Gray Media - General Thread

[News Fan 14]

 

Here is the press realease on Gray’s website. 

Edited February 8, 2019 by JayPhil

[CircleSeven 1955]

With United's footprint, this should've been Prather's for the taking, since he owns stations in both those states (KIMT - MN & WKTV - NY).

 

Could Heartland be taken by Prather's former employer (Gray) next? They haven't really expanded since they'd acquired some the spin-off properties from the Nexstar-MG deal two years ago.

 

EDIT 7:30pm/ET: Gray will operate the United TV stations under a LMA, while it awaits regulatory approval starting March 1.

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by CircleSeven
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[GoldenShine9 1513]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

With United's footprint, this should've been Prather's for the taking, since he owns stations in both those states (KIMT - MN & WKTV - NY).

 

Could Heartland be taken by Prather's former employer (Gray) next? They haven't really expanded since they'd acquired some the spin-off properties from the Nexstar-MG deal two years ago.

 

EDIT 7:30pm/ET: Gray will operate the United TV stations under a LMA, while it awaits regulatory approval starting March 1.

 

 

If they did that, then they would get their first west coast stations. They would also only be missing Greenville (WABG) in Mississippi, and that is an easy purchase or trade. KNIN for the Delta stations and maybe another low-market Brady station?

Edited February 9, 2019 by GoldenShine9

[Weeters 1919]

United is actually getting out of everything. It sold its last newspaper (The Kenosha News) a few weeks ago. They've slowly been selling off their other newspaper properties over the past few years. 

 

What a terrible position they were in. Small town newspapers and TV stations with pretty much no digital properties and lackluster digital for the stuff they did own.

 

[CircleSeven 1955]

Speaking of getting out of everything (well damn near everything). Remember Schurz? The group Gray bought the TV outlets from almost three years ago? 

 

Well, Schurz is now getting rid of its paper biz after 147 years by selling it publishing arm to Gatehouse Media, one of the leading consolidators of small newspapers.

 

Makes me think that they should've sold it right at the time they sold their stations because they never really expanded their paper holdings.

 

All they'll have left is their cloud-managing IT business & a few small broadband providers. Might as well sell those too, because they're lacking scale in that too.

[CircleSeven 1955]

Looks like NBC will come back to channel 5 in central Nebraska.

 

The FCC has greenlighted the KNHL deal and allow them to operate it as a satellite of KSNB.

 

Wonder if they'll resurrect the "KHAS-TV" calls?

 

 

[Conrad 113]

On 2/8/2019 at 9:32 PM, Weeters said:

United is actually getting out of everything. It sold its last newspaper (The Kenosha News) a few weeks ago. They've slowly been selling off their other newspaper properties over the past few years. 

 

What a terrible position they were in. Small town newspapers and TV stations with pretty much no digital properties and lackluster digital for the stuff they did own.

 

Are Sinclair and Nexstar better than United? Would the purchase by Gray be an improvement? Are Scripps and TEGNA in their current forms also better than United?

 

United's stations are probably no better than average for small-market stations. And average for small-market stations is poor in general.

 

Another group I want to see go away that only has stations in smaller markets is Morris. They're pretty bad. Would the Morris stations get better if Sinclair, Nexstar, or Gray took them over?

[Weeters 1919]

3 minutes ago, Conrad said:

Are Sinclair and Nexstar better than United? Would the purchase by Gray be an improvement? Are Scripps and TEGNA in their current forms also better than United?

 

 

Yes. Literally any of those are an improvement from United. Any of them.

 

Even Sinclair.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

9 hours ago, Conrad said:

Are Sinclair and Nexstar better than United? Would the purchase by Gray be an improvement? Are Scripps and TEGNA in their current forms also better than United?

 

United's stations are probably no better than average for small-market stations. And average for small-market stations is poor in general.

 

Another group I want to see go away that only has stations in smaller markets is Morris. They're pretty bad. Would the Morris stations get better if Sinclair, Nexstar, or Gray took them over?

 

Those would probably all be an improvement, but there is no obvious single buyer available. In Gray's case, they are already in 3 of the 6 Morris markets.

Edited February 25, 2019 by GoldenShine9

[scrabbleship 429]

3 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Those would probably all be an improvement, but there is no obvious single buyer available. In Gray's case, they are already in 3 of the 6 Morris markets.

 

I wonder if Nexstar would cast aside some odd outliers to make room for Morris. If they had the cap room it would be a clean deal and they would fit in well with their existing stations.

[LexTVandRadio 418]

31 minutes ago, scrabbleship said:

 

I wonder if Nexstar would cast aside some odd outliers to make room for Morris. If they had the cap room it would be a clean deal and they would fit in well with their existing stations.

I wouldn't mind that. 

 

Nexstar already owns WTVQ's tower I guess from the Media General days.

[nathannah 2447]

Looks like Gray is ramping up a competitor to the Sunday morning shows (and Full Measure). They've hired Greta van Susteren as a national political analyst with two shows in development, along with being in the Gray DC bureau's live/tape hits to their stations.

[J1975am 208]

Not sure why, but as of last Saturday (2/23), WAFB in Baton Rouge, LA, is no longer available on Cox Cable in Lafayette. Not sure if this is due to a monetary dispute, or if it might be that Gray Television (WAFB's new owner) doesn't want a CBS affiliate in one market broadcasting in another market that already has a CBS station (in this case, Lafayette & KLFY); a sad end of an era, as people in the Lafayette market have been able to catch WAFB for as long as their signal has reached the Lafayette area....

