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Gray/Raycom Merger Thread


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What would be interesting would be if the group that buys the conflict stations sees Tallahassee flanked by Dothan, Panama City, and Albany. I think all three of those small market stations (smaller than Tallahassee anyways) Graycom is flipping have no news departments of their own. It would be interesting to see that new station group expand the news department, centralize operations and run the three as semi-satellites run out of Tallahassee with news coming from a second studio in Tallahassee. Two of them being Fox stations helps that logistically since you can run news 10-11. With WSWG, you flip the affiliation to ABC to match WTXL.

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Man, I liked that WCAV logo. It looked better than WOIO’s red version.

 

To be fair, at the time, the CBS 19 logo for WOIO was playing a distant second fiddle to the "19 Action News" one...

 

 

I just wonder if Gray is going to standardize their look once they merge with Raycom.

It seems like the Liberty standardization took hold on the Raycom properties after their merger. IIRC, they were a pioneer of standardization, even down to the equipment and execution at their stations.

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But see there's a huge difference here, this is a merger of two equally good medium-sized companies into one large company. The Sinclair-Tribune deal is almost like a hostile takeover of a dying company by a power-hungry, ruthless, right-winged propaganda machine.

Raycom is also controlled by the pension fund for Alabama public employees. Looks like they will get a nice return from investing into Ellis, Aflac TV and Federal Enterprises 22 years ago.

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Gray can always take the cheap "cut and paste" way with WOIO...

 

with apologies to WCAV...

DefaultThumbnailLogo858x483.png

 

 

And their prior logo looks familiar....

wcav_cbs19_big.jpg

The thing is, WOIO's current logo is basically a flat-out carbon-copy of the legacy Ellis station logos (WMC, WECT) that ripped off WSB - from the color scheme to the typeface (flip the "9" upside down and you've got WECT's "6").

 

Even still, the "Cleveland 19" logo just doesn't look right, and it may never will... mostly because the "19" typeface doesn't lend itself to an even design.

 

To be fair, at the time, the CBS 19 logo for WOIO was playing a distant second fiddle to the "19 Action News" one...

Two words: Bill Applegate.

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I think this was already asked, but nontheless,I will ask..should the GRAY/RAYCOM marriage be blessed by all concerned parties, what will happen to the following : HAWAII NEWS NOW, TOLEDO NEWS NOW,and the WSWG/WCTV partnership?

 

 

WTOL/WUPW dropped the “Toledo News Now” branding shortly after CJ Hoyt left the station and they hired a news director from WTVG. The Fox newscasts are called “WTOL 11 News” - they allude to “Fox 36” in the opening.

 

If the agreeement between WTOL and WUPW ends, WTVG will begin to produce WUPW newscasts. I’d hope they wouldn’t ditch the “13abc Action News” name for a joint title...as it wasn’t successful with WTOL.

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WTOL/WUPW dropped the “Toledo News Now” branding shortly after CJ Hoyt left the station and they hired a news director from WTVG. The Fox newscasts are called “WTOL 11 News” - they allude to “Fox 36” in the opening.

 

If the agreeement between WTOL and WUPW ends, WTVG will begin to produce WUPW newscasts. I’d hope they wouldn’t ditch the “13abc Action News” name for a joint title...as it wasn’t successful with WTOL.

No matter who owns WTOL, WUPW will stay managed under 11.

http://m.wtol.com/toledonewsnow/db_347256/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=CMyxEtHE

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No matter who owns WTOL, WUPW will stay managed under 11.

http://m.wtol.com/toledonewsnow/db_347256/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=CMyxEtHE

 

For now. Every station owned by American Spirit is operated by a Raycom counterpart in the market. Who’s to say those shared services agreements won’t move to the “Graycom” stations? Speculation, yes. But we don’t know the length of the WTOL/WUPW SSA.

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For now. Every station owned by American Spirit is operated by a Raycom counterpart in the market. Who’s to say those shared services agreements won’t move to the “Graycom” stations? Speculation, yes. But we don’t know the length of the WTOL/WUPW SSA.

Almost assuredly the current SSA will be transferred to the shell of the pending buyer of WTOL.

 

And really, don't be surprised to see Sinclair buy WTOL, Cunningham gets WUPW and WNWO is "sold" to Armstrong Williams.

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Almost assuredly the current SSA will be transferred to the shell of the pending buyer of WTOL.

 

And really, don't be surprised to see Sinclair buy WTOL, Cunningham gets WUPW and WNWO is "sold" to Armstrong Williams.

 

That alone could greatly lengthen the time this whole deal could take. Gray and Raycom would be smart to steer clear of anything involving Sinclair, especially if it requires shells.

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That alone could greatly lengthen the time this whole deal could take. Gray and Raycom would be smart to steer clear of anything involving Sinclair, especially if it requires shells.

Nexstar, OTOH...

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The thing is, WOIO's current logo is basically a flat-out carbon-copy of the legacy Ellis station logos (WMC, WECT) that ripped off WSB - from the color scheme to the typeface (flip the "9" upside down and you've got WECT's "6").

 

Even still, the "Cleveland 19" logo just doesn't look right, and it may never will... mostly because the "19" typeface doesn't lend itself to an even design.

 

 

Two words: Bill Applegate.

I will say the current WOIO 19 logo speaks volumes where WEWS is a joke! When WOIO's logo stands superior from the first tv station in the state. That speaks volumes.

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That alone could greatly lengthen the time this whole deal could take. Gray and Raycom would be smart to steer clear of anything involving Sinclair, especially if it requires shells.

 

I will say this which again what shocks me Gray buying Raycom, but with this merger. I do hope Gray becomes everything Nexstar and Sinclair isn't.

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That alone could greatly lengthen the time this whole deal could take. Gray and Raycom would be smart to steer clear of anything involving Sinclair, especially if it requires shells.

 

Does Sinclair really need to do that anyway? Especially considering the fact that this deal actually has the possibility of being completed BEFORE Sinclair's deal gets completed.

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At least with Nexstar, WTOL/WUPW would become sisters to WANE in Ft. Wayne, WDTN/WBDT in Dayton and WCMH in Columbus, so there's a lot of geographical sense on that end.

 

This would make sense, given that WUPW actually would be owned by Nexstar today if LIN would have kept it.

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At least with Nexstar, WTOL/WUPW would become sisters to WANE in Ft. Wayne, WDTN/WBDT in Dayton and WCMH in Columbus, so there's a lot of geographical sense on that end.

 

Also, Nexstar is absent from Toledo right now, so that would be fair game and very reasonable. It would essentially be a trade back from KWQC and WBAY on the Media General acquisition.

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Also, Nexstar is absent from Toledo right now, so that would be fair game and very reasonable. It would essentially be a trade back from KWQC and WBAY on the Media General acquisition.

That's also where Standard could come into play (especially on the former Media General stations)

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Didn't Gray have the inside track on those two, given that they operated them when Young was in trouble?

They did but Gray DOES have options as far as who they sell their stations to, etc.

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