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According to a blog report, legendary OKC KWTV meteorologist Gary England is being reassigned within parent company Griffin to a new management-level position. His duties on-air will be ending as of August 30. England is very well known in the market (and even outside) for his superiority in severe weather coverage, especially after the high profile tornadoes of earlier this year. David Payne will take over primary duties. With England still within Griffin, I wouldn't rule out occasional appearances, however.

 

http://www.thelostogle.com/2013/07/23/breaking-news-gary-england-is-leaving-channel-9/

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According to a blog report, legendary OKC KWTV meteorologist Gary England is being reassigned within parent company Griffin to a new management-level position. His duties on-air will be ending as of August 30. England is very well known in the market (and even outside) for his superiority in severe weather coverage, especially after the high profile tornadoes of earlier this year. David Payne will take over primary duties. With England still within Griffin, I wouldn't rule out occasional appearances, however.

 

http://www.thelostogle.com/2013/07/23/breaking-news-gary-england-is-leaving-channel-9/

 

Wow...Gary England is an Oklahoma broadcasting and meteorological legend. But I am glad that he will still have a role at KWTV though. He's their most valuable asset.

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Wow...Gary England is an Oklahoma broadcasting and meteorological legend. But I am glad that he will still have a role at KWTV though. He's their most valuable asset.

 

At first I thought that was a sign (if he was leaving) that perhaps Griffin was going on the market...

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New FCC Approval. And this one was filed seven months ago.

 

WLOV, the Fox Station in Tupelo, Mississippi filed an application of consent to Assign the License from Lingard Broadcasting Corporation to Tupelo Broadcasting, Inc. For $500K. Lingard Broadcasting is owned by Jack Lingard. From this attachment in this application, it explains the interest in terms of the people involved. Lingard is the brother of the majority owner of WTVA Inc, Jane Spain. Tupelo Broadcasting is owned by Matthew Dee, the son of Jane Spain. So basically the stations is being exchange from one next-of-kin to the other.

 

Anyway, the application was posted on the FCC site December 26, and just today, after almost seven months, the FCC has finally greenlighted the application. If we remember back in late January, it took nine months for the FCC to approve WXVT's app from Saga to the sons of the owner of WABG.

 

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NBC is reorganizing its local TV division.

 

The B&C is posting that the 16 stations from Telemundo Station Group and New England cable news channel, NECN will merge with the 10 NBC O&Os from NBC Owned Television Stations, will merge to form the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division. NBC Owned Stations president, Valari Staab will head the newly form division.

 

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It looks like Litton will rule Saturday Mornings. First ABC, Now CBS.

 

TVNewsCheck stating that Litton Entertainment will produce six new E-I compliant shows that will air on Saturday Mornings on CBS. The brand will be entitled "The CBS Dream Team, It's Epic".(I hope they change the name overtime).

 

B&C stated that Litton is expected to announce the lineup of season 3 of Litton's Weekend Adventure, which airs on the ABC affiliates. They're going to think of something because one of the current shows will be moving to the CBS block on September 28th.

 

This will be the second time where a programmer is involved in two Saturday morning programming blocks for two different networks. Remember 4Kids Entertainment with 4KidsTV (Fox) and The CW4Kids (CW)?

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It looks like Litton will rule Saturday Mornings. First ABC, Now CBS.

 

TVNewsCheck stating that Litton Entertainment will produce six new E-I compliant shows that will air on Saturday Mornings on CBS. The brand will be entitled "The CBS Dream Team, It's Epic".(I hope they change the name overtime).

 

B&C stated that Litton is expected to announce the lineup of season 3 of Litton's Weekend Adventure, which airs on the ABC affiliates. They're going to think of something because one of the current shows will be moving to the CBS block on September 28th.

 

This will be the second time where a programmer is involved in two Saturday morning programming blocks for two different networks. Remember 4Kids Entertainment with 4KidsTV (Fox) and The CW4Kids (CW)?

 

I guess CBS's contract with Cookie Jar TV is up and CBS didn't want to renew? I thought I remember hearing that the contract was about to run out soon.

 

You can tell the networks are really trying to fulfill that E/I requirement the cheapest way possible if even Cookie Jar was too expensive for CBS.

