TEGNA Broadcasting and Digital General Discussion

[CLETVFan 367]

Here's the episode of the Saturday Night Social in case you missed it:

 

[newsman123 112]

What an embarrassment. 
 

not to mention, that opening segment mocked the city, and made it seem like a shitty podunk town. 

[PhillyWatch 239]

I'm all for unconventional newscasts. I don't even know if you'd call this a newscast, but it still a locally produced half hour, and they're trying something out-of-the-box. Were they even competitive in that timeslot until now? If not, then why not try this out? Something irreverent and humor-based also seems like a better SNL lead-in. 

 

I was a huge fan of WPIX's 10pm circa 2011. They ditched the set, used their newsroom and a greenscreen, and allowed for more long-form commentary pieces. While this isn't quite the same situation, the principle is the same- offering viewers something (anything!) different than all the other newscasts on at the same time, which are essentially cookie cut from the same news-weather-sports mold. 

[nathannah 2411]

The after-SNL time period where I am used to be filled in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s with either It's Showtime at the Apollo, Soul Train, or on the comedic side, Night Stand with Dick Dietrich and America's Dumbest Criminals, and of course KING-TV had Almost Live forever, and it was always a fun topper to a late night.

 

Now...a local church called Time of Grace bought out every post-SNL timeslot in the area (and beyond) for their 'how do you do fellow kids' ministry. It's the perfect cure for insomnia.

 

The Saturday night newscast on an NBC affiliate in-season is usually a dirge. You lose five minutes of show you have the rest of the week because of SNL, governments are closed, the crime roll is shorter, and it's packed with stories where you basically have to get people out to go to festivals and funruns, and network/corporate must-runs, along with weekday junk you want to burn off ahoy. You also never have the rights to the local college football team in most cases since all NBC's got is Notre Dame, so outside WMAQ and WNDU, why care beyond the highlights? Most of the audience isn't even really watching because they're out or watching football at their local favorite bar. Outside of Notre Dame nights where you pray they don't go into overtime and Uncle Lorne rages in a press release Sunday morning about starting at 12:42 a.m., there's no excitement to them (except for the one time where that Kansas anchor said 'let's get the f**k outta here!').

 

I admit...I laughed quite a few times at this show, and I've laughed at Mike Polk's YouTube stuff often. It is a good alternative to the umpteen football games on (which for the area outside a couple of ABC weeks, never involves an Ohio team), and so WOIO wins the night; most of that audience from 48 Hours isn't in the demographic anyways. And when Pat Tomosulu did this on WGN in the exact same time period, it seemed to be fine, but suddenly it's a network affiliate and the death of the Fifth Estate?! (shakes head) I've seen much worse weekly local content, and better this than a 'bonus' edition of the midday advertorial show 'after dark'.

Edited October 4, 2021 by mrschimpf

[Megatron81 258]

TEGNA is going to be sold sometime soon which I think will be Byron Allen as TEGNA doesn't want Soo Kim with Apollo/Standard General, since the board doesn't like Soo Kim and his takeover and not getting his choices on the board of TEGNA I wonder if Soo would sell his stake in TEGNA if Byron Allen if he is the winning bidder of TEGNA? 

[PTVNews 194]

  On 11/15/2021 at 6:03 AM, Megatron81 said:

TEGNA is going to be sold sometime soon which I think will be Byron Allen as TEGNA doesn't want Soo Kim with Apollo/Standard General, since the board doesn't like Soo Kim and his takeover and not getting his choices on the board of TEGNA I wonder if Soo would sell his stake in TEGNA if Byron Allen if he is the winning bidder of TEGNA? 

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I think the way it works is that if an entity is approved to buy a public company, all the current shareholders are forced to sell so the new owner owns the company 100%.

[SS8609 59]

  On 10/4/2021 at 4:00 AM, mrschimpf said:

The after-SNL time period where I am used to be filled in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s with either It's Showtime at the Apollo, Soul Train, or on the comedic side, Night Stand with Dick Dietrich and America's Dumbest Criminals, and of course KING-TV had Almost Live forever, and it was always a fun topper to a late night.

 

Now...a local church called Time of Grace bought out every post-SNL timeslot in the area (and beyond) for their 'how do you do fellow kids' ministry. It's the perfect cure for insomnia.

 

The Saturday night newscast on an NBC affiliate in-season is usually a dirge. You lose five minutes of show you have the rest of the week because of SNL, governments are closed, the crime roll is shorter, and it's packed with stories where you basically have to get people out to go to festivals and funruns, and network/corporate must-runs, along with weekday junk you want to burn off ahoy. You also never have the rights to the local college football team in most cases since all NBC's got is Notre Dame, so outside WMAQ and WNDU, why care beyond the highlights? Most of the audience isn't even really watching because they're out or watching football at their local favorite bar. Outside of Notre Dame nights where you pray they don't go into overtime and Uncle Lorne rages in a press release Sunday morning about starting at 12:42 a.m., there's no excitement to them (except for the one time where that Kansas anchor said 'let's get the f**k outta here!').

