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Sinclair and Tribune Part 2: The Redux


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Posted
And most of the KGTV and other issues goes back to the McGraw-Hill days where it seems like them, KMGH and WRTV have had absent management going back at least a decade more concerned about their textbook business than anything else. A new company and management isn't a magic balm when there was dysfunction going on before an acquisition. This also applies to several of Journal's stations that seem to be resisting Scripps management styles and continuing to depend on old Journal management styles that have proven ineffective (WTMJ and WGBA to a T).

 

Corporate in Cincinnati basically run WTMJ at this point. At Journal local management had most of the control. After Journal hired Janet Hudley ratings were going in a upward trajectory. After the merger with Scripps, TMJ was number 1 in the ratings, this was when local management was still running the station. Scripps is very much a top down company. As Corporate is gaining more control, ratings are going in a downward trend and for this month its not looking good for WTMJ.

 

It sounds like several former Journal stations aren't doing to well either, Many veterans at WTVF have either left or were pushed out.

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Posted
I'd love to see a news business soap opera called 'NewsChannel'.

 

But after 13 weeks when you want to cancel "NewsChannel"...it won't go away...

 

...and it grows into it's own monster...destroying national resources...consuming valuable electrons...ruining lives and tearing poor defenseless little children from the arms of their screaming mothers.......

 

Oh wait...

 

never mind.

 

No no no, the soap opera would be named "News Central". :D

Posted
No no no, the soap opera would be named "News Central". :D

If Sinclair did that plus the things they've already done that doomed the Tribune deal, that'll guarantee Sinclair being broken up just like RKO General only quicker

Posted
I thought Sinclair won an auction?

 

They did. They made a decent amount of change by auctioning off some of their frequencies in the reverse spectrum auction. Some stations will channel share - think of one station being the host the other station with no noticeable change to the viewer same calls and same number. Places like Baltimore they sold WUTB they sold the spectrum and are channel sharing with WBFF.

Posted

Also, the next time I see a Sinclair exec I may give them a dollar because they’ll need it or laugh.

Posted
They did. They made a decent amount of change by auctioning off some of their frequencies in the reverse spectrum auction. Some stations will channel share - think of one station being the host the other station with no noticeable change to the viewer same calls and same number. Places like Baltimore they sold WUTB they sold the spectrum and are channel sharing with WBFF.

 

In Milwaukee they gave up the WCGV channel entirely and turned in the license (which is now WVTV-DT2), expecting WITI to be handed to them on a silver platter and have a good monopoly on Fox in the Madison/Milwaukee/Green Bay triangle. That logic will not work out well if the deal's undone and come Spectrum re-negotiation time, where they may be paying a lot more to keep "My 24" in the basic tier rather than stuck between Antenna TV and Laff with all the subchannels (and be booted off the dish services).

Posted
No no no, the soap opera would be named "News Central". :D

 

Bold strategy they took, setting half of it in Hunt Valley—I mean, Washington and half of it seemingly everywhere else. Will they lure Morris Jones back to them to be the main character?

Posted

Expect Sinclair to be rolling out lots of OTT services if their licenses ever become in question....

 

All they have to do is take their "non license assets" and put them out there any way they know how....and there's not a thing the FCC can do about it if it does not involve the public airwaves....

Posted
They did. They made a decent amount of change by auctioning off some of their frequencies in the reverse spectrum auction. Some stations will channel share - think of one station being the host the other station with no noticeable change to the viewer same calls and same number. Places like Baltimore they sold WUTB they sold the spectrum and are channel sharing with WBFF.

 

I meant the auction for Tribune.

Posted
In Milwaukee they gave up the WCGV channel entirely and turned in the license (which is now WVTV-DT2), expecting WITI to be handed to them on a silver platter and have a good monopoly on Fox in the Madison/Milwaukee/Green Bay triangle. That logic will not work out well if the deal's undone and come Spectrum re-negotiation time, where they may be paying a lot more to keep "My 24" in the basic tier rather than stuck between Antenna TV and Laff with all the subchannels (and be booted off the dish services).

