Sinclair...Again

[Samantha 2878]

 

Bob Vick might be ranting like a madman, but he has a point. The Birmingham market needs the ABC 33/40 setup.

 

The super outbreak of 2011 was a major disaster for the area. ABC 33/40 is generally understood to have had the best coverage, and looking at footage on YouTube, I completely agree.

 

 

In a state so prone to severe weather, you need something with as far of a reach as you can get. Relegating it to a point two is a horrible idea.

 

Given the market setup moving it to WABM 68.1 is still relegation.

 

We don't have a very good concept of "transmitters" versus "stations" in this country (probably because almost every full-power transmitter/commercial license is its own station), and I think Birmingham is one of those markets where thinking about "stations" is a bad idea.

 

WBMA is one station on three transmitters. (It could do with two: since 1998 WBMA has not been absolutely necessary). Given the size of the Birmingham market, this is a necessary setup. Compared to the legacy VHFs (WBRC is RF 50, WVTM is RF 13), WIAT and WABM do not offer that great of a signal. WCFT and WJSU combined do.

 

If the FCC must approve this move it should stipulate that WABM build out digital boosters on the edge of the market.

 

Bob, if you live in the Birmingham DMA, I strongly suggest you file something with the FCC. You have standing to say something. I don't.

[Breaking News 802]

I do hope the deal falls through and Scripps, Hearst and others get their shot. I've always thought the pie should be split up among other owners.

 

WJLA/NC8- Hearst

WBMA- Scripps

KATV- Scripps

WHTM-Meredith

KTUL- Hearst

WCIV/WSET -Gray or Meredith

[TexasTVNews 1367]

WJLA/NC8- ABC/Disney or Meredith

WBMA, KATV, WSET - Meredith

WHTM, KTUL, WCIV - Gannett

[TennTV1983 748]

 

I do hope the deal falls through and Scripps, Hearst and others get their shot. I've always thought the pie should be split up among other owners.

 

WJLA/NC8- Hearst

WBMA- Scripps

KATV- Scripps

WHTM-Meredith

KTUL- Hearst

WCIV/WSET -Gray or Meredith

 

As things stand right now, it's only a matter of time for the Allbritton/Sinclair deal to go through whether we like it or not. The Birmingham situation is still a mess even with the amended changes (surrendering WCFT & WJSU to the FCC; linking up WBMA with WABM), but that's where the public comment period comes in to address those issues as well as grievances (don't know if that period has since ended). How that gets resolved is something to watch, as it could have a lasting effect on all future deals. Even so, let's remember that Sinclair is exhausting every legal avenue possible to get what they want, and that is ownership of WJLA/NC8 for the purpose of stoking their conservative agenda on a national scale (well duh, right?). Whatever they have to do to get their way, they will exploit it to the highest extent of the law regardless of the effect it has on the general public. The FCC set things up this way, so you cannot really put all blame on the shoulders of David D. Smith & Company. Unfortunately, under current leadership (Wheeler is pro-free market for the most part), there won't be much change to the rules of the game outside of the disputed shared service agreements.

 

Lest we forget, though, Allbritton for the most part has run its broadcast operations on the cheap, even right down to the news product itself, spending as little money as possible to even do HD upgrades and graphics (WJLA being an exception to the rule, although KTUL puts out a decent product as well). Being owned by Sinclair, or any broadcast group for that matter, could be seen as being an "upgrade" for those stations even if it means losing some people in the process, so there's food for thought there.

[LTSC1980 98]

.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

If push comes to shove and Allbritton has to find another buyer, I would say just sell the whole group except WJLA/NC8 and WBMA+ to Gray then sell WJLA/NC8 and WBMA+ to either Hearst, Scripps, or (if they are interested) BH Media.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

Found this hysterical gem:

 

 

That's right, apparently the broadcast facilities at the My Network TV affiliate in Charleston (with no news department) are better than the ones at the ABC affiliate (with a news department) in Charleston.