 

I admit...I laughed quite a few times at this show, and I've laughed at Mike Polk's YouTube stuff often. It is a good alternative to the umpteen football games on (which for the area outside a couple of ABC weeks, never involves an Ohio team), and so WOIO wins the night; most of that audience from 48 Hours isn't in the demographic anyways. And when Pat Tomosulu did this on WGN in the exact same time period, it seemed to be fine, but suddenly it's a network affiliate and the death of the Fifth Estate?! (shakes head) I've seen much worse weekly local content, and better this than a 'bonus' edition of the midday advertorial show 'after dark'.

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I do know that many NBC affiliates (including several TEGNA ones) air Your Move with Andy Stanley (whose father is none other than In Touch host Charles Stanley) following SNL, along with select CBS O&Os after James Corden's usual Friday repeat. Yes, he is a megachurch pastor like his father, but it feels more like a self-help/motivational speaking type of ministry program with a night vibe of sorts, and certainly neither like his father's more traditionalist program nor the sort of "fire and brimstone" stuff on the "pay-for-pray" channels that would never make it to air on a secular network affiliate let alone after "those demonic late night shows".

 

I also know that KHOU and other CBS affiliates - O&O and affiliated - have usually competed with SNL as of late with serial reruns from CBS (which is famous for warehousing its serials for long runs that can be sold into syndication for barter advertising profits). Though in the 1990s they did program the standard issue weekend repeat of Jeopardy! and Siskel & Ebert (which I recall KHOU broke into by way of CBS News to announce the death of Princess Diana), as well as reruns of "Must See TV" staple ER to compete against SNL locally. It now airs reruns of SEAL Team and Bull from CMV + Murdoch Mysteries via CBC's global syndicator on late night weekends. (For those keeping score, KTRK routinely broadcast movies on the weekends well into the 2000s - it now carries reruns of Wipeout and Castle, plus a weekly Houston Texans newsmagazine on the weekends that's not much to write home about given their current team barely qualifies for middle school football.)

Edited November 16, 2021 by SS8609

[TheRob 937]

Project: Veritas has struck again, this time at TEGNA. Look through Twitter and you'll find an interview with a former KENS promotions producer, who gave Veritas a diversity/inclusion module from this past summer.

[CLETVFan 367]

  On 11/17/2021 at 1:49 AM, TheRob said:

Project: Veritas has struck again, this time at TEGNA. Look through Twitter and you'll find an interview with a former KENS promotions producer, who gave Veritas a diversity/inclusion module from this past summer.

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FTVLive chewed out the guy who took part in the interview.

[PTVNews 194]

https://nypost.com/2021/12/10/tegnas-talks-to-sell-tv-empire-for-8-4-billion-hits-roadblock/

 

A couple of highlights from this article I found interesting:

 

  Quote

There are no other suitors with firm offers for Tegna, insiders said. That includes Byron Allen, the comedian-turned-media-mogul who owns the Weather Channel — who for almost a year has been trying to put together a Tegna bid. While Allen repeatedly said he has the money, he hasn’t yet proven it, according to sources.

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Seems a little odd, if true.

 

 

  Quote

Apollo plans though to keep its current stations and Tegna separate, sources said.

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Right.......

 

 

  Quote

Tegna in this sales process got Soo Kim’s Standard General — which launched an unsuccessful proxy contest against it this spring —to sign an agreement it would not engage in another proxy contest for more than a year, sources said.

 

Kim had highlighted during the heated proxy fight that the company had been hit with racial discrimination and sexual harassment suits. Some insiders now suspect that Tegna may have been more interested in getting that concession than in selling itself, sources said.

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[CLETVFan 367]

Sounds like either TEGNA doesn't actually want to be sold or wants to go through with it on its terms.

[C Block 1566]

I haven’t paid too much attention to KUSA lately, but I noticed they’ve rebranded their morning show from “Mile High Mornings” back to simply “9News Mornings.” They’ve also brought back the “Colorado’s News Leader” tagline, and it seems like they’re starting to use the KTVD callsign in the KTVD branding. It seems like they’re trying to go back to a more sober and authoritative brand unlike…*gestures broadly* whatever they’ve been doing the last few years.

