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Quincy buys Peoria ABC & CW affiliations...


padrechuck

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In a surprise move, the programming of WHOI will be moving from WHOI to subchannels of WEEK.

http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/Quincy-Media-purchases-ABC-CW-affiliations-from-Sinclair-Broadcast-Group-388308022.html

Now that the shoe has dropped in South Bend, this sort of makes sense and answers the long standing question that Sinclair will NOT re-build WHOI to the separate operation it once was.

 

Now what will Sinclair do with WHOI?

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“What that means for central Illinois is that we are going to make significant investments, multi-million dollar investments in our property so we can do an even better job with our news on the NBC signal and the ABC signal,” said Ralph Oakley

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WEEK 25 will also debut a new set, new logo and new news name... "25 News"

Could this be the end of "Newswire" after 20 years as we know it? Im glad to see Quincy is investing in WEEK and at WPTA.

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Video courtesy of WEEK's Facebook Wall.

They went the WREX/WKOW route with their logo. And I guess this is Quincy's standardized set? Duluth is getting the exact same one. The large video screen in the back is somewhat of a variant of what some of Gray stations (WTVG/WJRT) received when their new sets debuted.

 

The Peoria Journal Star states that the full expansion project won't be completed until March (which happened to be the date of that original JSA deal between WEEK & WHOI was suppose to end).

 

Could this be the end of "Newswire" after 20 years as we know it? Im glad to see Quincy is investing in WEEK and at WPTA.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if they go "360" music pack. Most of those stations in that group already use it.

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It kind of makes me wonder what is about to go down in Syracuse with WTVH.

 

Interestingly enough, WHOI's call letters were WTVH from their sign-on until it was re-christened WIRL in 1965.

 

Perhaps Quincy could be in the cards to take over WTVH in Syracuse? And a trade with WVVA would give Sinclair another market in West Virginia. Adding WOAY to the mix (putting it out of its misery as a WVVA sub-channel) could scale it up with another station that Quincy is willing to trade out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's a follow-up article from the Journal-Star regarding the Peoria changes. Quincy is keeping the ABC branding "HOI 19 News". Yet Sinclair will keep the WHOI callsign, and will carry the Comet diginet on 19.1, after the transition phase ends.

"The WHOI call letters stay with the signal, the frequency on which Channel 19 broadcasts, and will continue to be licensed to Sinclair. That said, we are able to, and plan on using, the title HOI-19 News as the brand of the newscasts," said Mark DeSantis, WEEK VP and general manager, adding that in addition to a new set that debuted on the NBC station's evening news broadcast Monday, the company has big plans for the ABC station. "We look to build WHOI into a bigger and better station over the next several months. Along with a new set and control room, we'll likely be hiring additional people, too."

 

The current ABC program stream will be simulcast on 19.1 as well as 25.2 through the end of September to allow people receiving the signal over the air to rescan tuners to receive the program stream on 25.2, said DeSantis. "After that time Sinclair will likely broadcast some program stream on the WHOI signal to retain the FCC license. WHOI has broadcast Comet TV (a sci-fi channel) on 19.3 for several years. They plan to program that channel on the 19.1 frequency after September."

 

Wait. Did they say Comet has been there for several years? It hasn't even been a year yet since it started.

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Anyone know when WYZZ's affiliation agreement with Fox expires? (Sinclair also owns WYZZ-43 but they're under a JSA, IIRC, with WMBD). Once that contract expires could Sinclair's end game for WYZZ/WHOI be to move Fox (and GetTV) programming to WHOI alongside Comet TV--and perhaps sell WYZZ (the market's only Bloomington COL) for spectrum?

 

Perhaps something like this: 19.1 Fox, 19.2 Comet TV, 19.3 Get TV (or vice-versa on 19.2/19.3).

 

And possibly with master control out of WICS's studios in Springfield (unfortunately for Peoria).

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