CLTV shutting down.

[TheOneManHerd 553]

FTVLive reporting complete with internal e-mail. Austerity measures are abundant in #NexstarNation.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/12/16/breaking-nexstar-shutting-down-cltv-in-chicago

[scrabbleship 428]

1 hour ago, TheOneManHerd said:

FTVLive reporting complete with internal e-mail. Austerity measures are abundant in #NexstarNation.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/12/16/breaking-nexstar-shutting-down-cltv-in-chicago

 

Cue the meme from The Eric Andre Show. You wouldn't have to cut staff if you didn't spend billions on a company you didn't necessarily need.

[Georgie56 3167]

When it started cutting down on live news all day and night and replacing it with reruns of WGN's weekend programming and more replays of WGN newscasts, it was only a matter of time. It turned into a dumping ground.

 

It's the end of an era at West Bradley Place.

[TheRyan 556]

I'm not one bit surprised about this.  It seems like any new station owner is at-best lukewarm at the idea of operating a regional network.  We've seen this before with both TXCN and later NWCN after they were bought by Gannett/Tegna.  It's sad, but CLTV is just the latest casualty in the consolidation of the TV news business. 

 

You would think Nexstar would want to keep CLTV as it complements their efforts at promoting "localism" at their stations.  It's sad and unfortunate to see this now happen at CLTV.

[24994J 5391]

 I find this part a little encouraging, to diversify the WGN lineup a bit.

 

"Ending production of CLTV will give us a chance to continue expanding local programming and local news here at WGN-TV. In the first quarter of 2020, we plan to expand weekend news further and add some new local programming focused on sports and politics.  I’ll have more info on this expansion early next year."

[CircleSeven 1946]

Here's the write-up from Feder.

 

He kind of went in detail on the amount:

Quote

About a dozen CLTV employees will be offered jobs with WGN, sources said, while another four or five are expected to be laid off.

 

[24994J 5391]

There are going to be weather cuts, for sure. Morgan Kolkmeyer is headed for maternity leave, soon, and they've had a listing for a per-diem meteorologist on their website, but I don't know what kind of place there's going to be for Tim McGill and Duffy Atkins on the already-loaded staff.

[TSSZNews 1047]

It is really interesting they've decided to cut CLTV loose - it was the only hyperlocal game in town and it was almost certainly making money - in the face of CBSN Chicago about to start, and NBC about to do LX.

 

Unless WGN is effectively going to become CLTV with insane amounts of news a day.

[Spring Rubber 658]

For all intents and purposes, the current iteration of CLTV was a watered-down version of Headline News from the 90s, but without regular updates. When you run a pre-recorded newscast for 3-4 hours at a time without updating it with breaking news, weather, and traffic, it loses its effectiveness. In times of severe weather, blizzards, etc, they'll still be airing the same weather segment from 3+ hours ago with outdated information rather than providing live content.

 

The production quality was definitely underwhelming for market #3. While they've had WGN's graphics for the past 2-3 years, they still suffered with poor, muffled audio quality, audio/video miscues, and awkward transitions between pre-recorded anchor reads. It always kind of felt like a market #120 newscast.

 

Then you have the fact that most of their lineup doesn't even consist of their news product anymore. AFAIK, they only do three 2-4 hour blocks of news per day, and the rest of the lineup is pre-recorded features and/or infomercials. Being exclusive to only a few cable providers and no satellite providers really hurt, as well.

 

I feel bad for the staffers losing their jobs. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

[dman748 1255]

1 hour ago, TSSZNews said:

It is really interesting they've decided to cut CLTV loose - it was the only hyperlocal game in town and it was almost certainly making money - in the face of CBSN Chicago about to start, and NBC about to do LX.

 

Unless WGN is effectively going to become CLTV with insane amounts of news a day.

Which that seems to be an indication Nexstar wants to add more news at WGN, we'll find out more in the coming weeks what kind of newscast expansions we'll see out of Chicago's Very Own

[Georgie56 3167]

I'm predicting a 6pm weekend newscast and possibly a 10pm weekend newscast.

 

And maybe the weekend morning news will start an hour earlier, running from 6-9am.

[mrschimpf 2166]

Two factors killed CLTV; the first of course is that the higher-quality WGN product is now available through every means possible. Why watch the stilted CLTV newscast when you can get the genuine article and up-to-date-weather from WGN right away through a mobile app?

 

The other factor of course, was Sam Zell. Without him and the rest of his idiots, Tribune is still almost whole, not broken apart for scrap, and CLTV is still a worthwhile cable news service that is what it was marketed as originally; taking the best from WGN-TV and WGN Radio, along with the Chicago Tribune, and probably having adapted it to the web, along with having long ago ending its dependence on being 'only on Comcast'; it may have ended up on channel 9.2 for free, or eventually sold to Comcast and becoming a broader regional cable news channel. After Tribune went private, it absolutely was starved of resources and became 'WGN News While Two and A Half Men Reruns Are On Channel 9". Maybe Nexstar would still merged with them, or Sinclair, but in the latter, it would have been clear that the Tribune people were bringing their strengths in over Sinclair's worst instincts.

