]

 

Something tells me that they'll have to give up something in Harrisburg. I bet that's been holding up the approval of this transaction.

 

If Harrisburg isn't outright excluded, I could see a deal in which Sinclair gets WHTM and sells WHP (probably to Nexstar), who then takes control of WLYH.

[sanewsguy 511]

I understand that this was in the Out and About thread but I'm putting it here too. Kai Jackson has been hired by Sinclair as a Washington DC national correspondent. For the record, Sinclair does not yet have a physical presence in Washington so Kristine Frazao is actually based in Baltimore and commutes to DC -- this is evidenced by standups using the WBFF set often times. He's a good get for them but will more likely than not, will not be used for his journalistic abilities but as yet another mouthpiece of the Smith family's agenda. He would've been better off staying with WJZ. I guess he was really looking for a change after anchoring there for 21 years.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

I understand that this was in the Out and About thread but I'm putting it here too. Kai Jackson has been hired by Sinclair as a Washington DC national correspondent. For the record, Sinclair does not yet have a physical presence in Washington so Kristine Frazao is actually based in Baltimore and commutes to DC -- this is evidenced by standups using the WBFF set often times. He's a good get for them but will more likely than not, will not be used for his journalistic abilities but as yet another mouthpiece of the Smith family's agenda. He would've been better off staying with WJZ. I guess he was really looking for a change after anchoring there for 21 years.

Should S!nclair complete their takeover of Allbritton, bank on Kai Jackson being brought in to the lead anchor position at ABC7. That's almost too obvious.

[TVNewsLover 779]

Should S!nclair complete their takeover of Allbritton, bank on Kai Jackson being brought in to the lead anchor position at ABC7. That's almost too obvious.

Replacing who?

[Rusty Muck 4374]

Should S!nclair complete their takeover of Allbritton, bank on Kai Jackson being brought in to the lead anchor position at ABC7. That's almost too obvious.

Replacing who?

Gordon Peterson would be most likely to leave, IMO. His long-running political round table program "Inside Washington" (which WJLA syndicated to PBS stations) wrapped up production this week.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

Should S!nclair complete their takeover of Allbritton, bank on Kai Jackson being brought in to the lead anchor position at ABC7. That's almost too obvious.

 

Just like Jon Lawhead hired Shelia Gray to do "Family 411" groupwide (she commutes to WKEF to actually work on the packages) but probably really hired her to put on WKRC once her non-compete expires?

[LTSC1980 112]

http://www.buckeyecablesystem.com/onyourside/index.html

 

Sin-clair pulled WNWO in Buckeye CableSystem. Posted on Out and About but It fits to post here.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

http://www.buckeyecablesystem.com/onyourside/index.html

 

Sin-clair pulled WNWO in Buckeye CableSystem. Posted on Out and About but It fits to post here.

 

This was posted on the other thread but I'll post it here too since I found it interesting:

 

http://www.wspd.com/media/podcast-scott-sands-scottsands/1216-brad-mefferd-of-buckeye-cablesystem-24097241/

 

One interesting takeaway from that interview, in addition to Sinclair asking Buckeye to pay 10x the previous amount in retransmission fees, is the additional requirement that Buckeye carry the new cable news channel that Sinclair is developing on its Expanded Basic tier. Something that I predicted was going to happen when these plans first came out over the summer.

 

If Sinclair is really going to go this route, then there are going to be a lot more of these disputes with TV providers and even Directv and Dish in the future. Which would be no loss to me because the only thing Sinclair has here is KDNL and I've stopped watching ABC a long time ago when they started to air less and less sports and ABC News got a lot more fluffier.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

This was posted on the other thread but I'll post it here too since I found it interesting:

 

http://www.wspd.com/media/podcast-scott-sands-scottsands/1216-brad-mefferd-of-buckeye-cablesystem-24097241/

 

One interesting takeaway from that interview, in addition to Sinclair asking Buckeye to pay 10x the previous amount in retransmission fees, is the additional requirement that Buckeye carry the new cable news channel that Sinclair is developing on its Expanded Basic tier. Something that I predicted was going to happen when these plans first came out over the summer.

