padrechuck 25 Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Gray Television is adding to its stable of West Virginia stations: WDTV 5 CBS WVFX 10 FOX/CW http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/94755 http://m.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view§ion=5-News&item=WDTVWVFX-Now-Gray-Television-30696 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 If only Gray had bought WTRF when they had the chance. It was one of the few Benedek stations they passed on. And thus began the West Virginia Media network thats now a part of Nexstar. Gray might actually be an improvement for them. As far as I know, that market is the ONLY one where the former WVMH station led the ratings... If they go after WOAY in Oak Hill, then they will be a serious challenger to Nexstar in West Virginia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padrechuck 25 Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 If only Gray had bought WTRF when they had the chance. It was one of the few Benedek stations they passed on. And thus began the West Virginia Media network thats now a part of Nexstar. Gray might actually be an improvement for them. As far as I know, that market is the ONLY one where the former WVMH station led the ratings... If they go after WOAY in Oak Hill, then they will be a serious challenger to Nexstar in West Virginia. I know for a fact that Gray did look at buying the West Virginia Media stations, but that WVMH wouldn't sell without WOWK being part of the package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvcg66b3r 97 Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 I see Gray flipping WDTV 5.1 to NBC and WV Media flipping WBOY 12.1 to CBS to mirror the companies' other stations in the state. I also see FOX moving to 5.2, CW to 5.3 and WVFX going dark if Gray doesn't get the failing station waiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I saw this deal coming from a mile away after Russ Withers passed away a couple of years ago. If they go after WOAY in Oak Hill, then they will be a serious challenger to Nexstar in West Virginia. Please make it happen. WOAY channel 4 — oops, 50 — is such a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weather8822 17 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Hey WOAY isn't a joke, I work for WOAY! But in all seriousness, Gray TV buying WOAY would probably be a good thing for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I see Gray flipping WDTV 5.1 to NBC and WV Media flipping WBOY 12.1 to CBS to mirror the companies' other stations in the state. This is the first affiliation shuffle you've suggested that makes sense. It'd certainly remove a headache for each of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Aside from WOAY and WVVA....Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray will control ALL of the major commercial TV stations in West Virginia. I'm surprised Gray hasn't brought ABC to Parkersburg yet. It would give them Lima-like dominance over that market where they would control EVERY affiliation in that market. At one time WDTV had a construction permit to build a fill-in translator in Parkersburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRolyPoly 1847 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Aside from WOAY and WVVA....Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray will control ALL of the major commercial TV stations in West Virginia. I'm surprised Gray hasn't brought ABC to Parkersburg yet. It would give them Lima-like dominance over that market where they would control EVERY affiliation in that market. At one time WDTV had a construction permit to build a fill-in translator in Parkersburg. WCHS 8 is the de facto ABC affiliate for Parkersburg, but yes... I wonder why Gray hasn't brought ABC over to that very small market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Back when Gray bought WSAZ, there were fears that WTAP would be shut down because even WSAZ had significant viewership there, and all the other Charleston-Huntington stations filled out the market with their affiliates. WTAP's absolute dominance (because they were the ONLY game in town) saved them and digital TV allowed Gray to fill in the market over the years. Back in the infancy of TV, Parkersburg was originally proposed to be a part of the Clarksburg market. WTAP ending up on UHF and the great distance between the two cities put a stop to that. WDTV's original incarnation was also on UHF, which faced the same issue of trying to reach Parkersburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 WCHS 8 is the de facto ABC affiliate for Parkersburg, but yes... I wonder why Gray hasn't brought ABC over to that very small market. Possibly because Sincrap won't let them. DirecTV carries WSYX for ABC programming in that market. I know this because for some reason the default market on DirecTV's online channel guide is Parkersburg. Like, really...they could have picked New York or LA or Chicago but they had to go with Parkersburg, West Virginia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 I'm surprised to see that Suddenlink still carries WSYX and WBNS, along with ALL of the Charleston-Huntington stations in Parkersburg, along with all of Gray's local offerings. Marietta, Ohio is the other principal city in this market. PBS is piped in through WOUB in Athens, OH which itself has bounced from Charleston-Huntington to Columbus, and back. Gray generally has good relations with all of their networks....could they wrestle ABC away from WBOY? Sinclair took away FOX from WTRF for a slot on WTOV. The real issue in Clarksburg/Weston is the fact that Morgantown is NOT a part of the market and their de facto stations are from Pittsburgh. WVMH tried to change that by establishing a operational base there but has remained unsuccessful in getting Monongalia county changed. The result is that the West Virginia stations play second fiddle to the Pittsburgh ones. Gray could leverage WVFX if they establish a base in Morgantown and land ABC. FOX could move to WDTV 5.2 and ABC/CW could be a semi-separate operation on WVFX that could turn the tide in Morgantown's favor to tie it in to the market... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Some interesting tidbits: Withers almost bought WOAY in 1990 from the Thomas family...but the sale fell through. Their only other station is WDHS channel 8, a silent VHF station in Iron Mountain, MI. The only prospect for them is probably a spectrum sale since the market is otherwise covered by WJMN, WLUC, and WBKP/WBUP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleSeven 1945 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Isn't WOAY an underdog station in that market? I say that because Gray has been acquiring alot of top & #2 stations. I doubt they been getting alot of underdogs unless they acquire a 2nd station in market where they could shove them on either a subchannel or an LP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrschimpf 2090 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Some interesting tidbits: Their only other station is WDHS channel 8, a silent VHF station in Iron Mountain, MI. The only prospect for them is probably a spectrum sale since the market is otherwise covered by WJMN, WLUC, and WBKP/WBUP. I think they actually tried to position it as a Wisconsin station but they had the misfortune of being in an area where Marquette is too far away and a low population density makes it unpalatable to be a GB or Wausau satellite. WMOW/WBIJ lucked out in that Quincy was happy to extend their signal east for WAOW, but WDHS's was in the middle of nowhere... I say was because it looks like WDHS is now D-WDHS; it's nowhere to be found in the FCC database any longer, going by COL, channel number or facility ID to search for it. Looks like they couldn't get it back up this winter so the FCC expired the license, though after Radioactive/Merlin got caught on their lame 'use middle of nowhere stations as callsign warehouses and throw on a CD on loop for a day a year' strategy for radio stations, the FCC killed the 'operate a day and keep the license' MO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenShine9 1509 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Hey WOAY isn't a joke, I work for WOAY! But in all seriousness, Gray TV buying WOAY would probably be a good thing for us. Agreed WOAY would be a great fit for Gray and they would probably accept such a deal very quickly. That said, also in that market, WVVA is such a black sheep isolated from the rest of Quincy's portfolio... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 I believe WOAY is second to WVVA. WVNS has only been around for the last 20 years or so and has only been in the news game since WVMH bought them back in 2002-ish. I believe their weather and some shows still come out of WOWK in Charleston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleSeven 1945 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Paperwork for WDTV/WVFX is up. Gray wants to start operating the two (via an LMA) on June 1st. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3534 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I "tried" to watch the live stream of WVFX and WDTV last night....let's just say that its small market television at its finest. This is where Gray shines...in markets like these. Yes, their presentations are derivative and interchangeable, but it can raise the bar to a level of acceptability... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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