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WBNX to be acquired by Nexstar & re-affiliate with the CW in Fall 2025 creating a duopoly with FOX affiliate WJW

It has been a week since Nexstar took over WBNX, and so far I'm not impressed with their presentation. First off, the FOX 8 and FOX network promos feel out of place on WBNX, and are basically just free promotions for WJW. 2nd, the audio is now much louder than before, and sounds either heavily compressed (dynamically) or has some aggressive surround sound effect applied to it. Finally, some of the FOX network promos are so quiet that you can't even hear them, which has also been happening over on WJW within the last couple of months as well. Does anyone at Nexstar/WJW monitor any of this? Or do they wait until viewers complain, in which they likely ignore?

Personally, I think WBNX was much better after they dropped The CW back in 2018. It just gave the station that modern independent charm that most major markets lack. I fear once The CW moves back to WBNX in the fall, that more changes will occur, for the worst. At least WBNX had a good 39 year run under Winston Broadcasting.
 
snowdog88 said:
It has been a week since Nexstar took over WBNX, and so far I'm not impressed with their presentation. First off, the FOX 8 and FOX network promos feel out of place on WBNX, and are basically just free promotions for WJW. 2nd, the audio is now much louder than before, and sounds either heavily compressed (dynamically) or has some aggressive surround sound effect applied to it. Finally, some of the FOX network promos are so quiet that you can't even hear them, which has also been happening over on WJW within the last couple of months as well. Does anyone at Nexstar/WJW monitor any of this? Or do they wait until viewers complain, in which they likely ignore?
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Nexstar bought WBNX to have it be a beta station for WJW. The master control is no longer on site (and is likely out of state entirely). Once the CW moves to WBNX and the daytime schedule is totally redone, there will likely be plenty of "CW55" and CW promos on WJW.
snowdog88 said:
Personally, I think WBNX was much better after they dropped The CW back in 2018. It just gave the station that modern independent charm that most major markets lack. I fear once The CW moves back to WBNX in the fall, that more changes will occur, for the worst. At least WBNX had a good 39 year run under Winston Broadcasting.
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They didn't drop the CW, the CW pulled the affiliation from WBNX and moved it to WUAB.
www.cleveland.com

WUAB Channel 43 is the new home for the CW

WUAB Channel 43 becomes the new home for the CW on Monday, July 16.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com

And quite frankly, given the nasty stuff that has surfaced about Ernest Angley (let alone his absolute misuse of money and totally squandering the Cathedral Buffet because he didn't want to employ anyone) it's a miracle WBNX has even survived.
 
VintageMac said:
No doubt as Ernest Angley was the real star!:rolleyes:
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Call it whatever we want to. It was still one of the better independent stations around. And survived much longer then most of those that died a twitching death by the late 1980's.

It will now just be WJW's sandbox, which I hope doesn't mean simulcasts of their dozen daily newscasts.

I don't know if anyone noticed WUAB now airs almost, if not, the entire block of WOIO news. That means we can now cross two, must watch :rolleyes:, channels off our morning itinerary.
 
Northcoast43 said:
Call it whatever we want to. It was still one of the better independent stations around. And survived much longer then most of those that died a twitching death by the late 1980's.
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Like WCLQ? That station overspent for programming in the mid-80s to the point the syndicators sued them for unpaid bills, and that wasn't a unique situation during the 1980s "indie boom". The sale to HSN was a mercy kill.

WBNX was always a largely frugal operation in their early years and subsisted off of profits from Grace Cathedral. It is not outside of limits of imagination to say Weigel paid them to run Heroes & Icons and Movies! as subchannels, which kept them alive much longer than they should have.
Northcoast43 said:
It will now just be WJW's sandbox, which I hope doesn't mean simulcasts of their dozen daily newscasts.
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Look at how Nexstar programs KDVR-KWGN in Denver and KTVI-KPLR in St. Louis for a general idea of what will likely happen to WBNX.
Northcoast43 said:
I don't know if anyone noticed WUAB now airs almost, if not, the entire block of WOIO news. That means we can now cross two, must watch :rolleyes:, channels off our morning itinerary.
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As opposed to the infomercials and televangelists that previously aired on WUAB from 5–7am?
 
I'm interested to see what WUAB does once MyNetwork TV moves back into primetime and more sporting events air on 43 again. Also, could 43 go back to "My 43" or just maybe even "Channel 43?"
 
Nathan Obral said:
Once the CW moves to WBNX and the daytime schedule is totally redone, there will likely be plenty of "CW55" and CW promos on WJW.
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Ever since Nexstar bought The CW, they have been constantly airing CW promos on Antenna TV, which I'm sure the vast majority of Antenna TV viewers have no interest in.

