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Best and Worst station owners?
- Thread starter genius
- Start date
Best: 3-way tie between Tribune, Belo and Weigel
Worst: tie between Sinclair and Fox
Worst: tie between Sinclair and Fox
genius said:
I wholeheartedly agree. They own WTOC, the CBS affiliate here in Savannah, Georgia, and to say it's a shoddy operation is to do a disservice to shoddy operations everywhere. As I stated previously of WTOC...
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,35832.msg355654.html#msg355654
And yes, WTOC is not happy with being a CBS affiliate. A friend of mine worked at WTOC a few years ago in the video/TV promo department. One day he was creating potential promos with the famous CBS logo in them. When said promos were shown to Cathcart, he flipped out, screaming, "Get that damn thing out of there!"
The day a new company buys WTOC the happier I'll be.
A question I have...how well run are the O&Os? I've heard good, I've heard bad.
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hintomedia
Guest
Increasingly I don't hear about which company's the best owner, but which one's the least evil.
Nonetheless, I've heard good things about Dispatch (WTHR, WBNS) and Landmark (WTVF, KLAS).
Nonetheless, I've heard good things about Dispatch (WTHR, WBNS) and Landmark (WTVF, KLAS).
FilmCritic3K said:
I was once offered a job at WOIO...during the interview it started looking like a guaranteed disaster so I passed. I'm glad I did; last year I heard their station in Tucson, KOLD, fired a popular anchor over a disagreement with the news director; I hear their ratings might be in the toilet these days, anyone know for sure? I was happy when Raycom left ABQ after selling KASA to Lin, who also own KRQE, the CBS station.
As far as O&Os go, it most often depends on what station. I worked at KCNC when it was an NBC O&O, and I liked it; not sure how their doing under CBS, as most of the people I knew are gone, although as far as I can gather they're alright. I do know that ever since NBC merged with Vivendi Universal things have gone down somewhat.
CBS' track is uneven; Some are well run, and some are flat out poorly run(one being flagship WCBS). ABC runs their O&Os fairly good, especially their larger stations like WABC, KGO, and KABC.
Landmark is decent, only thing I find questionable about them is how the operate their largest asset, The Weather Channel.
I think all companies own some good stations and some bads ones.
Good Tribune Station: CW-11 WPIX in NYC. Bad Tribune Stations FOX 61/CW20 in Hartford.
Good LIN TV Station: WTNH 8 (ABC) in New Haven (for the most part) Bad: WCTX (MNT) New Haven and WWLP (NBC) in Sprinfield, MA.
Here's a question. How is EW Scripps as a station owner? Where I live they owned WSAH Channel 43, the Shop-At-Home O&O. This station was always full of technical problems.
Good Tribune Station: CW-11 WPIX in NYC. Bad Tribune Stations FOX 61/CW20 in Hartford.
Good LIN TV Station: WTNH 8 (ABC) in New Haven (for the most part) Bad: WCTX (MNT) New Haven and WWLP (NBC) in Sprinfield, MA.
Here's a question. How is EW Scripps as a station owner? Where I live they owned WSAH Channel 43, the Shop-At-Home O&O. This station was always full of technical problems.
MarcB said:
Just curious...what kind of technical problems? Transmitter? Master Control? Just curious if you know.
But, I can tell you for all the media companies I've worked for, Nexstar/Mission Broadcasting is the worst.
Best: Cox. Their stations are run great, and many of them (specifically flagship WSB-TV Atlanta) are so on top that nobody can touch them with a 40 meter pole. Their philosophy - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Unless the technology is outdated. The minute new technology comes out, they have to have it. When Gannett's WXIA beat WSB to HD news, I think they nearly had a heart attack.
Worst: Meredith. Racist Kevin O'Brien ruined them into the ground. WGCL Atlanta is in such poor shape, they alligned with the devil (Pat Robertson) and cleared whole gobs on time on weekends when sports is not on for infomercials.
Fox also is not a good owner, as y'all know who owns it. Fox Noise look is being implemented on all O&O's (although not yet on WAGA Atlanta), and I wonder if right-wing bias will be soon.