 

They are talking signal and technical infrastructure and Sinclair is generally top-notch when it comes to those areas. In Charleston, WMMP has the higher ERP and HAAT by far.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

 

Fritz also tried to reassure the viewers and the employees of WCFT-WJSU and WCIV by saying, “[T]he public will not be deprived of the programming as that will be carried on Sinclair’s existing stations.” And echoed Sinclair’s assertion that it intends to air ABC network shows, syndicated programming and local programming on MyNetworkTV affiliates WABM in Birmingham and WMMPin Charleston. “It will be seamless to the viewers in those markets and the studios and personnel will remain the same,”

He ended by saying, “We fully expect the deal to be approved with these changes.”

 

The FCC has as much say when it comes to transfer of non-license assets as it does in deciding who Albritton can sell its furniture to, This is legally correct.

[Rusty Muck 4175]

As things stand right now, it's only a matter of time for the Allbritton/Sinclair deal to go through whether we like it or not. The Birmingham situation is still a mess even with the amended changes (surrendering WCFT & WJSU to the FCC; linking up WBMA with WABM), but that's where the public comment period comes in to address those issues as well as grievances (don't know if that period has since ended). How that gets resolved is something to watch, as it could have a lasting effect on all future deals. Even so, let's remember that Sinclair is exhausting every legal avenue possible to get what they want, and that is ownership of WJLA/NC8 for the purpose of stoking their conservative agenda on a national scale (well duh, right?). Whatever they have to do to get their way, they will exploit it to the highest extent of the law regardless of the effect it has on the general public. The FCC set things up this way, so you cannot really put all blame on the shoulders of David D. Smith & Company. Unfortunately, under current leadership (Wheeler is pro-free market for the most part), there won't be much change to the rules of the game outside of the disputed shared service agreements.

 

Lest we forget, though, Allbritton for the most part has run its broadcast operations on the cheap, even right down to the news product itself, spending as little money as possible to even do HD upgrades and graphics (WJLA being an exception to the rule, although KTUL puts out a decent product as well). Being owned by Sinclair, or any broadcast group for that matter, could be seen as being an "upgrade" for those stations even if it means losing some people in the process, so there's food for thought there.

I mostly concur with you. There is really little to no chance that this deal collapses, and the methods by which to solve the ownership conflicts in Birmingham and Charleston may not be necessarily fair (in terms of handing in licenses and transferring the non-license intellectual programming onto existing stations), but are legal and outside the FCC's oversight.

 

It's not necessarily the conservative slant by which the Smith family operates, but it is the top-down structure that S!nclair has operated under since their NewsCentral setup that is more concerning. It works for their legacy stations, but doesn't under most of the recently acquired stations. The Mark Hyman commentaries (for one) are a NewsCentral artifact, and make sense to run on the legacy S!nclair stations because that was a key component of NewsCentral - even for stations that didn't completely adopt the NewsCentral model like WSYX. But those commentaries are a non sequitur on the Fisher, Newport and Allbritton stations, and are effectively putting something on that takes nothing about those stations or of the markets served by those stations into account.

 

S!nclair needs to establish a new top-down method for station ops that takes every single diverse nature of their M&As into account. That includes cohesion on switching equipment, standardization of graphics and music, and content/reporter sharing between all stations. (Fred might be in a better position than I am, but the latter point seems to already exist with WKRC and S!nclair's Dayton and Columbus stations... and yet, WKRC still runs as a legacy Newport station, with a totally different look and visual identity.) Concepts like the Town Halls, if executed properly, can work, even under a spoke-and-wheels setup originating from WJLA and hubbed off to other stations, perhaps even non-S!nclair stations.

 

The thing is, I don't know if they can make such investments to all of their stations. Especially with their pipe dream of a nationalized NewsChannel 8, which is guaranteed to be a money hemorrhaging operation right from the start. As much as people on this board want to see such a channel fail, that would have disastrous consequence for ALL of the S!nclair stations, and for local TV in general.

[Rusty Muck 4175]

I agree if WBMA+ is broke up Birmingham will loose a big voice in that market. I can hear James Spann right now. and no more Newsone V1 or Roger Thompson.

WBMA+ to Gray/Quincy

WCIV/WSET to Gray

WHTM to Meredith

KTUL to Quincy

KATV to Hearst

WJLA/NC8 to Scripps or Hearst

 

Sinclair might as well give up. I believe they should have to divest a lot of stations.

The KOMO deal should have not been approved.

I do hope the deal falls through and Scripps, Hearst and others get their shot. I've always thought the pie should be split up among other owners.

