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Coastal swings the ax in Casper: cuts at KTWO


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On 6/9/2020 at 1:41 AM, CircleSeven said:

 

 

The deal of the Wyoming trio (KFNB, KTWO, KGWC) was completed 6/1, but the closing papers was posted yesterday (6/8).

 

And the following has happened: They let their morning met, their sports director, and one of their evening anchors go, as well as cancel the weekend newscasts.

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On 6/18/2020 at 12:16 PM, WxNerd said:

And the following has happened: They let their morning met, their sports director, and one of their evening anchors go, as well as cancel the weekend newscasts.

 

Boy, the folks at Justice sure knew best when they blocked Gray from buying KGWC.  I'm sure in a matter of months there'll be only one station in the entire state doing anything resembling local news.

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9 minutes ago, effseesee said:

 

Boy, the folks at Justice sure knew best when they blocked Gray from buying KGWC.  I'm sure in a matter of months there'll be only one station in the entire state doing anything resembling local news.

 

Vision Alaska/Wyoming has a history of doing that. They obliterated the news departments at their Alaska stations already.

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21 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Vision Alaska/Wyoming has a history of doing that. They obliterated the news departments at their Alaska stations already.

Looking forward to "News Net Wyoming". 🙄

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31 minutes ago, Weeters said:

Looking forward to "News Net Wyoming". 🙄

KTWO TV is the only station for Vision Alaska doing local news. Will see if KGWC TV and KFNB (KLWY) will add newscasts to compete with KCWY TV as well. I assume all three stations are sister stations under the same ownership group.

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DOJ made a legitimate mistake by not approving the Gray application.

 

I have spent a lot of time lately writing about the Casper market.

46 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

KTWO TV is the only station for Vision Alaska doing local news. Will see if KGWC TV and KFNB (KLWY) will add newscasts to compete with KCWY TV as well. I assume all three stations are sister stations under the same ownership group.

 

KGWC's role as "the number 2" was usurped immediately when KCWY launched. Benedek foolishly blew up their local operation in 2000, ahead of this, because it was a management revolving door. They tried again in the early years of Mark III management, and it just didn't make a dent.

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2 hours ago, Samantha said:

DOJ made a legitimate mistake by not approving the Gray application.

 

I have spent a lot of time lately writing about the Casper market.

 

KGWC's role as "the number 2" was usurped immediately when KCWY launched. Benedek foolishly blew up their local operation in 2000, ahead of this, because it was a management revolving door. They tried again in the early years of Mark III management, and it just didn't make a dent.

 

Could Gray give it another shot now that they could very well become the only game in town?

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4 hours ago, Samantha said:

DOJ made a legitimate mistake by not approving the Gray application.

 

I have spent a lot of time lately writing about the Casper market.

 

KGWC's role as "the number 2" was usurped immediately when KCWY launched. Benedek foolishly blew up their local operation in 2000, ahead of this, because it was a management revolving door. They tried again in the early years of Mark III management, and it just didn't make a dent.

I agree with MS. Samantha, the DOJ made a mistake with KCWY and Gray Tv for not approving KGWC TV application  in 2018

I don't know the rank or ratings of Casper  WY tv market are. It appears KTWO, KFNB, and KGWC TV are under common ownership, While GRAY TV owns KCWY TV.

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44 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

I agree with MS. Samantha, the DOJ made a mistake with KCWY and Gray Tv for not approving KGWC TV application  in 2018

I don't know the rank or ratings of Casper  WY tv market are. It appears KTWO, KFNB, and KGWC TV are under common ownership, While GRAY TV owns KCWY TV.

 

I forget at this point, but did Gray ever appeal the ruling on KGWC?

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On 6/19/2020 at 5:08 PM, CubsFan79 said:

I agree with MS. Samantha, the DOJ made a mistake with KCWY and Gray Tv for not approving KGWC TV application  in 2018

I don't know the rank or ratings of Casper  WY tv market are. It appears KTWO, KFNB, and KGWC TV are under common ownership, While GRAY TV owns KCWY TV.

 

Yes, it's effectively common management. This is how it went down...

