Is Local News About To Disappear From One Of Milwaukee's TV Stations??

[Joseph_Gallant]

I am not a subscriber to Newsblues.com, so I get only to read the headlines on thr site's homepage.

Today (January 17th), one of the headlines said "Milwaukee Station Won't Comment On Shutdown Reports". I tried to run a search on Google News, but could find no articles on this speculation.

However, Sinclair (owners of Milwaukee's WVTV-18) last Fall shut down a "News Central" operation on their Fox affiliate in Rochester, New York, and is about to shut down a "News Central" operation on their Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh. In both cases, the half-local/half-national "News Central" broadcast has been/will be replaced by a newscast produced for the Sinclair-owned station by one of the "big three" network affiliates in that city (Nextar-owned CBS affiliate WROC-8 in Rochester; Cox-owned NBC affiliate WPXI-11 in Pittsburgh).

Putting "two plus two" together, I am beginning to suspect that WVTV's "News Central" will indeed be shut down. Perhaps as has been the case in Rochester and Pittsburgh, if "News Central" in Milwaukee is shut down, it will be replaced by a newscast produced for WVTV by one of the Beer City's "big three" network affiliates.

The ironic thing is that while the shutdown of "News Central" would lead to a loss of jobs, the quality of the outsourced-to-another-station-in-town local newscast replacing it will probably be better.

Does anyone have more information as to who it may be, are the rumors true, and if so, when would the shutdown take place??

 

[Jim]

http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/jan06/385473.asp



> I am not a subscriber to Newsblues.com, so I get only to
> read the headlines on thr site's homepage.
>
> Today (January 17th), one of the headlines said "Milwaukee
> Station Won't Comment On Shutdown Reports". I tried to run a
> search on Google News, but could find no articles on this
> speculation.
>
> However, Sinclair (owners of Milwaukee's WVTV-18) last Fall
> shut down a "News Central" operation on their Fox affiliate
> in Rochester, New York, and is about to shut down a "News
> Central" operation on their Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh. In
> both cases, the half-local/half-national "News Central"
> broadcast has been/will be replaced by a newscast produced
> for the Sinclair-owned station by one of the "big three"
> network affiliates in that city (Nextar-owned CBS affiliate
> WROC-8 in Rochester; Cox-owned NBC affiliate WPXI-11 in
> Pittsburgh).
>
> Putting "two plus two" together, I am beginning to suspect
> that WVTV's "News Central" will indeed be shut down. Perhaps
> as has been the case in Rochester and Pittsburgh, if "News
> Central" in Milwaukee is shut down, it will be replaced by a
> newscast produced for WVTV by one of the Beer City's "big
> three" network affiliates.
>
> The ironic thing is that while the shutdown of "News
> Central" would lead to a loss of jobs, the quality of the
> outsourced-to-another-station-in-town local newscast
> replacing it will probably be better.
>
> Does anyone have more information as to who it may be, are
> the rumors true, and if so, when would the shutdown take
> place??
>
<P ID="signature">______________
Jim</P>

 

[RockManAC]

Wouldn't suprise me... They've had virtually no ratings since the start of their news.

Now.. The question is, would they be able to get anyone else to produce a 9 for them?

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[raidz]

> http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/jan06/385473.asp

Thanks, Jim, you beat me to the punch. This is not a "rumor" at all as Tim Cuprisin mentioned the possible loss of WVTV's 9pm NewsCentral in his column this past Monday (1/16). [link here: http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/jan06/385473.asp]