 

WJLA/NC8- Hearst

WBMA- Scripps

KATV- Scripps

WHTM-Meredith

KTUL- Hearst

WCIV/WSET -Gray or Meredith

WJLA/NC8- ABC/Disney or Meredith

WBMA, KATV, WSET - Meredith

WHTM, KTUL, WCIV - Gannett

No, I don't think ABC will buy WJLA.

WJLA/NC8 - Scripps

WBMA+, WHTM, WSET - Nexstar

KTUL, WCIV, KATV - Meredith

If push comes to shove and Allbritton has to find another buyer, I would say just sell the whole group except WJLA/NC8 and WBMA+ to Gray then sell WJLA/NC8 and WBMA+ to either Hearst, Scripps, or (if they are interested) BH Media.

The reason why this deal was even made was because Allbritton wanted a singular buyer for all of their TV assets.

 

Hearst, Scripps, Gray, Meredith, Nexstar, Quincy, Tribune, BH and even ABC... none of them could buy the entire group due to a multitude of reasons... either due to ownership conflicts, willingness of the buyer to make the deal, or that WJLA and NC8 made it completely unattractive to a smaller group, yet the other stations made WJLA and NC8 unattractive to a larger group. And even under the possibility that WJLA/NC8 would be sold separately, ABC hasn't operated a cable news channel since the ABC/Group W joint venture Satellite News Channel went belly-up in 1982, making NC8 unattractive to THEM.

 

Even in the imperceptible chance that the deal with S!nclair collapses, Allbritton is still not going to sell things piecemeal. I hate to say it, but S!nclair may have been and will probably be the most logical buyer for a station group like this.

[montydavis 7]

So Birmingham goes from 9 full power to 8 and Charleston from 6 to 5? Another question, why not sell the WCIV and WCFT-WJSU license to Ion media?

Annnnnnnnddd....what about Cunningham in Charleston? How are they going to operate on their own? WCSC already produces the news for that station (WTAT). So will Cunningham somehow try to get WMMP (or whatever they will call themselves) to produce the news for that station too?

[Rusty Muck 4175]

So Birmingham goes from 9 full power to 8 and Charleston from 6 to 5? Another question, why not sell the WCIV and WCFT-WJSU license to Ion media?

Annnnnnnnddd....what about Cunningham in Charleston? How are they going to operate on their own? WCSC already produces the news for that station (WTAT). So will Cunningham somehow try to get WMMP (or whatever they will call themselves) to produce the news for that station too?

WCIV's news operations will simply take over production of WTAT's newscasts. Cunningham is a S!nclair shell, but IIRC, WTAT's LMA to S!nclair is grandfathered from the new JSA regulations.

 

As expounded earlier, once the licenses for WJSU, WCFT and WCIV and handed in, they are 100% GONE. Forever.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

WCIV's news operations will simply take over production of WTAT's newscasts. Cunningham is a S!nclair shell, but IIRC, WTAT's LMA to S!nclair is grandfathered from the new JSA regulations.

 

Can I backtrack for a moment to that FCC letter posted last December?

 

That WMMP/WTAT LMA began on July 1, 1998, well over that November 5, 1996 deadline for grandfathered protection. So that combination can't be grandfathered.

 

Now there is an unrelated deal that involves a grandfathered LMA in Colorado that its waiting for approval right now. But the question is, will it even see the greenlight, or let that app sit there?

[GoldenShine9 1509]

Can I backtrack for a moment to that FCC letter posted last December?

 

That WMMP/WTAT LMA began on July 1, 1998, well over that November 5, 1996 deadline for grandfathered protection. So that combination can't be grandfathered.

 

Now there is an unrelated deal that involves a grandfathered LMA in Colorado that its waiting for approval right now. But the question is, will it even see the greenlight, or let that app sit there?

That is the deal-breaker IMO. There seems to be no solution on that one, since the non-grandfathered LMA is still not really dealt with (sorry, but Cunningham separate from Sinclair? Don't buy it at all!)

