WMGM Atlantic City, NJ Sold For $6M

[mvcg66b3r 97]

Do you think someone can record WMGM's final signoff, put it on YouTube and post a link here?

[Viper550 268]

The plot has thickened:

 

WMGM is flipping to Soul of the South when the clock strikes twelve, and is apparently wanting to collaborate with WOND for some local programs.

[speed053 35]

I checked out their live stream lately they are no longer NBC 40, and I noticed WMGM finally took off the NBC Peacock from the channel 40 logo, now it's just WMGM 40. But sources say the station goes dark as the clock reaches 12:00am ET/11:00pm Chicago time. I feel sorry for WMGM had to go through these tough times between the station being sold and the loss of NBC. I hope South Jersey may continue to get their news that is not dependent on Philadelphia news stations. Personally while on my way to Washington D.C. from New York City in 2006, I somewhat picked up WMGM's signal on my battery powered portable TV in a tour bus on the New Jersey Turnpike.

[LTSC1980 96]

http://www.nbc40.net/story/27738879/dear-south-jersey

 

A last moment of NBC40......

[susquvalleywgal 494]

Very sad to see this station lose their NBC status. I passed this station numerous times on US 9 on the way to Ocean City, NJ (my second home). The small town feel of WMGM is what made it great. I hear they did a 1 hour documentary before Comca$t shut them down. If anyone can get it on YouTube that would be PERFECT.

 

Always Remember ...

 

-- Matt

[A3N 996]

Very sad to see this station lose their NBC status. I passed this station numerous times on US 9 on the way to Ocean City, NJ (my second home). The small town feel of WMGM is what made it great. I hear they did a 1 hour documentary before Comca$t shut them down. If anyone can get it on YouTube that would be PERFECT.

 

Always Remember ...

 

-- Matt

Comcast did not shut them down, so stop making false accusations. The station's owner is the one that decided to shut the news operation down, and it's only a matter of time before the station as a whole completely goes dark. Comcast is far from being the best corporation in America, but the blame in this situation lies with Locus Point. They're spectrum speculators, they buy stations so that they can sell them in the spectrum auction not to build out the infrastructure/resources. Sad that people had to lose their jobs, hopefully, they'll find new jobs quickly.

[rkolsen 1679]

Comcast did not shut them down, so stop making false accusations. The station's owner is the one that decided to shut the news operation down, and it's only a matter of time before the station as a whole completely goes dark. Comcast is far from being the best corporation in America, but the blame in this situation lies with Locus Point. They're spectrum speculators, they buy stations so that they can sell them in the spectrum auction not to build out the infrastructure/resources. Sad that people had to lose their jobs, hopefully, they'll find new jobs quickly.

I still standby my earlier post.

I wonder if the the termination of the no expiration date was exclusive to Access 1 ownership? I believe in many affiliation agreements ownership changes require notification and permission essentially of the network and that the network may terminate the agreement with out liability.

Here's an excerpt from the ABC affiliation agreement with WJLA, which I'm using as an example because NBC's affiliation agreements are hard to find:

 

So I'm assuming that if the station were still owned by Access 1 communications or sold to another station group the affiliation agreement would stay in tact. Simply because LocusPoint is a spectrum speculator and is a reasonably new company that could make them unqualified to own and operate a station especially since the contracted Access 1 to continue to operate the station.

[A3N 996]

 

I still standby my earlier post.

 

I agree with your points. Still the poster above made it seem like it was Comcast who pulled the plug on the news department/station. I think that if Locus Point had the intention of sticking around for the foreseeable future and had made a commitment with Comcast to stay on as an NBC affiliate, then things would have stayed as is. But, given the intentions of Locus Point, Comcast probably felt it was in the best interest that they pipe in WCAU sooner rather than later. Even if Comcast had allowed them to keep the NBC affiliation, it would be like kicking the can down the road and we would still have been in the same place...just a few years later.

