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Gray Television - General Thread


The Frog

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8 hours ago, dman748 said:

From Discord (h/t @TheRolyPoly)

 

Not even a full month into Gray ownership and WGCL is in a few months time about to drop The 700 Club in favor of 9am News.

 

https://www.ajc.com/life/radiotvtalk-blog/cbs46-will-drop-the-700-club-adding-9-am-newscast-plus-new-news-director-kim-saxon/B46YZ7RLFVHDLALOPGAREIB6QA/

 

Hilton Howell said he wanted to bring stability to WGCL and not even a full month into local ownership for WGCL/WPCH, Gray is already making impactful moves to their new flagship.

 

That's good news for sure, but I was expecting a locally produced entertainment programme to fill this slot.

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3 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

That's good news for sure, but I was expecting a locally produced entertainment programme to fill this slot.

 

It also shows how much Meredith neglected the station. The timing now couldn't be better, since WSB is not the 100-ton gorilla it was due to Apollo and WXIA has been a disaster under Tegna. It seems they are trying to play mostly with WAGA.

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3 hours ago, TheSpeedKing said:

That's good news for sure, but I was expecting a locally produced entertainment programme to fill this slot.

I was suggesting this as it could be presented as a high-quality E/I programme to rival the garbage that is Today 3rd Hour on WXIA, and a nice change of pace from yet another newscast.

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First, they signed the OG queen of Atlanta, Monica Kaufman Pearson; now, they’re dropping The 700 Club and Dr. Oz for news at 9:00 am and another half hour at 3:00 pm? Whatever it takes for WGCL to beat Good Day Atlanta/Kelly and Ryan and Judge Judy/Tamron Hall/Dr. Phil, I’m all for it!

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On 12/25/2021 at 2:43 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

Didn't they used to have a 9am extension of "Better Mornings Atlanta?". The reset button has been hit there so many times there's no telling when this was, even if it was only a few years back....

The infamous 9am hour in 2008, which included turning the morning news towards a lurid 'local gossip' focus wholly incompatible with The Early Show, and they effectively broke up the Cheetah Girls when some wacko 'reality blogger' who claimed to represent one of them went on the show to do damage control. Thankfully that direction didn't last very long.

Edited by mrschimpf
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13 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

The infamous 9am hour in 2008, which included turning the morning news towards a lurid 'local gossip' focus wholly incompatible with The Early Show, and they effectively broke up the Cheetah Girls when some wacko 'reality blogger' who claimed to represent one of them went on the show to do damage control. Thankfully that direction didn't last very long.

At least they tried to do something different, but please no sensationalism, gossip, rumours or bias. 

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Gray continues to pack those LPs.


They're snagging 24 more LPs from Winemiller's Lowcountry Media for $3.75M.

Spoiler
  • K17LV-D Paragould, AR
  • W28FD-D Greenville, FL
  • W30FA-D Jasper, FL
  • W34FW-D Jasper, FL
  • W35EC-D Jennings, FL
  • W19DO-D Augusta, GA
  • WDZC-LD Augusta, GA
  • WJEA-LD Augusta, GA
  • W41EB-D Cordele, GA
  • W16EK-D Lenox, GA
  • W21EN-D Macon, GA
  • W22ER-D Valdosta, GA
  • K30QY-D Oakland, MN
  • W31FB-D Eastabutchie, MS
  • W27DP-D New Bern, NC
  • W31DR-D Wilmington, NC
  • W30EY-D Cincinnati-Dayton, OH
  • W19FC-D Florence, SC
  • W35ED-D Florence, SC
  • W14EZ-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W15ES-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W35EB-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W14EE-D Algood, TN
  • W15ER-D Nashville, TN

 

 

The one that I'm eyeing is the W35ED-D Florence. This is somewhat big because ever since WMBF launched over 13 years ago, its main signal doesn't reach Florence. Here the contour of both signals (WMBF & W35ED). Having a Florence LP would be a big plus for those Pee Dee residence who want to see NBC programming without relying on cable.

Edited by CircleSeven
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40 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

Gray continues to pack those LPs.


They're snagging 24 more LPs from Winemiller's Lowcountry Media for $3.75M.

