Another television group exits Illinois Atlanta-based Gray Television announced Monday the acquisition of Quincy Media’s television and radio properties for $925 million, a move expected as the Quincy, Ill.-based company announced late last year it was putting their media properties up for sale. Once the deal is completed, Gray would own stations in 102 markets, mostly mid-sized and small metros. […]
25 years ago this week, Fox’s Rupert Murdoch changed the TV world by inking a deal to trigger the biggest affiliation switch in history. It goes back to what happened on December 17, 1993. The networks were complaining about paying too much for sports – the NFL in particular – as the packages were losing money and looking to pay […]
Most top markets lose TV homes as streaming, other alternatives take hold New York, Miami, Orlando only markets in top twenty to post gains while last year’s big winners slipped As a nation, it looks like were are ditching the traditional boob tube when it comes to TV. With streaming on devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets are becoming […]
Also: New host of Check Please is a familiar name; Chicago radio still playing R. Kelly’s music; Peoria public radio in trouble; CBC cancels arts show who visited Chicago In a mind-numbing move, ABC announced Wednesday it was expanding Good Morning America to three hours. Only problem is… the extension is airing at Noon Chicago time, 1 p.m. Eastern time […]
Sinclair selling off WPIX, WGN to win approval? Meet the Shell Answer Man. During the eight years I worked at the Better Business Bureau, yours truly has seen plenty of scams perpetrated onto by the public the organization had to warn about. But even those can’t compare to what Sinclair and the FCC are pulling. In a filing revealed on […]
And… other news of note To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Fox has pulled the plug on 24: Legacy after one season. The series was left off the fall schedule when it was announced last month, increasing speculation its days would be numbered. In addition, Fox said it was putting the brakes on more episodes of its Prison Break revival after […]
Quincy and Sinclair do some wheeling and dealing, moving networks onto digital subchannels In what may become commonplace in small markets across the country, major broadcast networks are winding up on digital subchannels of other stations. In a huge television realignment just 80 miles east of Chicago, Sinclair Broadcasting’s WSBT snagged the Fox affiliation from Quincy Media-owned WSJV, which dropped […]
Deal with WGN sends selected Cubs and White Sox games to former CBS affiliate; nine other Midwestern markets also cleared In order to fill a programming void left by CBS, a local Indianapolis TV station is turning to two Chicago institutions. Media General-owned WISH-TV announced Friday it was planning to air a package of Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games produced […]
News briefs from Chicago and beyond: – Cumulus-owned WLS-AM has been fined $44,000 from the Federal Communications Commission for failing to disclose eleven news items it broadcast were advertisements. The “news items” aired on WLS between March and May 2009 (during the ownership reign of Citadel, Inc.), for Workers Independent News, who pretended to interview a local politician. Workers failed […]
Another all-local edition of the Grab Bag… including an item on a possible sale of some downstate TV stations: – Julian Nieh, one half of the duo of B96’s (WBBM-FM’s) The JNiice & Julian Morning Show, exited the station on Wednesday to pursue other interests. The seven-year veteran of the contemporary-hit station was paired with Jamar “JNiice” McNeil in January […]
Rosie is over and out; Canadian media consolidates further; and other items of note A lot of items to cover in this week’s Grab bag: In a move that was speculated for some time, struggling cable network OWN finally canceled The Rosie Show after five months on the air. The series’ future was questioned after Rosie O’Donnell sold her Lakeview […]
Will Nielsen ratings play in Peoria? Not anymore. Peoria-Bloomington’s commercial television stations have recently told the ratings service to take a hike. According to this TVNewscheck story, the downstate market’s two owners – Nextstar and Granite – has ditched Nielsen as their main television ratings provider. Instead, the stations are replacing the service with “qualitative research and smart sales promotion” […]
Playing in Peoria is hard these days… The owners of NBC affiliate WEEK-TV and ABC affiliate WHOI-TV in Peoria have decided to merge their operations, effective immediately. WEEK’s owner (Granite Broadcasting) took over the operations of Barrington Broadcasting-owned WHOI in a local marketing agreement, leaving just Nextstar’s CBS affiliate (WMBD-TV) as their sole local competitor. A similar scenario has played […]
Forget the goat, it’s this guy’s fault the Cubs didn’t win. There’s only one Floptober… Remember when I said Darkmane (from those X Games spots) couldn’t foil the X Games but could show up at Wrigley to foil the Cubs chances at going to the World Series? Not only he succeeded, but he also managed to find time to show […]
Man, how bad is the economy? So bad that now you even have radio stations shutting down. Two Peoria stations threw in the towel on Friday: Adult standards-formatted WOAM 1350 and Oldies WPMJ-FM, both owned by local businessman Bob Kelly due to “financial reasons”. The stations had been up for sale, but the current credit crunch had scared off many […]