 

I hate to sound like i'm defending Comcast but one can't simply paint the company with the same brush for every situation. Yes they are notorious for bad customer service and crappy products, but that doesn't mean that they are out to screw everyone and anyone that crosses their path. I also don't see CBS, ABC or FOX offering to affiliate with WMGM. At the end of the day, business is business.

[Viper550 268]

 

Here it is, folks

 

Yes, after a final farewell, it abruptly cut to Soul of the South ... who just so happened to be airing the final seconds of the ball drop.

[Weeters 1811]

 

I agree with your points. Still the poster above made it seem like it was Comcast who pulled the plug on the news department/station. I think that if Locus Point had the intention of sticking around for the foreseeable future and had made a commitment with Comcast to stay on as an NBC affiliate, then things would have stayed as is. But, given the intentions of Locus Point, Comcast probably felt it was in the best interest that they pipe in WCAU sooner rather than later. Even if Comcast had allowed them to keep the NBC affiliation, it would be like kicking the can down the road and we would still have been in the same place...just a few years later.

 

I hate to sound like i'm defending Comcast but one can't simply paint the company with the same brush for every situation. Yes they are notorious for bad customer service and crappy products, but that doesn't mean that they are out to screw everyone and anyone that crosses their path. I also don't see CBS, ABC or FOX offering to affiliate with WMGM. At the end of the day, business is business.

 

I think it's more like LocusPoint decided they didn't want to spend the money to continue the affiliation with NBC.

 

It's not like LocusPoint has no idea how to do TV nor do they not have a relationship with Comcast. LocusPoint is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group, who is one of the owners of The Weather Channel.

 

The loss of the NBC affiliation is the doing of LocusPoint and LocusPoint alone. If anything, they conspired to spin this story to deflect blame towards Comcast, who everyone already hates, keeping it from becoming another "Equity Firm Kills More Jobs" story.

[TexasTVNews 1366]

And here's the entire final newscast of NBC 40 News at 6PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIWsEtmEq8

[mvcg66b3r 97]

1. Is WMGM still in HD, or has it been downgraded to 4:3 SD?

2. Is it still on Channel 4 on Comcast, or did it move to a higher channel?

[rkolsen 1679]

I think it's more like LocusPoint decided they didn't want to spend the money to continue the affiliation with NBC.

 

It's not like LocusPoint has no idea how to do TV nor do they not have a relationship with Comcast. LocusPoint is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group, who is one of the owners of The Weather Channel.

 

The loss of the NBC affiliation is the doing of LocusPoint and LocusPoint alone. If anything, they conspired to spin this story to deflect blame towards Comcast, who everyone already hates, keeping it from becoming another "Equity Firm Kills More Jobs" story.

Yes, I realize The Blackstone Group are part owners of Locus Point and The Weather Channel but for all intents and purposes NBCU is the operator of the network. I'd imagine The Blackstone Group has a say in some of the management decisions and gets 1/3 of the profits but they aren't the day to day operators of the channel.

 

Edit: I read an article about the acquisition of the Weather Channel. It is operated as an independent company but NBC manages the company. Although NBCU manages the company it doesn't handle ad sales for the network nor does it manage carriage negotiations (like bundling TWC with USA and Bravo).

[Weeters 1811]

The station shut down news operations 27 days ago, but the website is still active and the AP syndication auto-poster is still posting news articles. Someone apparently still has access to the site, as the farewell article was updated on the 15th.

 

Have the new owners even stopped by the building to make sure the lights are off and the doors are locked??? Because something tells me they're not.

[BigJohnnyV 1]

In a post "Weeters was quoted as saying:

"Have the new owners even stopped by the building to make sure the lights are off and the doors are locked??? Because something tells me they're not.

