tyrannical bastard

If they decide to open up their pocketbook, may it be the catalyst for Nexstar eventually filing for bankruptcy when all of their retransmission greed and refusal to live in the post-cable world catches up with them. This will be the blunder that takes them under.

I have to wonder, could Bob Prather be heading back to Gray, especially with Bob Smith's impending retirement.....

It's a relic of the old analog era where VHF ruled supreme. Plus, 3, 5 and 8 signed on in the late 40s, where as WOIO signed on in 1985. Even the basis of WOIO's news department only dates to 1988.

I'm curious, are there any NBC affiliates that are running more than 1 hour of NBC News Daily? I think the show is designed to cater to different time slots across the country, but air in full on NBC News Now.

Steve Harvey: Name a show that's replacing NBC 15 News at Noon and Gulf Coast Today. The National Desk! (Nope, another hour of Family Feud on top of the hour at 4: 00pm AND the 6:30 airing on WEAR!)

Didn't see a thread for Allen Media group, so here we go! And to start things off, Bob Prather (who left Gray to start Heartland Media) and Andy Fisher, are both leaving AMG. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/4/17/breaking-shake-up-at-the-top-of-one-media-group-to-be-announced-today Could any of this be related to Allen's involvement in the Diamond Sports dumpster fire?

Well....it appears that WEAR is now SIMULCASTING newscasts on WPMI. Hopefully it's just a weekend thing.

By now, the changes have probably been made in all of the affected markets. I posted in the "Out and About" thread about Mobile losing their AM, noon and lifestyle programs on WPMI. So all that appears to be left is weekend newscasts and weekly 5, 6 and 10 shows. I know it's not KDNL, but this is a pretty bare-boned approach in a market the size of Mobile-Pensacola. But to Sinclair, it's probably a way to keep status quo on WEAR and their absolute dominance of the Florida side of the market.

This should probably go in the Sinclair thread, but it's pretty significant to mention here. This is the last day of WPMI's morning show, noon newscast and Gulf Coast Today lifestyle program. This Facebook post even hints at more "sharing" with cross-market WEAR in Pensacola. All the more reason Sinclair should have NEVER been able to run 4 stations in 1 market.

WUAB is now available on YouTube TV. I'll have to see if Gray has a universal deal with The CW or if it's just certain stations in certain markets.

Now, MLB is trying to force Bally to pay up for the Cleveland Guardians (Indians) and the Minnesota Twins. They skipped these payments, and if if they don'r pay up, they could seize the rights from Bally. https://theathletic.com/4385805/2023/04/05/mlb-diamond-sports-bankruptcy-twins-guardians/ Since they-re post bankruptcy filing, does this have any chance of actually happening?

Unlike Ed Ansin's sons taking over Sunbeam after his passing, Edith Waterman probably had no one in the family interested in continuing the family business, so selling was the only option. Had it been part of an estate sale, it would have driven up the taxes for any buyer.

I"m sure Hurricane Ian may have prompted them to sell. They fared much better than WINK, but the storm may have give them the realization that they need sister stations to step in when the next storm comes. And given the market, corporate ownership may be a good thing, dissolving the toxic cultures that have seemingly permeated the market for years. It is an end of an era for sure. What other market has been primarily comprised of locally-owned stations in this day and age?

There's still a couple of straggler CW stations that have yet to have been added to YTTV. These are the .2s on stations like WCBD, WNCT, WJTV/WHLT, etc....

Sinclair is reorganizing their businesses under a new holding company, Sinclair Inc. https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-sinclair-broadcast-changes-name-in-business-reorganization-20230403-r4qtoxhl7fctlkpynajgt3ncfi-story.html The Sinclair Broadcast Group will be a subsidiary, which will contain the moribund Diamond Sports venture, while another subsidiary, Sinclair Ventures will contain the rest of the company, including their investments, 3.0 development, Compulse Intergrated Marketing, and Tennis Channel. Seems like the stations are being set up for a potential sale. WHEN the Standard General / Tegna deal fails, will Soo Kim come knocking to take the stations off Sinclair's hands?

After years of having the same logo (as well as weather god James Spann), ABC 33/40 has decided to modify its logo. The new tagline is one that many are familiar with in Central Alabama...."Respect the Polygon!" And Happy April Fools' everyone!

My how the times have changed. Four years ago, the return of news on WWJ was an April fools joke....on this very site!

Andre Bernier used to have his "weather spies" when he was on in the mornings, but he slipped into "Dick Goddard" mode soon after Dick himself finally retired.

If they all want this deal to go through so badly, they need to pool all of their money together and buy out Apollo's share. Then again, to do that may be more than they can afford. It's a systemic problem when so much of broadcasting is tied up in these equity firms and mega-companies that "new" owners can't buy their way into these companies unless they don't have ties to foreign entities or have massive overlaps with existing broadcasters (with the Apollo/Cox conflicts). The only way may be to let these mega-companies fail and have the stations sold at auction to the highest bidder. The hope is that there are enough leftovers for new companies to enter the fold and have a chance at running a station when the license can be bought for a song. We're beginning to see the bubble burst with the Diamond/Sinclair fiasco, and it's having an effect on Sinclair itself with some of the recent cutbacks they've made. Nexstar may be next when the gouging of cable viewers catches up to them.

Looks like Nexstar's CW stations are now live on YouTube TV. This should include the MyNetwork stations and WGN. Time to "move" to Chicago! Or Marquette, MI to see what WJMN is up to.... EDIT:. Only the CW stations are available so far....

These stations are so stripped down, any buyer would have to literally build them from scratch to meet their needs. Then again, since so much of it is cloud and IT-based, that burden may be easier to bear. Remember the WAGT transition from Schurz to Gray? Media General held them to the SSA and even violated FCC rules for illegally taking back WAGT based on a lower court ruling that gave them the right to do so. Sinclair would probably hold any buyer to the same scrutiny if anyone else took a station they were providing services for from their "cold dead hands..."

Surprisingly, Mobile/Pensacola is one of the only Sinclair markets to have not moved LMA/SSA station feeds to their owned and operated stations. That could be with WPMI's NBC affiliation, and if it is contractually tied to WPMI, and cannot be moved to WFGX or WEAR as a primary or secondary subchannel, much like Sinclair has done in other markets like Columbus and Charleston. Meanwhile, stations like WALA continue to run away with expanding their local programming, and with the recent cancellations of Dr. Phil, Judge Mathis, and the People's Court, there goes the last of their daily syndication, clearing the way for Gray to put the KVVU model of news from sunrise to sunset. FTVLive picked up on a Twitter thread from a former employee, describing his experience working at WPMI, and how the belt tightening has been going on for a while now... https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/3/26/sinclair-continues-to-cut

I guess time will tell how these stations will do until the affiliations are up. In a world where stations are adding newscasts left and right (with the decline of syndication and potential pullback by the networks in the coming years), a station like WPMI is doomed because of Sinclair's desire to "control" 4 stations in a market, and is limited by what they can put on their station (the 15% rule). What we could be seeing is the rise of NewsCentral 2.0. Didn't they already learn their lesson from this boondoggle 20 years ago? Instead of netlet and other weak affiliates getting a so-called local newscast, it's going to trickle down to a select group of Sinclair-run stations that can't cut it in their market. Now if they're really in deep trouble, it could trickle up to the larger stations as well.