Gray Media - General Thread

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

And over at WTOK....
https://www.wtok.com/2024/11/18/wtok-creates-expanded-partnership-with-wlbt/

 

Aside from the 11am newscast coming from WLBT, the weeknight 10pm newscast will be regionalized with them as well.  I'm not sure that means a straight simulcast, or a hybrid of some content coming from Meridian, and other content from Jackson.  Weekend newscasts will be at 10pm from Meridian though.

 

It sounds like what WHLT used to be under Media General, originating some content from Hattiesburg while beaming the rest in from Jackson and WJTV.  Eventually that was abandoned in favor of a watered-down WJTV newscast "from the state capitol" from Jackson, watered down with some news from Hattiesburg to proclaim their existence.

 

If that's the case with WTOK and WLBT, Jackson is the real loser since you have two local stations watering down local news to cover someone else's. 

 

And WAPT stands to be the winner since they can fully cover the Jackson market for their own viewers.

 

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

More on the partnership of WTVY in Dothan and WSFA in Montgomery:

https://www.wsfa.com/2024/11/18/wtvy-creates-expanded-partnership-with-wsfa/

 

As stated above, Today in Alabama will air for an hour on WTVY from 5a-6a with WTVY having local news from 6-7am.

 

The new info is that the 4pm show will be shared between WTVY and WSFA.  It sounds like WTVY will simulcast WSFA's 5pm show as well.

 

WTVY will keep their own 6 and 10pm newscasts.

 

Some of this has happened before back when Raycom owned WDFX.  They simulcast WSFA's 4pm newscast and aired a 9pm show that WSFA produced.

 

EDIT: They will simulcast WSFA on the weekends.  That's a big one.  And quite a 180 from the days when WDHN didn't even exist on the weekends, yet alone weekday mornings.  

 

Also, you may have noticed that WTVY has switched over to First Alert Weather, which now creates a conflict with WDHN, which goes by the First Alert StormTeam.

[channel2 977]

11 hours ago, Howard Beale said:

TVNewsCheck has a glorified Gray Media press release under a Mark K. Miller byline, which announces the “retirement” of three general managers of the following stations:

• WAGM, Presque Isle, Maine
• WIBW, Topeka, Kansas
• WYMT, Hazard, Kentucky

I say “retirement” because I believe these GMs retired in lieu of being fired in any future Gray budget cuts.  These are all small-market stations, and I know WYMT lost a few people in the last round of Gray budget cuts.  Perhaps Gray will have one of its many regional VPs oversee these stations, or a GM from a nearby market will also pick up one of these stations.

 

Isn't WIBW the traditional powerhouse in Topeka?

 

It'd be pretty sad if they just turned it into an extension of KCTV...

[mer764KCTV5 148]

4 hours ago, channel2 said:

 

Isn't WIBW the traditional powerhouse in Topeka?

 

It'd be pretty sad if they just turned it into an extension of KCTV...

Yea, since the fact that (besides for the non-commercial Channel 11, KTWU) WIBW-TV was the only commercial VHF station in Topeka.

 

I don't know if it's gonna be a extention of KCTV (I hope not.)

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

11 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Also, you may have noticed that WTVY has switched over to First Alert Weather, which now creates a conflict with WDHN, which goes by the First Alert StormTeam.

I hope WALA doesn't make the same mistake in Mobile.  WKRG has been the First Alert Storm Team as well.

WALA's StormTracker branding is pretty well established, and if there's no licensing to deal with, I don't see them switching any time soon.

[channel2 977]

Doesn't Gray own the "First Alert" brand? Can't they just revoke the licenses to competing stations when it's up?

[GoldenShine_10 92]

5 hours ago, mer764KCTV5 said:

Yea, since the fact that (besides for the non-commercial Channel 11, KTWU) WIBW-TV was the only commercial VHF station in Topeka.

 

I don't know if it's gonna be a extention of KCTV (I hope not.)

 

Or an extension of KWCH...

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 909]

I'm just curious.... Grya's KTVK/KPHO in Phoenix... Even though its Ind/CBS networking, couldn't they technically combine resources some more than they already do?? For example, they have SEVEN meteorologists... Do they really need 7 meteorologist for Arizona?? It just seems that they are overstaffed overall and could see some cuts there eventually.  

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

7 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I hope WALA doesn't make the same mistake in Mobile.  WKRG has been the First Alert Storm Team as well.

