What do you guys think of this? Sinclair will soon be surrendering licenses of WBMA, and some translators, and ABC programming will move to WABM, bringing ABC back to Birmingham for the first time since 1996, when WBRC switched to Fox
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ABC programming in Alabama moving to WABM
- Thread starter davidgheller47
- Start date
its to get around the whole FCC"s "you cant own 2 of the Big 4 in a market" issue. Gray wanted to buy KHAS but already owned the CBS there (KOLN/KGIN) and bought the resurrected KSNB due to a failing station clause and slapped My Network on it. Well the FCC said "you cant buy KHAS outright" so they bought everything BUT the station, closed it down and put NBC on the station they already owned (KSNB) and put it as a subchannel on the CBS.
They did this in North Dakota too. Put Fox on the NBC subchannels in western ND and are in the process of moving CBS in Fargo from KXJB to KVLY (the NBC they own)
from northpine (back in June)
With increased FCC scrutiny of deals that allow one TV station to run another, Gray TV is trying a different method to add major network affiliations in central Nebraska and western North Dakota: It's moving the affiliations to stations it already owns.
In Nebraska, Hoak Media NBC affiliate KHAS-TV/5 (Hastings) announced Wednesday that beginning Friday, NBC and KHAS-TV newscasts will move to Gray's KSNB/4.1 (Superior). The programming will be simulcast on Gray's KOLN/10.2 (Lincoln) and KGIN/11.2 (Grand Island). KOLN/10.1 and KGIN/11.1 carry CBS.
KSNB, KOLN-DT2, and KGIN-DT2 currently carry Me-TV and My Network TV, which will continue on KSNB-DT2/4.2 only. KHAS-TV's announcement said it expected cable and satellite providers would continue carrying NBC and the Me-TV/MNT affiliations on their current channel numbers.
Meanwhile, in North Dakota, current FOX affiliates KNDX/26 (Bismarck) and KXND/24 (Minot) have announced that beginning Friday, the FOX lineup will move to KFYR/5.2 (Bismarck), KMOT/10.2 (Minot), KQCD/7.2 (Dickinson), and KUMV/8.2 (Williston). FOX will continue to be seen on KNDX-LD/38 (Dickinson) and KXND-LP/38 (Williston), which Gray bought from Prime Cities Broadcasting for $500,000.
Gray is in the process of buying KFYR-TV, KMOT, KQCD, and KUMV from Hoak Media in a deal that already has FCC approval. The stations carry NBC on their .1 channels. KFYR-TV's website says Me-TV, which currently airs on the .2 channels, will move to .3 on Friday.
The announcements did not say what would happen to KHAS-TV, KNDX, or KXND. KHAS-TV did say on its Facebook page that Cozi TV, currently seen on 5.2, would no longer be available, suggesting that channel 5 may go silent. (An earlier version of the announcement had said KHAS-TV would go silent.) KHAS-TV has been on the air since 1956 and the FCC just granted license renewal on Tuesday.
Late last year, Gray TV had announced plans to operate KHAS-TV, KNDX, and KXND through shared services agreements after Excalibur Broadcasting purchased the stations from Hoak (KHAS-TV) and Prime Cities Broadcasting (KXND/KNDX). Several months later, the FCC announced it would give extra scrutiny to such deals. Prime Cities withdrew its application to transfer the KNDX/KXND licenses, while the application to transfer KHAS-TV from Hoak to Excalibur remains pending.
Federal ownership rules do not allow a top-four TV station to directly buy another top-four station in the same market. Shared services agreements that allow one station to run another have become commonplace in small markets over the past decade, but the FCC has been cracking down on the practice both through increased scrutiny of sales and an order that companies end deals that allow one station to sell more than 15 percent of advertising on another. The moves have prompted a legal challenge from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Gray is also in the process of buying Hoak NBC affiliate KVLY-TV/11.1 (Fargo), which already operates Parker Broadcasting CBS affiliate KXJB/4.1 (Valley City-Fargo). Gray has said it would operate KXJB after a sale to Excalibur is completed. The KVLY sale has received FCC approval but the KXJB sale has not; no announcements about Fargo-market programming had been made as of Wednesday night.
The Nebraska move will mark the first time that an in-market NBC affiliate has been available over-the-air in Lincoln, where Omaha stations (first KMTV/3 and then WOWT/6) have served as the capital city's de facto NBC affiliates since the 1950's. WOWT is also owned by Gray
I would really like to see the FCC take a look at this. Sure, they're getting minority owners into broadcasting. But if all they can buy is a license, and the conglomerates can strip it of a Big 4 affiliation prior to selling it, then where is the value? I think that this should be specifically NOT permitted. Because in most of these smaller markets, there is no way they make anywhere near as much money without a Big 4 affiliation. In a larger market, you could make the case that maybe they could go with a Little 2 network or perhaps even, say, Bounce TV, METV, COZI, etc as a primary affiliation. But the smaller markets will not support that!
We're going to end up with fewer stations on the air, and less true HD if this keeps up.
(I'm even wondering what Tribune will do with CBS and CW on WTTV // WTTK. I'm hoping, as many have suggested, that they make CBS-HD/CW-SD available on one of the two simulcasters and CW-HD/CBS-SD on the other. Then both stations could still carry THIS-SD, unless they have the room or the desire to move that to WXIN. (Which might make sense because CBS and CW are both 1080i, but Fox is 720p, so there may be more bandwidth available there.))
We're going to end up with fewer stations on the air, and less true HD if this keeps up.
(I'm even wondering what Tribune will do with CBS and CW on WTTV // WTTK. I'm hoping, as many have suggested, that they make CBS-HD/CW-SD available on one of the two simulcasters and CW-HD/CBS-SD on the other. Then both stations could still carry THIS-SD, unless they have the room or the desire to move that to WXIN. (Which might make sense because CBS and CW are both 1080i, but Fox is 720p, so there may be more bandwidth available there.))
As I said, not gonna happen. 4.1/29.1 will be CBS HD (1080i) and 4.2/29.2 will be CW HD (720p).
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