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Best and Worst station owners?

bpatrick said:
But I don't understand William Cathcart. Why does he dislike CBS so much?
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If you saw his on-air editorials, you'd know why......

http://www.wtoc.com/global/category.asp?c=6222

We're talking Jesse Helms here. VERY far-right. My big issue is that his editorials are too military-centric; I wish he'd instead swing that bully pulpit toward some hard-hitting rants about the ugly crime rate in Savannah.

FC3K is spot on about WTOC's eye-phobia. Their website rarely has anything with a CBS logo on it, if at all. As for their on-air look, it isn't "broom closet" so much as it is just ... dated. (Now the ABC and FOX affils ... that's another story!) 'TOC does a lot of stories on "church barbecues" and the like, and I do wish Sonny Dixon would tone down the 'folksy' act. Co-anchor Jodi Chapin, though, I like. Ditto for their weather guru Pat Prokop. The station is far and away #1 .... which is why it'll certainly stay put. Besides, our good Savannah folk do not take too kindly to change ... longtime anchor/"legend" Doug Weathers has been retired from 'TOC since 2001, and his picture is still on the website's title banner!!

WSAV holds its own, and yes I'd say it easily has the best on-air image and look in this market. And I like Lyndy Brannen.

As for WTOC, as long as Bill Cathcart is in the carpeted office, don't ever look to see a CBS eye incorporated into the 'big red 11' anytime soon. However, I suspect nobody -- not even Cathcart -- complains about the value, ratings and prestige CBS brings the station (exceptin' Katie Cupcake).

--Russell
 
Why hasn't anyone brought up WTOC moving to Fox? Hey, if we've brought up ABC and NBC, why not Fox, which I would think Cathcart would love?
 
Another group owner for the "worst" list: Equity Broadcasting. Their stations are all programmed out of a central studio operation in Little Rock. The result isn't exactly in-tune with local communities that are as much as 2,000 miles away...
 
Morgan Wick said:
Why hasn't anyone brought up WTOC moving to Fox? Hey, if we've brought up ABC and NBC, why not Fox, which I would think Cathcart would love?
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I should have thought of that myself but I don't want to get into
the issues of left-wing/right-wing bias. But if Cathcart is as
conservative as Russell says he is, I think your logic is right on.
 
Looks like you all are right about WTOC, one look at their website's main page, and I still wouldn't know which net they are an affil of. No eyes, 'CBS News' buttons, primetime/daytime banner ad promos, nothing. Almost as if they were a big indie station there. Would they even provide tape to Black Rock for a local news story that made national news, or would CBS (or nearby market's CBS station) have to go cover it?
 
With the way the opinions are going here about Raycom, I wonder if they'll treat KLTV (Tyler, TX), a recent acquisition with the Liberty deal, the same? Currently KLTV has the longtime-headstart/creatures-of-habit audience and acts like they can do no wrong, but if Raycom makes Ch. 7 start to look cheap, will it help the other locals there?

Interesting to see the good opinions of Belo elsewhere outside of Dallas, their home market. They've been in quite a cost-cutting mode at their paper and their station there, which has changed their level of on-screen quality/talent negatively of late on Ch. 8 (WFAA, their ABC station there --the only major non O&O station left in the market).
 
easttxtv said:
With the way the opinions are going here about Raycom, I wonder if they'll treat KLTV (Tyler, TX), a recent acquisition with the Liberty deal, the same? Currently KLTV has the longtime-headstart/creatures-of-habit audience and acts like they can do no wrong, but if Raycom makes Ch. 7 start to look cheap, will it help the other locals there?
Click to expand...

Same with Liberty-sister WFIE-Evansville. I get home quite frequently and have noticed neglible change, aside from dropping their longtime moniker "Newswatch 14" for the more generic "14 News." They definately, though, have not gone the same route as WTOL, dropping nearly all vestiges of the Liberty look.

Raycom seems to be a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" group. 48-WAFF, their Huntsville, AL station, has one of the worst on-air looks I've ever seen. Seriously, my student tv production lab can produce better graphics than what goes out over their air. But they are highly rated, so its not fixed. KFVS-Cape Giradeau has the same kind of "well, garsh, we're just the folks that do the news" look and feel (they're known as "Heartland News") as, apparently, their sister in Savannah which keeps them at the top (granted, the Cape-Paducah-Carbondale market is pretty spread out and each state pretty much watches the "home" station for news despite the lead-in).

WOIO pretty much *had* to do something to bring them some eyeballs, after years of languishing in last place after they picked up CBS when the New World/Fox deal went through. I don't know how much Raycom corporate can be blamed for the tabloid look, other than demanding a better ROI from their biggest-market station.
 
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