Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

Some good news for the underlings at Sinclair....they just raised their minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour....

http://sbgi.net/pr-news/sinclair-broadcast-group-raises-minimum-hourly-wage-to-15/

 

 

[TheRolyPoly 2360]

10 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Some good news for the underlings at Sinclair....they just raised their minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour....

http://sbgi.net/pr-news/sinclair-broadcast-group-raises-minimum-hourly-wage-to-15/

 

 

 

I hope that's not what their anchors get paid because if it is, then all that time studying to get a degree in broadcast journalism in pretty much wasted if you get on a Sinclair station only making $15/hour with other jobs that sometimes pay much much higher than that, some even without a college degree.

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

To put that into perspective, 15 dollars an hour for 40 hours a week is slightly over $31,000 a year.

 

That would have been nice starting out since my first tv job was $22,000 and my second was $27,000.

 

For most people, they have likely been over this threshhold for a while, so it's meaningless to them and a slap in the face to those who have worked hard to be where they're at and only making SLIGHTLY more than this minimum.

[MidwestTV 1229]

16 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I hope that's not what their anchors get paid because if it is, then all that time studying to get a degree in broadcast journalism in pretty much wasted if you get on a Sinclair station only making $15/hour with other jobs that sometimes pay much much higher than that, some even without a college degree.

 

Depending on the market it might be. As already said, TV pays *poorly* when starting out, especially in small markets. A LOT of stations still give out salaries as low as 22-23k. They're getting paid less than some fast food workers.

[rkolsen 1684]

1 hour ago, MidwestTV said:

 

Depending on the market it might be. As already said, TV pays *poorly* when starting out, especially in small markets. A LOT of stations still give out salaries as low as 22-23k. They're getting paid less than some fast food workers.

There was one person who worked on WHAG / which is part of the DC market who lived out of his car. 

On 12/13/2019 at 10:26 PM, jbnews said:

But a must-run like this is harmless...

 

On 12/13/2019 at 9:36 PM, TSSZNews said:

 Hearst just made a position for Today alum Jeff Rossen's consumer reports and his team. Must-runs aren't going anywhere on Hearst.

I don’t think they will be Daily features. If they’re like his Today show ones they’re probably once a week.

[ScottSchell 352]

So Jay Prater chief Meteorologist at KAKE tv in Wichita posted this on his Facebook starting tonight at 9pm KAKE will now produce FOX Kansas News at 9 Sinclair owned station newscasts.  Added some photos that Jay took on set and that Dave Grant (a Kake reporter) took they are using the old gray television graphics package instead of using Sinclair's graphics like KSN used when they produced the newscast.

Edited January 2, 2020 by ScottSchell

[MidwestTV 1229]

Ah, I see it's KAKE's turn to take care of KSAS. Seems like those Wichita stations rotate responsibility every what, five years?

[TheRolyPoly 2360]

7 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

Ah, I see it's KAKE's turn to take care of KSAS. Seems like those Wichita stations rotate responsibility every what, five years?

KSNW produced it for 8 years, since 2012.

[ScottSchell 352]

3 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

KSNW produced it for 8 years, since 2012.

And I believe KWCH had it a longer because they were the first station I remember broadcasting a newscast for FOX Kansas.

[dman748 1256]

As posted on Discord, apparently the trademark for "Diamond Sports" expired on New Year's and in it's place, Sinclair a few days before the New Year trademarked "SportsTime" as a name for Diamond Sports Group.

 

Given that one of the RSNs is already branded under the SportsTime name (that'd be SportsTime Ohio) it would make logical sense to rebrand the rest of the chain under the "SportsTime" branding I do wonder 2 things:

 

1. Does Sinclair intend to merge Fox Sports Ohio into that of SportsTime Ohio (or perhaps rebrand Fox Sports Ohio to SportsTime Ohio and then rebrand the current SportsTime Ohio to SportsTime Ohio 2)?

2. Did Sinclair perhaps hit a snag in it's negotiations with the buyout of Stadium?

 

Something to watch, folks.

[TheRyan 560]

Thought this was important to share.  Just saw a Facebook post from Sharyl Attkisson that they are readying a new set for "Full Measure" to debut this Sunday (January 5th).  I have attached the pictures she posted.

 

From what I can tell the set looks great.

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

On 1/2/2020 at 8:11 PM, ScottSchell said:

And I believe KWCH had it a longer because they were the first station I remember broadcasting a newscast for FOX Kansas.

That would make KSAS one of the few stations (if not the only in the US) to have newscasts produced by all 3 of their local counterparts....at different times?

 

The only one close to that is WWHO in Columbus, who had WCMH do their news originally (under an LMA with Outlet/NBC), WBNS (under LIN ownership) and a midnight re-run of WSYX's 11pm show under Manhan?

 

Going back to the original KWCH deal, that was ended after they began running their own 10pm news on their CW sister station, while taping the KSAS show for airing at 10pm.  KSAS balked, and live newscasts were restored until the contract expired at the end of 2011, at which time KSN took over as the news provider for KSAS.  This happened about a year before Newport divested their stations, and Sinclair took over KSAS when they were broken up.

Edited January 4, 2020 by tyrannical bastard

[CircleSeven 1955]

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

That would make KSAS one of the few stations (if not the only in the US) to have newscasts produced by all 3 of their local counterparts....at different times?

KLJB in Davenport, IA is another one I can think of.

 

After being produced by INN before INN original owner's bankruptcy in 2010, it was then produced by WQAD. KWQC took over on New Year's Eve 2012. And finally, WHBF took over NYE 2015, after KLJB's ownership change & SSA with WHBF.