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WXIX Scott Schneider was promoted to be Tricia Macke’s co-anchor. Schneider replaces Ben Swann, who left the station May 31. He was hired in April from WFMJ-TV in Youngstown, where he anchored mornings for 14 years. (Yes, that’s the same station where Fox 19 meteorologist Frank Marzullo worked before coming here; they’re good friends.) Schneider will anchor Sunday-Thursday with Macke, with Amy Wagner taking over as Friday-Saturday anchor this weekend.

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Looks like WHBQ is doing something I thought they should have done years ago - weekend editions of Good Morning Memphis. Promos airing tonight indicate a launch on August 3, with Kristin Tallent anchoring. It will start as Saturdays only from 6 to 8 am, though I bet they expand to Sundays within a few months. That will leave WATN as the only Memphis station without weekend morning newscasts of some kind.

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Looks like WHBQ is doing something I thought they should have done years ago - weekend editions of Good Morning Memphis. Promos airing tonight indicate a launch on August 3, with Kristin Tallent anchoring. Not sure on times as of yet. That will leave WATN as the only Memphis station without weekend morning newscasts.

 

Per Kristin's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=384877324946386&id=319104684856984

 

I'm excited to share with you we are starting GMM on Saturdays starting August 3rd on FOX13! I'll be helping you kick off your weekend from 6am-8am every Saturday! I hope you'll join us, we've been working very hard to launch the show!

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Thanks for the confirmation on that (I noted on the original post about the same time as you posted).

 

Looks like Wendy Nations will be doing weather. Both have been on the weekend evening newscasts as of late. I wonder if they will continue to do that or if somebody else is stepping in.

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Thanks for the confirmation on that (I noted on the original post about the same time as you posted).

 

Looks like Wendy Nations will be doing weather. Both have been on the weekend evening newscasts as of late. I wonder if they will continue to do that or if somebody else is stepping in.

 

That's anyone's guess since Wendy has been doing freelance work as a fill-in meteorologist after becoming a full-time mom (Holly Hancock recently left WHBQ to become a full-time mom herself).

 

Speaking of which, WHBQ has job postings up for a new weather anchor as well as a traffic reporter (is Heather York leaving?).

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That's anyone's guess since Wendy has been doing freelance work as a fill-in meteorologist after becoming a full-time mom (Holly Hancock recently left WHBQ to become a full-time mom herself).

 

Speaking of which, WHBQ has job postings up for a new weather anchor as well as a traffic reporter (is Heather York leaving?).

 

From what I understand Wendy Nations has taken the WHBQ opening vacated by Holly Hancock, so she is back to full-time. I think that's the opening that's still on their website, though I'm not sure. Now whether that covers both mornings and evenings I don't know either. Both WREG and WMC use the same meteorologist for both mornings and evenings on weekends.

 

As far as Heather York, I haven't heard anything there. I would bet they want to bring in somebody to do traffic in-studio, Heather York has done traffic for GMM about as long as I can remember, but has always done it via phone.

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Replying to a ton of these:

 

Follow-Up Time. And it looks like Brady didn't want to get KYMA for nothing.

 

It appears that he will acquire KSWT from Pappas for $900K. And will use the 'failed station waiver' card to get it.

 

 

KECY could stand to gain a lot of ground here depending on the level of consolidation.

 

NO!!! Why!?!? :mad: :mad: :mad:

 

Brady will have a virtual monopoly on the Yuma market (I don't count KECY and you'll see why in a sec). KSWT could've easily gone to Sinclair who would've done a far better job with this station. Nexstar would not have been bad either and probably would've invested in upgrading KSWT's infrastructure. Brady is not a good station owner based on how he runs his Stainless stations or KVTV in Laredo. Once he sold KZTV's non license assets to Cordillera, they consolidated it with KRIS (well, KRIS actually moved into KZTV's larger building just down the road, but still...) and the quality of the product shot up considerably. They even upgraded it to HD.

 

KSWT and KYMA may co-locate with each other but I can't see them getting new equipment. I think they will just take the old equipment with them and install it in the place. I base this off the only Brady station with news, WICZ, and they are still in SD.

