The Media Notepad: Elon Musk wants to get rid of over-the-air TV

Plus, Chicago radio ratings, Comcast considering the sale or spinoff of cable channels, and the CW returns to a Cleveland station after Nexstar buys it 

Elon Musk has finally expressed his thoughts on television, and he is not a fan.

The South African billionaire who bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 blasted the major networks on his platform recently, agreeing with podcast host David Sacks, who like another conservative media pundit, has no idea how the technology works:

The major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) operate on free licenses of public spectrum in exchange for requirements to serve the public interest. They no longer do, and this is an obsolete model anyway. The spectrum should be auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay down…

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 26, 2024

“The legacy broadcast networks are using public spectrum, but act as an extension of the Democratic Party. No more free lunch for them,” Musk said. Sacks and Musk are proposing the end of over-the-air TV, which some fifteen percent of the country still relies on for information (including a good portion of Chicago Sports fans.)

A spectrum auction was held in 2017, netting millions of dollars for broadcasters.

Musk endorsed Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential election and could have a role in his administration if elected. Trump has threatened broadcast networks with license revocation, even though local stations, not networks, are licensed by the FCC.

Conservatives long had a beef with television and popular culture in one way or another for decades when it came to programming, whether it’s the “liberal bias” of news to “woke ideology“. Television did not come to Musk’s homeland until 1976 – 37 years after the medium debuted in the United States due to concerns about “race-mixing,” among other issues, in imported shows as South Africa was steep in apartheid at the time. The country’s Minister of Posts And Telegraph said in the 1960s that television would come to South Africa “over his dead body.”

Moreover, while broadcast networks can move their programming to cable (which is declining due to cord-cutting), local broadcasters depend on a transmitter and spectrum to deliver their programming to their areas.

While the two discuss these ideas, their conversation leans more toward fantasy than reality. However, if Trump wins on Tuesday, all bets are off.

By the way, ol’ Elon made a cameo appearance on Young Sheldon seven years ago, so maybe he does like TV… when a check is involved.

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With the Christmas season around the corner – and the traditional ratings onslaught of 93.9 The Lite, WBBM Newsradio has reclaimed the top spot in the recently released Nielsen PPM rankings.

The Audacy all-news station was up a few tenths from the last ratings period, as the elections are drawing listeners to news and talk stations. Nexstar’s WGN-AM also drew higher numbers, finishing in a tie for 16th place, up from last month. Cumulus’ WLS-AM saw an increase, while public radio WBEZ declined, landing in 18th place.

Hubbard’s The Drive was Chicago’s top music station, finishing in second place. Adult R&B V103 finished third.

Hubbard’s 101.9 The Mix had a nice bounce back from last month, finishing in eleventh place after hitting a low. In the Top 40 race, Kiss 103.5 still has a comfortable one-point lead over B96. And despite firing its morning personality recently, Classical WFMT’s ratings continued to climb, finishing with a 2.1

And speaking of WLIT, the iHeartMedia station finished fourth. But as we know, those numbers will surge when 93.9 The Lite begins the Holly Jolly format, which it did on Friday.

As a reminder, these numbers are based on the general 6+ population, the only demo Nielsen releases to the public and isn’t used to sell advertising.

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NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp. surprised observers on Thursday by announcing the potential separation or spin-off of their cable networks during a third-quarter conference call. The cable properties NBCU has in its portfolio include CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, Oxygen, E!, USA, and Bravo. Broadcast networks NBC, Telemundo, and streamer Peacock would not be included.

“Like many of our peers in media, we’re experiencing the effects of the transition of our video businesses and have been studying the best path forward for these assets,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said in the conference call. “To that end, we are now exploring whether creating a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the media landscape and create value for our shareholders. We are not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but we’ll be back to you as and when we reach firm conclusions.”

Despite linear TV’s decline amid rampant cord-cutting, some of NBCU’s cable networks have programming that still generates significant buzz including Bravo’s Top Chef, What Happens Live, and the Real Housewives franchise; USA’s Scare Tactics; and E!’s House Of Villains (and no, it’s not a reality show about the GOP-controlled House.) But all of these shows are available the next day on Peacock, which doesn’t please cable operators – never mind NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp. itself is a cable operator.

It is unknown how sports rights would play into this since CNBC and USA absorbed some of the sports from the closure of NBCSN in 2021. It’s also not known if NBC’s remaining regional sports networks would also be part of a spinoff. NBC Sports Chicago closed on September 30, leaving NBCUniversal with RSNs in Philadelphia, New England, and two in the Bay Area.

The news brought cheers from Wall Street analysts, saying this should have been done years ago. But with cable TV subscriptions continuing to decline (Comcast lost 365,000 subscribers last quarter), the value of any spinoff company wouldn’t be much and may be vulnerable to a takeover by a private equity firm or another broadcaster, such as Nexstar or Sinclair in the future.

In recent years, NBCUniversal has also closed cable channels Chiller, Cloo, and Esquire.

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The number of independent TV owners continues to dwindle with Nexstar’s acquisition of Winston Broadcasting’s WBNX-TV, creating a duopoly with its Fox affiliate, WJW-TV.

“The acquisition of WBNX-TV strengthens our presence in Cleveland, a top-20 television market, and in the political battleground state of Ohio,” Nexstar Broadcasting President Andrew Alford said. “WBNX-TV will complement our existing operations at WJW-TV, the local news leader in Cleveland, by diversifying our programming for viewers and advertisers with the addition of CW sports and entertainment programming.” [Ohio is not a political battleground state in this year’s election.]

This means The CW, 75 percent owned by Nexstar, will shift its programming from Gray’s WUAB to WBNX starting September 1, 2025. WBNX was previously a CW affiliate from 2006 to 2018 when the affiliation shifted to WUAB after the network abruptly terminated its affiliation agreement.

Licensed to nearby Akron, WBNX signed on in 1985 by televangelist Ernest Angley and run as a division of his ministry named Winston Broadcasting, airing a mix of religious and general entertainment programming, including Fox Kids after former affiliate WOIO (who is in a duopoly with WUAB) gave up the programming block after the station became a CBS affiliate in 1994 due to the Fox-New World deal. WBNX was a WB affiliate from 1997 to its closure in 2006.

As for WUAB, Gray announced Monday it would add sports from its new over-the-air Rock Entertainment sports network and the return of My Network TV programming. Rock Entertainment is a joint venture between Gray and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who also owns the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters and the Cavs’ G-League team, the Charge. A reunion between WUAB and MLB’s Guardians may be possible, as the former Bally Sports dropped the team last season with MLB now taking over production.