All About Allen...

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

If all of the meteorologists at Allen stations are history, a boneheaded move will be if it goes down at WTVA.

 

Not only is it an established station in a place known for severe weather, but is in Mississippi State's backyard, where MANY meteorologists get their degrees from.

 

Allen better have a good plan for their chief Meteorologist (Matt Laubhan) since he's very well regarded (and almost like a James Spann Jr. even down to the suspenders!) or this station is toast.

[GoldenShine_10 92]

6 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

If all of the meteorologists at Allen stations are history, a boneheaded move will be if it goes down at WTVA.

 

Not only is it an established station in a place known for severe weather, but is in Mississippi State's backyard, where MANY meteorologists get their degrees from.

 

Allen better have a good plan for their chief Meteorologist (Matt Laubhan) since he's very well regarded (and almost like a James Spann Jr. even down to the suspenders!) or this station is toast.

 

WCBI could scoop him up without even thinking about it...

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

It sounds like the Allen stations are so leveraged that they literally own NOTHING and everything has been sold and leased back to the company.

 

The doomsday scenario is the true owners taking back their stuff and running it themselves or entrusting it to another party of their choosing.

[nickp 337]

Sinclair tried hubbing weather into their HQ in Hunt Valley It was the biggest mistake ever

[nathannah 2401]

1 hour ago, nickp said:

Sinclair tried hubbing weather into their HQ in Hunt Valley It was the biggest mistake ever

There though it mostly involved stations with no infrastructure whatsoever in the News Central format, and at least even in the TND era they still use mostly local folks on downtime to deliver forecasts and general breaking weather news. That I have no issue with because they still have that staff for the most part deliver breaking weather, even in the KTUL and WNWO situations.

Just having everything come from TWC...say if you're watching on WAOW, are you going to have to deal with severe weather non-applicable to you from WKOW because master control doesn't know the distance between Beloit and Wausau? How do you know local landmarks and street names? And how on earth do you have viewers submit videos and photos now, because they have to go through TWC's national system rather than the known local system? There are a lot of dangerous unknowns in hubbing weather nationally even in a well-planned transition over a couple of years, and it's worse in this ad hoc setup where now you have bitter ex-staff either on a new station or just starting their own efforts online.

[GoldenShine_10 92]

9 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Could Allen become the first company to ever have its stations seized or shut down involuntarily by creditors?  That's what it seems like where things are heading...

 

I think it's happened in select cases but never on a grand scale like this.

 

Benedek was the last company to really go into a bankruptcy auction?

[TennTV1983 801]

8 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

If all of the meteorologists at Allen stations are history, a boneheaded move will be if it goes down at WTVA.

 

Not only is it an established station in a place known for severe weather, but is in Mississippi State's backyard, where MANY meteorologists get their degrees from.

 

Allen better have a good plan for their chief Meteorologist (Matt Laubhan) since he's very well regarded (and almost like a James Spann Jr. even down to the suspenders!) or this station is toast.

 

And if they aren't sending those graduates there (or to WCBI), many of them will either wind up working at one of the stations in Memphis or Jackson, MS.

 

It's bad timing also when you consider groups like TEGNA have been making cuts (WATN/WLMT recently saw two meteorologists leave for other markets).

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Benedek was the last company to really go into a bankruptcy auction?

Most of their stations ended up with Gray while a select few ended up fading into oblivion under Chelsey (eventual SSA bait) and WTRF ending up under West Virginia Media Holdings.

 

In the early days of broadcasting you saw stations outright fold (mostly UHF ones) and certain others here and there.  Equity was probably the most notable failure of late with their properties essentially dissolving under the digital transition and being totally rebuilt mostly by Daystar as totally new stations under the existing license. (Because Equity had not constructed the digital facilities in most places at the time)

[ColtFromGulfcoast 707]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Most of their stations ended up with Gray while a select few ended up fading into oblivion under Chelsey (eventual SSA bait) and WTRF ending up under West Virginia Media Holdings.