 

In 1984, a group called Casper Channel 20 started up KXWY-TV, which was a partial NBC affiliate (KTWO-TV had first pick of NBC but was primary ABC). KXWY-TV rolled up KTNW Riverton (which became KFWY-TV and is now KFNE), which is actually the third oldest station in Wyoming and shared ownership, and built a station at Rawlins. This group ran into financial problems within a year of signing on the station and reached a deal in 1985 to sell it to an outfit called First National Broadcasting (thus the KFNB calls, adopted in 1986). Also in 1986, the station became full-time ABC (with a secondary Fox for most of the next 18 years). At around this time, the same interests built KLWY in Cheyenne.

 

The two parties never closed the sale over more than three years, and the station presented several financial difficulties as a result including trouble making payroll. A bankruptcy case was opened. The sale finally collapsed in April 1989 when the station went off the air. Mark Nalbone was named receiver and restored the station to air nine months later, and a company Wyomedia bought the station outright. Nalbone was the GM of KFNB.

 

Then, two events happened simultaneously, Mark III Media (owned by Nalbone) bought KGWC from Chelsey Broadcasting in 2003 (this sale took a bit to clear but Mark took over ASAP under a time brokerage agreement), and he became a consultant to KTWO-TV. That's when the three stations moved in with each other and began sharing quite a few resources. Nalbone didn't get out until the Vision Alaska sale just last year.

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So with the whole Casper situation....

 

Has KTWO given up news entirely? Or have the new owners cut talent and shows and relying on NewsNet to pipe in news coverage?

 

By the looks of the Vision Alaska stations, they've cut themselves severely to primetime newscasts that heavily rely on NewsNet coverage....and then the simulcast those to Fairbanks and Juneau.

 

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31 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

So with the whole Casper situation....

 

Has KTWO given up news entirely? Or have the new owners cut talent and shows and relying on NewsNet to pipe in news coverage?

 

By the looks of the Vision Alaska stations, they've cut themselves severely to primetime newscasts that heavily rely on NewsNet coverage....and then the simulcast those to Fairbanks and Juneau.

 

KCWY and KTWO TV aren't they the only newscasts in the Casper Wy TV market?

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2 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

KCWY and KTWO TV aren't they the only newscasts in the Casper Wy TV market?

Based on recent events, KCWY now gets their news from KGWN in Cheyenne, and the recent sale of KTWO to Vision Wyoming has resulted in the draconian cuts that their Alaska stations had to endure.

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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Based on recent events, KCWY now gets their news from KGWN in Cheyenne, and the recent sale of KTWO to Vision Wyoming has resulted in the draconian cuts that their Alaska stations had to endure.

I live in the Sioux Falls TV market, Where KDLT TV would have faced the same situation of the news department  if not for the merger with KSFY TV. 

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 More carnage from Casper....
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/6/23/more-cuts-in-casper

 

The website is virtually bare (as of this posting) and even the newscast Scott Jones references was from this past Friday.

So what's left here?

 

And shouldn't it figure, KTWO is the lone ABC affiliate on YouTubeTV that is not available (they have the ABC feed instead)...same goes with their satellite in Cheyenne.

 

This market needs some major help, and the FCC isn't helping with recent decisions where Gray could have stepped up.

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51 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 More carnage from Casper....
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/6/23/more-cuts-in-casper

 

The website is virtually bare (as of this posting) and even the newscast Scott Jones references was from this past Friday.

So what's left here?

 

And shouldn't it figure, KTWO is the lone ABC affiliate on YouTubeTV that is not available (they have the ABC feed instead)...same goes with their satellite in Cheyenne.

 

This market needs some major help, and the FCC isn't helping with recent decisions where Gray could have stepped up.


To be fair, it was like that before the last round of cuts. These stations have never had serious websites... If you notice there's not even a public file link for KGWC or KFNB.

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You would have to wonder what if GRAY TV would have bought KGWC TV and had been allowed to be a duopoly with KCWY TV, maybe if KTWO TV would have been allowed to buy KGWL TV and converted it to a ABC or FOX station, maybe the DOJ or FCC would have okayed the sale to GRAY TV.

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15 minutes ago, Samantha said:


To be fair, it was like that before the last round of cuts. These stations have never had serious websites... If you notice there's not even a public file link for KGWC or KFNB.

