Gray Media - General Thread

[GoldenShine_10 263]

1 hour ago, ColtFromGulfcoast said:

What could they get in Dayton? Other than WHIO? 

 

WHIO is for sale right now.

[nathannah 2792]

55 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

WDRB will undoubtedly undergo cuts. They have some really high paid talent. It'll be fascinating to see how this turns out because WDRB is easily #2 in the evenings and outperforms WAVE pretty much everywhere.

I do forsee they'll be a little more okay than most of these situations since the WDRB facility is much larger and newer (so I don't see how WAVE just doesn't move in there), but there will be some attrition for sure if the deal does get approved.

 

I can see WBKI going the owners of WMYO-CD as far as the license and then getting Spirited away for sure to take care of that discrepancy as Block and them have been cooperative for years.

 

But in another way this does show that Block's fights against their newspaper staffs in Pittsburgh and Toledo are taking their toll if they're ready to cash out.

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

This is potentially devastating to the Louisville market, especially for the folks at WDRB, or WAVE if Gray decides to "trade up" if WDRB is truly outperforming WAVE.

 

But knowing Gray and the draconian moves they made this past fall, it's going to be ugly as an inferior voice takes over a stronger one, and opens the door to cutting more local content in favor or regionalism for all of their stations in the region.

 

And WDRB is a great station in it's own right, and has a lot of experienced talented people both on and behind the camera.  Where else would a station revere their news director who decided to move on to another role with a standing ovation from their newsroom?  (He later returned to WDRB, and if I'm not mistaken, is still there).

 

 

Getting WLIO will give them a "big 4 monopoly", unless Marquee wants to play with the full-powered license they acquired from WTLW.

 

 

And in Central Illinois, WAND is just another Gray station, unless they decide to pick off anything that Rincon controls now that they've "separated" from Sinclair.

 

 

In the scheme of things, I have to wonder how Gray is going to pay for all of this, and what it will cost their existing stations in the future?

[channel2 1042]

35 minutes ago, nathannah said:

I do forsee they'll be a little more okay than most of these situations since the WDRB facility is much larger and newer (so I don't see how WAVE just doesn't move in there), but there will be some attrition for sure if the deal does get approved.

 

I can see WBKI going the owners of WMYO-CD as far as the license and then getting Spirited away for sure to take care of that discrepancy as Block and them have been cooperative for years.

 

But in another way this does show that Block's fights against their newspaper staffs in Pittsburgh and Toledo are taking their toll if they're ready to cash out.

 

Block has been a trash fire of a company for years and they've been looking to sell since at least last year.

[Breaking News 888]

WLTZ (Columbus, Ga) KJTV (Lubbock, TX) looks like this will become property of Gray TV

https://www.adweek.com/tvspy/gray-looks-to-buy-two-stations-from-sagamore-hill-broadcasting/

 

[MidwestTV 1358]

7 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

This is potentially devastating to the Louisville market, especially for the folks at WDRB, or WAVE if Gray decides to "trade up" if WDRB is truly outperforming WAVE.

 

But knowing Gray and the draconian moves they made this past fall, it's going to be ugly as an inferior voice takes over a stronger one, and opens the door to cutting more local content in favor or regionalism for all of their stations in the region.

 

And WDRB is a great station in it's own right, and has a lot of experienced talented people both on and behind the camera.  Where else would a station revere their news director who decided to move on to another role with a standing ovation from their newsroom?  (He later returned to WDRB, and if I'm not mistaken, is still there).

 

 

Getting WLIO will give them a "big 4 monopoly", unless Marquee wants to play with the full-powered license they acquired from WTLW.

 

 

And in Central Illinois, WAND is just another Gray station, unless they decide to pick off anything that Rincon controls now that they've "separated" from Sinclair.

 

 

In the scheme of things, I have to wonder how Gray is going to pay for all of this, and what it will cost their existing stations in the future?

 

From what I understand WDRB will move into WAVE's building, presumably selling off DRB's current facility. The veteran talent at WDRB seems pretty visibly shaken, and understandably so.

 

All of this is ultimately great for WLKY as they'll basically have no competition anymore. WAVE may perform below WDRB, but it's certainly in a better position than WHAS.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

1 hour ago, MidwestTV said:

 

From what I understand WDRB will move into WAVE's building, presumably selling off DRB's current facility. The veteran talent at WDRB seems pretty visibly shaken, and understandably so.

 

All of this is ultimately great for WLKY as they'll basically have no competition anymore. WAVE may perform below WDRB, but it's certainly in a better position than WHAS.

 

My takeaways from your analysis...

• It sounds like WDRB's news department will be a goner. That stinks, especially for folks like Candyce Clift, Valerie Chinn, Scott Reynolds (going back to his old home, if it happens), Marc Weinberg, and others.
• WLKY is #1? With WDRB, WAVE, and WHAS in that order behind 'LKY?

