Nexstar...again

[hathawaynson2 39]

 

If Nexstar passes on WMYD & KOFY, what I don't want to see is them getting gobbled up buy a "Spectrum Speculator". Those two stations are too good to be sold by a company that they only care for is to cash-in at auction time. Those stations will go bye-bye post-auction, if that's the case. I wished Fox would acquire WMYD, but it can't happens because it has to keep the eight separate owners rule.

 

 

I think the question is why would LIN want a low-rated station in a sub-100 market, like WAOE. Many of these groups would want a leading station. Yes LIN own 7 sub-100 market stations (2 involves using its shell card, Topeka & Youngstown), but most are among the top rated. It would be stupid for LIN to just have a low-rated MyNetworkTV stated and have not have one of the bigger stations like WMBD, WEEK or WHOI. AFAIK, WAOE is basically shell bate.

 

Agreed! it would be stupid to have WAOE go to LIN when its a shell bait! and I thought Savannah, Georgia's FOX affilate was under the shell card as well.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

WKBW took it hard after Granite's bankruptcy, and they never really have recovered.

 

When your graphics department

, there is bound to be problems.

 

You heard me right... one guy. A Big Four affiliate in Buffalo has only ONE guy making an entire graphics package for their news department.

 

Reminds me of KTVO in Kirksville, MO (Market #200).

 

 

WIVB's looked pretty cheap and crappy back in the day too.

 

 

But after LIN invested the station and upgraded it to HD in 2012, it actually looks pretty decent.

 

 

 

 

At least it's not as bad as

or WSVI, but it's not as memorable, either.

 

 

"What the hell was that?"

[Nelson R. 569]

Agreed! it would be stupid to have WAOE go to LIN when its a shell bait! and I thought Savannah, Georgia's FOX affilate was under the shell card as well.

The Savannah Fox station is in a duopoly with the ABC station.

[MidwestTV 1232]

Why are they known as "broadcast meteorologists"? I mean...isn't that sort of obvious?

[Rusty Muck 4372]

Speaking of WKBW, they trotted out a logo that finally embeds the ABC logo on the side. But still.

 

 

Seriously, if Nexstar buys the station, please please PLEASE retire the Capital Cities-era "7" logo. Hell, use the ABC circle 7 (which WKBW would have adopted anyway had CapCities/ABC retained it). Keep MCTYW - albeit with the WPVI variants - and the EWN name, but blow up everything else. Start fresh.

[skbl17 188]

WKBW has always struck me as a "yucky" (for lack of a better term) station. The ABC logo completely ruins what little dignity this logo had, so a redesign is in order. That being said, KGO/WABC style circle 7's are becoming way too common among ABC stations nowadays. If WKBW was to adopt a circle 7 logo, they'd have to make it unique or risk having their logo be another clone of all the other circle 7 stations out there.

 

And for Buffalo's sake, WKBW needs to do something about those awful graphics! Their last decent graphics package is from when, 2003?

[Rusty Muck 4372]

 

WKBW has always struck me as a "yucky" (for lack of a better term) station. The ABC logo completely ruins what little dignity this logo had, so a redesign is in order. That being said, KGO/WABC style circle 7's are becoming way too common among ABC stations nowadays. If WKBW was to adopt a circle 7 logo, they'd have to make it unique or risk having their logo be another clone of all the other circle 7 stations out there.

 

And for Buffalo's sake, WKBW needs to do something about those awful graphics! Their last decent graphics package is from when, 2003?

 

Yup. That was the ill-fated "Live, Local, Late Breaking" graphics package, which actually was the best look they ever had, but it all got blown up when the EWN name was revived (their few ENG trucks still sport the "7 NEWS" logo, BTW). All subsequent redesigns have been in-house - and if I'm not mistaken, by the same guy who is STILL their lone graphics guy.

 

Hell, if they adopted a logo style similar to WATN's "Local 24," that would be sufficient enough.

 

"Yucky" is not the word that comes to mind when I look at WKBW. "Tragic" would be more appropriate.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

 

Why are they known as "broadcast meteorologists"? I mean...isn't that sort of obvious?

 

Not all weather people are true meteorologists, some are just anchors or reporters reading out weather.

[Samantha 2895]

The addition of the ABC logo to WKBW was a matter of time, as in "your affiliation agreement basically asks you to put in an ABC logo".

[sanewsguy 510]

The HD version isn't too bad when you to compare it to the

.

This is what happened when I looked at that crap: .

Especially this, this is the ugliest part of that package:

Hell, I wish Newport would've bought this station to complement the rest of their upstate NY cluster. They would've had nice Hothaus graphics then.