These two markets would benefit from a WLIO or KAVU-like arrangement where one station owns everything in a market.   You essentially have two owners that control both markets, and it's an intertwined mess of shared news operations and ones that can't even produce a full slate of newscasts for their own market.  It makes my head hurt trying to comprehend how both markets coexist and benefit each other. 

 

 

 

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49 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

These two markets would benefit from a WLIO or KAVU-like arrangement where one station owns everything in a market.   You essentially have two owners that control both markets, and it's an intertwined mess of shared news operations and ones that can't even produce a full slate of newscasts for their own market.  It makes my head hurt trying to comprehend how both markets coexist and benefit each other. 

 

I’m surprised that KTWO TV, which is a sister station to both KFNB and KGWC TV does not have TV listenings under their website.

 

 

 

49 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 

 

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9 hours ago, NEOMatrix said:

If you want any proof how this is going down, look no further than Alaska, where KYUR and its ABC satellites do only one newscast at 10pm. Oh, and a 9pm newscast on the Fox subchannel.

It’s been that way for years: No morning or 5:00 news, and they have Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy at 6:00 (opposite the hour-long news on KTUU and KTVA).


But back in the early 1980’s (when they were KIMO), they couldn’t be touched. All that changed when Maria Downey headed off to Channel 2, who paired her with new young hire John Tracy; faster than you can say John Pruitt and Monica Kaufman Pearson...they never looked back.

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3 hours ago, johnnya2k6 said:

It’s been that way for years: No morning or 5:00 news, and they have Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy at 6:00 (opposite the hour-long news on KTUU and KTVA).


But back in the early 1980’s (when they were KIMO), they couldn’t be touched. All that changed when Maria Downey headed off to Channel 2, who paired her with new young hire John Tracy; faster than you can say John Pruitt and Monica Kaufman Pearson...they never looked back.

I'm surprised they haven't gone all the way and replaced their lone remaining newscast with syndicated programming.......

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15 hours ago, hmaxhanson said:

I'm surprised they haven't gone all the way and replaced their lone remaining newscast with syndicated programming.......

I guess ABC (and Fox) is making them have one newscast on the station in the affiliation contract.

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15 hours ago, NEOMatrix said:

I guess ABC (and Fox) is making them have one newscast on the station in the affiliation contract.

 

Fox is usually the stickler, as virtually all of their stations now have a newscast of some form.  And on the ABC front, they've let KDNL slide for almost two decades without one (not counting their KSDK effort, and the Allman Report).

 

One of the gaping holes is WPGX in Panama City.  Even their co-owned counterpart in Dothan has maintained newscasts from WSFA in Montgomery.  (Both WPGX and WDFX were co-owned with WSFA under Raycom, but were sold to Lockwood because of longstanding Gray stations in Dothan and Panama City). 

Still, WSFA still provides WDFX's newscasts, this likely goes back to the days when WSFA itself was the default NBC station in Dothan.  WDFX's show is  a simulcast of the 9pm on WSFA's .2 Bounce subchannel.  Originally, it was a news-share for that market's WCOV, but they ended up switching to Bahakel to provide their newscasts, an arrangement that has lasted to this day.

 

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7 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

 

Fox is usually the stickler, as virtually all of their stations now have a newscast of some form.  And on the ABC front, they've let KDNL slide for almost two decades without one (not counting their KSDK effort, and the Allman Report).

 

One of the gaping holes is WPGX in Panama City.  Even their co-owned counterpart in Dothan has maintained newscasts from WSFA in Montgomery.  (Both WPGX and WDFX were co-owned with WSFA under Raycom, but were sold to Lockwood because of longstanding Gray stations in Dothan and Panama City). 

Still, WSFA still provides WDFX's newscasts, this likely goes back to the days when WSFA itself was the default NBC station in Dothan.  WDFX's show is  a simulcast of the 9pm on WSFA's .2 Bounce subchannel.  Originally, it was a news-share for that market's WCOV, but they ended up switching to Bahakel to provide their newscasts, an arrangement that has lasted to this day.

 

 

 

Didn't WPGX just launch a WMBB-produced 9:00 newscaar?

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