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Sinclair...Again


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DEVELOPING FIRST ON TVNT: Looks like Sinclair is looking to make changes at WACH. Both their main anchors, Darryl Hood and Bree Boyce, have apparently been sacked. Boyce, you'll probably remember, is the former beauty queen hired 100% off her looks with zero journalism experience whatsoever. But she was hired under Barrington and it looks like Sinclair wants to bring in somebody who does have news experience. Boyce posted this to Twitter today:

brd6.png

Her bio has been stripped from wach.com and it had to have been this week, because just a couple days ago she was still filing stories for WACH. Darryl Hood last posted to Twitter July 1, so his depature also had to have happened this week. His bio is gone as well. This looks interesting to say the least and now I'm starting to wonder what changes Sinclair plans on making. Also makes you wonder whether they have similar plans at WNWO. I can already sense Jim Blue leaving WNWO, since they demoted him from ND. Guess we'll have to wait and see...

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DEVELOPING FIRST ON TVNT: Looks like Sinclair is looking to make changes at WACH. Both their main anchors' date=' Darryl Hood and Bree Boyce, have apparently been sacked. Boyce, you'll probably remember, is the former beauty queen hired 100% off her looks with zero journalism experience whatsoever. But she was hired under Barrington and it looks like Sinclair wants to bring in somebody who does have news experience. Boyce posted this to Twitter today:

brd6.png

Her bio has been stripped from wach.com and it had to have been this week, because just a couple days ago she was still filing stories for WACH. Darryl Hood last posted to Twitter July 1, so his depature also had to have happened this week. His bio is gone as well. This looks interesting to say the least and now I'm starting to wonder what changes Sinclair plans on making. Also makes you wonder whether they have similar plans at WNWO. I can already sense Jim Blue leaving WNWO, since they demoted him from ND. Guess we'll have to wait and see...

I can see them making significant changes. WACH has been trying to make waves since breaking their news division from WIS (the market leader). They really have only WOLO to contend with (that station has never been a threat to anyone). It, along with Sinclair's stations in Charleston, Greenville-Asheville, and Myrtle Beach would make a perfect Carolina News Network which could be centered in Columbia at WACH. All except for WACH are ABC affiliates (unless by some means Sinclait swipes that affiliation from WOLO).

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We all missed this gem of a guest post to Broadcasting and Cable from Armstrong Williams:

 

This is one of the reasons why my company, Howard Stirk Holdings, LLC (HSH), has sued the FCC. As an African American licensee of two television stations, I believe that by refusing to complete its 2010 quadrennial review, the FCC has unlawfully withheld taking an action required by Congress and the law, and thus is arbitrarily and capriciously retaining burdensome regulations that are no longer in the public interest.

Also, Beverly Rogers says KSNV isn't for sale, according to FTVLive. She's already set up an office at the station.

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We all missed this gem of a guest post to Broadcasting and Cable from Armstrong Williams:

I saw this over the weekend. He's just going to continue to fight on and defend them. And since Williams is an entrepreneur, I don't see any issue for him to buy TV stations under his own stewardship? Or if he wants some help in operating it, why not ask DuJuan McCoy? He owned some stations back then. Why ask those fools for help and all they want to do is to get as big to the point where they're "too big to fail", like Clear Channel.

 

Also, Beverly Rogers says KSNV isn't for sale, according to FTVLive. She's already set up an office at the station.

YES!!! GOOD FOR HER!!!! Although I have a feeling this might not be long term, I'm hoping she stays on as owner in the months and (maybe) years to come.

____________________

 

Alrighty, y'all know that countdown is still on with that Outside Date with the Allbritton deal, which is 20 days away.

 

They have to get an FCC greenlight by July 25, which is the last Friday of that week, because the 27th (the outside date) is on a Sunday. In past deals (Cox & Fisher deals) has closed deals one day after getting the FCC greenlight. So if they do get an approval on the the 25th, hopefully they'll have a weekend close. I'm not sure if I remember a deal being close on the weekends before. I dunno, they might see the greenlight before than. But let's remember the FCC only runs Monday through Friday, so they really have 14 business days to go, starting tomorrow. And they still have to get some notification from the Department of Justice before getting the FCC greenlight.

 

Will this deal finally reach its end? We shall see. But I'd rather see the FCC do absolutely nothing and let it sit past the outside date, and let Allbritton walk away. That's what I would love to see. It's been sat this long, why not three more weeks?

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We all missed this gem of a guest post to Broadcasting and Cable from Armstrong Williams:

 

 

My favorite bit:

 

Without the help of the JSAs my company has entered into with Sinclair Television Group, I would not have been able to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a TV station owner. These agreements allowed me to obtain access to capital that would have otherwise been unavailable to me. Access to capital and financing are without question the single biggest obstacles to new entrant and minority broadcast ownership. Single buyers of a TV station, especially in small and medium size markets where HSH operates, simply cannot get financing without JSAs and similar types of shared services agreements. In my experience, JSAs and shared services arrangements provided the only means over that obstacle, and are thus a critical avenue for addressing the FCC’s goals of serving the public interest in fostering competition, diversity, local programming, and minority ownership. So, you can imagine how hollow it sounds to me when the FCC says its action banning JSAs is designed to “enhance broadcast diversity and minority ownership.”

 

Because owning a station and letting another station group already existing in the market run everything else fosters "competition, diversity, local programming, and minority ownership".