Nexstar is absolutely going to go even news-heavier on WGN, though, no doubt about it. They don't want to be in the national syndicated production business, and the days of the Deal That Will Never End with the Universal Trash Triad are numbered for the news-heavy stations that use that block to rest the set.

[ABC 7 Denver 1626]

6 hours ago, TheRyan said:

I'm not one bit surprised about this.  It seems like any new station owner is at-best lukewarm at the idea of operating a regional network.  We've seen this before with both TXCN and later NWCN after they were bought by Gannett/Tegna.  It's sad, but CLTV is just the latest casualty in the consolidation of the TV news business. 

 

You would think Nexstar would want to keep CLTV as it complements their efforts at promoting "localism" at their stations.  It's sad and unfortunate to see this now happen at CLTV.

 

Localism is a branding and programming ploy that means more intensive news programming to reduce syndication costs and more local ad blocks. 

[Yankees4life 545]

Makes sense with the demise of WGN Sports, WGN could use much of its programming.

[TVNewsLover 734]

13 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

Makes sense with the demise of WGN Sports, WGN could use much of its programming.

Which makes one wonder if dropping the CW was a wise decision.

[Spring Rubber 658]

26 minutes ago, TVNewsLover said:

Which makes one wonder if dropping the CW was a wise decision.

Right, it only made sense when they had all of the sports. Now you have to program everything with either local content or syndication and try to find something that viewers will want to watch.

[dman748 1255]

53 minutes ago, TVNewsLover said:

Which makes one wonder if dropping the CW was a wise decision.

In hindsight, The CW didn't know that it would only be a few years after they left WGN, that Channel 9 would be left with no Cubs/White Sox baseball games, no Blackhawks Hockey games and no Bulls Basketball games.

 

Maybe perhaps the CW knew before they left WGN that they were about to lose the Cubs because obviously plans was already in the works to launch a Cubs-centric RSN, but I imagine The CW wasn't expecting the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks to leave Channel 9 as well

[channel2 912]

Does WGN really need Papa Network to make it without the sports? If anything they might actually gain an incentive to do really interesting stuff.

[Georgie56 3167]

CLTV has SportsFeed, so I'm willing to bet that it'll air nightly on WGN at 7pm.

[TVNewsLover 734]

1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

In hindsight, The CW didn't know that it would only be a few years after they left WGN, that Channel 9 would be left with no Cubs/White Sox baseball games, no Blackhawks Hockey games and no Bulls Basketball games.

 

Maybe perhaps the CW knew before they left WGN that they were about to lose the Cubs because obviously plans was already in the works to launch a Cubs-centric RSN, but I imagine The CW wasn't expecting the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks to leave Channel 9 as well

Not sure how what the CW knew or didn’t know is relevant to this conversation at all. Pretty sure WGN decided to drop the CW, not the other way around.

[TheRolyPoly 1902]

10 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

CLTV has SportsFeed, so I'm willing to bet that it'll air nightly on WGN at 7pm.

 

Actually, if they were smart, WGN (IMO) would put Politics Tonight at either 7:00 or 7:30 followed by SportsFeed at 8:00 with a second late edition at 10:30 p.m.

 

I made the latter follow like the format of KCWX Fredericksburg's Sports2Nite where they have three editions... the early at 5:30, the main at 10:00 and the late at 10:30 p.m.

[nomadcowatbk 144]

11 hours ago, channel2 said:

Does WGN really need Papa Network to make it without the sports? If anything they might actually gain an incentive to do really interesting stuff.

like a bozo reboot?

[dman748 1255]

51 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Actually, if they were smart, WGN (IMO) would put Politics Tonight at either 7:00 or 7:30 followed by SportsFeed at 8:00 with a second late edition at 10:30 p.m.

 

I made the latter follow like the format of KCWX Fredericksburg's Sports2Nite where they have three editions... the early at 5:30, the main at 10:00 and the late at 10:30 p.m.

That would at least keep WGN connected to Sports even though they will no longer air live sporting events

[TheRolyPoly 1902]

22 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

That would at least keep WGN connected to Sports even though they will no longer air live sporting events

 

Or... they can do an hour of Politics Tonight at 7:00, the hour-long SportsFeed at 8:00 which is the sports news/talk show and add a weeknight version of Instant Replay at 10:30 p.m.

 

And just like that, WGN would be live with news, sports and political programs every weeknight from 4:00-11:00 p.m.

[channel2 912]

1 hour ago, nomadcowatbk said:

like a bozo reboot?

 

I meant, like, documentaries, things they could rerun, or sell to Netflix.

 

Of course, that goes against the “just milk the retrans cow until it dies” philosophy these chains seem to have.