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Coastal swings the ax in Casper: cuts at KTWO


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1 hour ago, scrabbleship said:

 

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

Well whaddya know?

https://changingnewscasts.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/catch-up-post-4-wcsh-wlbz-wpgx-wmbb/

 

Mind. Blown. 

Mindblown Excuse Me GIF - Mindblown ExcuseMe What - Discover ...

Hopefully this one lasts.  The last time they tried this was for a hot minute in the 90s with WJHG.

Well done Nexstar and Lockwood!!!

 

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Split this out into its own thread as it's quite a discussion going and I want to spin some of those out from under the Out & About thread as we transition into it being a staff moves thread.

 

KTWO radio (which hasn't been related to the TV in a long time) has a report, and it is actually quite blistering!

 

Some of the incredible lowlights:
 

Quote

 

Chief Meteorologist Erik Dean -- Wyoming's longest-tenured television personality with six years at K2TV -- was let go Monday. He won the 2020 award for best weather from the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters.

The new owners on Wednesday fired Anchor Jiani Navarro, Meteorologist Ryan Gold and Sports Director Kiera Grogan. With their departures, the television station's newsroom has lost over half of its on-air news team in 2020. Sloan Dickey, David Furtado and Carmine Gemei left amicably earlier this year.

 

 

Quote

"I understand a business has to make money, but this is just insane," one person involved with the changes said in a phone interview Monday. "Did that really just happen? Did three of our best people really just get let go?"Those comments were made before the person being interviewed learned of Dean's firing Monday afternoon. Dean was told to leave the building an hour after he returned to the office following several days of vacation for his wedding.

 

 

Quote

 

Several of the recently fired personalities were part of a confrontation with Fielder last week, sources tell K2 Radio News, over a new employee handbook. Though its contents are fairly typical, sources say the 35-page document did include one substantive change: it declares all Coastal Television employees work on an at-will basis, and can leave or be let go at any time for any or no cause, which reportedly differs from the contracts employees had signed under the previous owner.

 

According to sources, Fielder stormed into a workspace Tuesday afternoon as local journalists were working to produce a newscast. He demanded that they immediately fill out the signature page of the handbook.Some employees were apprehensive to do so, and were conscious of their approaching deadline.

 

"You don't have a 6 p.m. newscast if I say you don't have a 6 p.m. newscast," Fielder reportedly told them. A source says the journalists handed the signed papers over at 5:56 p.m. Tuesday, and the production crew had to replay the 5 p.m. newscast because Fielder's actions prevented them from completing a fresh newscast to air at 6 p.m. "We were very level-headed and he was just freaking out on us," one person who was present recounted in a phone interview.

 

 

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1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Well whaddya know?

https://changingnewscasts.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/catch-up-post-4-wcsh-wlbz-wpgx-wmbb/

 

Mind. Blown. 

Mindblown Excuse Me GIF - Mindblown ExcuseMe What - Discover ...

Hopefully this one lasts.  The last time they tried this was for a hot minute in the 90s with WJHG.

Well done Nexstar and Lockwood!!!

 

 

Nexstar should do the same thing in Knoxville and Dothan, and maybe Augusta.

 

Back to Casper, I wonder if Gray may resurrect local news there since they now have no competition in the state?

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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Nexstar should do the same thing in Knoxville and Dothan, and maybe Augusta.

 

Back to Casper, I wonder if Gray may resurrect local news there since they now have no competition in the state?

 

Well, scratch my earlier comments about WSFA doing WDFX's news....because WDHN is now doing WDFX's news!!!!!!

From a station that doesn't even do news on weekends, and only recently did morning news, this is a shocker.

 

Part of me figured the WSFA arrangement was going to go away eventually, and it did.  Seeing as how Gray is the 800 ton gorilla with WTVY (and WRGX), it was only a matter of time.

 

It's the FOX Nexstar graphics package with Inergy.

 

I'll end my thoughts here and put any new updates in the Out and Abou....er...soon to be Comings and Goings thread.

 

 

 

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i see the new "CNN" (Canned NewsNet) has claimed another victim...

 

funny how mister eric "low power station of the year" wotila has turned his quaint little operation into something that allows owners to threaten their employees... 

 

hope its all worth it, assholes...

 

these stations will have NO newscasts once CNN cuts off the newsource gravy train...

 

do they even know...?

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All of this is precisely the reason why nearly the entire state of Wyoming should be a single market. Cheyenne and Casper are too small to justify each of them having their own market. Meanwhile, there are parts of Wyoming, most notably Gillette, Laramie and Sheridan, that are in the Denver and Rapid City markets. I can understand western Wyoming being part of the Salt Lake and Idaho Falls / Pocatello markets, but the rest of the state should be one single market.

 

12 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Well, scratch my earlier comments about WSFA doing WDFX's news....because WDHN is now doing WDFX's news!!!!!!

From a station that doesn't even do news on weekends, and only recently did morning news, this is a shocker.

 

I wonder if WMBB is doing WPGX's news in Panama City. The ownership and affiliation structure in Panama City is mostly the same as in Dothan.

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You have to wonder if Legacy Broadcasting had bought KTWO TV and KFNB (KLWY) TV, and KCWY and GRAY TV bought KGWC TV what the Casper TV market would have looked like. The FCC has already been Supreme Court to lo relax duopoly rules. Will see what the court rules. 

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15 hours ago, NewsMaster said:

I wonder if WMBB is doing WPGX's news in Panama City. The ownership and affiliation structure in Panama City is mostly the same as in Dothan.