 

If Sinclair is really going to go this route, then there are going to be a lot more of these disputes with TV providers and even Directv and Dish in the future. Which would be no loss to me because the only thing Sinclair has here is KDNL and I've stopped watching ABC a long time ago when they started to air less and less sports and ABC News got a lot more fluffier.

 

Oh you know what else Barry Faber said that was so stupid:

"People always ask me if something like this happens, how we can have input. The answer is call up Buckeye Cable and say 'Hey I'm a subscriber, and unless you get WNWO back on the air, I'm switching. You have like, you know, two days, and I'm switching. I'm calling up AT&T tomorrow.' It'll be back on in no time." Yeah right.

 

Sinclair ALWAYS mentions a variation of this when they have retrans disputes. But as the guy from Buckeye said, you can switch to them, but you'll find out soon enough they'll be in a retrans squat with someone else.

 

For once, I actually agree with Brad Mefferd (I usually don't agree with the cable companies). He actually speaks the truth. Barry Faber: . A lot of what he says either makes no sense, is unrealistic, or does not pertain to the conversation at hand.

 

It's also very evident Barry Faber hates speaking in public. Not only does he say it, he stutters over his words and struggles to figure out what to say. You'll notice at the very beginning the host said they've extended an offer to WNWO, and what more than likely happened was that corporate caught wind, streamed the radio station, and only once they heard what the guy had to say, did they actually call in.

 

And as I posted in the other thread, "LOL at some of the things Faber says, including bringing up the Disney Channel and saying he doesn't know what Mefferd meant when he called WNWO "lowly rated" (which they are)." He refers to NBC's programming as "pretty premier" but completely ignores their local news which absolutely sucks. It sucked under Barrington, and Sinclair hasn't done anything there other than getting into arguments with Buckeye Cable. Buckeye does carry WDIV but blacks out NBC and syndicated programming and shows QVC outside of their local programming.

 

And for every time he called the Buckeye cable guy's remarks "funny" it was Faber's that were actually "funny" as they made no sense.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

Oh you know what else Barry Faber said that was so stupid:

"People always ask me if something like this happens, how we can have input. The answer is call up Buckeye Cable and say 'Hey I'm a subscriber, and unless you get WNWO back on the air, I'm switching. You have like, you know, two days, and I'm switching. I'm calling up AT&T tomorrow.' It'll be back on in no time." Yeah right.

 

Sinclair ALWAYS mentions a variation of this when they have retrans disputes. But as the guy from Buckeye said, you can switch to them, but you'll find out soon enough they'll be in a retrans squat with someone else.

 

For once, I actually agree with Brad Mefferd (I usually don't agree with the cable companies). He actually speaks the truth. Barry Faber: . A lot of what he says either makes no sense, is unrealistic, or does not pertain to the conversation at hand.

 

It's also very evident Barry Faber hates speaking in public. Not only does he say it, he stutters over his words and struggles to figure out what to say. You'll notice at the very beginning the host said they've extended an offer to WNWO, and what more than likely happened was that corporate caught wind, streamed the radio station, and only once they heard what the guy had to say, did they actually call in.

 

And as I posted in the other thread, "LOL at some of the things Faber says, including bringing up the Disney Channel and saying he doesn't know what Mefferd meant when he called WNWO "lowly rated" (which they are)." He refers to NBC's programming as "pretty premier" but completely ignores their local news which absolutely sucks. It sucked under Barrington, and Sinclair hasn't done anything there other than getting into arguments with Buckeye Cable. Buckeye does carry WDIV but blacks out NBC and syndicated programming and shows QVC outside of their local programming.

 

And for every time he called the Buckeye cable guy's remarks "funny" it was Faber's that were actually "funny" as they made no sense.

I agree. Once again I'm starting to wonder if Sinclair's management actually knows what they're doing.