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FCC Approves Sales of Allbritton to Sinclair


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I wonder how they are doing this, especially in Charleston, with ABC since HSH was to have nothing to do with Sinclair's operations?

The WCFT, WJSU and WMMP (formerly WCIV) licenses are still held by Sinclair. They are basically in limbo right now pending the FCC's ruling on the applications.

 

As to why they left ABC on WMMP (formerly WCIV) for an extra week...IDK...your guess is as good as mine.

 

But we're past the date that they were supposed to surrender the licenses, and they're still broadcasting? Did the FCC approve this or are they still broadcasting without a license?

From the "Description of Transaction" attachment submitted with the application(s): "Given the requirement for a thirty day public notice period prior to Commission action on assignment applications, it is not possible for the Commission to grant this application prior to the September 29, 2014 Surrender Date. Accordingly, HSH Birmingham and STG respectfully request that the Commission issue an Order deferring the date upon which STG must surrender the license for the Station so as to permit consideration of this application. If the Commission does not timely indicate its consent to deferral of the Surrender Date pending action on the instant application, STG will be required to surrender the licenses for the Station on or before the Surrender Date as set forth in the Order. In order to permit a thoughtful review of the public interest benefits of this application, therefore, the parties urgently request that the Commission give its consent to the deferral of the Surrender Date until the earlier of ten (10) business days after the Commission has finally acted on this application or the consummation of the transactions contemplated by this application." This request was made with all three applications.

 

In addition, "STG notified Commission staff on September 29, 2014 that it had reached an agreement with HSH Birmingham to sell to HSH Birmingham the WJSU license and transmission equipment and that this assignment application would be promptly filed by the parties even though it would be outside the Surrender Date." So, even though the WJSU application was submitted after the surrender date the FCC was notified prior to Sinclair being forced to surrender the license.

 

I think it's safe to assume at this point the FCC has deferred the "Surrender Date" for the three licenses pending their ruling on the assignment applications. It likely indefinite. In other words, if they deny the applications the license will be surrendered at that time (or, shortly thereafter.) And, Sinclair likely didn't want to take them silent as that would start the one year clock towards having the license cancelled. So, they now sit in limbo running "filler" programming until there fate is ruled upon by the FCC.

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Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. But NewsChannel 8 in DC will be hosting its first "Town Hall". They did broadcast the Ferguson race relations town hall a few months ago, but that was hosted at WBFF.

 

The topic this time is "The New Terror Threat"

 

 

 

ABC7/NewsChannel 8 is holding a live town hall meeting on Thursday, October 16th to address the new terror threats in the world today. The televised town hall will include an expert panel and live audience for an all-sides, interactive discussion of the current terror threat, U.S. military action, DC politics, Homeland security, Middle East tensions and ISIL.

 

http://www.wjla.com/contests/townhall

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Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. But NewsChannel 8 in DC will be hosting its first "Town Hall". They did broadcast the Ferguson race relations town hall a few months ago, but that was hosted at WBFF.

 

The topic this time is "The New Terror Threat"

Oddly WBFF, it two siblings and each of their off springs could not find the time to broadcast that town hall or will they broadcast this one.

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bill Lord eventually recruiting Gordon back to W*USA... not as an anchor, but as a commentator and analyst.

 

Well it sounds like he doesn't want to retire from TV completely, so WUSA and Bill Lord would be foolish to not try to get him back from WJLA.

 

So the real challenge begins for WJLA, Gordon and Maureen were the main reasons people switched from WUSA to WJLA. Now WJLA has to give people a reason to stay tuned, especially if Gordon does move to another station in town.

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Speaking of WJLA, I noticed that the graphic package for the weather is looking a little different. Looks like they're using the same fonts that the new Sinclair package uses. The ticker now also uses the same font.

 

http://www.wjla.com/weather/maps/featured/

It's definitely the Dinot font.

 

Sad thing is, if you look carefully, the pre-2013 glossy ABC logo is clearly still being used.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

 

The FCC greenlighted the sale of three stations (WCFT, WJSU & WMMP) to HSH today.

 

ABC 33/40 is now on the .2 channel of WJSU now. Not sure why it is on there, since the way I understood it, Sinclair wasn't supposed to have anything to do with WJSU anymore. That puts ABC 33/40 back to having good coverage of east Alabama if it stays on.
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  • 2 weeks later...

The station identification for ABC 33/40 now says:

 

"WBMA-LD 58.1 Birmingham, WABM-DT 68.2 Birmingham, WDBB-DT 17.2 Bessemer, WJSU-DT 40.2 Anniston"

 

So it must officially be on 40.2 for East Alabama now. Will be interesting to see what they do with WCFT, and WJSU 40.1

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I'm having trouble getting the "quote" feature to work. But, with regard to WBMA-LD (ABC 33/40) simulcasting on the .2 of WJSU it doesn't mean Sinclair has anything to do with WJSU. WJSU is simply simulcasting programming from another (non co-owned) licensee/station in the market on a multicast stream. It's the same thing as WWOR simulcasting WPXO-LD on a multicast stream. Fox has no operational control over WPXO-LD. Likewise, Sinclair has no operational control over WJSU. However, given the "cozy" relationship between HSH and Sinclair I can see how this would raise some eyebrows.

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  • 1 month later...

It just so happens that the WGWG callsign was formerly used on Chicago's 87.7FM/Analog 6 when Tribune managed the station. It was just a couple of weeks since Weigel took over and changed the calls to WRME.

 

So today WMMP became WGWG. But guess what y'all? The other two stations in Alabama ALSO have new calls!!!!

 

WCFT is now WSES. And WJSU is now WGWW.

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It just so happens that the WGWG callsign was formerly used on Chicago's 87.7FM/Analog 6 when Tribune managed the station. It was just a couple of weeks since Weigel took over and changed the calls to WRME.

 

So today WMMP became WGWG. But guess what y'all? The other two stations in Alabama ALSO have new calls!!!!

 

WCFT is now WSES. And WJSU is now WGWW.

 

 

I think I figured out what the GWG of WGWG and GW of WGWW mean. They are the initials of Graham Williams Group, the consulting company that Armstrong Williams runs.

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://foxcharleston.com/

They redid their website using WordPress which none of the other Sinclair stations use. I know they are supposed to be unraveling their LMA with Sinclair so I wonder if this is a sign of things to come...

 

Also note the "Top 4 News Headlines" thing. I wonder if they may be switching to WCIV for news in the near future. Hmm...

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http://foxcharleston.com/

They redid their website using WordPress which none of the other Sinclair stations use. I know they are supposed to be unraveling their LMA with Sinclair so I wonder if this is a sign of things to come...

 

Also note the "Top 4 News Headlines" thing. I wonder if they may be switching to WCIV for news in the near future. Hmm...

 

I doubt it. They have had strong relationship with WCSC since the early 90s. If anything, perhaps a stand-alone news operation; highly doubtful for WCIV to produce their news, but who knows.
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I doubt it. They have had strong relationship with WCSC since the early 90s. If anything, perhaps a stand-alone news operation; highly doubtful for WCIV to produce their news, but who knows.

Despite the unwinding of the LMA, Cunningham still has strong ties with Sinclair, and with Sinclair finally having a news outlet in Charleston, I would expect the production of WTAT's newscasts to be moved to WCIV.

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