KRON in dire straits?

[azumanga]

According to a Newsblues article (which you can, kind of, read here), KRON is running out of money, and fast. It only has enough for six more months before the station goes broke, which can possibly mean that the station might shut down.

How the mighty has fallen. Fast. And soon, hard.

 

[LKellerIII]

"How the mighty has fallen. Fast. And soon, hard."

Except that Young Broadcasting was never "mighty" - just a middling-successful independent broadcasting company that made probably the single biggest mistake in broadcasting history.

It wouldn't bug me so much if the result hadn't been the ruination of a truly good television station with a great news department - and - if Young hadn't bragged openly and egotistically about how they took Viacom to the cleaners when they sold them KCAL 9. Their good luck with KCAL doesn't begin to make up for their $800 million KRON blunder.

You could speculate that the heirs of the Chronicle Corporation (De Young family...no relation to Young) that made that bloated $800m from selling KRON might be bragging, but they're probably sad to see what has happened to the TV station their company built.

 

[1069_KIFR]

It won't shut down. This is just what FOX or someone else has been waiting for. Then they can swoop down and pick it up at a baragin price. Way, way south of that $800 millon dollar price tag.

 

[asstprince]

I'm not an expert on this, but would it be more profitable for KRON to turn themselves into a 24 hours news station?

Or KRON could do non-stop news from 4am~midnight and then show all infomercial midnight~4am, like those cable news channels.

I am not an expert on this, but any thoughts on this?

 

[LKellerIII]

"It won't shut down. This is just what FOX or someone else has been waiting for. Then they can swoop down and pick it up at a baragin price. Way, way south of that $800 millon dollar price tag."

I'm sure you're right that it won't shut down (as in go dark) - somebody will come in and buy the station for fire-sale prices. Indy stations can make money, it's just that KRON can't make money for Young because their debt is too large to service.

I wouldn't count on "Fox 4" though - News Corporation has been selling stations the past few years, not buying them

 

[philosofy]

But hasnt Fox been selling mostly smaller stations? After spending $5b to buy the Wall Street Journal would Murdoch really bat an eye at picking up a station in a major market for significantly less than that?

 

[azumanga]

But hasnt Fox been selling mostly smaller stations? After spending $5b to buy the Wall Street Journal would Murdoch really bat an eye at picking up a station in a major market for significantly less than that?

Also, would he be willing to sever relations with Cox's KTVU? How are they doing, compared to the Fox O&Os in other cities?

 

[jvparent]

FOX needs KTVU a whole lot more than KTVU needs FOX. With as strong a news operation as you'll find anywhere; a full diet of local sports; movies, first-run and off-network syndication rights abounding; and the ability to leverage a second station (KICU) when necessary, KTVU is in about as good a shape as you can get --with or without FOX. If Fox were to buy KRON for whatever fire-sale price Young would agree to it, it would still cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up the suffering infrastructure and reinfuse the place with more major market level talent. It's almost not worth Fox becoming an owner in the market, when KTVU does them just fine without all the regulatory hassles.

Perhaps Disney/ABC might be interested...although they're not known for duopolies...can't imagine who else would want that overpriced albatross that is now the once-proud KRON...sad.

 

[K6JHU]

Let's go one step further. In 2009 KRON is going to have to shut off the low band analog signal and go strictly with digital. That makes one of their major assets (Channel 4) kind of useless.

KTVU will have to go digital as well but at least they will have programmming worth looking for on the cable. All KRON will have is 'carriage' rights on the cable.

 

[LA_Guy]

Right now their HD is on channel 57

Right now their HD channel is 57, which means it's out of core. They will have to move digital channels AGAIN sometime in 2009 or 2010. Does anyone know what their final channel DT selection is?

 

[w9wi]

Re: Right now their HD is on channel 57

Right now their HD channel is 57, which means it's out of core. They will have to move digital channels AGAIN sometime in 2009 or 2010. Does anyone know what their final channel DT selection is?

38. (KCNS is staying on 39)

It's my understanding the FCC expects the channel 38 DTV facility to be ready to go on transition day in Feburary 2009.

I don't think the move from channel 4 to channel 38 will make much difference. KPIX and KTVU are also both going UHF - channels 29 and 44 respectively - and while KNTV will remain on VHF it's moving from 11 to 12. In any case, TVs remap the channels so viewers will still punch in "4" on their remote to watch KRON. I'd bet 99%+ of viewers will believe KRON is still on channel 4.

 

[dhett]

Especially since most probably have cable or satellite, so regardless of how KRON ID'd OTA, they still would find it on channel 4.

 

[paulsecic]

"How the mighty has fallen. Fast. And soon, hard."

Except that Young Broadcasting was never "mighty" - just a middling-successful independent broadcasting company that made probably the single biggest mistake in broadcasting history.

It wouldn't bug me so much if the result hadn't been the ruination of a truly good television station with a great news department - and - if Young hadn't bragged openly and egotistically about how they took Viacom to the cleaners when they sold them KCAL 9. Their good luck with KCAL doesn't begin to make up for their $800 million KRON blunder.

You could speculate that the heirs of the Chronicle Corporation (De Young family...no relation to Young) that made that bloated $800m from selling KRON might be bragging, but they're probably sad to see what has happened to the TV station their company built.

The stupid morons (Young) should have taken NBC's millions and ran. Now they're stuck with a white elephant they made.