 

KECY isn't much better, even though they are backed by NPG. They do the news in front of a green screen on a Tricaster system. They're in HD which is a plus. They don't even have a true News Director (the main anchor, Anna Chaulk, kinda oversees the whole thing I think). They also don't have a really good online presence. I'm shocked they never got the IB website (while KEYT and KMIZ did) and are still using that "yourtvfamily.com" blog setup. They do have a Facebook/Twitter but they seem to use that more to announce contest winners (they do quite a bit of contests) than to actually post news content. They use their news personalities to act as faces of the station rather than to do their job and report the news. This says that NPG really doesn't consider them to have a large news presence. They have a separate anchor (Anna Hayes) on the 6PM ABC news which makes no sense when they can just have Anna Chaulk do that one as well. BTW, Hayes only anchors and doesn't do reporting. Give me a break. They only have three reporters who all shoot their own video. They do have one ENG truck though which is good. NPG could throw some more money at this station but I don't see that happening unless they have an incentive to do so. Maybe this will be their incentive?

 

It looks like Litton will rule Saturday Mornings. First ABC, Now CBS.

 

[...]

I honestly hate the E/I regulations, it's so dated, mainly because kids don't watch Saturday morning cartoons anymore. If kids are even watching TV anymore, they're watching cable networks like Disney and Nickelodeon( :puke: yeah, sorry I hate both channels...) not CBS or ABC. Or they're probably online, on their phone, doing school activities, playing with friends, or playing video games. If the FCC wants to regulate what kids watch on TV then they can take a nanny position like the CRTC and extend the E/I regulations to cable but it's ineffective on broadcast TV. Literally, I've seen the ratings for the Sat. Morning cartoons here, they get HASHMARKS, meaning no one's watching them. The Sinclair group here (excluding recent purchase WOAI) buries their E/I stuff on early mornings in between infomercials or other "graveyard" slots where people are unlikely to watch and air the bare minimum. Networks like CBS and ABC are smart enough to know nobody's going to be watching these anymore so they just outsource to companies like Litton who'll cut them a cheaper deal to program the slots for them. I've seen the Litton garbage (not by choice) and that's exactly what it is, garbage. It's boring, stuff that belongs on PBS and not ABC.

 

 

Looks like WHBQ is doing something I thought they should have done years ago - weekend editions of Good Morning Memphis. Promos airing tonight indicate a launch on August 3, with Kristin Tallent anchoring. It will start as Saturdays only from 6 to 8 am, though I bet they expand to Sundays within a few months. That will leave WATN as the only Memphis station without weekend morning newscasts of some kind.

 

WATN won't add weekend morning newscasts. Nexstar hates them for whatever reason and only WBRE and WSYR air them currently. KDFW only had them on Saturdays for years until very recently when they expanded them. Maybe this is a sign KTBC will add weekend editions of Good Day Austin. God, I hope so :drool: .
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WATN won't add weekend morning newscasts. Nexstar hates them for whatever reason and only WBRE and WSYR air them currently. KDFW only had them on Saturdays for years until very recently when they expanded them. Maybe this is a sign KTBC will add weekend editions of Good Day Austin. God, I hope so :drool: .

 

Are you sure about that? I don't think Nexstar would spend more than 5 million dollars on a station they 'hated'. Maybe you're thinking back to Newport, before the relaunch? Nexstar is most definitely committed to WATN. I don't expect weekend morning newscasts anytime soon, but they have promised expanded programming in the months to come already.

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NBC station WFLA Tampa is adding an hour-long newscast at 4-5 p.m. beginning Monday, Aug. 26. The station says it will be the only 4 p.m. news broadcast in the market.

 

The new broadcast, First at 4, will feature original reporting, in-depth news, investigations and consumer reporting. WFLA’s Stacie Schaible will anchor First at 4, in addition to her 5:30 p.m. co-anchor duties.

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KRON will be launching Antenna TV effective September 1st. WNCN also is running the Antenna TV. What effect this will have if FOX or NBC decides to buy the station or if Media General plans a swap is unknown.

 

 

http://rewards.kron4.../Contest/4SLMLP

 

I'm a little skeptical... Yes, I'm quoting Wikipedia:

Proposed subchannel affiliations

 

In October 2007, Retro Television Network was expected to launch as a digital subchannel on KRON-DT2 as part of a test of the network by Young Broadcasting, along with sister stations WBAY-TV/Green Bay and WTEN/Albany, New York. However, KRON never carried the network, and their HD signal remained on 4.2 after the announcement, along with an intermittent traffic conditions channel on 4.3 (RTV is currently carried in the market by KTNC-DT4). Eventually after the digital transition and widescreen upgrades, KRON's HD channel was moved to the main .1 position.