Actually there's nothing to turn off or close, WMGM-TV shared offices with its former sister radio stations (WOND-A, WBSS-A, WMGM-F and WWAC-F) at Broadcast Plaza in Linwood, these radio stations and Broadcast Plaza are now owned by local attorney George Miller through his broadcast arm Longport Media. The station's studios at 501 West Patcong Avenue behind Broadcast Plaza is still owned by Access.1 Communications and was leased to LocusPoint Media until the station ended its affiliation with NBC. Access.1 Communications has since put the studio property up for sale and according to one real estate broker they are asking $600,000.00 for the property. My understanding is that all of the station's staff except for the station manager and chief engineer have been laid off and they've moved back to the small offices and studios at the station's transmitter site at 226 Avalon Blvd in the Swainton section of Middle Township.

 

In a post "mvcg66b3r" was quoted as saying:

"Do you think this will happen with WHAG Hagerstown MD (Washington DC)?

 

First let me say that I am NOT defending Comcast or NBC (that would be the last thing I would do) but I would like to point out some facts that I hope you'll be able to digest.

 

1) WHAG's broadcast was never a threat to NBC/WRC because WHAG within their coverage area has a very strong signal where as WRC does not West of Montgomery County to the Washington County border in Maryland and is almost non-existent in Franklin County in Pennsylvania, Berkeley County in West Virginia and Frederick County in Virginia so WHAG would be the logical choice for coverage of NBC programming and local news.

 

2) WMGM's 1.7 million watts over-the-air signal is a threat to NBC's O&O WCAU because it reaches as far south as Cape May county to as far North as Atlantic to Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and New Castle county in Delaware. WMGM could have requested a MUST-CARRY on all of the Cablevision and Comcast systems in these areas but instead opted instead to only cover Atlantic and Cape May counties, If WMGM had requested a larger coverage they would have been in direct competition with WCAU for viewers and advertising dollars which for most television network executives would not sit too well.

 

3) WHAG has a tactical advantage that WMGM does not, they are owned by a major broadcast company Nexstar Broadcasting where as WMGM is owned by a small non-broadcaster interested in only selling the station's spectrum. If Comcast/NBC were to try to pull any crap against WHAG, Nexstar which also owns 20 addional NBC affiliates could retaliate by pulling NBC off those stations in key DMAs.

 

4) NBC saw the writing on the wall, they knew that WMGM's new owners were not broadcasters and only bought Channel 40 to sell it at the 2016 FCC Spectrum auction so why keep them as an affiliate.

 

I had a friend who called and spoke to Hugh Breslin the General Manager of WHAG who echoed what I've written here that WHAG and Nexstar have a stellar relationship and that he anticipates their relationship to continue for futures to come.

[BigJohnnyV 1]

 

And here's the entire final newscast of NBC 40 News at 6PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIWsEtmEq8

 

Here's the hour long special NewsCenter 40: The Stories Behind the Station

[Samantha 2878]

NBC pulled the affiliation because it was abundantly clear after the Access.1 sale to LocusPoint that the new owners were not interested in running an NBC affiliate. They were interested in 6 MHz of spectrum in Philadelphia in the form of a New Jersey station. Additionally, the sale to LocusPoint separated WMGM from the assets that made it a serviceable NBC affiliate, namely its local news resources (the radio side was sold to Longport as mentioned).

 

NBC could have pulled this affiliation in 1995 when they took on WCAU (much like ABC tried to dispatch WWSB), but they didn't.

[BigJohnnyV 1]

 

NBC could have pulled this affiliation in 1995 when they took on WCAU (much like ABC tried to dispatch WWSB), but they didn't.

 

Because the then owner of WMGM Howard Green was a real businessman who finagle the NBC execs in renewing the station's contract each time by taking them out to dinner and closing the deal with a simple verbal agreement and handshake (Per the NewsCenter 40: The Stories Behind the Station special).

[mvcg66b3r 97]

Two related posts from RadioInsight.

