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DirtyHarry

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Everything posted by DirtyHarry

  1. DirtyHarry
    I'm sure he has weasel language in all the contracts about what happens if the FCC doesn't approve the sale. If anything, he's trying to avoid the breakup fee which I think is a couple hundred million dollars. I'd take him to court over it just to teach the next bankster who tries to pull something like this a lesson.
  2. DirtyHarry
    Somewhat related. This guy cut commercials to 5 minutes per hour at his Fresno radio stations. He says he can do that because he doesn't have any debt, unlike Cumulus and iHeart. The Wolfes used to say that having no debt was an important part of their success at WBNS and WTHR. Standard General will have debt, lots of it. Thus, a race to the bottom as they try to stay afloat. Soo Kim can pound salt. https://radioink.com/2023/03/22/john-ostlund-five-minute-stopsets/
  3. DirtyHarry
    Back in the 1970s, WTVN TV used to open with the camera showing their cheapo news set, playing James Bond music.
  4. DirtyHarry
    What losses? They and their partners put less than a billion down. The banks are stuck with the loss. Unlike you and me, the big boys don't have to pay. I'm sure they got a non-recourse loan.
  5. DirtyHarry
    Where the cable companies get you here, they'll advertise $79.99 for cable. Then at the end of the bill they check on $22 for OTA TV and another seven bucks for sports. And nothing special when it comes to sports, just regular ESPN, Bally's and Fox channels.
  6. DirtyHarry
    Is that the full price or do they tack on local TV surcharges and taxes at the end?
  7. DirtyHarry
    You have a point. It doesn't matter which country or state your business charter is in, it matters where your ownership and management are located. Nevertheless, Apollo still benefits from two sets of stations in certain cities, so I would tell them to pound salt. If they still get the profit from both WSB and WXIA, something still seems wrong about that.
  8. DirtyHarry
    LNL is a stupid acronym and their bug looks stupid. Not impressed with the boring graphics either. It sounds like an insurance company, Lincoln National Life. I said the same thing when Sinclair went to Curves that I'm going to say here. Sinclair has that overly serious sounding music. That's not who they are. The old Stephen Arnold upbeat theme songs fit them much better. Same thing going on here. Gray is a second or third rate broadcaster. Stay in your lane. This is not an insult, it's just who they are. Have something that better fits you and your viewership.
  9. DirtyHarry
    I totally agree that they've got the bigger problem of not having anything anybody wants to watch anymore and not having a clue how to create things people want to watch.
  10. DirtyHarry
    I don't care who's fault it is, I care about the damage to my wallet. I dropped cable when retrain and sports fees got tacked on to the bottom of the bill to the tune of $30. My cable and internet bill was roughly $165 and that was 2 years ago. I got rid of the cable and just do internet now and I'm perfectly happy with it. In fact, at the time, the cable company was encouraging us to do this so that they didn't have to fool around with these wars with the TV providers anymore either.
  11. DirtyHarry
    My argument is that this is just like a retail store. If they're not open when you need them, and you're forced to go somewhere else, sooner or later you get out of the habit of going there. So if Kroger closes at 9:00, but Meijer's is open until midnight, you're going to get into the habit of going to Meijer's and Kroger's fades away for you. Radio tried that. The argument is that they have so few listeners after 7:00 p.m. that it's not worth it to have live talent. You can see how relevant radio is everywhere except for the car anymore.
  12. DirtyHarry
    They killed the golden goose and are now in the process of killing the bronze goose. I'm not paying your stinking retransmission fees. If the online providers start with that garbage, I'm dropping them too, just like I dropped the cable company. And if they figure out a way to make me pay over the air using ATSC 3.0, I can live without TV.
  13. DirtyHarry
    Yeah, this is not a WHIZ situation where they have a healthy population with OTA. This really is a small market.
  14. DirtyHarry
    That news person isn't all that tiny either.
  15. DirtyHarry
    Very few people have sympathy for the banksters in these deals. I certainly don't. They ruin practically everything they touch. Yes, there is such a thing as attribution in the law. I believe even the FCC uses attribution when it comes to family members owning media properties. It should be the same thing here. If you've got capital in both companies, you're benefiting from both companies. That should not be allowed. And even if you don't control day to day operations, if you threaten to pull your money out if you don't like something, that's control.
  16. DirtyHarry
    Listen, all of this conversation confuses the issue. The big issue in my mind is that this is all a race to the bottom. Consolidation has ruined broadcast. It is simply not interesting anymore. Listening to the radio is about as interesting is walking into a Sears store (and I'm talking about before they fell apart). Everything is so plain vanilla and corporate. Consolidation has done some good things, creating critical mass for rolling out new technology, but the networks could have assumed that role. As part of your network affiliation, they could have offered all of the technology and tools that these chains are able to assemble in-house. Boring content, elimination of voices, foreign ownership. It would get a big no for me and I'm typically Republican minded when it comes to my worldview.
  17. DirtyHarry
    LOL! Of course it won't push up cable bills. They still advertise cable for $89.99. they just tack on another $30 at the end. They killed the golden goose with their greed.
  18. DirtyHarry
    It comes in well in the Mount Vernon area. I know that first hand. Trouble is, it's hard to get the antenna aimed. It's an either or situation between Columbus and Zanesville. Looks like they have a directional pattern directing the most signal to the northwest of Zanesville.
  19. DirtyHarry
    Interesting. It seems like there's a lot of potential to hit mom and pop businesses within their signal contour when you've got that many potential viewers, even if you have a small DMA.
  20. DirtyHarry
    If you look at some of the signal maps, it looks like it gets to about the Franklin / Licking County line. I don't know if that's real life or just theoretical. If that's real life, their signal gets out far enough in all directions to cover a decent amount of territory, it just doesn't get to Columbus.
  21. DirtyHarry
    I'm really surprised that the the order sending it up to the alj judge didn't specifically call out the ownership structure. There is precedent for attributing interests in many areas of the law, especially tax and securities law. If you own 10% of a company, your wife owns 10%, and each of the three kids own 10%, in many contexts the law says you own 50%. I don't care whether Apollo has any say in direct day-to-day management or not, they still have a say by virtue of where they are parking their money and the profit they will be making from the Tegna stations in markets where they double up. They should not allow this deal simply based on that.
  22. DirtyHarry
    DMA only matters with cable. With cable penetration down to 50%, the OTA number is more relevant, IMO.
  23. DirtyHarry
    Well, if you believe this, potentially they have a potential pool of 850,000 viewers. I don't know how far their signal gets out in real life, so I have no way of knowing.
  24. DirtyHarry
    People have been warning them forever the cable bills were getting too high. They got too greedy and killed the golden goose. What's that Schwarzenegger line in Running Man? "You came here as Sub-Zero, now you are a zero!" That's cable.
  25. DirtyHarry
    There are only 33,000 homes or something like that in the Zanesville market. I bet their over the air population is a lot larger though. Well there you go. Economies of scale even for a small broadcaster like Marquee, with the added benefit of him having worked in Ohio so he's relatively familiar with the lay of the land.
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