 

This may be a far out scenario but I'd expect them to give up on WVTV completely and just hand it to Hearst or Scripps. Idk how you'd separate it from WMSN (if I'm correct, they do share certain operations) but it could be done.

Posted
Corporate in Cincinnati basically run WTMJ at this point. At Journal local management had most of the control. After Journal hired Janet Hudley ratings were going in a upward trajectory. After the merger with Scripps, TMJ was number 1 in the ratings, this was when local management was still running the station. Scripps is very much a top down company. As Corporate is gaining more control, ratings are going in a downward trend and for this month its not looking good for WTMJ.

 

It sounds like several former Journal stations aren't doing to well either, Many veterans at WTVF have either left or were pushed out.

In other words, WTMJ and other stations have contracted the Scripps version of Tegnaitis. It's called Scrippsitis.

Posted
This may be a far out scenario but I'd expect them to give up on WVTV completely and just hand it to Hearst or Scripps. Idk how you'd separate it from WMSN (if I'm correct, they do share certain operations) but it could be done.

When it comes down to it, I think Sinclair will actually find a way to separate WVTV from WMSN, but my question is both WVTV and WMSN is part of that Channel Sharing Agreement since how Sinclair sold the WCGV spectrum last year?

Posted
When it comes down to it, I think Sinclair will actually find a way to separate WVTV from WMSN, but my question is both WVTV and WMSN is part of that Channel Sharing Agreement since how Sinclair sold the WCGV spectrum last year?

 

Neither WMSN nor WVTV are involved in any channel sharing agreements.

Posted
Neither WMSN nor WVTV are involved in any channel sharing agreements.

Only in Milwaukee is where they did that CSA if I'm correct

Posted
When it comes down to it, I think Sinclair will actually find a way to separate WVTV from WMSN, but my question is both WVTV and WMSN is part of that Channel Sharing Agreement since how Sinclair sold the WCGV spectrum last year?

WMSN is a standalone in Madison WI. There are no CSAs involved with WMSN's spectrum.

 

WVTV is now a standalone in Milwaukee; the former WCGV signed off permanently when their spectrum was sold. WCGV's intellectual property was transferred to WVTV and is officially WVTV-DT2, but retained the PSIP ID of 24.1. WVTV and WITI would have been a clean duopoly had the merger been cleared.

Posted

Ruh-roh....

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/7/23/sinclairs-stock-is-downgraded

 

Could the Smith family be forced out by the shareholders? I have a feeling that they will probably throw the CEO under the bus instead....

 

Maybe in a few centuries, Sinclair will be a decent company. Look at Hearst. From the company that invented "yellow journalism" to the Citizen Kane style antics of their founder...look at them now as one of the more revered media companies out there today....

Posted
Could the Smith family be forced out by the shareholders?

 

Is that even possible? Doesn't the family own something like 51% of the company?

Posted
Ruh-roh....

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/7/23/sinclairs-stock-is-downgraded

 

Could the Smith family be forced out by the shareholders? I have a feeling that they will probably throw the CEO under the bus instead....

 

Maybe in a few centuries, Sinclair will be a decent company. Look at Hearst. From the company that invented "yellow journalism" to the Citizen Kane style antics of their founder...look at them now as one of the more revered media companies out there today....

And that's if they walk away from this deal. Otherwise since how Steven Faber admitted that Sinclair did lie to the FCC about its sales, and Sinclair may continue on with the merger as it heads before an ALJ it may not make it to the 2030s (or even the 2020s if the ALJ looks at Sinclair's past sidecar deals)

Posted
Is that even possible? Doesn't the family own something like 51% of the company?

 

The Smith family holds a controlling stake, which means their position is quite secure indeed.

Posted
The Smith family holds a controlling stake, which means their position is quite secure indeed.

Yup!

 

I know there's a lot of people who probably want that to happen, but please, let reality take control here.

 

Sinclair stock would have to collapse at a historical level, which is not impossible, but highly, highly improbable.

Posted
The Smith family holds a controlling stake, which means their position is quite secure indeed.

 

That's what I figured.

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