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Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion


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12 hours ago, newsbot said:

Perhaps the outcome colors perception of the ethics of the situation, but it things had ended badly for the hostages...meanwhile, the media chin-stroking continues...
https://www.pressherald.com/2021/03/11/police-posed-as-reporter-in-phone-call-with-hostage-taker/

Hmm??? This is the same story 

38 minutes ago, channel2 said:

Can't believe Weigel lost ground to themselves...

They certainly played themselves there 😂🤣

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2 hours ago, Jakob said:

I'm not sure if this was mentioned already, but WVAH is now a affiliate of Decades. Fox programing moved to WCHS DT-2. According to Wikipedia (I know there not a reliable source) Sinclair didn't give a reason for the change at all. This happened in the beginning of February.

Likely related to Columbus, Cedar Rapids and Dayton; WCHS is Sinclair, WVAH is Cunningham. Both are on UHF, so there's otherwise no technical reason for it.

Edited by mrschimpf
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Just now, mrschimpf said:

Likely related to Toledo, Cedar Rapids and Dayton; WCHS is Sinclair, WVAH is Cunningham. Both are on UHF, so there's otherwise no technical reason for it.

Toledo? There's just one station there.

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On 3/12/2021 at 7:11 PM, mrschimpf said:

Likely related to Columbus, Cedar Rapids and Dayton; WCHS is Sinclair, WVAH is Cunningham. Both are on UHF, so there's otherwise no technical reason for it.

 

Same with Beaumont. Notice the trend...

 

The network affiliate that's sister to the main one gets moved to the main one on a subchannel of Sinclair, not on a sidecar of Sinclair but actual Sinclair itself so that it can get away with FCC regulations and everything.

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8 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Same with Beaumont. Notice the trend...

 

The network affiliate that's sister to the main one gets moved to the main one on a subchannel of Sinclair, not on a sidecar of Sinclair but actual Sinclair itself so that it can get away with FCC regulations and everything.

And the hits just keep coming for "KBTV" and KFDM......

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2021/3/15/sinclair-to-hub-news-in-texas

 

They would have to start pre-taping WXLV's newscasts or drop them again, unless they have another station to do them out of...

 

Not good news for a market with essentially two stations doing news for 4 channels, and now two of them potentially getting hubbed away....

 

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1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

And the hits just keep coming for "KBTV" and KFDM......

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2021/3/15/sinclair-to-hub-news-in-texas

 

They would have to start pre-taping WXLV's newscasts or drop them again, unless they have another station to do them out of...

 

Not good news for a market with essentially two stations doing news for 4 channels, and now two of them potentially getting hubbed away....

 

The WXLV newscast should be moved to WCTI.

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3 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Don't they have a 10pm show on Fox or something? In any event, that station would have to pretape as well.

Yes, WYDO, yet aren't most of these hubbed newscasts pretaped anyway? Besides, the next closest Sinclair stations are WLOS & WJLA.

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We missed this one: Two weeks ago, Sinclair laid off KPLZ-FM's morning show hosts and its music director. KPLZ-FM (aka "Star 101.5") is a hot adult contemporary station in Seattle and is one of four radio stations that Sinclair owns (KOMO-AM-FM and KVI).

 

KPLZ Morning Show Exits In Sinclair Layoffs - RadioInsight

Sinclair Cuts Deep In Seattle – KOMO, KPLZ – PUGETSOUND.MEDIA

 

Edited by tw-804
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What could go down at KFDM just goes to show you why Sinclair is in the predicament it's in.....

 

Not only did they take over KBTV (thanks to Nexstar selling it out to Deerfield)

 

They made a major expansion at their facility about 5 years ago...

image.png.abc39cad6ccdb641567294fd25a484cd.png

(before....in 2013)

 

image.png.be367c18182e58da6afbd735170f1c54.png

(During construction....in 2016).

 

which is located RIGHT on the access road by a major junction of I-10....

image.png.72d96ec91e607460f0239b8cb6314442.png

 

Then came the "move" of KBTV to KFDM, consolidating their grip over both stations.....

 

 

And now this.  What a waste.

 

I'll bet you the old KBTV space at the mall has been leased.  and the original KJAC/KBTV studios were destroyed by fire after KBTV switched to FOX.

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This is just plain messy. If they hub KFDM/KBTV newscasts out of San Antonio, they’re going to have to dramatically alter their output unless Sinclair springs for a new studio and control room ... which we all know they won’t. Both KABB and WOAI are on the air 5-7a. So there’s no room to produce live morning news for KFDM before CBS This Morning. They could conceivably continue to produce the morning news for KBTV (Fox) since the WOAI studio would be free after 7a. KABB continues until 9a. KABB has a midday newscast at 11a and WOAI has one at noon. So the KABB studio could be used for the KFDM noon show. KABB doesn’t have another newscast until 9p, so the 5p and 6p KFDM shows as well as the KBTV 5:30p show could air live. The KBTV 9p news could come from the WOAI studio. And at 10p, they could air the KFDM late news from the KABB studio ... assuming the WXLV newscast is shipped off to another Sinclair station. The KFDM anchors, for the most part, are veterans with deep ties to Beaumont, so I don’t see them relocating to San Antonio. (They actually just hired a new main male anchor with hometown ties a couple weeks ago!) That’s a whole other issue. They’re basically handing over their lead position in the ratings to Tegna’s KBMT/KJAC if this actually happens. 

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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

What could go down at KFDM just goes to show you why Sinclair is in the predicament it's in.....

 

Not only did they take over KBTV (thanks to Nexstar selling it out to Deerfield)

 

They made a major expansion at their facility about 5 years ago...