I mean, its great analysis from you, but man. I hope this is one of those few times where Gray divests WDRB just to keep a fourth news department operational in the market (not counting SN1 KY, of course).

[Rusty Muck 4688]

42 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I hope this is one of those few times where Gray divests WDRB just to keep a fourth news department operational in the market (not counting SN1 KY, of course).

I'd bet my entire next paycheck on that not happening. This FCC is corrupt and slimy and they want triopolies and quadopolies and quintopolies in every market when the buyers are companies they like.

 

These purchases are coordinated and deliberate.

Edited August 2, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

13 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

I'd bet my entire next paycheck on that not happening. This FCC is corrupt and slimy and they want triopolies and quadopolies and quintopolies in every market when the buyers are companies they like.

 

These purchases are coordinated and deliberate.

 

I know, I'm aware, but hey, hope... hope that maybe the FCC would force divestures like this. I'm not saying it would happen, but hey, just hope that it does.

[NEOMatrix 1319]

If allowed (God, I hope not!), it’ll either be a WTTV-WXIN situation or we’re getting “KENTUCKIANA NEWS F1RST”.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

One thought about WBKI - could it be sold to one of the other incumbents in the market to become a duopoly with WHAS or WLKY?

[TVLurker 389]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

One thought about WBKI - could it be sold to one of the other incumbents in the market to become a duopoly with WHAS or WLKY?

 

It could be if it comes down to it... Either through Gray moving the CW affiliation to a subchannel and selling the channel license or just selling the station altogether with the CW affiliation.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

3 hours ago, TheRob said:

In the Scripps swap, Gray exited a couple of markets in the West as well.

Painfully small markets, though. And it got them a triopoly in Lafayette. Scripps now dominates much of rural Colorado in addition to their Denver duop.

 

Gray must be angling for a swap that gets them in Salt Lake or to someone willing to get that unbuilt CP they got from Marquee (which also saw them hightail it out of rural Wyoming).

[24994J 5888]

I broke off the Gray-Allen deal into it's own thread. More moving parts there that may not be as relevant to a day-to-day conversation like this.

 

 

[mer764KCTV5 213]

17 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

Painfully small markets, though. And it got them a triopoly in Lafayette. Scripps now dominates much of rural Colorado in addition to their Denver duop.

 

Gray must be angling for a swap that gets them in Salt Lake or to someone willing to get that unbuilt CP they got from Marquee (which also saw them hightail it out of rural Wyoming).

Grand Function is small but Colorado Springs–Pueblo, Colorado isn't that small, its more medium sized.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

On 8/4/2025 at 2:55 PM, TVLurker said:

 

It could be if it comes down to it... Either through Gray moving the CW affiliation to a subchannel and selling the channel license or just selling the station altogether with the CW affiliation.

With political hacks Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty running the FCC into the ground, expect no sacred cows. It'd be enough to get Congress and the Senate to rubber stamp any legislation removing all cap restrictions.

[TVLurker 389]

39 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

With political hacks Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty running the FCC into the ground, expect no sacred cows. It'd be enough to get Congress and the Senate to rubber stamp any legislation removing all cap restrictions.

I saw Gray decided to buy 10 more stations and create tons of duopolies and triopolies. This makes things more complicated and interesting.

[l_miro 245]

3 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Painfully small markets, though.

 

 

 

And with move to CPM ad billing that lack of eyeballs (assuming  there's no price floor) will do them no favor.

 

I keep trying to figure out what their exit strategy is. Bilking cable for retrans fees or hoping for a spectrum incentive auction

 

Edited August 8, 2025 by l_miro

[Rusty Muck 4688]

On 8/8/2025 at 3:49 PM, l_miro said:

And with move to CPM ad billing that lack of eyeballs (assuming  there's no price floor) will do them no favor.

 

I keep trying to figure out what their exit strategy is. Bilking cable for retrans fees or hoping for a spectrum incentive auction

Gray could merge into NBCUniversal so Comcast gets a definitive a leg up on datacasting.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

On 7/16/2025 at 8:41 PM, nathannah said:

A new channel popped onto my Spectrum lineup today, and I was confused because I had never heard of this network before...but the logo style seemed very familiar.

 

 

Looked it up, and Gray holds the trademark to the name "Local Look Today", and it seems like it's going to launch throughout the month, with it launching tomorrow as part of Gray's new RTC cycle with Spectrum. It's in the exact same slot Circle was in the past. Is this intended to be complementary (carrying station features and weather), or a replacement for Local News Live? There's little about the channel I can find outside trademark registrations and provider notices, so I guess we'll likely find out together, and you'll certainly see their stations promoting it.

 

Update

 

I looked up the weekday schedule (via Zap2it/Gracenote), and here's what they show. Its basically Local News Live on Cable.