 

Scott Fybush:

 

It is extremely likely that WMUR would have lost the ABC affiliation by now if Hearst hadn’t bought the station and made it a sister to WCVB. Networks don’t do secondary affiliations these days. Look at what happened to WMGM-TV in New Jersey, where it had been the secondary NBC in the Philadelphia DMA.

http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/could-wmur-tv-lauch-a-dt-3-sub-channel-and-have-it-affiliate-with-fox-network/#post-130723

 

jcurtis1027:

 

 

Scott, ABC has the same situation in the Tampa market where they have two ABC affiliates(WFTS and WWSB in Sarasota). Both stations have different owners which is different than WMUR/WCVB. It did make sense at one time when WTSP was the ABC affiliate since their transmitter was located in Holiday (north of Tampa in Pasco County) and their signal was not great in the Sarasota area. Even with WFTS whose transmitter is in the Riverview tower farm, WWSB is still an ABC affiliate even though WFTS’ transmitter is a much closer to WWSB’s (near Parrish) than the distance between Needam (WCVB’s transmitter) and Goffstown, NH (WMUR’s). Both WWSB and WFTS co-exist (ABC programming is not shown north of the Hillsboro/Manatee county line the few systems in Hillsborough or Pinnelas counties that have WWSB – my parents live in Hillsborogh County have FIOS – syndicated and local programming are on WWSB are carried but ABC is blacked out.) Why couldn’t WMUR and WCVB co-exist as ABC affiliates even if Hearst did not own both of them?

http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/could-wmur-tv-lauch-a-dt-3-sub-channel-and-have-it-affiliate-with-fox-network/#post-130724

 

Also, what about WEWS vs. WAKR/WAKC (ABC Cleveland/Akron) and WKYT vs. WYMT (CBS Lexington/Hazard, both owned by Gray but with different schedules)?

[cbs2newengland 71]

 

Two related posts from RadioInsight.

 

Scott Fybush:

 

 

http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/could-wmur-tv-lauch-a-dt-3-sub-channel-and-have-it-affiliate-with-fox-network/#post-130723

 

jcurtis1027:

 

 

http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/could-wmur-tv-lauch-a-dt-3-sub-channel-and-have-it-affiliate-with-fox-network/#post-130724

 

That idiot who Fybush replied to must've been an old school NH-ite who believes Manchester is still its own DMA or refuses to accept the Boston/Manchester consolidation. There are still 70 year old wackos out there who still believe it should be its own market and not be part of Boston. For those people they should be eaten alive by crazy wolves (or bears if they live in the White Mountains.)

[NEOMatrix 1295]

That idiot who Fybush replied to must've been an old school NH-ite who believes Manchester is still its own DMA or refuses to accept the Boston/Manchester consolidation. There are still 70 year old wackos out there who still believe it should be its own market and not be part of Boston. For those people they should be eaten alive by crazy wolves (or bears if they live in the White Mountains.)

There are those in Akron who believe that Akron should still have it's own market and not be tied up with Cleveland. The difference between the NH and Akron situations is that NH had WMUR for its sub-market that covered areas Boston stations couldn't reach. Akron, OTOH had WAKR/WAKC which struggled because the VHF Cleveland stations covered most, if not all, of the DMA well.

[Rusty Muck 4168]

The only reason why WAKR-TV/WAKC had the ABC affiliation was because of the very weak position ABC was in as a "Big Three network" back in the 1950s. WEWS has been a primary ABC affiliate since 1954, but back then often preempted network programs for local fare. At the time, affiliating with WAKR-TV made sense for ABC, especially with regards to shoring up their affiliate roster.

 

It was and is no secret that WAKR-TV/WAKC was a money loser for decades, only kept afloat by the revenue from WAKR 1590 and the ABC affiliation itself, even as that affiliation slowly became completely superfluous.

[mvcg66b3r 97]

More from Scott Fybush on RadioInsight:

 

Times have changed. When WMUR started up, and even when the Sarasota station (originally WXLT if memory serves?) started up, networks paid local affiliates to carry their programming and cable companies didn’t pay anything to carry local stations.