 

 

Speaking of WKBW, they trotted out a logo that finally embeds the ABC logo on the side. But still.

 

 

:puke:

Why WKBW? Why? If they were going to throw the ABC logo in there they could've done a much better job. Also bad choice on the red variant. It looks out of place. The solid black version would've worked better.

 

Also note that they outsource their master control to Encompass in Atlanta. They did that to get out of upgrading their Buffalo master control room for HD and laid off 10 in the process. They also laid off their webmaster in 2010. Granite has ruined this station and it makes you wonder why ABC kept KFSN instead of WKBW.

 

You gotta love this quote from Wikipedia regarding Bill Ransom (their previous GM). It's heavily opinionated but it's true.

Upon WKBW general manager Bill Ransom's retirement, his replacement, Mike Nurse, made a concerted effort to reverse the damage done during Ransom's tenure, boosting the weather staff to four meteorologists (all of which are natives to Western New York), revamping the morning show with new hosts and a new name, and moving to a three-man sports department.

WKBW may actually have a shot. Nurse just needs new ownership who'll help him out and make his station competitive again. Ironically, WIVB's current GM is Rene LaSpina who was previously at WPTY before Nexstar took over, showed her the door, and began their rebranding into WATN. I don't think she'll do any damage at WIVB because they're already in good shape but from what I've read and heard, LaSpina is the GM that really does nothing except fire people...

 

 

Yup. That was the ill-fated "Live, Local, Late Breaking" graphics package, which actually was the best look they ever had, but it all got blown up when the EWN name was revived (their few ENG trucks still sport the "7 NEWS" logo, BTW). All subsequent redesigns have been in-house - and if I'm not mistaken, by the same guy who is STILL their lone graphics guy.

 

Hell, if they adopted a logo style similar to WATN's "Local 24," that would be sufficient enough.

 

"Yucky" is not the word that comes to mind when I look at WKBW. "Tragic" would be more appropriate.

 

Cinemagic did that package. It was one of their better packs. The graphics, music, and set were are all real nice but this whole "7 News" thing is what did them in and why they're still third place to this day. Buffalo viewers were so engrained with MCTYW and the "Eyewitness News" name that they turned away after this happened. It's ridiculous. Honestly I think MCTYW is dated as hell but there would be a huge meltdown at both WPVI and WKBW if they dumped it (and yes, it's been a lifelong dream of mine for WPVI to dump that theme).

 

I hope Nexstar comes in and pulls a WATN on WKBW. Even better if it happens in the same market WATN's old GM works in. That'll show her...

[skbl17 188]

 

Cinemagic did that package. It was one of their better packs. The graphics, music, and set were are all real nice but this whole "7 News" thing is what did them in and why they're still third place to this day. Buffalo viewers were so engrained with MCTYW and the "Eyewitness News" name that they turned away after this happened. It's ridiculous. Honestly I think MCTYW is dated as hell but there would be a huge meltdown at both WPVI and WKBW if they dumped it (and yes, it's been a lifelong dream of mine for WPVI to dump that theme).

 

I hope Nexstar comes in and pulls a WATN on WKBW. Even better if it happens in the same market WATN's old GM works in. That'll show her...

 

Actually, WKBW

, initially for their late newscast, in the final months of the Cinemagic package; the same year they brought back the "Eyewitness News" branding, complete with ugly graphics!

 

I do agree wholeheartedly that WKBW needs to be cleaned from top to bottom like WPTY/WATN. If WKBW actually wants to be serious in the Buffalo market, they don't need a refresh, they need to tear down the building and start over (yes, this is a mild exaggeration, but you get the general idea.)

[Thundershock MN 169]

If Nexstar passes on WMYD & KOFY, what I don't want to see is them getting gobbled up buy a "Spectrum Speculator". Those two stations are too good to be sold by a company that they only care for is to cash-in at auction time. Those stations will go bye-bye post-auction, if that's the case. I wished Fox would acquire WMYD, but it can't happens because it has to keep the eight separate owners rule.

CircleSeven, I'm pretty sure Fox could aquire WMYD outright. I posted this in another thread several weeks ago : "WMYD -> Fox. However, I'm not sure a failing station waiver would really be needed. Isn't WHTV still planning to move to the old WPXD tower. I assume WPXD counted as one of the "at least eight independently owned TV stations remaining in the market" after the WWJ/WKBD combination. So, if that's the case then wouldn't WHTV's move to WPXD's old tower provide a "ninth independently owned station" allowing for another duopoly opportunity? No failing station waiver or LMA needed. " For a recent example see the STL market and how WPXS' move-in during the DTV transition gave that market an additional voice that I and others forgot about. Tribune is now making use of that to aquire KTVI outright.