Nathan Obral said:
They didn't drop the CW, the CW pulled the affiliation from WBNX and moved it to WUAB.
www.cleveland.com

WUAB Channel 43 is the new home for the CW

WUAB Channel 43 becomes the new home for the CW on Monday, July 16.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com

And quite frankly, given the nasty stuff that has surfaced about Ernest Angley (let alone his absolute misuse of money and totally squandering the Cathedral Buffet because he didn't want to employ anyone) it's a miracle WBNX has even survived.
Click to expand...
We will never know what the real reason was, but I'm pretty sure what you said was the main reason why WBNX lost The CW affiliation.

MediaLover said:
I'm interested to see what WUAB does once MyNetwork TV moves back into primetime and more sporting events air on 43 again. Also, could 43 go back to "My 43" or just maybe even "Channel 43?"
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MyNetwork TV will probably continue to air in the early morning hours, just as it does now on 19.2/MeTV. Not sure about the branding, but MyNet affiliates are no longer required to use the "My" branding in their logo. Seeing that WUAB previously brought back "The Block" branding over a decade ago, it will be no surprise if they revert back to CLE43 after The CW leaves.
 
At least "CLE 43" was a better name than "Cleveland 19," which is still the website and social media branding for WOIO, though the station is now "CBS 19."
 
MediaLover said:
I'm interested to see what WUAB does once MyNetwork TV moves back into primetime and more sporting events air on 43 again. Also, could 43 go back to "My 43" or just maybe even "Channel 43?"
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MyNetworkTV is not even a network, it's a cheap backfill syndication service that only one Fox-owned station (WWOR) bothers to brand with anymore.

Why not bring back "43 The Block"? It would at least be be analogous to "The Rock", Rock Entertainment Sports Network...
 
Nathan Obral said:
MyNetworkTV is not even a network, it's a cheap backfill syndication service that only one Fox-owned station (WWOR) bothers to brand with anymore.

Why not bring back "43 The Block"? It would at least be be analogous to "The Rock", Rock Entertainment Sports Network...
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True and also the majority of secondary stations owned by Fox simply renamed themselves after the primary Fox O&O and recently KCOP-TV Los Angeles aka Fox 11 Plus included Fox 11 News at 8pm and 9pm produced by the Fox 11 News team. Yes the secondary stations are basically where the pre-empted Fox Primetime shows goes to when the primary ones like KTTV have to go to breaking news or Fox Sports programming.
 
Nathan Obral said:
MyNetworkTV is not even a network, it's a cheap backfill syndication service that only one Fox-owned station (WWOR) bothers to brand with anymore.

Why not bring back "43 The Block"? It would at least be be analogous to "The Rock", Rock Entertainment Sports Network...
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The Rock on The Block! That would be cool!!

Would that be with on-air host like the first incarnation of The Block?
 
Nathan Obral said:
MyNetworkTV is not even a network, it's a cheap backfill syndication service that only one Fox-owned station (WWOR) bothers to brand with anymore.
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When I read that...I laughed out loud. :D

I would say, "Why not go with "Play's Favorites" again"...But honestly, the "Play's Favorites" era truly meant what it said. It also helped that they held rights to most of United Artists/Gaylord's and Kaiser/Field's film and syndication packages at the time. Also having good on-air talent and locally produced shows.

Also being the only independent in the market helped. I do remember a WUAB commercial in early 1981, where you could tell the knew the competition (WCLQ :rolleyes: ) was looming.
 
Northcoast43 said:
I would say, "Why not go with "Play's Favorites" again"...But honestly, the "Play's Favorites" era truly meant what it said. It also helped that they held rights to most of United Artists/Gaylord's and Kaiser/Field's film and syndication packages at the time. Also having good on-air talent and locally produced shows.
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Broadcast syndication as you and I knew it is extinct. Movies are by and large not available for local television anymore (the film package WBNX has is a very obvious exception) and most rerun strips from days of yore are on streaming or on diginets like MeTV.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Movies definitely has a ticket (ha!) onto the WOCV multiplex. Wouldn't be surprised to see Weigel move Heroes and Icons and StartTV to WOCV in short order.
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Nexstar typically doesn't affiliate the Weigel networks on their O&O stations, so it's no surprise that Movies, H&I, and Start are all going to be kicked off of WBNX. I'm just thankful that Weigel bought channel 35 when it did, as all 3 of these networks would now have a hard time finding new affiliates in the Cleveland market.

For the record, WBNX's contract with Movies expires 3/27/2025. Their contract with H&I expires 12/1/2025, and with Start on 11/30/2026. Buzzr, not Weigel but also not carried by Nexstar stations, expires 11/30/2025, so most of their affiliations will be gone by the end of this year. (List of contracts from the FCC's public inspection file).

Also, no word if Weigel is going to grab Dabl from WOIO (expires at the end of this month), or MeTV (expires 11/15/2025). If so, that would make all the Weigel networks, except for Start, exclusive to WOCV-CD by the end of the year.
 
At least Rewind TV is coming back to Cleveland. Wasn't too happy when WOIO dropped the channel.

I'm even more interested to see what's airing on the main WBNX signal come September once the CW comes back to the station.
 


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