NEWSNet Ceases Operations

[TheRolyPoly 3509]

On 8/3/2024 at 4:56 PM, ATLNewsExpert said:

That newscast ended in late 2022 if I remember correctly.

You're right and the WGTA schedule hasn't been updated since.

 

https://www.facebook.com/RemingtonHernandez/posts/pfbid02E2GED1uETio8ks5qEgRy1mpjn8JAiBMP7Kx8KNiLL4o4119BTsB6B4KNoq38GXPAl

[Weeters 2173]

The website and live stream has been shut down, with the website displaying the following message:

Quote

NEWSnet and SportsNews Highlights are off the air and operations have been suspended. Check back here for updates.

 

[bhratbrat 439]

On 8/4/2024 at 12:16 AM, Weeters said:

The WGTA one is still on the station's schedule, unless someone else is producing it now.

@Weeters I did reach out to WGTA via Facebook and they informed me that their association ended with Newsnet in 2023. They stated "No, we don't air the news at nine anymore. It was produced by Newsnet but the partnership ended a year ago."

 

They just need to get Titan to update their listings. 

 

I knew WPGA ended the agreement when Gray took over and replaced it with a newscast from WANF.

[bhratbrat 439]

On 8/3/2024 at 11:56 PM, ATLNewsExpert said:

That newscast ended in late 2022 if I remember correctly.

From my recollection, when Coastal bought out Waypoint to include the NewsHub, they transitioned the Alaska/Wyoming cluster in a hurry.

 

 

[Weeters 2173]

A year and some months after the shutdown, an auction has popped up for the assets located in the Farmington Hills studio.

 

The auction provides some insight on their plans before the shutdown. The Farmington Hills facility seems to have been outfitted with two complete studios and control rooms (we only really ever saw pictures of one studio), fully equipped with Ross Carbonite Ultras and Ross Xpression. Both had matching desks, but different LED wall configurations. They definitely seemed to think this was going to be a huge operation, if they invested in two complete fully-equipped studio/control rooms.

[nathannah 2792]

A perfect time to bring up another of Manoj Bhargava's projects that failed; ShopHQ's IP has been bought by The Arena Group, which you might remember as the Maven Group that tried to run Sports Illustrated but failed, and also has other dead-tree brands such as Parade and Men's Journal. The site's back up online and selling things (and they're back on social media), which may just be a combo of leftover inventory combined with dropshipping.

[Weeters 2173]

2 hours ago, nathannah said:

A perfect time to bring up another of Manoj Bhargava's projects that failed; ShopHQ's IP has been bought by The Arena Group, which you might remember as the Maven Group that tried to run Sports Illustrated but failed, and also has other dead-tree brands such as Parade and Men's Journal. The site's back up online and selling things (and they're back on social media), which may just be a combo of leftover inventory combined with dropshipping.

This is a little confusing, as Bhargava is majority owner of The Arena Group already. In August 2023, there was an announcement that said he was merging Bridge News (NewsNet/Sports News Highlights) into The Arena Group, and that his IV Media LLC was acquiring ShopHQ. On December 1st of that year, a SEC filing shows he received 10,512,236 shares of The Arena Group.

 

A year later, NewsNet was shut down, presumably by "Arena". Now, two years later, he moves ShopHQ to The Arena Group, and suddenly the NewsNet auction is finally posted.

 

Interestingly, in some of the photos for the auction listings, you can see sticky notes that bear The Arena Group logo on the items.

[Weeters 2173]

Another update: following the auction, it appears they have placed the old Cadillac studio up for sale. Listing photos show the inside mostly emptied out. The only stuff remaining is part of the old weather set, the old MI News 26 set, and a reception desk based on the style of the MI News 26 set.

[TVLurker 389]

Just looking at that studio and I'm amazed that NewsNet/MI News lasted as long as it did, now it's just another generic station broadcasting some digital netlets.

 

Perhaps the hobbyist should of never sold to the snake energy drink salesman.

[Weeters 2173]

WMNN-LD and WXII-LD have been sold for $25k each to Lowcountry 34 Media.

[LTSC1980 130]

Spectrum speculator. Another OTA Broadcasting or LocusPoint vibes…

 

https://lowcountry34media.com

Edited January 24 by LTSC1980

[TheRolyPoly 3509]

2 hours ago, Weeters said:

WMNN-LD and WXII-LD have been sold for $25k each to Lowcountry 34 Media.

 

This screams Gray, considering they've bought some translators from L34 Media before and have turned them into, mostly, Telemundo affiliates.

[GraphicsMan 345]

7 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

This screams Gray, considering they've bought some translators from L34 Media before and have turned them into, mostly, Telemundo affiliates.

Detroit could use a Telemundo affiliate.

[Weeters 2173]

This whole ordeal has taken another wild turn. 

 

On April 4th, the old WMNN-LD/WXII-LD/NewsNet studio building was sold to a "Greenwad, LLC". This appears to be a holding company registered to a lawyer. There is not any information about what "Greenwad" is. This part of the transaction is not particularly interesting itself, but read on...

On April 27th, with the sale of WXII-LD and WMNN-LD to Lowcountry 34 Media still pending, the FCC ordered Bridge News to file license renewal applications for all of their stations, alleging this is part of an investigation "for possible violations of the FCC’s prohibition on unauthorized transfers of control of the station licenses."

 

The weird thing about these two transactions? The studio building was not sold by Bridge News. It was sold by Lowcountry, who apparently took ownership of the property from Bridge News on October 1st 2025, nearly four months before the paperwork to transfer control of the stations was filed.

 

It will be interesting to see what the FCC thinks is going on here.