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Gray renews and launches new CW affiliates


The Frog

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ATLANTA and BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE: GTN and GTN.A) and The CW Network today announced a multi-year extension of their affiliation agreements, covering 23 markets around the country. The agreements include four new Gray stations to carry The CW in Madison, Wis.; Fargo, N. D.; Alexandria, La.; and Laredo, Texas.

 

The CW affiliates currently owned by Gray and those that Gray is acquiring are WBXX in Knoxville, Tenn.; WKYT-D2 in Lexington, Ky.; KSCW in Wichita, Kan.; WQCW in Charleston, W. Va.; KCZ in Springfield, Mo.; WTVG-D2 in Toledo, Ohio; KWTX-D2/KBTX-D2 in Waco, Texas; KSFY-D2 in Sioux Falls, S.D.; WAGT-D2 in Augusta, Ga.; KNOE-D3 in Monroe, La.; WSWG-D3 in Albany, Ga.; WJHG-D2 in Panama City, Fla.; WTVY-D3 in Dothan, Ala.; WBKO-D3 in Bowling Green, Ky.; KYLX-LD2 in Laredo, Texas (which launched in October 2015); KJCT-LD2 in Grand Junction, Colo.; WTOK-D3 in Meridian, Miss.; KMVT-D2 in Twin Falls, Idaho; KCWY-D2 in Casper, Wyo.; and KGWN-D3 in Cheyenne, Wyo. At the beginning of the 2016/17 television season, Gray will launch new CW affiliates on WMVT-D2 in Madison, Wis.; KXJB-D2 in Fargo, N.D.; and KALB-D3 in Alexandria, La.

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gray-expands-its-partnership-with-the-cw-network-300193285.html

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Guest Former Member 207

That Madison station isn't right...their affiliate is WBUW, and it's owned by a different company. WMVT is one of Milwaukee's PBS stations.

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Guest Former Member 207
Looks like they meant WMTV.

 

Yeah, you're obviously right...someone updated WMTV's Wikipedia page to indicate the affiliation going there. Even then, it's a little strange that The CW would from a standalone operation at WBUW to a subchannel of WMTV. It looks like WBUW could go independent; Fox is locked up with WMSN, MyTV is on WISC's second subchannel, and the major network affiliations are firmly entrenched where they are.

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That Madison station isn't right...their affiliate is WBUW, and it's owned by a different company. WMVT is one of Milwaukee's PBS stations.

Looks like they meant WMTV.

Perhaps, Gray is acquiring WBUW from Byrne Acquisition Group and going nuclear with it, but hasn't filed the papers or simply announced it yet?

 

I'd assume if WMTV adds an affiliation with The CW, either by acquiring WBUW's non-license assets and shoving its programming to an LPTV that WMTV will relay or outright taking the network from WBUW without Gray acquiring it, that WMTV won't be getting the network via The CW Plus since Madison is not small enough a market (it ranks #81 and the largest CW Plus market ranks somewhere in the 90s). Byrne runs syndicated and local programs on WBUW outside of the hours that the base CW schedule occupies.

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Even then, it's a little strange that The CW would from a standalone operation at WBUW to a subchannel of WMTV.

 

The CW seems to prefer being affiliated with major station groups rather than local owners. In 2013, their affiliation in Jackson, Mississippi was up for grabs. They opted to go with a subchannel on Media General's WJTV rather than being a standalone on university-owned WLOO.

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Also, KXJB? Isn't that station folded into KVLY's subchannel? Now what will they do with their CBS subchannel?

 

"KXJB-D2" refers to the group of low-power stations Gray is buying to give CBS a full 1080i HD signal in Fargo; not the current KRDK (former KXJB).

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Guest Former Member 207
The CW seems to prefer being affiliated with major station groups rather than local owners. In 2013, their affiliation in Jackson, Mississippi was up for grabs. They opted to go with a subchannel on Media General's WJTV rather than being a standalone on university-owned WLOO.

 

I could understand that viewpoint...I guess for The CW, knowing that their station partners are pretty solid and stable, plus these smaller station groups getting swallowed-up left and right, they want a sure thing.

 

Tmanokc did brought up an interesting point that I also thought about too...seeing Gray's current M.O. of buying stations and merge their operations with another in the same market, it sure wouldn't surprise me that they go after WBUW and take that programming to WMTV's D2. And with these spectrum auctions coming up, we're going to see more and more of this.

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Glad to see CW back in Laredo. Gray have no choice but remove CW when they launch ABC in Laredo area.

 

Also, KXJB? Isn't that station folded into KVLY's subchannel? Now what will they do with their CBS subchannel?

 

I was thinking, go the same route as WKTV in Utica for KVLY in Fargo... NBC on .1, CBS on .2, CW on .3 and Me-TV on .4

 

Basically, WDAY 6/WDAZ 8 will be losing their CW affiliation and a subchannel.

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Viewers aren't going to notice or really care about the differences between a standalone CW affiliate and a subchannel affiliate versus any other sort of network switch.

 

Standalone CW stations without news departments have little-to-nothing to offer that a subchannel station couldn't. There's just no compelling reason for viewer loyalty without local news.

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Viewers aren't going to notice or really care about the differences between a standalone CW affiliate and a subchannel affiliate versus any other sort of network switch.

 

Standalone CW stations without news departments have little-to-nothing to offer that a subchannel station couldn't. There's just no compelling reason for viewer loyalty without local news.

 

Kimosabe remember that with no news dept...you build viewer loyalty with contest and sweepstakes year round.

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The press release says Fall 2016, but it could possibly be sooner in the case of WMTV (and KALB).

 

ACME negotiated a 10-year agreement for their stations like WBUW (remember, ACME before they disbanded had executive connections to the WB through Jamie Kellner, so all their stations were just 'you want to be CW...yup...OK' formalities), so September 2016 is the end of their agreement with WBUW. But while all the other ACME stations got major market owners/JSAs, WBUW was an outlier and that hurt them when they got sold to Byrne.

 

Perhaps, Gray is acquiring WBUW from Byrne Acquisition Group and going nuclear with it, but hasn't filed the papers or simply announced it yet?

 

I'd assume if WMTV adds an affiliation with The CW, either by acquiring WBUW's non-license assets and shoving its programming to an LPTV that WMTV will relay or outright taking the network from WBUW without Gray acquiring it, that WMTV won't be getting the network via The CW Plus since Madison is not small enough a market (it ranks #81 and the largest CW Plus market ranks somewhere in the 90s). Byrne runs syndicated and local programs on WBUW outside of the hours that the base CW schedule occupies.

 

This is pretty much what I'm seeing; Gray buys out Byrne and their H&I/Movies! sub affilis like they did with Fox in Wausau (off with WFXS, on with WZAW-LD), turning off the full-signal and launching a low-power on the same virtual channel in Madison so it's all status quo outside of having to deal with signal complaints from Beloit, which is completely possible. It also removes the few complications that WBUW's signal has being COL'ed to Janesville. W08CK (owned by a Hindu organization and airing it seems like public domain films from a tower near the Capitol) isn't doing anything of note and can easily be picked up for a song with a quick reconfiguring of WBUW's transmitter into their digital signal on 36, with the usual placing of W08CK on the DT4 to call it even for everyone.

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