WALA's StormTracker branding is pretty well established, and if there's no licensing to deal with, I don't see them switching any time soon.

 

Yeah I hope not. WALA has been StormTracker since John Edd Thompson's days and it has fit them very well over the past couple of decades.

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

Longtime WAGM sports director Rene Cloukey is finally hanging it up after a four-decade run at the only news department in market #206.

 

https://www.wagmtv.com/2024/11/19/rene-cloukey-announces-retirement/

[GoldenShine_10 92]

On 11/19/2024 at 5:20 PM, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Yeah I hope not. WALA has been StormTracker since John Edd Thompson's days and it has fit them very well over the past couple of decades.

 

WJHG doesn't go by "First Alert" either, so it isn't like every market in the area has that exclusive to Gray.

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

KWCH is the next Gray station to launch their all-weather program, StormTeam 12 Weather Focus. It launched weeks ago and airs weeknights at 5:30pm on sister station KSCW.

 

https://www.kwch.com/2024/11/07/storm-team-12-weather-focus-launch-november-11/

[evv_mlis 22]

WFIE's Randy Moore is retiring after long runs at WFIE, WEHT, and WTVW.

https://www.14news.com/2024/11/08/14-news-randy-moore-announces-retirement-after-45-years-television/

 

Robinson Miles replaces him: 

https://www.facebook.com/Robinson14News/videos/938583144880852/?__tn__=%2CO

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

Gray has taken a cue from Allen in Wisconsin as The Morning Show on Sunday mornings from WMTV 15 has expanded to Eau Claire and Wausau. Its only an hour though from 7:00-8:00 a.m.

 

In Eau Claire's case, its an addition for WEAU 13 as they never had weekend morning news. In Wausau's case, it replaces the Sunday edition of Sunrise 7.

 

I should also add that Gray and Allen followed Morgan Murphy Media's cues in expanding their weekend morning news from WISC over to La Crosse/Eau Claire on WKBT some time ago.

 

https://www.weau.com/2024/12/07/new-programming-weau-sunday-morning/

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

10 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Gray has taken a cue from Allen in Wisconsin as The Morning Show on Sunday mornings from WMTV 15 has expanded to Eau Claire and Wausau. Its only an hour though from 7:00-8:00 a.m.

 

In Eau Claire's case, its an addition for WEAU 13 as they never had weekend morning news. In Wausau's case, it replaces the Sunday edition of Sunrise 7.

 

I should also add that Gray and Allen followed Morgan Murphy Media's cues in expanding their weekend morning news from WISC over to La Crosse/Eau Claire on WKBT some time ago.

 

https://www.weau.com/2024/12/07/new-programming-weau-sunday-morning/

Wisconsin seems to be ground zero for these kind of moves.  

 

Decades ago, the required separation of TV signal contours may have put a stop to this, but here we are with groups controlling large areas that make consolidation easier.

 

What they should have done keep the signal contour rule and limit the amount of reach a broadcaster can have in a particular state, unless it's something grandfathered or serving a rural area through satellite stations, or  a statewide PBS network.

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

Notice too that it didn't touch WBAY. Gray is letting WBAY do their own thing since it's the biggest market Gray owns in that state.

 

Not only that, WBAY is superior compared to their competition (with all due respect to the rest).

[GoldenShine_10 92]

7 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Wisconsin seems to be ground zero for these kind of moves.  

 

Decades ago, the required separation of TV signal contours may have put a stop to this, but here we are with groups controlling large areas that make consolidation easier.

 

What they should have done keep the signal contour rule and limit the amount of reach a broadcaster can have in a particular state, unless it's something grandfathered or serving a rural area through satellite stations, or  a statewide PBS network.

 

As long as Morgan Murphy doesn't acquire WJFW, that station is sitting there isolated - otherwise, the western/central markets would be all completely aligned.

 

In the case of WEAU, nothing is being cut since there has never been such a newscast. The fact Gray doesn't own a station in Milwaukee prevents anything "completely" statewide from forming.

Edited December 10, 2024 by GoldenShine_10

[Howard Beale 57]

WANF (Atlanta) appears to be the next Gray station to have a sponsored 7 pm show.  The station has a website with a countdown clock to January 6, 2024, when it will debut the revamped one-commercial-only newscast.  I don’t know who’s sponsoring the show, but if it’s anything like KVVU in Las Vegas did, it’ll probably be a personal injury attorney.