Worst: Meredith. Racist Kevin O'Brien ruined them into the ground. WGCL Atlanta is in such poor shape, they alligned with the devil (Pat Robertson) and cleared whole gobs on time on weekends when sports is not on for infomercials.
Fox also is not a good owner, as y'all know who owns it. Fox Noise look is being implemented on all O&O's (although not yet on WAGA Atlanta), and I wonder if right-wing bias will be soon.
jal41 said:
So left wing bias on most every station is okay but right wing bias on a handful of stations is not. We can't get rid of bias but what is wrong with an assortment of biases across the dial. Does all tv news have to be left wing? Would a few right wing news operations really make things worse.
Mark said:
Yes, I can explain my choices:
Lin TV: They have had a successful rate with how they operate their stations. I'm glad I've been able to have the opportunity to watch them turn KRQE into a #1 news product within the past two years. They've had the same experience with WIVB in Buffalo as well.
Hearst-Argyle and Gannett: I've worked at stations owned under them, including ABQ's KOAT(although they aren't as promient these days). Both run very classy operations imo and they aren't cheapskates when it comes to producing a good newsproduct, especially when Gannett's stations are now starting to go in HD.
ACME: Though they own only CW stations and one MNTV station, they really campaign for their stations. Knoxville's WBXX was on the strongest WB stations. And they also do The Daily Buzz along with Emmis, which is a good example to all who want to do a syndicated news/entertainment show.
The Worst:
Sinclair: Sinclair is very very cheap when comes to producing a newscast. So cheap, that when CBS bought KOVR, they had to spend millions to upgrade everything because all the technology KOVR had was so poor. they created News Central, a poorly pieced together national news package with limited local content that ended up replacing local news operations on many stations across the US, also throwing in VNRs and editorals. Sinclair forget two important things: Corner cutters never win and bias, whether it is to the right or to the left, always equals layoffs, hence why News Central no longer exists.
Nexstar: They are the MediaNews Group(no offense) to the TV industry in the fact that they are media consolidators! They gone around buying two stations, most often they are of the big three, and then consolidate their operations at the cost of having a third or fourth choice for news. Worse, they do it in smaller markets like Lubbock, Amarillo, and Scranton so thse markets are losing two local news operations for one big one. They are able to get away with this because they have been in bed with Mission Broadcasting for so long they control Mission in everything except for name only. Consolidation never produces a good product; just check out their station websites.
Raycom: They are major cost cutters, advocate tabloidism, and end up producing a poor product.
Granite: Once upon a time WKBW in Buffalo was owned by Capital Cities, who also owned WPVI in Philadelphia. Both were megahouse sister stations who used "Move Closer To Your World", and both were ABC's strongest stations. Then, Capital Cities had to sell WKBW when then bought ABC, as even though the ownership cap went from five stations to twelve, they still had too many stations. Eventually WKBW ended up in the hands of Granite. Within the last five years or so, Granite fixed something that wasn't broke: They changed their newsbranding, dropped "Move Closer to Your World" and now WKBW is an empty shell of itself.
genius said:
What they're doing to WTOL in Toledo should be a criminal offense.
bpatrick said:
WTOC's been a CBS affiliate for several decades; the heritage is there, even if William Cathcart think otherwise. And I don't think Cathcart would welcome an NBC affiliation, as he constantly follows the 11PM news with right-wing editorials so he more than likely subscribes to the O'Reilly-led "NBC are evil liberal meanie pants" line.
As for NBC, WSAV's been an affiliate of NBC almost as long as WTOC has been a CBS affiliate; WSAV is only two years younger than WTOC (WTOC signed on in 1954; WSAV in 1956) so I'd imagine NBC Universal is happy with Media General's operation of WSAV. IMHO WSAV is the best TV station here in Savannah. Their on-air product, from imaging to presentation, is top-notch and their reporting is very well-done. When you contrast and compare that with WTOC's 'we shot this in a broom closet' production values, there's absolutely no contest. So, in conclusion, I don't see any affiliation changes in Savannah any time soon. Do you think there will be?
jal41 said:
You don't know what you're talking about. Fox is a good station group to work for. Fox News is not dictating what the local stations cover or how they cover it. The common look being implemented at the stations is an improvment for most of them.
