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Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion


Smitha A

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I believe WGME is like that - they tend to go against their bosses sometimes. I'm surprised Sinclair hasn't tried to intervene there, but I guess Portland, ME isn't seen as a "micromanaging" market.

WGME was the flagship station of the Guy Gannett chain, and Sinclair seems to accord the station a degree of respect as a result. They spent generously on a set redesign a few years ago. Portland is also a market that tends to reward stations that retain on-air talent and punish stations that engage in sensationalism. On the latter point, both Gannett/Tegna and Sinclair had to find that out the hard way. Tegna forced a number of prominent on-air staffers at WCSH/WLBZ into "early retirement" and Hearst has outright fired a number of people at WMTW but Sinclair has, comparatively speaking, treated WGME with kid gloves.

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Eh, Gray doesn't really belong there. They laid off a bunch at WDBJ.

 

I would add Hearst...and there are a couple of the smaller ones that also seem pretty good. Cordillera, Hubbard, Morgan Murphy to name a few. You look at the stations (esp. the flagships) and how many longtimers are still at each...

 

Oh yes... Cordillera, Hubbard, Morgan Murphy are good ones. SJL? No. NBC and ABC O&O's? Yes.

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While Spann easily has his choice of where he could work/would like to work, his name is too heavily tied to ABC 33/40. Sinclair is NOT going to let that get away and take those advertiser dollars with him. Just think of the revenue he and his name bring to WBMA on a monthly basis. When Sinclair first assumed all rights of that station they messed up in a big way by messing with 33/40's weather department. While we don't know 100% of what goes on behind closed doors, I have a very strong feeling he laid down the law with the company because things ended up going back to the way they were when Allbritton had them.

 

As far as Mike Raita, he "stepped away" from 33/40's cameras on a regular basis to work on other projects with the other sister stations in the market while keeping the title "sports director" for all Sinclair stations in Birmingham. I feel that was Sinclair's first step in getting rid of him.

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WBFF is their flagship since Sinclair was started in Baltimore in 1971. Even if picking up WJLA, WBFF still gets flagship status.

Likewise, WBAL and WUSA remain Hearst's and Tegna's flagship stations despite having stations in larger Nielsen markets.

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Likewise, WBAL and WUSA remain Hearst's and Tegna's flagship stations despite having stations in larger Nielsen markets.

Same with Scripps, whose flagship is WCPO** and their largest station is WXYZ.

 

**Not to be confused with WEWS, which was named after the company founder but has been treated like a red-headed stepchild for ages...

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Sinclair's "pink-slip express" heads to West Virginia. WCHS/WVAH (Charleston) anchor Stefano DiPetrantonio was let go. His bio is gone from the website.

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/1/20/sinclair-sacks-another-one

 

Meanwhile, three new stations joined the NewsOn app: WHAM in Rochester, KVII in Amarillo and KRNV in Reno.

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Something interesting at WPMI in Mobile in how they're filling their long-vacant morning anchor slot.

 

Meteorologist Kelly Foster is moving to the co-anchor slot with Darwin Singleton THREE DAYS a week, and doing weather the other two. Jake Dunne will be doing weather those three days when Kelly Foster is anchoring.

http://www.lagniappemobile.com/foster-promoted-morning-anchor-local-15/

 

Maybe this is the stone that takes care of two birds...."replacing" Kelly Jones and fulfilling the "Pink Slip Express" quota. Several other people have left recently including Taren Reed and Modupe Idowu....and have seemingly yet to be replaced..probably to save $$$.

 

Over on WEAR, longtime morning meteorologist Christian Garman left in December, but it sounds like it was on his own terms...but it wouldn't surprise me if they lowballed him with a cheap offer.

http://weartv.com/news/local/garman-leaving-wear-tv

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Something interesting at WPMI in Mobile in how they're filling their long-vacant morning anchor slot.

 

Meteorologist Kelly Foster is moving to the co-anchor slot with Darwin Singleton THREE DAYS a week, and doing weather the other two. Jake Dunne will be doing weather those three days when Kelly Foster is anchoring.

http://www.lagniappemobile.com/foster-promoted-morning-anchor-local-15/

 

Maybe this is the stone that takes care of two birds...."replacing" Kelly Jones and fulfilling the "Pink Slip Express" quota. Several other people have left recently including Taren Reed and Modupe Idowu....and have seemingly yet to be replaced..probably to save $$$.

 

Over on WEAR, longtime morning meteorologist Christian Garman left in December, but it sounds like it was on his own terms...but it wouldn't surprise me if they lowballed him with a cheap offer.

http://weartv.com/news/local/garman-leaving-wear-tv

 

When I was stationed down there, I always wondered why Sinclair did not run those stations and share a news brand. Yeah, I know WEAR covers Pensacola and WPMI covers Mobile, but still, the way Sinclair hides money, that, IMO looked like a pretty easy cost saving measure.

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