 

In the early days of broadcasting you saw stations outright fold (mostly UHF ones) and certain others here and there.  Equity was probably the most notable failure of late with their properties essentially dissolving under the digital transition and being totally rebuilt mostly by Daystar as totally new stations under the existing license. (Because Equity had not constructed the digital facilities in most places at the time)

And then I think some of those Chelsey stations ended up with Gray anyway but that's probably besides the point. 

 

But I hope the Allen stations aren't gonna be screwed to the point of no return. This is nightmarish. 

[GraphicsMan 109]

On 1/16/2025 at 10:20 PM, mre29 said:

 

Noticias suficientes para hacer feliz a la red.

 

That's Spanish for "Just enough news to make the network happy." You're welcome.

 

Probably just one newscast a day I would buy WDNI Telemundo Indy. Obviously Telemundo hasn’t yanked there affiliation for not having a newscast. So obviously Telemundo doesn’t force it’s stations to do news unlike the English networks do especially before and after network news shows. Univision appears the same too.

[mre29 1513]

22 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

I know he won't listen to this, but Allen... SELL NOW. Its obvious AMG can't manage anything for shit. At this point, anyone is better than them.

 

And sell piecemeal! If a buyer only wants a small handful of stations, take the deal. You'll be that much closer to done.

 

(He's not reading this, is he?)

 

[GoldenShine_10 92]

The Tegna stations sure dodged a big bullet - he was interested in them, was willing to buy them, but the failed Standard General deal came into play.

[mre29 1513]

27 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

The Tegna stations sure dodged a big bullet - he was interested in them, was willing to buy them, but the failed Standard General deal came into play.

 

Quite honestly, I'm amazed Standard General is even still around.

 

[NYAZSporty 123]

On 1/16/2025 at 12:17 PM, MidwestTV said:

Allen Media is letting go ALL local meteorologists at ALL stations and looks to hub local weather forecasts out of the Weather Channel in Atlanta.

If this goes through, good luck to the TWC mets trying to get some of the fancier town names in Hawaii (KITV/ABC), wonder how much time on air on that network, they devote to giving weather outside of the main 48 states & D.C. 

[GoldenShine_10 92]

35 minutes ago, NYAZSporty said:

If this goes through, good luck to the TWC mets trying to get some of the fancier town names in Hawaii (KITV/ABC), wonder how much time on air on that network, they devote to giving weather outside of the main 48 states & D.C. 

 

How far are we from massive cuts at TWC as well though?

[TheRolyPoly 2357]

20 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

If all of the meteorologists at Allen stations are history, a boneheaded move will be if it goes down at WTVA.

 

Not only is it an established station in a place known for severe weather, but is in Mississippi State's backyard, where MANY meteorologists get their degrees from.

 

Allen better have a good plan for their chief Meteorologist (Matt Laubhan) since he's very well regarded (and almost like a James Spann Jr. even down to the suspenders!) or this station is toast.

 

To me, this is another HUGE blow if true. It further drives away all respect I had for AMG.

 

They need to sell everything (including TWC) and FAST.

 

I god hope TWC gets new owners. They don't deserve this either.

[GodfreyGR 650]

7 hours ago, NYAZSporty said:

good luck to the TWC mets trying to get some of the fancier town names in Hawaii

Anywhere. Good luck anywhere. We have all been there with a new reporter or met doesn't know local dialect and pronunciations of a city or county and encounters a good learning opportunity on the fly. For Allen stations- yes, Hawaii, but I also think of the Wisconsin markets that use a ton of Oneida, Potawatomi language in community names.

 

For some mild entertainment, got to YouTube and search "How to pronounce town names in (insert any state here)"

[EVVTV12 141]

Let us all review something we have heard James Spann say over the years: Know your landmarks. Most people will not remember many roads, unless you drive them or they are a major one, like an interstate. What does Spann always do? Name off places people know: schools, churches, BBQ restaurants, that one gentlemen’s club one time. Here in Evansville, many of the Mets will say a number of the schools, major businesses, the airport. If a tornado is on the ground in a rural area, someone at TWC might say, “It’s in a rural area, not much to worry about.” Someone local will say, “This is on the ground just one mile west of XYZ High School.” Yes, we have a number of schools in corn fields around here. Our Doppler radar sits in the middle of a corn field. Everyone here knows if that radar goes down, we lose data that can help save and protect lives and property. Nothing against the folks at TWC, they are great people, but they shouldn’t be doing something this local. 

