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Fox buying Charlotte's WJZY/WMYT


CircleSeven

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TVNewsCheck stating within the hour that Fox has made a deal to acquire WJZY CW 46 & WMYT Channel 55 from Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting.

 

Could this be a sign that Fox will also acquire Sinclair's WLFL/WRDC in Raleigh and WRAZ ready throw in the towel on keeping its Fox affiliation for the CW? And what does longtime Fox Affiliate, Bahakel's flagship WCCB 18 has anything to say about this? Whatever it is, it is not good news at all for channel 18.

 

This will also be Fox's return to the state in almost a half a decade, after it sold WGHP 8 in High Point to Local TV, LLC.

 

EDIT 5:30pm/ET: Bahakel confirms that they will be losing its Fox affiliation once the deal closes.

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With Fox buying WJZY/WMYT in Charlotte, there three questions that needed to be asked.

 

1. Will WMYT change call letters?

2. Will WMYT have a start-up newscasts?

3. What will the future hold for WCCB and their news department?

 

1. WJZY might, but not WMYT if it remains a MyNetworkTV affiliate.

2. Probably so.

3. Chances are WCCB may go the XETV route, but crazier things have happened.

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I know one thing. The plethora of subchannels, This TV, Antenna TV, Country Network, Soul Of The South, on both channels would all be dumped once the sale closes. But I'm looking deeper. Should Fox acquires the Charlotte & Raleigh stations, Fox will no doubt pour in all their resources and start two new news ops. in both cities.

 

Earlier, I was thinking Capitol's reasoning to sell the Charlotte stations to Fox is to hope Fox doesn't yank WRAZ the Fox affiliation in Raleigh. But we still have until March 31 to see if Fox decides to buy CW station WLFL & MyNetworkTV station WRDC. If Channel 50 loses Fox for channel 22, Capitol shouldn't lose any sleep getting the CW. Hell they'll probably be a better station.

 

Again should WRAZ loses Fox, it will return to the original Fox affiliate in Triangle, while in Charlotte, Fox will be moved from the original charter affiliate to a new channel. It would be really devastating if Bahakel have to kill its news department, should they lose Fox. When Block Communications Idaho station KTRV lose Fox, they'd kept the news department for a few weeks, then they had to close that sucker down. The resources in-house might be reduced but I don't think WCCB will completely close down its news department. You can send The CW, and since CCB already have Me-TV, you can send This TV & Antenna TV to Channel 18 as well.

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Wow. Living in Charlotte, I was surprised to see that Fox was buying 46 and 55, especially with all the talk about them possibly buying stations in RDU.

And now TVNewsCheck states that Bahakel confirms that they will lose its Fox affiliation after 27 years, in awake of the announcement that Fox buying WJZY/WMYT.

This is not at all surprising. Obviously, this is very, very bad for WCCB--they had been with Fox since the network's beginning. The best option for them going forward is to seek the CW affiliation--but it doesn't take the sting out of it at all since 18 has had the top 10pm newscast for a while. Without the lead-in of Fox (which WBTV's newscast on MyTV 12 and WSOC's 10pm news on their sister station, TV64, don't have--although 64 has been the most competitive of those two), they're in big trouble ratings-wise.

Combine the new Fox station's (likely 46) expected newscast with 18, 64 and MyTV, and you have four 10pm newscasts--which means either MyTV's 10pm news (produced by WBTV) or WCCB will have to go (I can't think of any city that currently has four 10pm newscasts competing at the same time; Charlotte has trouble with three as it is). WBTV's newscast on MyTV (which moved from 46 last year) has struggled, placing 3rd in the November sweeps. Will WBTV cut its losses and just shut it down altogether after Fox takes over the station (it will definitely be cut either way) or move it to 3.2? (If they do, they'd do well to stream it online for those that have satellite and can't get 3.2)

Somehow, I don't think WCCB will cut its newscasts, at least not in the near future, but something has to give between the two of them; in the end, I think that WBTV's 10pm newscast will get the axe in the end.

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Wow. Living in Charlotte, I was surprised to see that Fox was buying 46 and 55, especially with all the talk about them possibly buying stations in RDU.

Will WBTV cut its losses and just shut it down altogether after Fox takes over the station (it will definitely be cut either way) or move it to 3.2? (If they do, they'd do well to stream it online for those that have satellite and can't get 3.2)

Somehow, I don't think WCCB will cut its newscasts, at least not in the near future, but something has to give between the two of them; in the end, I think that WBTV's 10pm newscast will get the axe in the end.

With Fox about to own 55, you can kiss the WBTV 3 newscast on MyTV goodbye. Fox will probably spend some time getting its news operations going from scratch. Once the deal gets finish, WBTV can just can that newscast. Channel 3 won't lose any sleep. And I won't think they would place its 10pm newscast on 3.2 (pre-empting a movie airing on Bounce (WSFA does this practice on its 9pm newscast)). The big watch now is if Fox will go two in a row acquiring Sinclair's WLFL/WRDC. That would be a real big power house in the state.

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I actually think WCCB will do relatively fine with the presumed CW affiliation; their news brand is fairly strong and as long as they keep that it could work.

Disagree. Without Fox programming to sell to advertisers (especially Panthers football and NASCAR), I don't see the news department lasting very long.

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I think WCCB will become a more news-intensive station (with a CW affiliation) which they will either do KRON-style or like Tribune does with their CW stations.

 

Since building a news department is going to take some time (and may require more space than WJZY/WMYT has)....WCCB will have the advantage, for now...

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I think WCCB will become a more news-intensive station (with a CW affiliation) which they will either do KRON-style or like Tribune does with their CW stations.

Doubt it. The market isn't big enough to support something like this. A station in a higher market like SF (KRON) or LA (KCAL) can probably pull it off, but not WCCB.
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This brings the number of FOX properties in Charlotte up to three with them also owning SPEED Channel off of W.T. Harris BLVD here in Charlotte. WJZY/WMYT does have studio space on the other side of 485 in West Charlotte off of Performance road.

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The Charlotte Observer made a follow-up article today, including listing WCCB options, including becoming an affiliate of an Hispanic network (there's no hispanic OTA network in Charlotte).

 

I just thought about this too. The CW may not give the CW to WCCB, even though this could be likely. Who would think that the CW could be on the Cox-owned indy station WAXN TV 64?

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Not superfamiliar with Charlotte, but what are the chances WCCB could take the NBC affiliation away from WCNC? (And WCNC ending up with CW affiliation)

A very slim chance of WCCB take NBC affiliation from WCNC
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