newsbot 269 Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 http://www.unionleader.com/business/WBIN-TV-sells-broadcasting-rights-for-millions-lays-off-staff-20170217 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 http://www.unionleader.com/business/WBIN-TV-sells-broadcasting-rights-for-millions-lays-off-staff-20170217 Situations like this are exactly what I was furious about when I first heard about the spectrum auction. Oh well. NH1 gave it a good shot but in the end it never really competed well with WMUR or the Boston stations. And like I said in an earlier post in Out and About, NH1 News will continue on radio (WNNH 99.1 most notably) as well as online, but "No One Covers New Hampshire Like [WMUR] Do[es]" is true once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newsbot 269 Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 NHPTV had its own nightly newscast in the 1970s (as did Boston's WGBH in the same time period.) At least Binnie didn't lose his shirt like Thomas J. Flatley did at WNHT in the 1980s. WNHT's demise was especially sad; they pre-empted the CBS prime time lineup on their final night of broadcasting and ran Three's Company reruns until midnight before pulling the plug. I wonder how long Robb Atkinson will remain with the online-only NH1 news operation; he left a cushy gig at CNN to return to TV news (he was WGME's ND before leaving for CNN.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickp 297 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 “It’s a kick in the pants for broadcasters in New Hampshire,” said New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters President Tracy Caruso. “It’s a sad day for us.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleSeven 1945 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Look at the bright side. The Globe stated that the station was sold for $68M. A few years ago, Binnie bought the station for just $9M. That's over seven times the investment. I'll say that a good payday. But on the other side of the coin, its hard to say that a good payday, when broadcasters were expected to get way more than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 “It’s a kick in the pants for broadcasters in New Hampshire,” said New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters President Tracy Caruso. “It’s a sad day for us.” What scares me is most news operations that go TULO (Tit's UP...Lights Out) many times just toss years of archives into the dumpsters...yes plural. All a broadcaster has to do is contact the local university... Donate the archives, tape logs AND all the working VTR's you have for that format. Help the university or museum set up a little closet for viewing and logging. So many times decades and decades of local history get trashed and it's sooooo sad. If anyone ever is in the position to rescue local video archives please help out. Even just rescuing the major story and recurring "file" stories like old major court cases and disasters. May NH-1 rest in peace. May those newsgathering memories of the staff live on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 NHPTV had its own nightly newscast in the 1970s (as did Boston's WGBH in the same time period.) NHPTV's newscasts went into the early 80's. Here's a cool clip from 1980: Their newscasts seemed to be a good product but they suffered from low funding and hence didn't last long. Heck, NHPTV still struggles with funding even today. At least Binnie didn't lose his shirt like Thomas J. Flatley did at WNHT in the 1980s. WNHT's demise was especially sad; they pre-empted the CBS prime time lineup on their final night of broadcasting and ran Three's Company reruns until midnight before pulling the plug. WNHT was a poorly managed station from the get-go. It was no surprise that channel 21 didn't last very long. Keep in mind that most people were watching Boston stations at the time; even WMUR was run extremely poorly then. It wasn't until the late 80's when channel 9 became relevant. I wonder how long Robb Atkinson will remain with the online-only NH1 news operation; he left a cushy gig at CNN to return to TV news (he was WGME's ND before leaving for CNN.) I wouldn't be surprised if WMUR poaches some talent from NH1. But let's not forget the face that made WBIN (then WNDS) famous: the one, the only, Al Kaprielian! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1343 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Wow. The WNDS of New England are finishing tapering off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newsbot 269 Posted February 19, 2017 Author Share Posted February 19, 2017 Wow. The WNDS of New England are finishing tapering off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newsbot 269 Posted February 19, 2017 Author Share Posted February 19, 2017 I wouldn't be surprised if WMUR poaches some talent from NH1. They already nabbed Siobhan Lopez from NH1; that happened before the shutdown, though... http://www.wmur.com/news-team/fbdd473c-6c0d-4ed6-9005-7067e9b20127 But let's not forget the face that made WBIN (then WNDS) famous: the one, the only, Al Kaprielian! High presha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1679 Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 What scares me is most news operations that go TULO (Tit's UP...Lights Out) many times just toss years of archives into the dumpsters...yes plural. All a broadcaster has to do is contact the local university... Donate the archives, tape logs AND all the working VTR's you have for that format. Help the university or museum set up a little closet for viewing and logging. It's ridiculous that more stations don't do this. All they'd have to do is contact a school and I'm sure they would come out and pack up the archives for the station. Think about how much money a station may save donating it versus paying for it to be trashed. It could also be used as a tax right off to help with the final years tax season. Fortunately for a prospective university NH1 is a new entity that was probably filebased - saving time and money when it comes for adding it to their collection. With that being said chances are the archives won't be junked or donated are slim as Binnie will still be in the news business. It'd always sad to hear that people lost their jobs and if it weren't for this incentive auction I would guess that NH1 would continue on. They've a done a great job while facing an uphill battle with the Boston stations, a single competitor whose been enmeshed in NH for decades and the lack of a proper network. One interesting point in the article says that they entered a channel sharing deal with a major television group. So could the remaining LD stations used by WBIN been repurposed for a low powered ? Also do you have any ideas as who they could be sharing with? I think maybe WBTS may have bought up more stations for greater northern coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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