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

It's not necessarily the conservative slant by which the Smith family operates, but it is the top-down structure that S!nclair has operated under since their NewsCentral setup that is more concerning. It works for their legacy stations, but doesn't under most of the recently acquired stations. The Mark Hyman commentaries (for one) are a NewsCentral artifact, and make sense to run on the legacy S!nclair stations because that was a key component of NewsCentral - even for stations that didn't completely adopt the NewsCentral model like WSYX. But those commentaries are a non sequitur on the Fisher, Newport and Allbritton stations, and are effectively putting something on that takes nothing about those stations or of the markets served by those stations into account.

 

S!nclair needs to establish a new top-down method for station ops that takes every single diverse nature of their M&As into account. That includes cohesion on switching equipment, standardization of graphics and music, and content/reporter sharing between all stations. (Fred might be in a better position than I am, but the latter point seems to already exist with WKRC and S!nclair's Dayton and Columbus stations... and yet, WKRC still runs as a legacy Newport station, with a totally different look and visual identity.) Concepts like the Town Halls, if executed properly, can work, even under a spoke-and-wheels setup originating from WJLA and hubbed off to other stations, perhaps even non-S!nclair stations.

 

I'm not a big Hyman fan, and my criticism comes from the standpoint of his broadcast presence not his message, but putting Hyman on all Sinclair stations is not only fair game, it is also something unique it brings to the table that other chains don't do. I just wish he had the on-air presence of Mort Crim or someone like that.

 

It is only a matter of time before WKRC gets standardized on the Sinclair platform. Lawhead runs WSTR/WKRC and also now oversees WKEF/WRGT, which I find puzzling since this is an ABC/Fox combo and WKRC is CBS. It would seem more practical for Dan Mellon at WSYX/WTTE (ABC/Fox) to be the overseer. But Cincinnati and Dayton have more overlap than Columbus and Dayton have, so I am sure this is the rationale.

 

With regard to the comments about how Sinclair should structure their operations, I think it should be by network affiliation. Media General already does that with their hub operations and I don't think that would be a bad way to structure things from a management perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

The thing is, I don't know if they can make such investments to all of their stations. Especially with their pipe dream of a nationalized NewsChannel 8, which is guaranteed to be a money hemorrhaging operation right from the start. As much as people on this board want to see such a channel fail, that would have disastrous consequence for ALL of the S!nclair stations, and for local TV in general.

 

 

 

I do not agree.

 

FIrst of all, the Smiths don't do anything that hemorrhages money. Second, everything there is already in place - the reporters, the news operation to cover Washington politics which drives most of the national news. It makes money as a standalone operation, so what additional costs do they have to take it national? Especially when they have local reporters on the ground in every state in the union that can cover national stories and 200 multicast signals where the network can run FREE OF CHARGE?

 

The additional costs are going to be nominal because everything is already in place unless they decide to spend money upgrading talent. They are just going to be able to use personnel they already pay for to produce additional content.

 

This is a completely different prospect from trying to build from scratch. The way I see it, the only money they have to spend is on 1) a new news set; 2) satellite bandwidth; and 3) promotion. Everything else is already in place. They are not even going to have additional electric bills since their stations' main signal is already running and I would imagine the cost to multicast is nominal (additional processing work by the microchips contained in the encoder).

 

Same costs, but more eyeballs to sell to advertisers. Plus, if it catches on, they might be able to have this on in other markets where Sinclair does not own stations. I think it's win-win.

 

Where they may be shooting themselves in the foot? NewsChannel 8 may be the straw that finally breaks the cable camel's back. If I have a credible OTA news channel, I have little need for cable. Without cable, they don't get my retrans fees.

[Thundershock MN 169]

This whole thing makes me hate Sinclair even more.

 

The obvious solution would've been for them to sell off WCIV and WJSU/WCFT and still keep WJLA, WSET, KTUL, and KATV. But that isn't good enough for Sinclair and so they're exploiting more loopholes because they're so greedy.

 

I really do hope their BS catches up to them someday, but this probably isn't going to be it.

Why sell off the "better" stations? Sinclair has stated with this latest wave of acquisitions that their goal is to pair "Big 4" stations with their many CW/MNT stations. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. You have to jettison one "station" in both Charleston & Birmingham...which one do you pick? You offer to cut the weakest link or, the MNT stations. If you have the option of either keeping a CW/MNT duopoly or creating a ABC/CW duopoly I think it's a no brainer which one you'd choose. It's their choice what "station(s)" get offered up to be jettisoned and which ones don't.