Yes, it is WMBB.   A decade ago, they did weather cut-ins for them, but later went back to using the WeatherVision service they had before.

The two stations used to be across the street from each other but WPGX moved to an office park a few miles away several years ago, probably when much of the operations side was outsourced to WBRC in Birmingham.

Now that Lockwood owns them, I believe WDFX  is picking up the technical slack since they have a larger facility in Dothan.

 

It's good to see Nexstar making these moves, and finally propping up WDHN to do things that WTVY isn't doing (yet).

Yet being the prime opportunity to use their CW or Me/My subchannel to compete at 9pm.   Same goes with WJHG/WECP.

WTVY tried a 9pm a few years ago on their CW, but stopped doing so, but this may be incentive to fire that up again.

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Due to Denver reaching into the state, (and a large swath of Nebraska eastward from Cheyenne) it's physically impossible to create a single, cohesive market between Casper and Cheyenne. 

Denver has several "orphan" counties in the state north of Casper/Riverton.

 

 

https://medium.com/@jrcharney/gerrymandering-isnt-just-a-political-problem-it-s-messed-with-our-tv-for-years-97cca9ba7592

Scroll down to the Denver image, and you'll see how split up the market is.  I believe it's based on current assignments.

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Megatron81 said:

The FCC should've approved Gray for Casper yeah I think half the state should be one TV market in WY.

I'm curious to see how Denver spread that far.  Probably has to do with satellite viewing, since broadcast viewing is likely impossible in those counties, due to the distance and terrain.  Even with repeaters, the population is so sparse to even make them feasible.

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On 6/28/2020 at 11:40 PM, Megatron81 said:

The FCC should've approved Gray for Casper yeah I think half the state should be one TV market in WY.

 

The FCC did approve most of that transaction (only the KFNE part of the deal was not greenlighted).

 

It was the DOJ that threated to sue to block the sale. And this was after those FCC approvals. I wished they would've fought this in court. 

 

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Looks like the concern from the DOJ would be the total control of Gray for virtually every station in the market, even if the FCC would allow it under a "failed station" waiver.

 

Gray should have been granted a conditional sale in which they had an extended period of time (up to 2-3 years) to divest the station to a buyer.  Then, if no buyer emerged, then they could keep the stations.

 

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I could see KTWO TV and KGWC TV simulcast the morning and 6, and 10 newscast. Why were the DOJ and FCC worried about GRAY TV'S Control in Wyoming. I live in the Sioux Falls TV market, if anything Gray TV has improved KDLT TV news department with the merger with KSFY. Will see what Coastal will do with all three stations.

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I'm extremely skeptical. My guess is that they're going to be taking a lot of NewsNet material to fill those hours.

That's more news than KFNB/KGWC have carried in eons. KFNB briefly had a 9pm in the early 2000s that started on KWYF prior to losing ABC, and the station had a news department as KXWY-TV/KFNB between 1986 and 1988.

KGWC hasn't had news since January 3, 2006. This month marks 20 years since Benedek blew up the KGWC news department it had started. Prior to that, the station had spent quite some time inserting into or re-airing KGWN's news from 1988 on.

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58 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

I could see KTWO TV and KGWC TV simulcast the morning and 6, and 10 newscast. Why were the DOJ and FCC worried about GRAY TV'S Control in Wyoming. I live in the Sioux Falls TV market, if anything Gray TV has improved KDLT TV news department with the merger with KSFY. Will see what Coastal will do with all three stations.

 

They could have simulcast KTWO news on KGWC for years, but haven't done so.  My guess is they didn't want to dilute their ratings by spreading it across 2 channels.  I don't know what ratings are like since KCWY shut down their news department, but before then, KCWY was regularly cleaning KTWO's clock on both ratings and revenue.  In Sioux Falls, Gray is fighting the 800 pound gorilla (KELO) so they had a good argument to combine KSFY and KDLT.  In Wyoming, it's the opposite.  Gray is the 800 pound gorilla, and Coastal is the one arguing to have combined operations. I'm not convinced Coastal will make the same investments as Gray has.  If Gray plans to stay in Wyoming, I'm sure they will eventually make another run at getting CBS, and putting it on 13.2 in Casper.

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Mark Nalbone ran KTWO decently, but the other stations were very sorely neglected. KLWY has a logo that looks like it might have been made with LightWave 3D sometime in the 90s. KGWC is running on its third or fourth retread of the Benedek-era logo.

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1 hour ago, effseesee said:

 

They could have simulcast KTWO news on KGWC for years, but haven't done so.  My guess is they didn't want to dilute their ratings by spreading it across 2 channels.  I don't know what ratings are like since KCWY shut down their news department, but before then, KCWY was regularly cleaning KTWO's clock on both ratings and revenue.  In Sioux Falls, Gray is fighting the 800 pound gorilla (KELO) so they had a good argument to combine KSFY and KDLT.  In Wyoming, it's the opposite.  Gray is the 800 pound gorilla, and Coastal is the one arguing to have combined operations. I'm not convinced Coastal will make the same investments as Gray has.  If Gray plans to stay in Wyoming, I'm sure they will eventually make another run at getting CBS, and putting it on 13.2 in Casper.

Could Gray and KCWY TV take CBS away from KGWC TV. Where would that leave KGWC TV/ 

KGWC TV reminds me of KMEG TV in Sioux City when it had a affiliation with CBS and FOX. It had to compete with KTIV, KCAU. and KELO TV for news.  

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