 

Detroit is also tied at the hip with their Fort Wayne stations since they not only produce newscasts that air in Detroit, but master control comes out of Fort Wayne as well.

Stations aren't linked together forever. Just because a station is hubbed doesn't mean it can't be de-hubbed as part of a sale. There have been plenty of examples of this over the last several years now. Sure it involves some extra work versus just leaving everything as-is but, it's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

[CircleSeven 1955]

CircleSeven, I'm pretty sure Fox could aquire WMYD outright. I posted this in another thread several weeks ago : "WMYD -> Fox. However, I'm not sure a failing station waiver would really be needed. Isn't WHTV still planning to move to the old WPXD tower. I assume WPXD counted as one of the "at least eight independently owned TV stations remaining in the market" after the WWJ/WKBD combination. So, if that's the case then wouldn't WHTV's move to WPXD's old tower provide a "ninth independently owned station" allowing for another duopoly opportunity? No failing station waiver or LMA needed. " For a recent example see the STL market and how WPXS' move-in during the DTV transition gave that market an additional voice. Tribune is now making use of that to aquire KTVI outright.

From a recent filing, the FCC approved a STA for WHTV to operate from where appears to be that tower you've mention in lower power while they're hooking up the maximized facilities. Here's WHTV's coverage area for the folks to see, and its similar to certain stations in other states where they are in the far fringes of other coverage areas (Flint, Battle Creek & Western half of Wayne County). It's almost like TBN's WWTO in LaSalle, IL, it serves the far-fringes to many Illinois markets, including some western sections of Chicago, yet Chicago proper can't get the signal (and who would want to watch that channel anyway?). To me its kind of a gray area because, even though it does have a huge coverage area, would the objectors would argue that this is consider WHTV as a "Lansing Station"? Even though it the majority of that coverage area greatly serves areas south of Lansing, almost close to the Ohio border (in tip-toes to Toledo).

 

I'm still stunned that the Trib would use one of those Illinois side stations, since I really thought they would've have to use a shell to acquire KTVI, since that have this much full-powers in St. Louis. So if Fox wants to pursue to get WMYD, and they include WHTV on the voices chart (even if viewers in Detroit or western Wayne county probably can't view the stations), good luck trying to sell that to the FCC.

 

Buffalo viewers were so engrained with MCTYW and the "Eyewitness News" name that they turned away after this happened. It's ridiculous. Honestly I think MCTYW is dated as hell but there would be a huge meltdown at both WPVI and WKBW if they dumped it (and yes, it's been a lifelong dream of mine for WPVI to dump that theme).

 

I hope Nexstar comes in and pulls a WATN on WKBW. Even better if it happens in the same market WATN's old GM works in. That'll show her...

Now I wanna get my two cents on WKBW & MCTYW, as I am a heavy proponent of that theme.

 

I was thrilled almost five years ago when they brought back that theme song in tandem of the station's 50th anniversary. It was 2003 when they drop the theme they've used for 30 straight years, for some generic contemporary theme made by the folks at "Casa Quarter-Past-Six" in Nashville. To me it was all fine and dandy, until those horrendous in-house graphics and the HD launch. The use of the theme as a bumper & open to fit their nasty graphics is just look right. I love MCTYW and I don't want the station to drop it the second time, but I don't think its right for them to just use that one cut for the opening and the bumper. Hell, there not even using the proper

right, assuming they too lazy to edit that bumper cue or whatever. Let me go over there at KB, or anyone else can carefully select the proper MCTYW cues to use for them, instead of using that same cue for open/bumper/close.

 

But before they even do that, they need to tear down that set they've been using and throw those graphics in the garbage, or give them to some damn university, and those folks could compose better graphics than that. I would love KB to bring back the pre-2003 circle 7 logo, and hire a good firm (Hothaus, GO, etc) to compose them decent graphics. It's very safe to say nothing is going to happen, until a new owner take place. Granite is all but done in the TV business. Although you've seen Nexstar having Arnold themes left and right throughout most of their portfolio, I've seen them honoring some stations that have used non-Arnold material (at least for now), including WSYR with News Station (which used updated themes left and right since they'd first picked up the theme two decades ago) & KLRT with the Fox O&O theme (but I think they'll shove an Arnold theme in the non-too-distant future. Should Nexstar acquire KB, they'll probably do some heavy lifting, not like WPTY's transformation, but maybe similar to what they're doing for KSEE/KGPE in Fresno.

