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Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion


Smitha A

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Of the Big 4 Networks, ABC is the most disadvantaged. Mostly because it is co-owned with ESPN, which has virtually stripped away any sports from ABC (even the brand itself), save for some marquee college football games, the NBA and Finals, and the Indy 500. The ratings suck for primetime programming, and Disney is dwarfed in size by FOX, CBS and Comcast (NBC).

 

As for Sinclair's ABC stations, many legacy ones they own like WCHS in Charleston, WEAR in Pensacola and WLOS in Asheville literally OWN the portions of the market they serve, leaving the competition to fight out the main part of the market amongst themselves. WSYX (and maybe WKEF) do well since Ohio State's games end up on ABC instead of ESPN most of the time

 

As for KDNL, they have to be making some kind of profit. As bush-league as they are, and what little effort they put into themselves, they're still there and ABC hasn't been wooed elsewhere. Now if it were a CBS of a FOX station, KDNL or KTVI would have certainly snatched up the affiliation by now.

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As for KDNL, they have to be making some kind of profit. As bush-league as they are, and what little effort they put into themselves, they're still there and ABC hasn't been wooed elsewhere. Now if it were a CBS of a FOX station, KDNL or KTVI would have certainly snatched up the affiliation by now.

 

I'm guessing Sinclair had to sell a lot of ad time to keep KDNL afloat despite not having a news operation.

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As for Sinclair's ABC stations, many legacy ones they own like WCHS in Charleston, WEAR in Pensacola and WLOS in Asheville literally OWN the portions of the market they serve, leaving the competition to fight out the main part of the market amongst themselves. WSYX (and maybe WKEF) do well since Ohio State's games end up on ABC instead of ESPN most of the time

 

And what do all those stations have in common?

 

Ashville (WLOS) is 54 miles from Greenville;

Charleston (WCHS) is 52 miles from Huntington; and

Pensacola (WEAR) is 58 miles from Mobile.

 

It seems as though you can very easily dominate your portion of these split markets where you can just focus on your part of the market. This is a great little nugget of knowledge that never occurred to me before.

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And what do all those stations have in common?

 

Ashville (WLOS) is 54 miles from Greenville;

Charleston (WCHS) is 52 miles from Huntington; and

Pensacola (WEAR) is 58 miles from Mobile.

 

It seems as though you can very easily dominate your portion of these split markets where you can just focus on your part of the market. This is a great little nugget of knowledge that never occurred to me before.

 

Sinclair has taken great advantage of the split-market game. This is exactly the case with these stations and the markets they serve.

 

WLOS is 3rd in the market and is the ONLY station based out of Western North Carolina, and its distance from Greenville and Spartanburg perpetuates this.

WCHS owns Charleston, but plays a distant second to long-dominant WSAZ out of Huntington.

WEAR is 3rd overall, and could give a hoot about anything west of Mobile Bay. The opposite could be said for the Mobile stations, which rarely cross the state line for news.

And with WPMI and WJTC in Mobile, it's like having a market within a market when it comes to Pensacola.

 

A recent addition is KLEW in Lewiston, ID. It's in the Spokane market, but is another CBS affiliate that serves this portion. I'm not sure if KREM is available.

 

And there's WICS and WICD...TWO ABC affiliate stations in the same market. WICD covers Champaign decently, and WICS is the home base in Springfield that fills in the gaps on weekends.

 

 

Back to the ABC issue. They're not the hot property they used to be back in the 1970's when their success caused affiliation swaps in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and other places. And the last switcheroo in 2004 involved WKEF and WICS/WICD trading affiliates with WDTN and WAND. NBC had the upper hand since ABC was plunged into 4th place. However, soon after, ABC began to overtake NBC that fall and the moves especially benefitted WKEF into becoming a factor in Dayton.

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WTOV (to an extent) falls under this. It usually covers Ohio stories mostly while WTRF covers West Virginia stories mostly. However, WTOV dominates that market thanks to the NBC-to-CBS switch and WTRF's ownership upheavals in the '80s and 90s.

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Seems like WTOV will flip or has already flipped to new Sinclair graphics.