 

In late 2010, Young announced an affiliation deal with The Country Network for several of their stations, including KRON. However like with RTV, TCN was never added to the station, and the network was dropped by all of New Young Broadcasting's stations by November 2011. Likewise, KRON was by default not made part of Young's carriage of the The Walt Disney Company-owned Live Well Network on its stations, due to the network's carriage on the second and third digital subchannels of Disney-owned ABC O&O KGO-TV.

What if they don't launch it again. It'd be nice for KRON to launch a diginet, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Just sayin' ;)

 

 

Are you sure about that? I don't think Nexstar would spend more than 5 million dollars on a station they 'hated'. Maybe you're thinking back to Newport, before the relaunch? Nexstar is most definitely committed to WATN. I don't expect weekend morning newscasts anytime soon, but they have promised expanded programming in the months to come already.

 

Also from Wikipedia (KUTV's page):

On June 7, 2009, the weekend morning newscast was abruptly canceled; the WTVX newscast followed the next day. The reasons given were that the management company [Nexstar] did not like to air weekend morning newscasts and that they were looking for ways to trim the budget.September 2012 brought back weekend morning news along with weekday morning newscasts starting at 4:30am.

It's a known fact that Nexstar hates weekend morning news. WBRE, the only pre-Newport station that has weekend morning news, airs them for one hour on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, while rival WNEP airs them for about two-three hours both days. Now WSYR, a station at which Nexstar has largely maintained the status quo (they're a huge moneymaker for Nexstar and were likewise with Newport), also has weekend morning news for one hour (7AM) both days. None of the remaining Nexstar stations have them even though it would ideally make sense on stations like KARK, KTVX, and WATN. It costs money to staff a weekend morning newscast (and nobody is probably going to watch it anyways) so I truly don't see that happening, even at a station they spent $5 million on. Also of note, when they finish their acquisition of the Comcorp stations, KETK also has one-hour weekend morning newscasts at 8AM both days. I don't see those getting cut, at a station that is pretty much already run like a typical Nexstar station.

 

Case in point, at the end of the year, I see three Nexstar stations with weekend morning news; WATN won't be in that three. Sorry...

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Also from Wikipedia (KUTV's page):

It's a known fact that Nexstar hates weekend morning news. WBRE, the only pre-Newport station that has weekend morning news, airs them for one hour on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, while rival WNEP airs them for about two-three hours both days. Now WSYR, a station at which Nexstar has largely maintained the status quo (they're a huge moneymaker for Nexstar and were likewise with Newport), also has weekend morning news for one hour (7AM) both days. None of the remaining Nexstar stations have them even though it would ideally make sense on stations like KARK, KTVX, and WATN. It costs money to staff a weekend morning newscast (and nobody is probably going to watch it anyways) so I truly don't see that happening, even at a station they spent $5 million on. Also of note, when they finish their acquisition of the Comcorp stations, KETK also has one-hour weekend morning newscasts at 8AM both days. I don't see those getting cut, at a station that is pretty much already run like a typical Nexstar station.

 

Case in point, at the end of the year, I see three Nexstar stations with weekend morning news; WATN won't be in that three. Sorry...

 

Ahh, I see your point now. I completely misunderstood your Nexstar "hating" as against WATN, the station itself, not just weekend morning news in general. Now there I agree with you. It could happen eventually, probably moreso if WATN starts making some moves in the market, but not for a long while. There are other areas they could work on first, for sure. In the Memphis market at least, weekend morning shows usually are a rehash of old news or just interviews, it's very rare to see big news happen at those times.

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Antonio Mora returns to the national scene.

 

B&C states today that Antonio Mora will host a weeknight panel-discussion, current affairs talk program called "Consider This". This program will air on the new Al Jazeera America network, which will launch on August 20th.

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In case you do not know this, WPMT FOX43 will become the first HLLY/Susquehanna Valley TV news station to debut their 4pm news broadcast this August 5th. Not strong as WGAL is, but winning for WPMT as they are the only HLLY/Susquehanna Valley TV news station for their 4am and 4pm news broadcast.

 

http://fox43.com/2013/05/14/wpmt-fox43-to-start-two-new-hours-of-news-this-august/#axzz2aB1T4t3W

 

I wonder if WGAL will follow this since they plan to continue keeping Dr. Oz at 4pm on weekdays unless I'm wrong.

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KSHB hired Demetria Obilor, who is literally FRESH out of college as a 2012 graduate, to do their traffic in the mornings.

 

(On a side note, if it seems like I only post about KSHB, it's because people are coming and leaving that station more than we breathe in a day)

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