In Chicago, I believe Tribune is terrible, as far as WGN is concerned. Ever since corporate forced WGN to become a network, after being an independent station for nearly 4 decades, WGN has been forced to pay Weigel Broadcasting's WCIU 26 to air some sports programming, that they would rather air, because they own the Chicago rights to air the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, & Hawks (I believe they have the rights to that), but they're required to air network programming. First it was WB programming, and now, it CW. It's too bad that CW programming couldn't go to WCIU. I believe they would be more committed to network programming than WGN would be. WGN would rather be an independent.
In Charlotte the players are:
Cox WSOC-9 ABC and WAXN-64 Ind
Lincoln Financial (was Jefferson Pilot) WBTV-3 CBS
Belo WCNC-36 NBC
Capital of Raleigh WJZY-46 CW and WMYT-55 MY-network
Bahackel WCCB-18 Fox
3 and 9 are always neck and neck in the ratings. They have the tools and the toys to do the job. If one gets something the other does too just to keep up (chopper, sat truck etc.)
WAXN the second Cox station is largely automated with a server. The station suffers from audio and video problems some of the time.
Belo has added stability to 36 which they always refer to as NBC-6 because it's on 6 in all the cable systems. Belo seems to hire good people and the station has come along way from the PBS special about TV news which exposed allot of problems that WCNC had to deal with. Westinghouse used to own this station and even the mighty Group W couldn't make a winner out of it. Under Belo it's stronger now than it's ever been.
WCCB-18 looks and sounds better than it used to. There were stories about the station buying used broken down equipment and then keeping the stuff going with glue and spit. They have made some good money since the Fox network started. Some management and engineering from WBTV came over for more money and now the station looks a lot better. They've done their own news shows for the past few years but I'm not sure that anyone is paying much attention to them yet. WCCB hires lots of pretty girls for news and weather, not that there is anything wrong with that!
Capital owns WRAL-5 in Raleigh which is a major player in that town. Here WJZY and WMYT look good but aren't much more than your typical independent or CW affiliate. They don't produce a newscast WBTV does a 10pm cast for them on 46. They do seem to have a good movie package. Both stations look good from a technical aspect but they aren't doing anything locally with HDTV unlike the pioneering WRAL.
Cox WSOC-9 ABC and WAXN-64 Ind
Lincoln Financial (was Jefferson Pilot) WBTV-3 CBS
Belo WCNC-36 NBC
Capital of Raleigh WJZY-46 CW and WMYT-55 MY-network
Bahackel WCCB-18 Fox
3 and 9 are always neck and neck in the ratings. They have the tools and the toys to do the job. If one gets something the other does too just to keep up (chopper, sat truck etc.)
WAXN the second Cox station is largely automated with a server. The station suffers from audio and video problems some of the time.
Belo has added stability to 36 which they always refer to as NBC-6 because it's on 6 in all the cable systems. Belo seems to hire good people and the station has come along way from the PBS special about TV news which exposed allot of problems that WCNC had to deal with. Westinghouse used to own this station and even the mighty Group W couldn't make a winner out of it. Under Belo it's stronger now than it's ever been.
WCCB-18 looks and sounds better than it used to. There were stories about the station buying used broken down equipment and then keeping the stuff going with glue and spit. They have made some good money since the Fox network started. Some management and engineering from WBTV came over for more money and now the station looks a lot better. They've done their own news shows for the past few years but I'm not sure that anyone is paying much attention to them yet. WCCB hires lots of pretty girls for news and weather, not that there is anything wrong with that!
Capital owns WRAL-5 in Raleigh which is a major player in that town. Here WJZY and WMYT look good but aren't much more than your typical independent or CW affiliate. They don't produce a newscast WBTV does a 10pm cast for them on 46. They do seem to have a good movie package. Both stations look good from a technical aspect but they aren't doing anything locally with HDTV unlike the pioneering WRAL.
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