 

Both of those economic factors have changed very dramatically in the last decade or so. Today, most network affiliates pay “reverse compensation” for the privilege of carrying network programming, instead of the other way around. To make up for that lost revenue, the model today is that owners of local stations typically seek – and usually receive – a growing amount of money per month, per subscriber from cable and satellite systems that carry their programming.

 

See why network exclusivity suddenly becomes a MUCH bigger deal now?

 

If Hearst is paying Disney for the rights to carry ABC shows in the Boston DMA, it wants to get the exclusive rights to carry ABC. Otherwise, the first time there’s a carriage dispute, FiOS or Comcast or Dish or Direct would simply negotiate a cheaper deal to carry ABC via WMUR instead and WCVB would lose most of its leverage.

 

There is zero room for sentiment or history in any of these deals. For one thing, there’s too much money at stake, and for another, there’s essentially zero connection between the “ABC” to which WMUR was so loyal in the 1950s and 60s and the ABC of today, three owners later. On the other end of things, station ownership has gone from hundreds of small local owners to a handful of big group owners, which gives them more leverage with the networks. Hearst owns many big ABC affiliates around the country. If it hadn’t bought WMUR, it would easily have had enough power over ABC to get the ABC affiliation pulled from WMUR eventually. Think ABC cares more about one small owner in Manchester – or about the owner that serves as the gatekeeper to ABC in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Honolulu, West Palm Beach, etc.?

 

WWSB is the last man standing from the old days. The networks have systematically chopped away at the other remaining dual-affiliate markets: ABC ditched secondary affiliate KNTV in the San Francisco market a decade ago (it ended up as an NBC O&O after some complicated shuffling), NBC ditched WMGM-TV in the Philadelphia market, Hearst bought out WMUR to give it sole rights to ABC in the Boston market, and even some much smaller conflicts (in the Lincoln-Hastings NE market, for instance) have been cleared up.

 

I’m not sure when the affiliation deals with WTSP and WWSB expire, but I’d strongly suspect that ABC won’t renew with WWSB when the time comes. WTSP very much has the upper hand there: since 2011, its transmitter has been co-located at Riverview with the rest of the Tampa TVs, and WTSP’s owner Gannett holds a lot of sway with ABC since buying Belo, which brought a lot of potent ABC outlets (especially WFAA Dallas) into the Gannett fold. If Gannett says “we want exclusivity in the Tampa DMA,” is Disney really going to care about Calkins Media, whose only other ABC stations are in Huntsville and Tallahassee?

 

It’s a business. Follow the money.

http://radioinsight.com/community/topic/could-wmur-tv-lauch-a-dt-3-sub-channel-and-have-it-affiliate-with-fox-network/#post-130735

[mvcg66b3r 97]

WCAU Hires Reporter for Jersey Shore

 

WCAU, the NBC owned station in Philadelphia, says it’s showing its commitment to the South Jersey by hiring Drew Smith as a reporter.

 

“Drew’s hiring reinforces the commitment NBC10 has made to the Jersey Shore,” said Anzio Williams, WCAU VP of News. “South Jersey is a very important part of our region, which is why it’s essential that we continue to build our resources to cover major and breaking news everywhere viewers can watch NBC10.”

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wcau-hires-reporter-for-jersey-shore/141714?utm_content=post1-title&utm_source=tvspy&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter20150218

[Big Country News 435]

 

That idiot who Fybush replied to must've been an old school NH-ite who believes Manchester is still its own DMA or refuses to accept the Boston/Manchester consolidation. There are still 70 year old wackos out there who still believe it should be its own market and not be part of Boston. For those people they should be eaten alive by crazy wolves (or bears if they live in the White Mountains.)

 

Boston sucks for news, really. You're stuck watching a sub-par Hearst station that's full of themselves, a WSVN wannabe, a FOX station that's lost its way, or a CBS station that tries too hard to get along. New Hampshire really needs to be it's own market for the same reason Atlantic City needs it's own market: People who live there want to hear news from their area, not another.