 

With that being said, WIth KAKE now producing Fox 9pm show, they should've gotten new on-air graphics. This looks like the same package Gray gotten them before they switched stations nearly four years ago.

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by CircleSeven

[Morphtato 43]

The WEYI/WSMH (NBC 25/FOX 66) duopoly in the Flint/Saginaw market is adding a 5 PM newscast beginning on Monday 1/20 on NBC 25. 

 

[ttvn2000 320]

Anyone wondering what is going on with WKRC in Cincinnati?  I was expecting some sort of main anchor team announcement by now. I mean, with Rob Braun leaving last June and Cammy Dierking having decided to leave in April 2019, surely they could’ve come into February sweeps with some sort of plan!?

 

Meanwhile, WXIX is making moves with new/familiar faces & newscasts and WLWT continues to be very solid with their married duo.

 

I guess we will just see how things go with the randomness that is Paula Toti and Kyle Inskeep...

 

Come on, Sinclair!

[dman748 1256]

I shared this on Discord and I'm sharing this on here.

 

https://www.si.com/johnwallstreet/sports-business/diamond-sports-rebrand

 

Right now, I wouldn't be too concerned about Sinclair's future (I would be a little bit) but, if say we go into this Fall and the upcoming NHL/NBA season and we still don't have concrete plans from Sinclair about the RSNs that would be when questions need to be asked about what's going on.

 

I know it was rumored about Fox Sports Florida/Sun being rebranding a few months back, they said the rebrand would take place over the next few months but that hasn't happened either as of yet.

[Lucas Welter 26]

Sinclair new graphics on WLUK only on Weather. Still use 2014(2017 curves) graphics and Stephen Arnold's theme Aerial.

[hfiles 80]

I noticed that WLUK has been incorporating other elements of the new graphics package into newscasts. I'm surprised how long it's taken them to get the rest of the package implemented, and I'm curious if they drop Aerial when they do.

[dman748 1256]

Bloomberg is reporting that Sinclair is in talks Bruin Sports (the parent company of Deltatre)

 

This might be behind the paywall for some of y'all that have reached the limit of articles that you can read per month but I should note that the only RSNs not included in this deal are Marquee and YES, all the former Fox Regional Sports Networks are included in this deal.

 

Some of the notable clients are the NFL, MLB and (ironically) Fox Sports.

[Yankees4life 558]

KTXS got the updated graphics

 

[nathannah 2401]

The postscript to the Sinclair/Tribune merger failure fallout is in from the FCC; SBG will be giving up a 'voluntary contribution of $48 million to Treasury', but escapes any license revocations. Also included in the fine is yet again, undisclosed VNRs (you'd think they'd have learned this in 2006) and other paid sponsorships and programming.

 

Any other time, this is pretty much just a write-off for a normal 2Q, but it really doesn't help their financial straits overall at this point.

Edited May 6, 2020 by mrschimpf

[dman748 1256]

18 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

The postscript to the Sinclair/Tribune merger failure fallout is in from the FCC; SBG will be giving up a 'voluntary contribution of $48 million to Treasury', but escapes any license revocations. Also included in the fine is yet again, undisclosed VNRs (you'd think they'd have learned this in 2006) and other paid sponsorships and programming.

 

Any other time, this is pretty much just a write-off for a normal 2Q, but it really doesn't help their financial straits overall at this point.

What Sinclair really needs is the contact sports (the ones where staying 6 feet apart is not an option) to come back if they really want to survive otherwise I think they'll be bankrupt by the end of the year.

 

As for what happens to the Sinclair stations? Well.. I'll save that for Speculatron

Edited May 6, 2020 by oknewsguy

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

It's another hit, but the $48 million is less than the $60 million cash it coughed up to Nexstar.

 

They probably have some bigger issues down the road with their finances, but will it put them back in the M&A game again to scale up to Nexstar?

 

The icing on the cake?  Pai isn't going to revoke the licenses because....

..."On the other hand, I disagree with those who, for transparently political reasons, demand that we revoke Sinclair’s licenses.  While they don’t like what they perceive to be the broadcaster’s viewpoints, the First Amendment still applies around here.”

 

How politics have ruined everything.  THEY. BROKE. THE. LAW.  AND. SHOULD. BE. PUNISHED.

 

Even the RKO General stuff seems tame compared to how Sinclair conducted themselves in the Tribune deal.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by tyrannical bastard

[dman748 1256]

50 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

They probably have some bigger issues down the road with their finances, but will it put them back in the M&A game again to scale up to Nexstar?

With the amount of debt load coupled with the fact that companies may not want to deal with Sinclair due to among other things their $13.2 billion debt even though Sinclair is now back in the good graces of the FCC, the best they might be able to do is station swapping to get into new markets

[nathannah 2401]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

The icing on the cake?  Pai isn't going to revoke the licenses because....

..."On the other hand, I disagree with those who, for transparently political reasons, demand that we revoke Sinclair’s licenses.  While they don’t like what they perceive to be the broadcaster’s viewpoints, the First Amendment still applies around here.”

 

How politics have ruined everything.  THEY. BROKE. THE. LAW.  AND. SHOULD. BE. PUNISHED.

I would have rather seen forced sales than revocations (of course not involving Cunnigham, Deerfield, Stirk, New Age or Max Media) since it was corporate level chicanery for the most part rather than the local level and the station personnel doesn't deserve the ill effects of their bosses.