 

And even if they do change their set and graphics and/or either Nexstar or whoever new owner would do the dummy and drop MCTYW for a 2nd time, for some new junk theme, I still think WKBW will stay a status quo, in terms of ratings, because no one will break habit from the market leader WIVB or 2nd place WGRZ. If they want to be competitive, they can put Mike Randall back to the evening shows. The dumbos that thought of bringing a weeknight personality to the mornings would get their ratings up was just plain dumb. Whoever runs WKBW will have tons and tons of work ahead of them. Good luck tackling that.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Could non-US stations be used to count towards the eight voices rule? Since there are several stations on the Canadian side that penetrate into the Detroit market...

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

Could non-US stations be used to count towards the eight voices rule? Since there are several stations on the Canadian side that penetrate into the Detroit market...

 

I'm not sure but I'll make a heavy assumption based on this ratings chart of KDBC's TOC app from Cunningham to Sinclair, you don't see any Mexican stations. So I don't think it includes stations east of the border.

[Thundershock MN 169]

However, XEPM, XHJCI, XHJUB are all on the voices chart grouped together under Grupo Televisa as the tenth voice in the market.

[swillh2k2 203]

 

Agreed! it would be stupid to have WAOE go to LIN when its a shell bait!

 

...but you were the one who suggested LIN buy WAOE...

[swillh2k2 203]

 

WKBW took it hard after Granite's bankruptcy, and they never really have recovered.

 

When your graphics department

, there is bound to be problems.

 

You heard me right... one guy. A Big Four affiliate in Buffalo has only ONE guy making an entire graphics package for their news department.

 

 

I think in this case Nexstar would be a MAJOR upgrade for WKBW.

[hathawaynson2 39]

 

...but you were the one who suggested LIN buy WAOE...

 

That's when I realized it would be shell corporation bait because its an low rated TV station. I personally think that LIN buying it now as an standalone station, is zero percent.

[Rusty Muck 4372]

However, XEPM, XHJCI, XHJUB are all on the voices chart grouped together under Grupo Televisa as the tenth voice in the market.

That makes sense, because that's a natural quadopoly for Grupo Televisa.

 

Windsor, OTOH, has two standalone signals: CBC O&O CBET and CTV two O&O CHWI. You really can't group them as one singular voice.

[Rusty Muck 4372]

I think in this case Nexstar would be a MAJOR upgrade for WKBW.

So much so that I not only openly advocate for the buyout, I'd drive down to Washington personally and try to lobby the FCC into greenlighting it. What Granite has done to WKBW since 1993 is utterly criminal.

[sanewsguy 510]

WSYR has officially switched their music to Aerial and retired News Station after 20 years. I'm guessing the contract to use News Station expired and so that's why they switched. Thankfully they still use their awesome Hothaus graphics. Max McGill (ew) is still the VO...

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

WSYR has officially switched their music to Aerial and retired News Station after 20 years. I'm guessing the contract to use News Station expired and so that's why they switched. Thankfully they still use their awesome Hothaus graphics. Max McGill (ew) is still the VO...

 

Where's the proof? You have any aud/vid caption? If that is the case, this is some sad shit. Over two decades with the same music package, yet they've been using updates left and right throughout that two decade span. But you can't be too shocked because it had to been a corporate move since most of the Nexstar stations used an Arnold theme. If true, this is truly sad nevertheless.

[sanewsguy 510]

 

Where's the proof? You have any aud/vid caption? If that is the case, this is some sad shit. Over two decades with the same music package, yet they've been using updates left and right throughout that two decade span. But you can't be too shocked because it had to been a corporate move since most of the Nexstar stations used an Arnold theme. If true, this is truly sad nevertheless.

 

Yep, NMSA and tonight's Storm Team 9 forecast. (if the link is broken because they removed the vid, go to 9wsyr.com and on the weather page the latest video forecast is there. They usually include the open).

 

They also live stream if you want to watch. I'm watching their morning stream right now. Aerial kinda works, there's better packages they could have gone with though.

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

Yep, NMSA and tonight's Storm Team 9 forecast. (if the link is broken because they removed the vid, go to 9wsyr.com and on the weather page the latest video forecast is there. They usually include the open).

 

They also live stream if you want to watch. I'm watching their morning stream right now. Aerial kinda works, there's better packages they could have gone with though.

 

I'm watching the stream now. Aerial doesn't sound right with WSYR. This just blows. I didn't feel this way since KTVU dropped the Randall theme three years ago. History and longevity went down the drain yesterday in Central New York.