Detroit TV station saga takes another turn

NAACP, Operation PUSH urge sale of WADL The saga involving Detroit’s WADL has taken another turn with the owner getting support from unlikely sources.  Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the NAACP have each sent a letter of support of Kevin Adell to the FCC in his efforts to sell his WADL to Mission Broadcasting.  The Rev. Jesse Jackson sent a […]

Comcast reaches retrans agreement to keep WGN-TV on air

Saturday evening, Nexstar and Comcast came to terms on an agreement to keep their stations and cable news network NewsNation on their systems nationwide.  Nexstar owns WGN-TV in Chicago while Comcast is the metro area’s largest subscription TV provider. A blackout could have hurt WGN’s ratings, as it regularly tops the weekday morning news race in the adult 25-54 demo […]

YouTube TV loses Disney channels in carriage spat

  ABC 7, ESPN are off Google-owned platform Just like a thief striking in the middle of the night, Disney has taken all of their channels off the Google-owned YouTubeTV platform at 11 p.m. Friday Central Time in a carriage dispute, leaving four million subscribers of the virtual multichannel video programming distributor pissed.  Vanishing are seventeen channels, including ESPN, ESPN 2, […]

Media Notepad: WTTW exec exits after long run

And… James Holzhauer’s final Jeopardy scores in ratings; Gov. Pritzker honors Rockford local show; Viewers skip Red Line. The man who helmed the Window To The World has called it a career. As first reported by Robert Feder, Dan Soles is stepping down from powerhouse public television station WTTW after 24 years on the job. His most recent position was […]

Nexstar to buy Tribune Media

DFW-area company to buy Chicago-based broadcaster for record price (Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with new information.) Nexstar Broadcasting is purchasing Chicago-based Tribune Media for $4.1 billion or $46.50 a share, making them the country’s largest broadcaster. The bid is larger than the one Sinclair made for Tribune in May 2017 before the FCC derailed the deal due […]

The FCC says no to Rockford (or yes?)

Updated story The FCC has rejected an application for all of the stations in the Rockford-Freeport area (northwest of Chicago) to switch to all-digital broadcasting. The stations: CBS affiliate WIFR, NBC affiliate WREX, ABC affiliate WTVO, and Fox affiliate WQRF were among four of 123 stations whose applications to change over on the original switchover date (Feb. 17.) Those stations […]