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Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion


Smitha A

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Sinclair is bringing the "#LiveOnKOMO" hashtag groupwide. Although all the Fisher stations already used the "#LiveOnStation" hashtag some legacy Sinclair stations are now starting to.

 

Examples:

WBFF: "#LiveOnFox45"

KABB: "#LiveOnFoxSanAntonio"

WKRC: "#LiveOnLocal12"

 

And the list goes on. I have no idea why Sinclair loves the hashtag, but hey, to each their own right?

With their attempts at hubbing things in the past I wouldn't be surprised if there was an intern up in Hunt Valley that has permission to see the rundowns at each station who has the keys to the metaphorical car. Keeping on the hubbing trend it could be used to streamline graphics so the artist picks the best example and makes the graphic.

 

Another option is that they use a social media manager or a program that takes in all the various feeds and the hashtags. So for each hashtag #LiveOnFox45 would have their own column of responses.

 

As for the #LiveOnFox45 they must if switched over because last week they were encouraging use of #FoxBaltimore or #Fox45QoD (Question of the day).

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Yeah I notice WRC only flies mainly within Virginia and sometimes Maryland. It's like a waste because most of the footage isn't relevant. So in DC, if they want aerial views they're forced to do what small market stations do, use the towercam. Or sometimes the masts on the live van have a camera at the top that can get "high-up" views.

 

I wonder if they can start using drones to do this kind of stuff. I found a cheap dash cam that records at 1080i and installed it just for fun. It ain't bad.

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Sinclair is bringing the "#LiveOnKOMO" hashtag groupwide. Although all the Fisher stations already used the "#LiveOnStation" hashtag some legacy Sinclair stations are now starting to.

 

Examples:

WBFF: "#LiveOnFox45"

KABB: "#LiveOnFoxSanAntonio"

WKRC: "#LiveOnLocal12"

 

And the list goes on. I have no idea why Sinclair loves the hashtag, but hey, to each their own right?

As long as hashtags aren't incorporated into the graphics (see KALA-TV as a prime offender) then it's not that big a deal. More of a viral marketing effort than anything else as well as to help with search efforts on Twitter.

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Taking this in another direction...

 

Watching the riots, I've been switching through three stations. KSDK, who is erratic with the live streams, KTVI/KPLR, which crashes my iPhone and fails to work half the time, and KMOV, which employs one of the biggest counts* market #4 has ever had as their lead anchor. I would like a legitimate fourth choice.

 

What's going on at KDNL is an absolute disgrace. There is a civil emergency going on in that market right now, and one of the big four affiliates is simply unable to cover it for arbitrary budgetary reasons.

 

If Sinclair is committed to news on its stations, if Sinclair is buying up stations left and right, there is no reason whatsoever that its ABC station in Market 21 should not have a news department. I'd prefer Sinclair build a news department instead of losing the affiliation, because the station it would go to would be KPLR and we'd still only have three voices.

 

*Taken from my absolute favorite Roger Grimsby quote. When asked what his most embarrassing moment on television is, his response: "Easy. I mispronounced 'count'."

 

Those familiar with curse words will get it. Roger's absolute deadpan makes it funnier.

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Taking this in another direction...

 

Watching the riots, I've been switching through three stations. KSDK, who is erratic with the live streams, KTVI/KPLR, which crashes my iPhone and fails to work half the time, and KMOV, which employs one of the biggest counts* market #4 has ever had as their lead anchor. I would like a legitimate fourth choice.

 

What's going on at KDNL is an absolute disgrace. There is a civil emergency going on in that market right now, and one of the big four affiliates is simply unable to cover it for arbitrary budgetary reasons.

 

If Sinclair is committed to news on its stations, if Sinclair is buying up stations left and right, there is no reason whatsoever that its ABC station in Market 21 should not have a news department. I'd prefer Sinclair build a news department instead of losing the affiliation, because the station it would go to would be KPLR and we'd still only have three voices.

 

*Taken from my absolute favorite Roger Grimsby quote. When asked what his most embarrassing moment on television is, his response: "Easy. I mispronounced 'count'."

 

I agree with you 100%. This is without any doubt going to make ABC put more pressure on Sinclair to establish some news presence on KDNL and get them to finally stop dragging their feet.

 

This has got to be embarrassing for both ABC and Sinclair. But at least ABC has a national reporter stationed in Ferguson for this story.