 

 

Here's another point to ponder.....

 

If Allbritton's station's go away in Birmingham, the market loses a voice, which brings the total number of full-powered voices in the Birmingham market to 8.

 

Which means, any further duopoly potential is eliminated, which could hamper the sale of WVTM or WIAT. Unless the University of Alabama cashes out on WUOA, the others are ION and TBN, which aren't too likely to sell.

 

Charleston is already under-voiced as it is, which necessitated Sinclair to LMA with Cunningham for WTAT. I'll believe it when I see Cunningham stand alone as a separate company....most likely when pigs fly.

This explains why the duopoly potential was ignored. Nobody would be able to file an application for a new duopoly in Birmingham while the Sinclair/Allbritton deal remained in the system, correct?

First, to the best of my knowledge based upon the new JSA attribution rules Cunningham doesn't need to operate as a separate stand alone company. They only need to operate separately in markets where Sinclair doesn't want those stations attributed them. Charleston is a market where they are proposing to have two separate operations (one Sinclair/WMMP and one Cunningham/WTAT.) It's really not that hard to do. All the physical assets & employees, etc. of the current WMMP/WTAT operation would be transferred to Cunningham to continue as a stand-alone WTAT operation. And, the non-license assets (building & employees, etc.) of WCIV would be transferred to Sinclair for a stand-alone WMMP operation.

 

Yes, if the current proposal come to fruition only 8 voices would be left allowing no further duopolies will be allowed to be formed in Birmingham. However, under the previous proposal there would have been 9 voices left allowing for another potential duopoly in Birmingham. If a proposal would have come about creating a WIAT/WABM or WTVM/WABM during the 2 months WABM was on the market I see no a reason why such a deal would have been held up. Moelis & Co. is (or, was in the case of WABM) marketing all three stations (WABM,WIAT & WTVM) at the time. So, I'd have to think that the duopoly potential at the time would have been pointed out by Moelis & Co. in an effort to broker a deal for their clients.

 

 

As things stand right now, it's only a matter of time for the Allbritton/Sinclair deal to go through whether we like it or not. The Birmingham situation is still a mess even with the amended changes (surrendering WCFT & WJSU to the FCC; linking up WBMA with WABM), but that's where the public comment period comes in to address those issues as well as grievances (don't know if that period has since ended). How that gets resolved is something to watch, as it could have a lasting effect on all future deals. Even so, let's remember that Sinclair is exhausting every legal avenue possible to get what they want, and that is ownership of WJLA/NC8 for the purpose of stoking their conservative agenda on a national scale (well duh, right?). Whatever they have to do to get their way, they will exploit it to the highest extent of the law regardless of the effect it has on the general public. The FCC set things up this way, so you cannot really put all blame on the shoulders of David D. Smith & Company. Unfortunately, under current leadership (Wheeler is pro-free market for the most part), there won't be much change to the rules of the game outside of the disputed shared service agreements.

 

Lest we forget, though, Allbritton for the most part has run its broadcast operations on the cheap, even right down to the news product itself, spending as little money as possible to even do HD upgrades and graphics (WJLA being an exception to the rule, although KTUL puts out a decent product as well). Being owned by Sinclair, or any broadcast group for that matter, could be seen as being an "upgrade" for those stations even if it means losing some people in the process, so there's food for thought there.

If you go back and read the JSA thread there were some of us who pointed out how the FCC's recent actions could have negative consequences.

[DirtyHarry 719]

Speaking of Sinclair and WKRC, RF 31 was WKRC's UHF channel before going back to RF 12. Sinclair's station in Lexington WDRG jumped on the UHF 31 signal since they were stuck at VHF 4.

 

Does anybody know if Sinclair is going to move RF 31 back to Cincinnati to get WKRC off of RF 12?

[Thundershock MN 169]

So Birmingham goes from 9 full power to 8 and Charleston from 6 to 5? Another question, why not sell the WCIV and WCFT-WJSU license to Ion media?

Annnnnnnnddd....what about Cunningham in Charleston? How are they going to operate on their own? WCSC already produces the news for that station (WTAT). So will Cunningham somehow try to get WMMP (or whatever they will call themselves) to produce the news for that station too?