 

Must've just happened tonight. Found this on their Facebook page.

 

"Hey Sinclair 9 ! Your new 9 look, graphics and bumper music is all UNAPPEALING. Love how corporate dictated these changes that viewers clearly did not want just because you added the one change that runs all of Sinclair Broadcasting itself (Fox Network). Also, moving the time clock and temperature bar over to the left side of the screen is also a bad idea as well. It will take quite sometime to adjust to all of these changes."

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Must've just happened tonight. Found this on their Facebook page.

 

"Hey Sinclair 9 ! Your new 9 look, graphics and bumper music is all UNAPPEALING. Love how corporate dictated these changes that viewers clearly did not want just because you added the one change that runs all of Sinclair Broadcasting itself (Fox Network). Also, moving the time clock and temperature bar over to the left side of the screen is also a bad idea as well. It will take quite sometime to adjust to all of these changes."

 

I agree.. I use to work and live in WTOV land. I sure don't miss it. I captured video..
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here it is

 

Wow...that managed to make those graphics even more generic than they already looked. I know Wheeling and Steubenville don't have much of a skyline but they could've at least added those in to make the transition graphics look less bland.

 

But the graphics are the least of my worries when it comes to the corporate mandates.

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You are correct the Upper Ohio Valley doesn't have much of Skyline but they could have added some elements.

 

 

Wow...that managed to make those graphics even more generic than they already looked. I know Wheeling and Steubenville don't have much of a skyline but they could've at least added those in to make the transition graphics look less bland.

 

But the graphics are the least of my worries when it comes to the corporate mandates.

 

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New promos for KDBC. Interesting that Brian Lee and not Richard Malmos is the VO.

 

Sinclair doesn't seem to be forcing their stations to use Richard Malmos anymore, ever since their buying binge. Like WTOV still uses Jeff Collins, WHP switched to Beau Weaver then some unknown female VO after Sinclair took over, and I could go on and on... Though KEYE did switch to Eric Gordon then Malmos a couple years ago. Read into that what you will.

 

And CBS4 Local reminds me too much of Nexstar.

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Sinclair doesn't seem to be forcing their stations to use Richard Malmos anymore, ever since their buying binge. Like WTOV still uses Jeff Collins, WHP switched to Beau Weaver then some unknown female VO after Sinclair took over, and I could go on and on... Though KEYE did switch to Eric Gordon then Malmos a couple years ago. Read into that what you will.

 

And CBS4 Local reminds me too much of Nexstar.

 

There are so many hours in a day. I doubt that "The Extraordinary Richard Malmos" (that's what his website says) would be able to keep up with all the stations Sinclair owns, his acting career, MeTV, commerical work and whatever else he does. Besides, if I was "The Extraordinary Richard Malmos" I would want to make sure I kept all of my other work just in case Sinclair one day decides that I'm not quite so extraordinary anymore.

 

I like Malmos, but I personally miss the late Brian James. As a radio guy, Brian James was probably the best VO announcer since Ernie Anderson. Although James mostly did radio, he once did voiceovers for WBNS-TV. He didn't sound so great as a TV guy so they went back to Jeff Laurence in short order.

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Bill Hamilton may be too old to be a voiceover guy, but in his day he sounded pretty good. Here is a clip from KDKA. Bill was the morning guy on WBNS Radio for many years, but for some reason you didn't hear his voice much in his home town. You heard his voice quite a bit in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, though.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huOmvNU2tOw#t=42 (at 0:42)

 

Bill Hamilton samples:

 

http://www.luxury2brcondo.com/

 

 

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I like Malmos, but I personally miss the late Brian James. As a radio guy, Brian James was probably the best VO announcer since Ernie Anderson. Although James mostly did radio, he once did voiceovers for WBNS-TV. He didn't sound so great as a TV guy so they went back to Jeff Laurence in short order.

 

James did KPHO up until his death. In fact, it was when KPHO went away from James that I found out that he had died. He lived in Scottsdale.

 

As to the name, it seems fine. KDBC needs a little love, and Sinclair is giving it to them.

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