 

BTW: Not a fan of Sharon Reed huh? ;)

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Nope. At WCAU she always had this sort of condescending attitude that was off-putting. Especially when she was doing mornings. She went out, like many Philadelphia newscasters do, in a complete blaze of stupid. She threatened a reporter electronically with the words "you ever been in a street fight, bitch"?

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As long as hashtags aren't incorporated into the graphics (see KALA-TV as a prime offender) then it's not that big a deal. More of a viral marketing effort than anything else as well as to help with search efforts on Twitter.

 

Im going to to further to as as long as the twitter logo never appears in a chyron I will be just fine. If you must put out a reporters or the stations twitter handle just do @rkolsen. There is a reason chyrons are designed for text only. I know this is the Sinclair thread but I look at other Hearst Stations (WBAL seems to be the lone exception), NBC's Look F, the CBS and Fox packages all look much better without the damn bird. Hell even WJZ's jerry rigged graphics look much better with out the twitter icon. A lot of those stations have a dark blue but let's keep the Twitter blue on for Easter eggs.

 

I must be having a stroke I complimented WJZ graphics. OK time to think F.A.S.T.

 

F for face - okay

A for arm weakness - okay

S for speech - okay

T for time - got plenty of it.

 

Back to my point the people that would follows your page would follow you anyway if you were any good.

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Nope. At WCAU she always had this sort of condescending attitude that was off-putting. Especially when she was doing mornings. She went out, like many Philadelphia newscasters do, in a complete blaze of stupid. She threatened a reporter electronically with the words "you ever been in a street fight, bitch"?

Sharon Reed was an embarrassment to Cleveland television news. She was only hired by Bill Applegate because of her outrageous persona - the WCAU flameout was pretty much a resume enhancement** - and was best known for her "Body of Art" sweeps stunt.

 

When WOIO finally 'fired' Reed (the Plain Dealer infamously spiked a plausible rumor - which somehow got published on their own website - as to why) the station became 100% more watchable. Plus WOIO hired away the very respectable Romona Robinson from WKYC to replace Sharon, and WKYC shockingly was able to lure away Russ Mitchell from CBS to replace Romona.

 

So it effectively became a trade of Russ Mitchell for Sharon Reed. And that's a hell of a trade.

 

**If you think I'm kidding, look at Catherine Bosley and Chuck Galeti as other public rehabilitation projects that Applegate initiated. But at least those two had some likable qualities.

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Taking this in another direction...

 

Watching the riots, I've been switching through three stations. KSDK, who is erratic with the live streams, KTVI/KPLR, which crashes my iPhone and fails to work half the time, and KMOV, which employs one of the biggest counts* market #4 has ever had as their lead anchor. I would like a legitimate fourth choice.

 

What's going on at KDNL is an absolute disgrace. There is a civil emergency going on in that market right now, and one of the big four affiliates is simply unable to cover it for arbitrary budgetary reasons.

 

If Sinclair is committed to news on its stations, if Sinclair is buying up stations left and right, there is no reason whatsoever that its ABC station in Market 21 should not have a news department. I'd prefer Sinclair build a news department instead of losing the affiliation, because the station it would go to would be KPLR and we'd still only have three voices.

 

*Taken from my absolute favorite Roger Grimsby quote. When asked what his most embarrassing moment on television is, his response: "Easy. I mispronounced 'count'."

 

Those familiar with curse words will get it. Roger's absolute deadpan makes it funnier.

 

 

It finally dawned on me....but you beat me to it.

 

There's got to be more to the story on why KDNL is dragging their feet with restarting news. The ABC affiliation is up next year, and the way Tribune swooped in and swiped CBS from WISH, it makes total sense to do the same thing with KPLR. Sinclair could be just dragging out the inevitable while the cards are in their hand. KDNL is far better suited to be a CW / MyNetworkTV or independent station than it is with ABC.

 

Now the question would be, IF KDNL was actually covering this story, how would it be covered? The cavalcade from Baltimore could come in to do one of their "Town Hall" meetings...

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It finally dawned on me....but you beat me to it.

 

There's got to be more to the story on why KDNL is dragging their feet with restarting news. The ABC affiliation is up next year, and the way Tribune swooped in and swiped CBS from WISH, it makes total sense to do the same thing with KPLR. Sinclair could be just dragging out the inevitable while the cards are in their hand. KDNL is far better suited to be a CW / MyNetworkTV or independent station than it is with ABC.

 

Now the question would be, IF KDNL was actually covering this story, how would it be covered? The cavalcade from Baltimore could come in to do one of their "Town Hall" meetings...