>
> > I am not a subscriber to Newsblues.com, so I get only to
> > read the headlines on thr site's homepage.
> >
> > Today (January 17th), one of the headlines said "Milwaukee
>
> > Station Won't Comment On Shutdown Reports". I tried to run
> a
> > search on Google News, but could find no articles on this
> > speculation.
> >
> > However, Sinclair (owners of Milwaukee's WVTV-18) last
> Fall
> > shut down a "News Central" operation on their Fox
> affiliate
> > in Rochester, New York, and is about to shut down a "News
> > Central" operation on their Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh.
> In
> > both cases, the half-local/half-national "News Central"
> > broadcast has been/will be replaced by a newscast produced
>
> > for the Sinclair-owned station by one of the "big three"
> > network affiliates in that city (Nextar-owned CBS
> affiliate
> > WROC-8 in Rochester; Cox-owned NBC affiliate WPXI-11 in
> > Pittsburgh).
> >
> > Putting "two plus two" together, I am beginning to suspect
>
> > that WVTV's "News Central" will indeed be shut down.
> Perhaps
> > as has been the case in Rochester and Pittsburgh, if "News
>
> > Central" in Milwaukee is shut down, it will be replaced by
> a
> > newscast produced for WVTV by one of the Beer City's "big
> > three" network affiliates.
> >
> > The ironic thing is that while the shutdown of "News
> > Central" would lead to a loss of jobs, the quality of the
> > outsourced-to-another-station-in-town local newscast
> > replacing it will probably be better.
> >
> > Does anyone have more information as to who it may be, are
>
> > the rumors true, and if so, when would the shutdown take
> > place??
> >
>

 

[JohnL]

> Wouldn't suprise me... They've had virtually no ratings
> since the start of their news.
>
> Now.. The question is, would they be able to get anyone else
> to produce a 9 for them?
>
> -A
>
I can't see it. The Big 3 Milwaukee stations have never been friendly. Surely we used to see ch. 55 carry WTMJ-4 news at 10:30pm, but that was because it was PAX and back then PAX was owned by NBC. But for anyone, chs. 4, 6, or 12...since they cannot get along with each other, I doubt they have any interest in providing a news segment for channel 18. I think will see syndicated programming appear at 9:00 pm on ch. 18 in the next month or so.

-John L.

 

[RockManAC]

> I can't see it. The Big 3 Milwaukee stations have never
> been friendly. Surely we used to see ch. 55 carry WTMJ-4
> news at 10:30pm, but that was because it was PAX and back
> then PAX was owned by NBC. But for anyone, chs. 4, 6, or
> 12...since they cannot get along with each other, I doubt
> they have any interest in providing a news segment for
> channel 18. I think will see syndicated programming appear
> at 9:00 pm on ch. 18 in the next month or so.
>
> -John L.
>

PAX was never owned by NBC.. They have a stake in the company but it was never owned by them. They did, however, have a JSA with NBC stations.

Even if there's fighting among the stations, I think one of them might do it, if Sinclair pays enough.

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[techboywi]

>
> Even if there's fighting among the stations, I think one of
> them might do it, if Sinclair pays enough.
>
> -A
>


Really, there is only 2 that would do it, 4 and 12.. Why would 6 produce a news product for a station that its competing with at 9pm? I doubt we'll see news at 9 on ch. 18, it didnt work back in the early 90's, and it didnt work now. <P ID="signature">______________
Bob Colon
www.bobs-world.net
"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today"-James Dean</P>

 

[RockManAC]

> Really, there is only 2 that would do it, 4 and 12..

What about 58? I mean I realize they could already be doing a 9 on WMLW if they wanted to, however, money is a powerful persuasive tool and it *could bump up some exposure for 58's news.

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[JohnL]

> Even if there's fighting among the stations, I think one of
> them might do it, if Sinclair pays enough.
>
> -A
>

Sinclair Pay??? Seems like Sinclair wants the money. Its bad enough they want Time Warner cable to pay Sinclair to rebroadcast WVTV-DT in the Digital services and air WB programs in High Definition.

-John L.

 

[RockManAC]

> Sinclair Pay??? Seems like Sinclair wants the money. Its
> bad enough they want Time Warner cable to pay Sinclair to
> rebroadcast WVTV-DT in the Digital services and air WB
> programs in High Definition.

That's how they're doing it in the other markets... Well.. It's either that or a JSA for the news.

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[WallCloud]

Strange Bedfellows

> I can't see it. The Big 3 Milwaukee stations have never
> been friendly. Surely we used to see ch. 55 carry WTMJ-4
> news at 10:30pm, but that was because it was PAX and back
> then PAX was owned by NBC. But for anyone, chs. 4, 6, or
> 12...since they cannot get along with each other, I doubt
> they have any interest in providing a news segment for
> channel 18.

Don't be too surprised. Money talks, and new revenue streams are important to TV operations. In Madison, WKOW/ABC produces the 9p News for WMSN/Fox and there's certainly no love lost there. Not saying it will happen, but the possibility is stronger than you may think.