EDIT: A financial services company called Hoffman Financial Group is sponsoring the newscast.

Edited December 11, 2024 by Howard Beale

[NYAZSporty 123]

5 minutes ago, Howard Beale said:

WANF (Atlanta) appears to be the next Gray station to have a sponsored 7 pm show.  The station has a website with a countdown clock to January 6, 2024, when it will debut the revamped one-commercial-only newscast.  I don’t know who’s sponsoring the show, but if it’s anything like KVVU in Las Vegas did, it’ll probably be a personal injury attorney.

If KTVK/KPHO (Phoenix) ever decides to go this route, shouldn't be too hard to find one in this market considering all the local ones that advertise a lot on TV & radio too like Lerner and Rowe, Rafi Law Group, & Sweet James.

[nathannah 2401]

8 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Wisconsin seems to be ground zero for these kind of moves.  

 

Decades ago, the required separation of TV signal contours may have put a stop to this, but here we are with groups controlling large areas that make consolidation easier.

 

What they should have done keep the signal contour rule and limit the amount of reach a broadcaster can have in a particular state, unless it's something grandfathered or serving a rural area through satellite stations, or  a statewide PBS network.

The situation with Wisconsin has an explanation though, as WKOW's sister stations did in the past start out as semi-satellites of it (with the FCC's blessing) and over time, broke off on their own as investments were made by their owners to break off the cord, as it were, with Madison, and Shockley and Qunicy had those resources to provide that support to their stations.

 

It seems like all that AMG has is cheap programming and no desire to expand at all, so they've contracted two generations of progress with WXOW/WQOW/WAOW to basically return them to the state they were in the 70s, but with an ugly 2020s centralcasting twist. A red flag for me with the Quincy/Gray merger was the lack of fight to keep WYOW and letting it go for a pittance to Gray; it felt very out of character and there didn't seem to be any regulatory reason to do so.

 

WEAU and WSAW are the strength of both their markets, but I can see good reasons for WMTV doing weekend morning newscasts for them at the very least, because some markets just really don't need them to begin with, and at least with E/I being opened up to the 5am hour it's literally better than nothing.

 

And agreed; WBAY does some Gray things, but outside certain touches they know what keeps them on top and adding new things that keep that dominance, and Gray is smart enough to leave well enough alone with them; it helps that their building and staff just plain can't support doing much more than what they do in their market outside the obvious Packers coverage lead.

[TheRolyPoly 2358]

1 hour ago, Howard Beale said:

WANF (Atlanta) appears to be the next Gray station to have a sponsored 7 pm show.  The station has a website with a countdown clock to January 6, 2024, when it will debut the revamped one-commercial-only newscast.  I don’t know who’s sponsoring the show, but if it’s anything like KVVU in Las Vegas did, it’ll probably be a personal injury attorney.

 

It says it towards the end of that video... Hoffman Financial Group, an Atlanta-based financial planning firm.

[Howard Beale 57]

53 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

It says it towards the end of that video... Hoffman Financial Group, an Atlanta-based financial planning firm.

Guess I didn't watch far enough. 

[channel2 977]

2 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

It seems like all that AMG has is cheap programming and no desire to expand at all, so they've contracted two generations of progress with WXOW/WQOW/WAOW to basically return them to the state they were in the 70s, but with an ugly 2020s centralcasting twist. A red flag for me with the Quincy/Gray merger was the lack of fight to keep WYOW and letting it go for a pittance to Gray; it felt very out of character and there didn't seem to be any regulatory reason to do so.

 

Why did they let Gray keep WYOW anyway? And isn't their application for a new Eagle River station going to complicate things?

 

WKOW and its spawn seem to essentially be the sick men of their markets, although WXOW and WQOW at least cover both La Crosse and Eau Claire. I'm under the impression that WEAU and WKBT have long focused on Eau Claire and La Crosse near-exclusively.

[Georgie56 3292]

The Atlanta Braves have announced a partnership with Gray that will include an OTA simulcast of 15 regular season games and 10 spring training games.

Edited December 18, 2024 by Georgie56

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

13 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

The Atlanta Braves have announced a partnership with Gray that will include an OTA simulcast of 15 regular season games and 10 spring training games.

This partnership extends into the other regional sports channels that Gray has created, to pretty much align with the Braves' territory.

 

Hopefully something similar happens in Cleveland because it looks like Major League Baseball is going to be controlling those games directly for the Guardians.