[MarkBRollins88_v2 350]

  On 12/28/2021 at 7:06 AM, C Block said:

I haven’t paid too much attention to KUSA lately, but I noticed they’ve rebranded their morning show from “Mile High Mornings” back to simply “9News Mornings.” They’ve also brought back the “Colorado’s News Leader” tagline, and it seems like they’re starting to use the KTVD callsign in the KTVD branding. It seems like they’re trying to go back to a more sober and authoritative brand unlike…*gestures broadly* whatever they’ve been doing the last few years.

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It’s almost like viewers want the news—to do—get this—actual news. 
 

Hopefully this return to the way things were will be contagious and spread to their sister station in Dallas. But I won’t hold my breath.

 

Maybe that’ll happen if Soo Kim/Apollo/The Cox family (what little power they have left) get their hands on TEGNA. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by MarkBRollins88_v2

[Georgie56 3300]

NYPost reports that Apollo is closing in on a deal to acquire TEGNA.

[Yankees4life 558]

  On 1/19/2022 at 12:58 AM, Georgie56 said:

NYPost reports that Apollo is closing in on a deal to acquire TEGNA.

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Boy oh boy. That's gonna be interesting. Don't want to see them take over Tegna. They certainly haven't done a good job running the channels they currently have either. So them scooping up Tegna is not something I want to look forward to

[Nelson R. 569]

  On 1/19/2022 at 12:58 AM, Georgie56 said:

NYPost reports that Apollo is closing in on a deal to acquire TEGNA.

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  On 1/19/2022 at 1:56 AM, Yankees4life said:

Boy oh boy. That's gonna be interesting. Don't want to see them take over Tegna. They certainly haven't done a good job running the channels they currently have either. So them scooping up Tegna is not something I want to look forward to

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According to that article they are only going to be the minority owners. But yeah.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

  On 1/19/2022 at 12:58 AM, Georgie56 said:

NYPost reports that Apollo is closing in on a deal to acquire TEGNA.

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I don't know whether to laugh or vomit. - Hank Hill.

[dman748 1256]

There's a lot of unknowns to this thing.

 

In fact we don't even know what the ownership structure of this entity is going to be like.

 

And even though the report did say that Apollo would keep the Cox stations separate I'm just not sure that the FCC would be convinced that they would even allow Apollo to keep the Cox stations in markets they would overlap in (Jacksonville is going to get the most attention out of the markets the two companies would overlap in).

 

There's also another factor to it, the ownership structure (percentagewise) we don't even know how much Standard is going to own the combined company and how much Apollo would own in it as well.

 

Still plenty of questions that with due time, will get answered.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

  On 1/19/2022 at 3:37 AM, dman748 said:

There's a lot of unknowns to this thing.

 

In fact we don't even know what the ownership structure of this entity is going to be like.

 

And even though the report did say that Apollo would keep the Cox stations separate I'm just not sure that the FCC would be convinced that they would even allow Apollo to keep the Cox stations in markets they would overlap in (Jacksonville is going to get the most attention out of the markets the two companies would overlap in).

 

There's also another factor to it, the ownership structure (percentagewise) we don't even know how much Standard is going to own the combined company and how much Apollo would own in it as well.

 

Still plenty of questions that with due time, will get answered.

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I think the FCC and DOJ will have a handful here. This looks like a potential Sinclair-Tribune 2.0 with those question marks. Agreed, Jacksonville will get a lot of scrutiny and I think they will have to sell one of them.

[CubsFan79 58]

Cox owns ABC in Atlanta and Tenga owns NBC also in Atlanta.Conflict maybe there too.

[KnoxvilleTVFan 286]

It will be interesting to see what happens with this deal. As for Knoxville, they should be okay since Cox does not own any TV station in the market.

[ABC 7 Denver 1714]

  On 1/19/2022 at 5:45 AM, CubsFan79 said:

Cox owns ABC in Atlanta and Tenga owns NBC also in Atlanta.Conflict maybe there too.

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Nah. Nexstar-style and Sinclair-style sidecars pretty much baked in means that they're untouchable.

Edited January 19, 2022 by ABC 7 Denver

[CubsFan79 58]

Would WXIA TV and WSB TV become sister stations.

[scrabbleship 429]

  On 1/19/2022 at 6:31 AM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Nah. Nexstar-style and Sinclair-style sidecars pretty much baked in means that they're untouchable.

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Has anyone tried a sidecar approach in a market that large?

[TheSpeedKing 266]

  On 1/19/2022 at 6:31 AM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Nah. Nexstar-style and Sinclair-style sidecars pretty much baked in means that they're untouchable.

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  On 1/19/2022 at 1:03 PM, CubsFan79 said:

Would WXIA TV and WSB TV become sister stations.

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Not happening. The FCC will see this and force Apollo to divest one of them to a seperate, unrelated owner. They'll divest WXIA.