 

which is located RIGHT on the access road by a major junction of I-10....

image.png.72d96ec91e607460f0239b8cb6314442.png

 

Then came the "move" of KBTV to KFDM, consolidating their grip over both stations.....

 

And now this.  What a waste.

How do you not realize that placing a TV studio next to a major highway interchange for a coast-to-coast highway, especially in Texas, where 12-lane highways are always in planning, is a bad idea? Then decide to expand that building without a simple check with TxDOT to see if they plan to expand the road in the next decade? 😬

 

Talk about the ultimate in bad planning. I know there are stations along interstate or equivalent highways, but they're usually placed on stretches where an interchange isn't ever going to go (WGBA or WMTV) or far and overlooking it (WWLP, WVIT, WCVB), not where a 0-digit interstate changes from north to east and is forever being finessed to fix a curve.

Edited by mrschimpf
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Here's the plan from TXDOT.  As you can see, the proposed location of I-10 and it's access roads goes RIGHT THROUGH the existing station.

https://ftp.txdot.gov/pub/txdot/get-involved/bmt/i10-us69-interchange/091719-schematic-liberty-7th.pdf

 

TXDOT should pay them handsomely for their eminent domain, but sadly, Sinclair looks like they would rather cash out the market instead of serving as a badly-needed local second provider of news and information.

 

The iHeart Radio stations are next door too, and the access road will wipe them out as well.

Edited by tyrannical bastard
iHeart info
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8 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

I know there are stations along interstate or equivalent highways, but they're usually placed on stretches where an interchange isn't ever going to go (WGBA or WMTV) or far and overlooking it (WWLP, WVIT, WCVB), not where a 0-digit interstate changes from north to east and is forever being finessed to fix a curve.

The old KLMG/KFXK building in Longview, TX for example, is located just off I-20 East, overlooking the highway. (The UPN station in Tyler/Longview was also there; when you go to Google Maps, it's the building next to La Quinta Inn off I-20 in Longview, and & you'll also have to zoom in closely at the provided image to see an imprint of the old UPN logo on the building, too......)

 

 

Edited by J1975am
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The initial studio building was built in 1961. I’m sure back then they never could have imagined such a massive expansion of I-10. (KBMT is also along I-10 although not at a major interchange.) But the two-story addition was built in 2015. Idiotic to build it on the existing site, so close to the existing right of way. They spent a couple million on a building that won’t even make it 10 years. 

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2 minutes ago, Greggo said:

The initial studio building was built in 1961. I’m sure back then they never could have imagined such a massive expansion of I-10. (KBMT is also along I-10 although not at a major interchange.) But the two-story addition was built in 2015. Idiotic to build it on the existing site, so close to the existing right of way. They spent a couple million on a building that won’t even make it 10 years. 

Looking at the road from Google, the affected interchange is only two lanes wide in each direction. 

 

Another such bottleneck exists in Mobile, Alabama where I-10 goes down to 2 lanes each direction in the George Wallace Tunnel under the Mobile River (a major port) and on the connecting bayway, a 7.5 mile elevated bridge that crosses the northern edge of Mobile Bay.  Replacing that has been a nightmare itself, as the last proposal to build a bridge and widened bayway would have levied a toll of almost $6 each way for passenger cars, and it would have been an auto-toll thing with transponders and toll-by-plate, which would have gouged out even more from unsuspecting drivers.  Needless to say, the locals revolted and the idea died quickly.

 

Speaking of Mobile, at least WPMI's facility is well away from any major highway.  Same with WEAR in Pensacola.  In fact, the plot of land there was large enough for WEAR to rebuild an enlarged station in 1994 behind their orignal studios.

 

As for further consolidation in the market, don't give them any more ideas.  From what I heard, WPMI lost 7 employees and WEAR lost 12.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

I noticed that WRGT (now a MyNetworkTV/Dabl station) is simulcasting the 7AM and 8AM news from the Fox subchannel. The rest of there programing is Dabl programing and MyNetworkTV programing weeknights between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

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Looks like Buffalo's WUTV is attempting to start their "own" newscast, and break away from having WGRZ produce it.

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2021/3/26/sinclair-station-to-go-it-alone-with-late-newscast

 

And since this is Sinclair we're talking about, I wonder what station or cluster will be responsible for the studio portion?  The others in the region seem to have their hands full or like WOLF are coming out of others like South Bend....

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On 3/24/2021 at 3:06 PM, Jakob said:

I noticed that WRGT (now a MyNetworkTV/Dabl station) is simulcasting the 7AM and 8AM news from the Fox subchannel. The rest of there programing is Dabl programing and MyNetworkTV programing weeknights between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

Seems like a contractual requirement of the LMA agreement or to fulfill some well-hidden public affairs remit as part of their license. It seems likely Spectrum also isn't happy to be carrying a Dabl station with main-channel two-digit carriage and asked them to air something local on that station.

 

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

And since this is Sinclair we're talking about, I wonder what station or cluster will be responsible for the studio portion?  The others in the region seem to have their hands full or like WOLF are coming out of others like South Bend....

WHAM seems the closest that makes any sense and they already provide weather segments.

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11 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

WHAM seems the closest that makes any sense and they already provide weather segments.

Seeing as how they already provide news for WUHF, unless they have an alternate studio space and control room, they would have to be pre-taped.

 

Syracuse is a possibility since they produce both WSTM and WTVH's newscasts, and only the CW has a 10pm show, i'm assuming it's done on the WSTM side?  That leaves the WTVH side open for doing newscasts for Buffalo, potentially.
 

Edited by tyrannical bastard
Syracuse info
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