 

07:00-09:00 AM: Local News LIVE

9:00 AM-2:00 PM: Local News LIVE (7-9am block repeated 2.5 times over)

02:00-03:00 PM: Local News LIVE

03:00-06:00 PM: Local News LIVE (2pm block repeat)

06:00-07:00 PM: Investigate TV+

07:00-08:00 PM: Local News LIVE

08:00-09:00 PM: The James Brown Show (x2)

09:00-10:00 PM: Billiards

10:00PM-6:00AM: 6-10pm hours repeat in order twice

06:00-07:00 AM: Investigate TV+ (repeat)

 

[l_miro 245]

On 8/9/2025 at 7:27 PM, Rusty Muck said:

Gray could merge into NBCUniversal so Comcast gets a definitive a leg up on datacasting.

 

datacasting, TV executive boomers' wet dream. They sell that like we're in the 1990s.

 

I watched some exec on Youtube selling ATSC 3 as this amazing technology (odd how they ignore the encryption questions) and the big selling point he made was ... imAgiNe cArs d0WnloAding SofTware to update...  My cheap 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy literally downloads firmware to itself, and I can see where it is at any time on a map, because it has a 5G chip already! Not that there aren't one-to-many broadcasting advantages but I have a  hard time beleiving anybody is going to pay $5 to Sinclair and other ATSC 3 patent holders to put a chip in their gadget.

 

They also seem to think Apple will put an ATSC 3 chip on the iPhone so people can watch broadcast TV. And all of that will somehow save broadcasting.

[channel2 1042]

They don't seem interested in doing anything to win consumers over. I never hear anything about one of these station groups launching a diginet suited to showing off the 4K and Atmos or whatever. A Discovery HD Theater sort of thing.

[nathannah 2792]

I still remember when WebTV and CueCat were going to revolutionize 'interactive TV' so long ago...

 

The American TV market is not the UK is a passive audience and it just has never worked well. Why would we interact with a TV when our phones are in our hands to do said interaction? I've had the same computer setup for years, either a TV window to the right on my monitor, or a separate TV and the most interaction I do have with my TV (just cable television, not with an Apple TV or Roku) has just been the weather forecast in a cable box menu...which simply usurped a traditional channel doing the same thing for 2+ decades. That, and polls have just plain become pointless noise that doesn't do anything except bring Facebook 'engagement' in arguments that just are viewer poison to someone who just wants the news.

 

Consumers would just be pleased to be excluded by ZIP code from weather updates that interrupt their shows for events nowhere near them. Weather radio can do that, and has for three decades, but somehow, two different digital TV standards have it as a 'back burner' feature that could be activated, but won't, because the NAB knows with their whole chest if it is rolled out, then advertisers can't have the full audience on their ads, and stations won't have their 'first alert' coverage go to everyone, so it'll forever remain a 'promised feature' that is part of a standard but like the closed captioning text channel, will never seriously be used.

 

And I definitely agree that not selling higher-quality PQ has been baffling. Why are broadcasters all about just simulcasting their existing channels with barely improved PQ in formats that are out of date? Yesterday, I was watching WTMJ's flood coverage in 1080p through their app with crisp and clear weather maps that look blocky and unfocused in 1080i over-the-air. Push all of that over 'you can have the temperature on the side of the TV' or bad polling, along with this inane push of advertising targeting that the consumer does not want.

 

 

[l_miro 245]

45 minutes ago, channel2 said:

They don't seem interested in doing anything to win consumers over. I never hear anything about one of these station groups launching a diginet suited to showing off the 4K and Atmos or whatever. A Discovery HD Theater sort of thing.

 

nah. I recall reading interviews with Sinclair reps and their main talking point was always about how 3.0 will give the ability to localize advertising and being able to see TVs tuned in so they can do ad attribution, which broadcast admittedly needs. 

 

Now they're mad that Lon, from Lon.TV, and AntennaMan whipped up the 3.0 early adopters against encryption, telling the FCC they were astrotufers . Even had SiliconDust HDHomerun, which sponsored Lon a couple times, blocked from getting certification to decrypt 3.0 channels.

 

30 minutes ago, nathannah said:

And I definitely agree that not selling higher-quality PQ has been baffling. Why are broadcasters all about just simulcasting their existing channels with barely improved PQ in formats that are out of date? Yesterday, I was watching WTMJ's flood coverage in 1080p through their app with crisp and clear weather maps that look blocky and unfocused in 1080i over-the-air. Push all of that over 'you can have the temperature on the side of the TV' or bad polling, along with this inane push of advertising targeting that the consumer does not want.

 

retrans $$$. For now.

 

They might make OTA 4K paid given that they already encrypt the signal, and conditional access with subscriptions is baked into 3.0 

Edited August 11, 2025 by l_miro

[Rusty Muck 4688]

5 hours ago, channel2 said:

They don't seem interested in doing anything to win consumers over. I never hear anything about one of these station groups launching a diginet suited to showing off the 4K and Atmos or whatever. A Discovery HD Theater sort of thing.

And who would be willing to watch? Would there be enough viewes to make it anything but a money incinerator?