  Reveal hidden contents
  • K17LV-D Paragould, AR
  • W28FD-D Greenville, FL
  • W30FA-D Jasper, FL
  • W34FW-D Jasper, FL
  • W35EC-D Jennings, FL
  • W19DO-D Augusta, GA
  • WDZC-LD Augusta, GA
  • WJEA-LD Augusta, GA
  • W41EB-D Cordele, GA
  • W16EK-D Lenox, GA
  • W21EN-D Macon, GA
  • W22ER-D Valdosta, GA
  • K30QY-D Oakland, MN
  • W31FB-D Eastabutchie, MS
  • W27DP-D New Bern, NC
  • W31DR-D Wilmington, NC
  • W30EY-D Cincinnati-Dayton, OH
  • W19FC-D Florence, SC
  • W35ED-D Florence, SC
  • W14EZ-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W15ES-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W35EB-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W14EE-D Algood, TN
  • W15ER-D Nashville, TN

 

 

One of the Florence, SC stations could be used to repeat WMBF,  As a digital-only sign-on, their signal never reached Florence as it was too close to another station on Channel 32 at the time, one of the SCETV stations.

 

W31FB-D already has a licensed signal and construction permit that's moved their signal to Baldwin County, Alabama, in the vicinity of the other full-powered stations serving the Mobile/Pensacola area.  Both contours are oriented to serve the Mobile area.  This could ether be a UHF repeater or 3.0 simulcast of WALA.  They were the only station (under Meredith) not to participate in the adoption of 3.0 in the market.

Edited by tyrannical bastard
updated W31FB-D status
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Just now, tyrannical bastard said:

 

One of the Florence, SC stations could be used to repeat WMBF,  As a digital-only sign-on, their signal never reached Florence as it was too close to another station on Channel 32 at the time, one of the SCETV stations.

According to RabbitEars, the three Florence stations are already repeating WMBF.

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2 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Gray continues to pack those LPs.


They're snagging 24 more LPs from Winemiller's Lowcountry Media for $3.75M.

  Hide contents
  • K17LV-D Paragould, AR
  • W28FD-D Greenville, FL
  • W30FA-D Jasper, FL
  • W34FW-D Jasper, FL
  • W35EC-D Jennings, FL
  • W19DO-D Augusta, GA
  • WDZC-LD Augusta, GA
  • WJEA-LD Augusta, GA
  • W41EB-D Cordele, GA
  • W16EK-D Lenox, GA
  • W21EN-D Macon, GA
  • W22ER-D Valdosta, GA
  • K30QY-D Oakland, MN
  • W31FB-D Eastabutchie, MS
  • W27DP-D New Bern, NC
  • W31DR-D Wilmington, NC
  • W30EY-D Cincinnati-Dayton, OH
  • W19FC-D Florence, SC
  • W35ED-D Florence, SC
  • W14EZ-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W15ES-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W35EB-D Myrtle Beach, SC
  • W14EE-D Algood, TN
  • W15ER-D Nashville, TN

 

 

The one that I'm eyeing is the W35ED-D Florence. This is somewhat big because ever since WMBF launched over 13 years ago, its main signal doesn't reach Florence. Here the contour of both signals (WMBF & W35ED). Having a Florence LP would be a big plus for those Pee Dee residence who want to see NBC programming without relying on cable.

 

The one in Macon is a bit puzzling. It's the one Georgia market that there is no Gray presence in, but barring a trade, there is currently no realistic pathway into the market.

Edited by GoldenShine9
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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

The one in Macon is a bit puzzling. It's the one Georgia market that there is no Gray presence in, but barring a trade, there is currently no realistic pathway into the market.

They could be move-ins to adjacent markets, especially if Gray has some coverage holes to fill in the fringes of WGCL, WALB, WRDW, WTOC, or even WTVM/WLTZ or WSFA.

 

W31FB-D is licensed to Eastabuchie, MS which is in the Hattiesburg-Laurel market (and just south of WDAM's studios and transmitter), yet the station's transmitter is just outside of Stapleton, Alabama, almost a hundred miles away and firmly in the Mobile-Pensacola market.