That is the deal-breaker IMO. There seems to be no solution on that one, since the non-grandfathered LMA is still not really dealt with (sorry, but Cunningham separate from Sinclair? Don't buy it at all!)

1. With the UHF discount NPRM twisting in the wind Ion Media (along with several other groups) can't do much of anything. Ion is under the cap with the UHF discount without it they would be way over. The NPRM grandfathered groups that were over (or, would be over with pending acquisitions) the cap as of the date the NPRM was issued. Meaning if a R&O is ever issued and they don't change the "grandfather date" it will be retroactive back to the date the NPRM was issued. So, they are essentially handcuffed from making any changes to their station group(s) otherwise they could potentially be forced to come into compliance with the ownership cap if a R&O is issued with the retroactive date.

 

2. As I have pointed out there is a solution to Charleston. And, it's relatively simple. All the physical assets & employees, etc. of the current WMMP/WTAT operation would be assumed by Cunningham to continue as a stand-alone WTAT operation. And, the non-license assets (building & employees, etc.) of WCIV would be assumed by Sinclair for a stand-alone WMMP operation. They would have separate facilities, management & sales teams. They would both have their own management controlling programming. And, they would both have their own sales teams controlling ad sales for their individual stations. Therefore, to the best of my knowledge they would be compliant with the new JSA regulations.

 

3. The JSA regulations don't forbid news production agreements. So, a stand-alone WTAT owned by Cunningham could enter into an agreement with a stand-alone WMMP owned by Sinclair to have WMMP produce news for them.

 

Speaking of Sinclair and WKRC, RF 31 was WKRC's UHF channel before going back to RF 12. Sinclair's station in Lexington WDRG jumped on the UHF 31 signal since they were stuck at VHF 4.

 

Does anybody know if Sinclair is going to move RF 31 back to Cincinnati to get WKRC off of RF 12?

Given the freeze the FCC currently has in place ahead of the incentive auction I think it's safe to say...right now, No. Even if they would like to move it's unlikely to happen until after the auction and repack now.

[bobvick 9]

Here's another point to ponder.....

 

If Allbritton's station's go away in Birmingham, the market loses a voice, which brings the total number of full-powered voices in the Birmingham market to 8.

 

Which means, any further duopoly potential is eliminated, which could hamper the sale of WVTM or WIAT. Unless the University of Alabama cashes out on WUOA, the others are ION and TBN, which aren't too likely to sell.

 

Charleston is already under-voiced as it is, which necessitated Sinclair to LMA with Cunningham for WTAT. I'll believe it when I see Cunningham stand alone as a separate company....most likely when pigs fly.

I doubt that UofA would sell WVUA at this point. They have just gotten done pumping millions into a new digital media centre in Bryant-Denny stadium for WVUA. They are also planning on a major rebrand to WVUA 23 in September and a bigger focus on Birmingham as opposed to just Tuscaloosa.

[DirtyHarry 719]

I hope they keep the WBMA call letters. I think they are pretty cool. I'm surprised no full power station has picked "Bama" up.

 

Sinclair should just donate WCFT to the University of Alabama since it has the stronger signal. I think you have four years to reinvest the proceeds when you sell to a governmental entity before you have to pay any capital gains tax.

 

WVUA can then go dark.

 

There are so many stations and rimshots involved with Birmingham and this makes it confusing to me.

[jero23 105]

Let me say this a part-time resident of Birmingham and my parents still live in the eastern portion of the Birmingham DMA. I grew up watching WJSU so I can say this, this is quite possibly the most ignorant and downright stupid thing I've ever seen occur in this market's existence. The reason why "Alabama's ABC 33/40" exist was because there wasn't a legitimate station willing to take the ABC affiliation upon the completion of the contractual obligation of then Newscorp-owned WBRC on September 6, 1996. Sinclair should have been more determined in mid 1990s when the affiliation was up in the air and did what they would had to do to make WTTO the ABC affiliate of the market. Instead, they along with Allbritton is allowing the poaching of a vital resource for weather and information in this dynamic yet growing region. Sinclair ought just walk away and call it quits on this stupid and desperate deal they are trying makeshift because they don't want to divest stations in other regions along with the existing ones in the Birmingham DMA.