 

Sorry Armstrong but your whole editorial sounds hollow to me.

 

That being said, what is holding up the Allbritton deal from closing?

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Regarding Armstrong Williams's post, he says the Gannett-Belo and Tribune-Local TV deals passed with JSA's. Did he forget that Gannett had to sell off a couple assets to complete the deal? The only conflicts remaining were for newspapers (another issue altogether), not other TV stations in the markets.

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Regarding Armstrong Williams's post, he says the Gannett-Belo and Tribune-Local TV deals passed with JSA's. Did he forget that Gannett had to sell off a couple assets to complete the deal? The only conflicts remaining were for newspapers (another issue altogether), not other TV stations in the markets.

 

Yeah but if he pointed that out, then his whole editorial falls apart.

 

Because you're right, that was the key difference. If Sinclair wasn't so stubborn and just sold off WCIV, WHTM and the Alabama ABC affiliates, then they'd probably have WJLA and Newschannel 8 by now. Which was the only reason Sinclair was interested in Allbritton in the first place.

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At the rate the Allbritton deal is going it won't go through, so I'm hoping it doesn't.

 

If it doesn't go through I totally see them suing the FCC for wrongfully obstructing the deal. Especially since the final version, while not perfect, does meet the letter of the law.

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If it doesn't go through I totally see them suing the FCC for wrongfully obstructing the deal. Especially since the final version, while not perfect, does meet the letter of the law.

 

And if they file suit, let them. That's just more money out of their pockets. They already spent $3B in their M&A fund in the last three years.

 

Schurz & Weigel didn't file a lawsuit against the FCC because they didn't approved the two other apps relating to the deal to acquire the 3 LPs in South Bend over five years ago.

 

And anyway, if they let it sit (and I wish they do for the next 14 business days), then Allbritton can finally call off the sale and find a buyer for all those stations, and no stations would have to be shut down. Hearst was basically the second contender. And they've been very silent through all of three years in this M&A craze. They can easily grab the stations and MG could still acquire WHTM, since that would be Hearst only divestiture. KATV & KTUL would fit like a glove for Hearst.

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Schurz and Weigel weren't addled with delusions of grandeur, though.

 

All of the non-WJLA stations do fit into a nice cluster for Hearst. KATV, KTUL and WCIV would have same-state sisters, and Birmingham and Roanoke fit into that Southeast area as well.

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YES!!! GOOD FOR HER!!!! Although I have a feeling this might not be long term, I'm hoping she stays on as owner in the months and (maybe) years to come.

____________________

 

 

 

She's always had an office at the station.

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Also in the editorial, he also forgets the LIN-Media General deal, which is a very complicated one, involves them not even trying to hold onto the conflict stations?

 

Not to mention that they haven't even found buyers yet for the divested stations.

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Good for Beverly that KSNV isn't up for sale. I honestly wonder if KSNV is still going to have an all-news format or if they will put some syndies back on 3.

I'd also wonder if they met with Sinclair to run it under an LMA?
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KMPH is under some scrutiny with Politifact over a story they ran about ER wait times in California:

 

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jul/08/reince-priebus/rnc-chair-reince-priebus-thanks-barack-obama-five-/

 

"If you have to go to an emergency room get ready to wait more than five hours," says the Web version of the KMPH report. "Right now, that is the average wait in the state of California. Health experts say you can blame Obamacare and Covered California for that long wait and they say it's only going to get worse. One of the promised benefits of the Affordable Care Act was to reduce the pressure on emergency rooms by expanding Medicaid and giving the poor better access to primary care. But instead, a survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians suggests something else. The organization says President Obama's health care reform actually has had a destructive effect on the nation's emergency rooms." (The version that aired is archived here.)

But when we took a closer look, we found several problems -- including that the alleged 5-hour wait time was measured before the health care law took effect.

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All of the non-WJLA stations do fit into a nice cluster for Hearst. KATV, KTUL and WCIV would have same-state sisters, and Birmingham and Roanoke fit into that Southeast area as well.

 

WJLA would fit pretty well with Hearst with WBAL and WGAL nearby and WTAE a bit farther away. It's not like the list of suitors to take just WJLA/NC8 is that long.

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New application in Broadcast Applications is a TOC of WTAT-TV from Feddora, Inc., to Charleston (WTAT-TV), LLC. That first company is correctly spelled.

 

Not that it really means anything since it is a pro forma reorganization. But the FCC greenlighted the reassignment of WTAT today.

 

They still have 11 business days to get the FCC greenlight on its big Allbritton prize.

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Not that it really means anything since it is a pro forma reorganization. But the FCC greenlighted the reassignment of WTAT today.

 

They still have 11 business days to get the FCC greenlight on its big Allbritton prize.

 

Circle Seven do you think Sinclair will get WJLA? It seems like the Smith Bros will wait until the 11th hour swooping in with a deal? What your take?

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Circle Seven do you think Sinclair will get WJLA? It seems like the Smith Bros will wait until the 11th hour swooping in with a deal? What your take?

 

The problem is that the Commission needs to approve this deal, which has not happened of yet.

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I wonder what is the hold-up. Is the commission purposely dragging its feet, or is there something else a-foot?

 

Sinclair will probably think the latter. If the Outside Date approaches I fully expect a lawsuit to be filed.

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