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WJMN becomes independent station


sanewsguy

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3 minutes ago, sanewsguy said:

Starting tomorrow, January 21st. No word on where CBS is going to in Marquette.

https://www.upmatters.com/news/wjmn-local-3-becomes-independent-news-station/

Looks like a mix of MyNetworkTV and Antenna TV/Rewind TV. I'm wondering if Lily was able to grab the CBS affiliation for WZMQ as part of their regular CBS renewal for WSEE and WENY-DT2.

 

And...I really don't expect that news department to last much longer. No more morning news and just two hours, 6 and 10 on weekdays? That would be a 'why bother' opportunity for most candidates.

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27 minutes ago, sanewsguy said:

Starting tomorrow, January 21st. No word on where CBS is going to in Marquette.

https://www.upmatters.com/news/wjmn-local-3-becomes-independent-news-station/

In the Nexstar thread, you can see an image of the logo without the CBS eye. This is the reason why.

 

21 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

And...I really don't expect that news department to last much longer

If they were to keep their news operation, they would've added a 9pm newscast.

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Just now, sanewsguy said:

They posted this job yesterday for a multi media journalist for "WZMQ 19 News" (with an email address for Erie News Now). Hmmm...

 

https://wzmq19.com/multi-media-journalist-mmj/

 

All indications seem to be WZMQ being the new CBS affiliate.

Since they haven't posted a "News Director" job (It's usually the first position stations list when they want to start a news op), I assume WICU is producing the newscast with a skeleton crew in Marquette. We still have many unanswered questions just hours before WJMN is set to lose its CBS affiliation.

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13 minutes ago, TheSpeedKing said:

Since they haven't posted a "News Director" job (It's usually the first position stations list when they want to start a news op), I assume WICU is producing the newscast with a skeleton crew in Marquette. We still have many unanswered questions just hours before WJMN is set to lose its CBS affiliation.

At least they're seeking a local met there too.

 

But it looks like even with Nexstar behind it (and its O&O past, even as a satellite), going by Twitter, CBS just had enough of WJMN's major issues during their programming and wanted a station in Marquette itself again; the issues with its news department we've talked about here before certainly did not help.

 

For WZMQ/Lilly though, if this is all true...it's a major vindication for them, as they built a station up from the literal ashes Equity left behind in their bankruptcy, helped by the Green Bay ownership that got things right before they sold it off.

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Even shocked that Gray didnt snap it up for WLUC!

I do agree with ABC7 Denver, this MIGHT signal that Nexstar IS going to be the majority owner of The CW ..,one does have to wonder tho, are there going to be more moves like they did with WJMN ?

Edited by lugnuts6
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2 hours ago, Samantha said:

Zap2it shows WZMQ-DT2 (!) as airing CBS beginning tomorrow. It will essentially be MeTV with CBS programs inserted and 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts of some variety.

Get a load of this mux. Nothing like having to air CBS programming in freaking 480i because you didn't get enough advance notice.

image.thumb.png.ebcc834bbcaddf54c1c1dc2cb5ccbe6e.png

Edited by Myron Falwell
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46 minutes ago, lugnuts6 said:

Even shocked that Gray didnt snap it up for WLUC!

I do agree with ABC7 Denver, this MIGHT signal that Nexstar IS going to be the majority owner of The CW ..,one does have to wonder tho, are there going to be more moves like they did with WJMN ?

WJMN losing CBS is absolutely no indicator of Nexstar’s chances of buying The CW or a stake in it, or of Nexstar’s relationship with CBS anywhere else.

 

There are a few questions I have about this:

* 1) Even with the issues mrschimpf outlined, you would think Nexstar of all companies would have a lot more leverage to keep CBS on WJMN, while agreeing to address the technical issues that became such a bother. The fact that Nexstar lost CBS to a station with no history as a Big Three station (and which hasn’t been a major network affiliate since it lost Fox to WLUC-DT2 in 2009) is odd to say the least.

* 2) Why did WZMQ decide to put CBS on its .2 instead of putting the network on its main channel and bumping MeTV programming to 19.2? Effectively, WZMQ will likely be the first subchannel-only Big Four affiliate to have a primary affiliation with a network that is commonly distributed via subchannels.

* 3) Why the short notice? Unless the affiliation contract was already set to expire on January 21, common sense would be to at least wait until February 1, so that viewers could acclimated with the changes. That just causes viewer confusion for no reason.

Edited by T.L. Hughes
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