 

Are there any other examples of Gray-owned stations doing this (i.e., a Gray-owned network affiliate in one market pulling its signal from a cable system in another market that already has an affiliate of said network)????

[GoldenShine9 1513]

On 2/28/2019 at 2:16 PM, J1975am said:

Not sure why, but as of last Saturday (2/23), WAFB in Baton Rouge, LA, is no longer available on Cox Cable in Lafayette. Not sure if this is due to a monetary dispute, or if it might be that Gray Television (WAFB's new owner) doesn't want a CBS affiliate in one market broadcasting in another market that already has a CBS station (in this case, Lafayette & KLFY); a sad end of an era, as people in the Lafayette market have been able to catch WAFB for as long as their signal has reached the Lafayette area....

 

Are there any other examples of Gray-owned stations doing this (i.e., a Gray-owned network affiliate in one market pulling its signal from a cable system in another market that already has an affiliate of said network)????

 

That seems rather weird, unless Nexstar heavy-handed them, since Gray doesn't own a station in Lafayette.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

This may be semi-OT, but why does Gray have so many stations that dominate in the ratings in their markets? That includes some that they have held for 10, 15 years or even longer-held legacy stations so it can't just be from acquiring them.

Edited March 2, 2019 by GoldenShine9

[NEOMatrix 1299]

On 2/28/2019 at 3:16 PM, J1975am said:

Not sure why, but as of last Saturday (2/23), WAFB in Baton Rouge, LA, is no longer available on Cox Cable in Lafayette. Not sure if this is due to a monetary dispute, or if it might be that Gray Television (WAFB's new owner) doesn't want a CBS affiliate in one market broadcasting in another market that already has a CBS station (in this case, Lafayette & KLFY); a sad end of an era, as people in the Lafayette market have been able to catch WAFB for as long as their signal has reached the Lafayette area....

 

Are there any other examples of Gray-owned stations doing this (i.e., a Gray-owned network affiliate in one market pulling its signal from a cable system in another market that already has an affiliate of said network)????

No. I do think it might be more of a Nexstar thing than a Gray thing. If I took a guess, I'd say that Nexstar wanted to be exclusive CBS for Lafayette, so bye-bye WAFB.

[CircleSeven 1955]

This is kind of strange. Gray is changing stations in Charlottesville.

 

They're divesting it's longtime CBS affiliate WCAV & ABC affil WVAW to Lockwood Broadcasting. In turn, Gray will acquire the NBC station WVIR from Waterman Broadcasting.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

30 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

This is kind of strange. Gray is changing stations in Charlottesville.

 

They're divesting it's longtime CBS affiliate WCAV & ABC affil WVAW to Lockwood Broadcasting. In turn, Gray will acquire the NBC station WVIR from Waterman Broadcasting.

 

Are they also acquiring the Fort Myers-Naples stations?

[CircleSeven 1955]

2 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Are they also acquiring the Fort Myers-Naples stations?

 

The Fort Myers properties weren't mentioned on the press release.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Just now, CircleSeven said:

 

The Fort Myers properties weren't mentioned on the press release.

 

That makes it even more strange...I can speculate on a possibility but I don't want to here.

[tw-804 192]

10 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

This is kind of strange. Gray is changing stations in Charlottesville.

 

They're divesting it's longtime CBS affiliate WCAV & ABC affil WVAW to Lockwood Broadcasting. In turn, Gray will acquire the NBC station WVIR from Waterman Broadcasting.

 

WHAT?! Dang, I'm shocked! In the near future, we'll be seeing WVIR instead of WCAV on the SBTV app. Wow.

[CircleSeven 1955]

8 hours ago, tw-804 said:

 

WHAT?! Dang, I'm shocked! In the near future, we'll be seeing WVIR instead of WCAV on the SBTV app. Wow.

 

There's some non-Gray stations that stream on Syncbak. Including some Brady & Morgan Murphy outlets. 

 

I'm surprised that I haven't see any just-acquired Raycom stations on that app.

[LOWERCASE GUY 265]

On 3/4/2019 at 10:08 AM, CircleSeven said:

This is kind of strange. Gray is changing stations in Charlottesville.

 

They're divesting it's longtime CBS affiliate WCAV & ABC affil WVAW to Lockwood Broadcasting. In turn, Gray will acquire the NBC station WVIR from Waterman Broadcasting.

IIRC Didn't the exact same thing happen with KAKE & KWCH?

[TheRolyPoly 2456]

11 minutes ago, WxNerd said:

IIRC Didn't the exact same thing happen with KAKE & KWCH?

 

Pretty much! Gray sent KAKE/KUPK/KLBY to Lockwood for KWCH/KSCW/KDCU.

[CircleSeven 1955]

9 hours ago, WxNerd said:

IIRC Didn't the exact same thing happen with KAKE & KWCH?

 

9 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Pretty much! Gray sent KAKE/KUPK/KLBY to Lockwood for KWCH/KSCW/KDCU.

 

Part of the Schurz deal in 2015. Although they did not swap their incumbent WNDU for Schurz flagship WSBT. But neither one were underdog stations like KAKE.

Edited March 6, 2019 by CircleSeven