[Thundershock MN 169]

I mostly concur with you. There is really little to no chance that this deal collapses, and the methods by which to solve the ownership conflicts in Birmingham and Charleston may not be necessarily fair (in terms of handing in licenses and transferring the non-license intellectual programming onto existing stations), but are legal and outside the FCC's oversight.

 

It's not necessarily the conservative slant by which the Smith family operates, but it is the top-down structure that S!nclair has operated under since their NewsCentral setup that is more concerning. It works for their legacy stations, but doesn't under most of the recently acquired stations. The Mark Hyman commentaries (for one) are a NewsCentral artifact, and make sense to run on the legacy S!nclair stations because that was a key component of NewsCentral - even for stations that didn't completely adopt the NewsCentral model like WSYX. But those commentaries are a non sequitur on the Fisher, Newport and Allbritton stations, and are effectively putting something on that takes nothing about those stations or of the markets served by those stations into account.

 

S!nclair needs to establish a new top-down method for station ops that takes every single diverse nature of their M&As into account. That includes cohesion on switching equipment, standardization of graphics and music, and content/reporter sharing between all stations. (Fred might be in a better position than I am, but the latter point seems to already exist with WKRC and S!nclair's Dayton and Columbus stations... and yet, WKRC still runs as a legacy Newport station, with a totally different look and visual identity.) Concepts like the Town Halls, if executed properly, can work, even under a spoke-and-wheels setup originating from WJLA and hubbed off to other stations, perhaps even non-S!nclair stations.

 

The thing is, I don't know if they can make such investments to all of their stations. Especially with their pipe dream of a nationalized NewsChannel 8, which is guaranteed to be a money hemorrhaging operation right from the start. As much as people on this board want to see such a channel fail, that would have disastrous consequence for ALL of the S!nclair stations, and for local TV in general.

I'm shocked that over the last 5+ pages of discussion there is only a handful that totally grasp this point.

 

Let me say this a part-time resident of Birmingham and my parents still live in the eastern portion of the Birmingham DMA. I grew up watching WJSU so I can say this, this is quite possibly the most ignorant and downright stupid thing I've ever seen occur in this market's existence. The reason why "Alabama's ABC 33/40" exist was because there wasn't a legitimate station willing to take the ABC affiliation upon the completion of the contractual obligation of then Newscorp-owned WBRC on September 6, 1996. Sinclair should have been more determined in mid 1990s when the affiliation was up in the air and did what they would had to do to make WTTO the ABC affiliate of the market. Instead, they along with Allbritton is allowing the poaching of a vital resource for weather and information in this dynamic yet growing region. Sinclair ought just walk away and call it quits on this stupid and desperate deal they are trying makeshift because they don't want to divest stations in other regions along with the existing ones in the Birmingham DMA.

With all due respect they tried to divest in Birmingham and Charleston. There weren't any buyers.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

I'm shocked that over the last 5+ pages of discussion there is only a handful that totally grasp this point.

 

With all do respect they tried to divest in Birmingham and Charleston. There weren't any buyers.

 

I find that hard to believe. There will always buyers when the price is right. At one point, Media General said they were starting to look at more duopolies. But that might have been before the LIN transaction.

 

Maybe the terms they were setting made any transaction unpalatable.

[Samantha 2878]

 

I think I know the reason why Sinclair wants to keep its facilities instead of Allbritton's: Acrodyne transmitters. They probably still have a warehouse full of parts for the now-defunct manufacturer they used to own. No need to call Harris (or Gates, or whatever they call themselves today).

 

By that logic, WJSU (WABM, too) has a Dielectric transmitter, but WCFT does not.

[Rusty Muck 4175]

 

I find that hard to believe. There will always buyers when the price is right. At one point, Media General said they were starting to look at more duopolies. But that might have been before the LIN transaction.

 

Maybe the terms they were setting made any transaction unpalatable.

 

The MG/LIN merger was probably enough in the works that it prevented MG from even considering WTTO or WABM. Plus Raycom would have been spooked enough by Tom Wheeler's faux populist grandstanding to even entertain the thought of a duopoly with WBRC.

 

Still, WABM is a MyTV affiliate, which is the network equivalent to a red-headed stepchild. It would only be worth something if it IS paired with a big-four affiliate like WBMA+.