Oddly enough. KMOV did a Town Hall special last week on race relations in St. Louis.

 

But it would certainly give Sinclair more content to provide to their affiliates instead of the standard CNN and network feeds. Gannett has shared a lot of the content from KSDK with their other affiliates as well as Meredith with KMOV. Last nights newscast on KCTV in Kansas City was basically a simulcast of KMOV.

 

As far as KDNL is concerned, there were rumors that they were restarting their news operations but I haven't heard anything since then and there aren't any job openings for KDNL on their website anymore.

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Oddly enough. KMOV did a Town Hall special last week on race relations in St. Louis.

 

But it would certainly give Sinclair more content to provide to their affiliates instead of the standard CNN and network feeds. Gannett has shared a lot of the content from KSDK with their other affiliates as well as Meredith with KMOV. Last nights newscast on KCTV in Kansas City was basically a simulcast of KMOV.

 

As far as KDNL is concerned, there were rumors that they were restarting their news operations but I haven't heard anything since then and there aren't any job openings for KDNL on their website anymore.

 

I believe KSDK had called in sister stations to assist as well; I know they called in Faith Abubey from WFMY at least. Not sure if KPLR/KTVI has called up from other Tribune stations, although WGN isn't too far away.

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I believe KSDK had called in sister stations to assist as well; I know they called in Faith Abubey from WFMY at least. Not sure if KPLR/KTVI has called up from other Tribune stations, although WGN isn't too far away.

I did see a WGN satellite truck in the background on one of the newscasts I watched.

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Now the question would be, IF KDNL was actually covering this story, how would it be covered? The cavalcade from Baltimore could come in to do one of their "Town Hall" meetings...

I've never seen one of their "Town Halls" locally despite being from Baltimore. If I recall didn't Mark Hyman moderate political debates for them? Here only their primetime anchors moderate debates it's sometimes Jeff Barnd but usually Melissa Gilbert. I do think some democrat politicians may object to Jeff Barnd hosting because Sinclair used him for political robocalls or political polling for republican causes (several of the questions had negative connotations.)

It finally dawned on me....but you beat me to it.

 

There's got to be more to the story on why KDNL is dragging their feet with restarting news. The ABC affiliation is up next year, and the way Tribune swooped in and swiped CBS from WISH, it makes total sense to do the same thing with KPLR. Sinclair could be just dragging out the inevitable while the cards are in their hand. KDNL is far better suited to be a CW / MyNetworkTV or independent station than it is with ABC.

I'm surprised they haven't done it before. I know NBC affiliate agreements make them air a newscast before Today, Nightly News, and their late night hours. I was looking at WJLA's ABC affiliation agreement requires them to air a minimum of a half hour before Good Morning America, ABC World News and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

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I've never seen one of their "Town Halls" locally despite being from Baltimore. If I recall didn't Mark Hyman moderate political debates for them? Here only their primetime anchors moderate debates it's sometimes Jeff Barnd but usually Melissa Gilbert. I do think some democrat politicians may object to Jeff Barnd hosting because Sinclair used him for political robocalls or political polling for republican causes (several of the questions had negative connotations.)

 

I'm surprised they haven't done it before. I know NBC affiliate agreements make them air a newscast before Today, Nightly News, and their late night hours. I was looking at WJLA's ABC affiliation agreement requires them to air a minimum of a half hour before Good Morning America, ABC World News and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

 

You are from Baltimore, how is Jeff Barnd? Is he political? if he is, I'd be turned off by him. I remember him at WLVI up here in Boston, a decent anchor. He suddenly left WLVI 12/13 years ago and saw a clip of him back a decade ago with that John Kerry special the Sinclair stations pushed. Then I started to put two and two together, but I shouldn't be so judgmental.

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You are from Baltimore, how is Jeff Barnd? Is he political? if he is, I'd be turned off by him. I remember him at WLVI up here in Boston, a decent anchor. He suddenly left WLVI 12/13 years ago and saw a clip of him back a decade ago with that John Kerry special the Sinclair stations pushed. Then I started to put two and two together, but I shouldn't be so judgmental.

He stays neutral which is difficult being at Sinclair which used him to record robocalls and political polling. Because of his position he has more likely required to do the recordings rather than him going out and doing it on his own (I don't believe a reporter that has ethical standards would volunteer to do robocalls or polling). Most political polls are written in a way that is to be considered neutral so it does not sway the response but some of the questions seemed to be one sided.

