mre29

So, basically, Sinclair just got some company in the doghouse.

At the very least, I can see Cox putting WFXT (which they were going to send to SG) up for sale.

CoxApollo should, as well.

Hey, it's the last gasp of Citadel Communications.

I guess now would be a good time to acquire some earplugs.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced they should just rip the bandage off and rename the network to differentiate it from the "old" CW.

People who work nights? I know if I was working nights, I'd prefer early morning news over infomercials any day.

That's what I figured. Heck, Sunbeam probably doesn't have much of a corporate office beyond an office for Andrew Ansin.

Because why not? First up: Sunbeam-Owned WSVN Miami, WHDH Boston Add Hour of Morning News That's a lot of news. Wait... they have a general manager for each station and one for the company as a whole?

And the FCC still isn't directly addressing those two issues, is it? I mean, yes, potential job losses and retransmission consent fees are serious issues, but they're issues 3 and 4 here. The ownership conflicts and foreign money should be dealt with first, and I'm amazed that the FCC doesn't appear to be officially saying anything about them.

So, what's Robin Meade up to these days?

In that case, I don't think the Town Hall of Injustice necessarily had anything to do with Friday's ratings. Something else was going on. Was Newsmax showing anything notable Friday?

To be fair, this is Friday night we're talking about. It may not be quite the "death slot" it was just a few years ago, but I'm guessing it's still the weakest of the weeknights for a lot of channels. Also, I'd kinda like to know the ratings for Thursday -- the night after the Town Hell.

I'd like to think someone at KOVR is reacting thusly: "HA! They blinked!"

Thank God for that. (But I'm biased. )

Here's one tidbit that might help explain that: The college the town hall Trump rally was held at? Final exams start tomorrow. Those students didn't need the kind of disruption this event brought.

And let's not forget the massive programming overlap with Ion. As for so many of them still having the MNTV-based branding.... well, that's just laziness on their part. But there might be something else. Way back in 2006 when the CW was announced and Fox announced MyNetworkTV in response, stations were rushing to affiliate with one or the other, including changing call letters (sometimes for the first time in decades) -- as if "independent" was a four-letter word. This was especially surprising as Fox was using MNTV to test a format that was new, at least here in the US: Telenovelas. Dramas that ran five nights a week for thirteen weeks, then ended; 65 episodes and out, replaced by another show of the same length. It didn't go well at all, and the telenovelas were reduced to two nights a week in March 2007 before being eliminated altogether. The switch from network to programming service came in 2009. All those stations that had rushed to affiliate with MNTV and change their call letters and branding probably felt foolish when the whole thing collapsed. Personally, I think Fox's announcement of the switch to a programming service should have included a request that affiliates move away from their MNTV-based branding. But the aforementioned fear of the word "independent" was likely still at play.

I honestly thought Nexstar had pretty much hit the cap and wouldn't be able to buying anything in a market bigger than, say, DMA 150. Took a peek at KUSI's website. I see they're still rocking the mid-2000s Fox News color scheme.

Nope.

I wonder if WSBK quietly dropping MNTV and going independent last September is related at all to these stations going indie.

I just noticed that CNBC is providing live coverage of Berkshire-Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, including Warren Buffet taking questions. Is this something the network offers to all major corporations, or is it just because of Buffett?

It's why so many broadcasting companies were sold in their entirety, why Nexstar and Sinclair became so gargantuan, why companies such as Hearst, Graham, and other relatively smaller companies haven't been able to make as many acquisitions, why ABC had to pass on buying WJLA (remember, they didn't want the rest of the Albritton stations), etc. It's also a loophole in the tax code, one that should be closed by Congress. But it won't be. They could skip a few steps by doing a facility swap between KUNS and KSTW, a la the WFOR-WTVJ swap back in the '90s. It would have the side effect of putting KUNS on channel 11 and KSTW on 51, though. Is anyone here going to lose sleep over MyNetwork TV not being in 24 markets?

So, when do the affiliation deals for KIRO, WANF, and WTSP expire?

It also shows that the Ion stations aren't set in stone; if Scripps sees a good use for one, they'll use it.

NBCLX seems like something that could've been a one-hour show on WMAQ America -- er, NBC News Now.