T Dog’s Think Tank: Sinclair thinks their viewers are tools

Sinclair’s plans for world domination accelerates while the rest of broadcasting industry stays silent By now, everyone knows Sinclair Broadcasting has a right-wing bent in its newscasts, and panders to the Trump administration. But what they’re doing may put the nail in the coffin of local television- and linear television in general. Sinclair recently ordered its news stations to read […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: “Monopoly Millionaires'” heads to WGN

Sinclair realigns newscasts downstate; talent shows to hit syndication; No one is “asking America” – Remember back in  October when yours truly asked if new weekly hour-long game show Monopoly Millionaires’ Club would air in Chicago because Illinois was not participating in the related lottery game? Well, here’s your answer: WGN-TV picked up the new Monopoly game  hosted by Mike & Molly’s […]

The race to replace Oprah: "Anderson", "Ellen" benefit

Modern Family syndication sales reaches up to 50 percent of the U.S. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution seems to benefitting the most thus far when it comes to replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show when it leaves this September, with Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk shows snapping up time slots soon-to-be formerly held by the queen of talk. Anderson has […]

Retro Television Network sold

Equity Broadcasting has sold the Retro Television Network to Henry Luken (who is head of Luken Communications), in order to raise cash to pay off debt. Operations of the digital sub-channel network are not affected. In Illinois, RTN is coming soon to digital sub-channels of Rockford’s WREX, Rock Island’s WHBF, Springfield’s WRSP/WBUL, and is already on the air in Mount […]

WBUI deal closes

Note: The link provided may require registration. ACME Television has sold CW affiliate WBUI-TV to GOCOM Media for a cool $4 million dollars (and that’s a steal!) The deal closed today.  WBUI serves the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur market. 

FCC waives rules for Decatur duopoly

The FCC has waived a duopoly rule in the Springfield-Decatur-Champaign market, allowing Gocom Media, owner of Fox affiliate WRSP-TV in Springfield, to buy CW affiliate WBUI-TV from Acme Communications in nearby Decatur. One of the reasons for the waiver is because WBUI is a failing station in danger of going dark and a money loser, and the FCC generally makes […]