 

A longshot....could Gray be using low powered stations in Macon to relay WPCH, to make it a "SuperStation" again?  It seems OTT may be the way to go there.

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3 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

The one in Macon is a bit puzzling. It's the one Georgia market that there is no Gray presence in, but barring a trade, there is currently no realistic pathway into the market.

A possibility is launching HD affiliates of Circle, since that's an area it would do very well in; no current affiliate of the network is on the three major stations there. Could see that and since they lost NBCSN, they might ramp up PowerNation as a subchannel network so they don't have to keep playing musical chairs as cable networks wind down.

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After looking into what Gray has done in Meridian and Hattiesburg (repeating VHF WDAM and WTOK on low-powered UHF stations in the metro area with future streams on the feed)  It seems entirely possible that Gray is considering doing the same with WALA and W31FB-D.  

 

Once the sale closes with the group of Lowcountry 34 acquisitions mentioned above, they'll likely change the COL to something local and issue new call letters as an -LD.

 

There''s another -LD in Destin that's not owned by Lowcountry, but by another entity called Edge Spectrum.  Destin and Fort Walton are out of range of WALA and also WPGX, which both transmit on channel 9.  Establishing a repeater out there would provide over-the-air access to WALA and Fox programming.

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7 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

After looking into what Gray has done in Meridian and Hattiesburg (repeating VHF WDAM and WTOK on low-powered UHF stations in the metro area with future streams on the feed)  It seems entirely possible that Gray is considering doing the same with WALA and W31FB-D.  

I just read about this story where a former Pappas station in Columbus owned by CNZ added a distributed transmitter to get their subchannel farm station into the Atlanta market (CNZ did the same with WIWN in Milwaukee). It does make me wonder if Gray is doing the same; buying up these stations to be extended nodes in an ad-hoc DTT network to move those no-hope licenses (usually from Edge Spectrum, ARK, and HC2) and eventually super-serve a larger market. Especially with ATSC 3.0 coming, it seems like they want to take no chances with presumed broadcast range like they did on ATSC 1.0 and the failed mobile standard.

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1 hour ago, mrschimpf said:

It does make me wonder if Gray is doing the same; buying up these stations to be extended nodes in an ad-hoc DTT network to move those no-hope licenses (usually from Edge Spectrum, ARK, and HC2) and eventually super-serve a larger market

This also makes me wonder about W30EY-D. Gray appears to want to relay WXIX closer to Dayton. While not a larger market, part of me wonders if Gray wants to cover the entire nation with full-power "hubs" and fill in other markets using LPs (albeit with syndication blackouts) so they don't have to worry about broadcast range. In Ohio, Gray could relay WTVG in Lima and WOIO in Columbus with LPs. 

Edited by TheSpeedKing
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Gray is fetching another LP just south of Nashville.

 

They're getting Lewisburg's WFET-LD (formerly W29DM-D) from Lora Bailey for $125K.

 

This feels like WOIO. Getting the LPs in these hard to reach places. Or areas where they can't receive the main signal.

 

Edited by CircleSeven
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And more LP-picking. This time, near Panama City.

 

They're getting W31EP-D from Innovative Media Technologies, Inc. for $75K. 

 

Currently, the contour for that LP primarily serves Panama City Beach and areas east of Laguna Beach. 

 

Not sure what Gray would use it for, since it already has a larger LP in WECP-LD.

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3 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Not sure what Gray would use it for, since it already has a larger LP in WECP-LD.

ATSC 3.0 and Univision/Telemundo are saying hi. In the ATSC 3.0 case, WJHG would become the host, keeping the 1.0 channels on W31EP-D

Edited by TheSpeedKing
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On 1/10/2022 at 4:18 PM, CircleSeven said:

Gray is fetching another LP just south of Nashville.

 

They're getting Lewisburg's WFET-LD (formerly W29DM-D) from Lora Bailey for $125K.

 

This feels like WOIO. Getting the LPs in these hard to reach places. Or areas where they can't receive the main signal.

 

 

Does Nashville have a Spanish-language news operation? That could be a potential opportunity for WSMV to set up.

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