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Raycom acquires the Calkins stations

CircleSeven

By CircleSeven
in General TV

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TheRolyPoly Station Group CEO

TheRolyPoly 1847

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TVNewsCheck posting this morning that Calkins Media is selling its 3 TV stations to Raycom.

 

WAAY 31 will be assigned to American Spirit since Raycom proper already owns WAFF 48. No purchase price have been announced.

 

I think WAAY 31 should instead become a Gray property or god forbid, become a Nexstar property which just launched an in-house news department last week!

 

Idk why WAAY 31 would be assigned to American Spirit to then be operated by Raycom which, as you mentioned, already owns the market-leader WAFF 48.

 

But at least it will be good to see more of Raycom in Florida, with WTXL 27 and WWSB 40/Cable 7.

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Breaking News Station Group CEO

Breaking News 802

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I think WAAY 31 should instead become a Gray property or god forbid, become a Nexstar property which just launched an in-house news department last week!

 

Idk why WAAY 31 would be assigned to American Spirit to then be operated by Raycom which, as you mentioned, already owns the market-leader WAFF 48.

 

But at least it will be good to see more of Raycom in Florida, with WTXL 27 and WWSB 40/Cable 7.

 

I'm surprise Sinclair or TEGNA didn't get their hands on Calkins, and with FOX 54 being owned by Nexstar I totally could see WAAY 31 and FOX 54 being a Nexstar outlet together.

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Samantha Station Group CEO

Samantha 2878

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I would be more worried about Raycom entering into an SSA with Scripps and forming "two-city news" on WFTS and WWSB.

 

That's a good point. There's an existing relationship between Raycom and Scripps in Florida. That could result in some changes too.

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GoldenShine9 Station Group CEO

GoldenShine9 1509

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I'm surprise Sinclair or TEGNA didn't get their hands on Calkins, and with FOX 54 being owned by Nexstar I totally could see WAAY 31 and FOX 54 being a Nexstar outlet together.

 

Sinclair would have a near-monopoly in Tallahassee then, owning 4 out of 5 commercial stations...

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tyrannical bastard Station Group CEO

tyrannical bastard 3473

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Given the current regulatory environment, I doubt American Spirit will be able to take over WAAY....UNLESS they merge WAAY's signal on to WAFF and American Spirit runs the subchannels on WAAY's signal.

 

Tallahassee might be an entry into making something out of WPGX over in Panama City. It's more logical to run a station out of there instead of Birmingham...and it could FINALLY be a way to give them a primetime newscast much like Augusta gets one by way of WTOC in Savannah.

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promoguy98 Managing Editor

promoguy98 252

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Given the current regulatory environment, I doubt American Spirit will be able to take over WAAY....UNLESS they merge WAAY's signal on to WAFF and American Spirit runs the subchannels on WAAY's signal.

 

I would imagine there's a huge possibility of that happening given the regulatory enviroment. As you said, most likely a subchannel. Wonder if any "affiliate" swapping will go on? However, should Raycom be allowed to do the deal as they plan and would like to, one only has to look at what they did in Jackson at WDBD FOX 40 to get an idea over what is likely in that scenario.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDBD

 

Either way, I suspect anchor cutting will take place and only the cream of the crop will remain. As far as management, creative and production positions go, they are probably toast.... and This is Home unfortunately will go bye-bye as well. Out of any station in the USA that needed a campaign to connect with it's community, Channel 31 was one. This is Home was one of the best things it had going for it.

 

I can't imagine it being a stress-free and happy happy joy joy day on the Huntsville mountain top that houses that place.

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AJClementeFan69 News Director

AJClementeFan69 477

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I really doubt we'll see any partnership between WWSB and and WFTS.

 

WWSB has the Sarasota area cornered aside from pitiful SNN and I doubt Raycom would want to lose out on that ad revenue by combining them with WFTS in some fashion.

 

That being said I'm not sure if this is good or bad for WWSB. Calkins never seemed like big spenders (that being said they did invest a ton into WTXL to turn it around)...but WWSB was their baby and there's a lot of long-time, popular talent there.

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tyrannical bastard Station Group CEO

tyrannical bastard 3473

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TVNewsCheck probably has the edge on this story about them cashing out entirely.

Their main editor is off this week and the "intern" is reporting things as opposed to Scott Jones having the inside scoop.

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NEOMatrix Station Group CEO

NEOMatrix 1295

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WWSB has the Sarasota area cornered aside from pitiful SNN and I doubt Raycom would want to lose out on that ad revenue by combining them with WFTS in some fashion.

If Raycom did use WWSB to do an SSA with WFTS, Raycom can still handle its own advertising for WWSB and Scripps would only have to handle technical operations and programming for channel 40.

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tyrannical bastard Station Group CEO

tyrannical bastard 3473

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WWSB is in a precarious situation because it is one of the few remaining duplicate affiliate stations left after the demise of WMGM and the pending changes at WHAG. In this case, WWSB almost seems destined to become a semi-satellite or a Sarasota bureau for WFTS given Scripps' increasingly cozy relationship with Raycom...

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Eat News Station Group CEO

Eat News 4738

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I could see WAAY going to American Spirit. However, the FCC might put a stipulation that WAAY cover the Shoals region and that Raycom puts in a low-power translator of WAAY in NW Alabama,

 

I get the spirit of the idea however...

 

Would the stipulation of that translator be for commercial or educational reasons?

Would there then also be a programming stipulation?

Second if you require a translator be placed...will you also require that free antennas and installation be provided?

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