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I've never seen one of their "Town Halls" locally despite being from Baltimore. If I recall didn't Mark Hyman moderate political debates for them? Here only their primetime anchors moderate debates it's sometimes Jeff Barnd but usually Melissa Gilbert. I do think some democrat politicians may object to Jeff Barnd hosting because Sinclair used him for political robocalls or political polling for republican causes (several of the questions had negative connotations.)

 

I'm surprised they haven't done it before. I know NBC affiliate agreements make them air a newscast before Today, Nightly News, and their late night hours. I was looking at WJLA's ABC affiliation agreement requires them to air a minimum of a half hour before Good Morning America, ABC World News and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

I think ABC did that with Sinclair too because shortly after they renewed the affiliation contract, KDNL formed a news partnership with KSDK. Similar thing happened when WXLV formed a news partnership with TWC News.

 

Sinclair is probably trying to find a way to do the bare minimum at the lowest cost just so they can keep the affiliation.

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Found the ABC affiliation agreement for all the Sinclair ABC station when it was renewed back in 2010 including KDNL: (unfornately they did a bad job scanning it because it hurt my eyes trying to read it):

 

https://stations.fcc.gov/collect/files/56524/Ownership%20Reports/Contracts%20and%20Agreements/Affiliation%20Agreements/ABC%20Affiliation%20Agreement%20(14062346339380).pdf

 

It gave them the same news requirements it gave WJLA but did grant KDNL and WXLV an exception to meet that requirement by a certain date which both station eventually did do (KDNL did with KSDK and WXLV with its partnership with News 14 Carolina).

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Sinclair names new GMs in Washington and Columbus

Looks like Doug Gealy isn't going to be the GM in Washington which is a total shock. They're moving Dan Mellon, the GM at WSYX and WTTE in Columbus to replace Bill Lord at WJLA in Washington.

 

Tony D'Angelo has been promoted to GM at WSYX/WTTE. He is currently the director of sales there.

 

Press Release:http://www.sbgi.net/site_mgr/temp/Mellon%20and%20D%27Angelo.pdf

 

(also as a side note I didn't know Steve Marks was based in Tampa, I thought he was in Baltimore like everyone else)

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Sinclair's hiring practices seem to be a little unorthodox. An ND wanted to hire me, but a regional Sinclair VP has to be consulted on all new hires. So, essentially, a news director accepts reels, combs through and creates a top ten list, and submits those ten reels to the VP, who will narrow it down and prioritize the candidates in which order he thinks they place, number 1 being who he wants hired. The ND must hire who the VP says, not who the ND recommends. It's so strange. In my case, ND wanted to hire me, but VP said "no, he is top three, he places third behind two others."

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I was watching WBFF's weather forecast and they showed the radar with how heavy the rain is. Now normally television stations show a range of colors of how light - heavy the rain or precipitation is expected to be (WMAR and WJZ always show the key, WBAL only shows it if theirs a hurricane or snow). But today I noticed WBFF did something completely different they only showed five colors signifying how heavy the rain is supposed to be. Normally I don't notice the key because I know what the colors mean and how to interpret that map but I must say I found WBFF's approach refreshing which made the map much easier to read. I also imagine the colors are much easier if to determine how heavy the precipitation is falling if you are color blind.

 

Now I must say if you want the simplest map to read you should watch BBC Weathers forecast where precipitation is blue where the heavier the precipitation is expected the darker the blue is.

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Sinclair names new GMs in Washington and Columbus

Looks like Doug Gealy isn't going to be the GM in Washington which is a total shock. They're moving Dan Mellon, the GM at WSYX and WTTE in Columbus to replace Bill Lord at WJLA in Washington.

 

Tony D'Angelo has been promoted to GM at WSYX/WTTE. He is currently the director of sales there.

 

Press Release:http://www.sbgi.net/site_mgr/temp/Mellon%20and%20D%27Angelo.pdf

 

(also as a side note I didn't know Steve Marks was based in Tampa, I thought he was in Baltimore like everyone else)

 

I believe he is the son of legendary (around here) WBNS-TV GM Gene D'Angelo and brother of actress Beverly D'Angelo.

 

Gene D'Angelo was at WTVN radio in the 1960's before WBNS hired him so this is kind of like history repeating itself maybe?

 

P.S. Whatever happened to John Quigley (the first GM at WTTE)

 

EDIT: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/05/priscilla-dangelo-obit-selfless-wife-mother-a-great-lady.html

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