[ColtFromGulfcoast 707]

This had been one of my fears whenever everyone was rooting for Allen to buy Tegna. I could tell from the programming that they put out that they were cheap as hell and would run everything on a shoestring budget. I was hoping that I would be wrong but look at what's happening now. I don't mean to sound pessimistic or be a "I-told-you-so" but what's happening at these stations is truly pathetic. How do you expect to be able to serve a market effectively if you're not actually based there?  Allen is unfit to hold any broadcast license. This makes me sick to my stomach. 

[nathannah 2401]

11 hours ago, NYAZSporty said:

If this goes through, good luck to the TWC mets trying to get some of the fancier town names in Hawaii (KITV/ABC), wonder how much time on air on that network, they devote to giving weather outside of the main 48 states & D.C. 

Just in the Hawaii case alone which otherwise only has Nexstar and Gray as viable news operations, this feels like it should be a license-forfeiting offense; there is no serious reason there should be weather forecast from 4,500 miles away nearer to another coast and a quarter of a day away. It's already questionable enough when TWC absolutely refuses to forecast the western mainland well to begin with unless it's in severe danger.

[GoldenShine_10 92]

7 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

To me, this is another HUGE blow if true. It further drives away all respect I had for AMG.

 

They need to sell everything (including TWC) and FAST.

 

I god hope TWC gets new owners. They don't deserve this either.

 

Allen also has a history of late payments and IOU's to networks. Maybe time to go nuclear and strip them of their affiliations?

 

[Big Rollo Smokes 260]

7 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

To me, this is another HUGE blow if true. It further drives away all respect I had for AMG.

 

They need to sell everything (including TWC) and FAST.

 

I god hope TWC gets new owners. They don't deserve this either.

You keep saying this same thing. Let me ask you: TO WHOM? You're looking for a white knight that may not exist. And forcing a sale doesn't necessarily help matters, because you may go from one bad operator to another. Be careful of what you wish for.

 

A better case scenario would be for viewers in the affected areas to file a formal complaint at the FCC, saying that AMG isn't operating in the public interest. If enough force is behind that, then something might happen. 

[HanSolo 143]

1 hour ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

You keep saying this same thing. Let me ask you: TO WHOM? You're looking for a white knight that may not exist. And forcing a sale doesn't necessarily help matters, because you may go from one bad operator to another. Be careful of what you wish for.

 

 

This is akin to the fans of whatever sports team screaming to trade whoever is the subject of their ire at the moment, as if it was as simple as snapping one’s fingers to find a trade partner willing to give you whatever unicorn you think is out there. 
 

Followed by the inevitable bellyaching when some kind of trade happens and it isn’t on the terms or for the other player you think it should have been for. 
 

The economics are not great. The revenue pie continues to get sliced into smaller and smaller pieces. Who, exactly, has the money to sink into said operations with little assurance of a return on the investment? 

[GoldenShine_10 92]

1 hour ago, HanSolo said:

This is akin to the fans of whatever sports team screaming to trade whoever is the subject of their ire at the moment, as if it was as simple as snapping one’s fingers to find a trade partner willing to give you whatever unicorn you think is out there. 
 

Followed by the inevitable bellyaching when some kind of trade happens and it isn’t on the terms or for the other player you think it should have been for. 
 

The economics are not great. The revenue pie continues to get sliced into smaller and smaller pieces. Who, exactly, has the money to sink into said operations with little assurance of a return on the investment? 

 

For some of their stations, they may just give up doing news altogether.

 

If all of them stopped, one market (Lafayette, IN) would have no local news presence at all. Five others would be down to one news-producing station.

 

This isn't so much due to greed though as it is a company bordering on bankruptcy. They have had to give IOU's to networks for affiliation payments.

Edited January 18 by GoldenShine_10

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 907]

My question though: isn't it federal law to break into programming for life-threatening severe weather?  So isn't Allen "technically" breaking the law because they aren't providing life-saving information?? I just can't see TWC providing live coverage, especially if they struggle bad enough with who they have for national coverage?? I'm just curious if there are lawsuits just waiting to happen??