Newport Cuts Hit several NY stations

[BobRoss]

Newport TV, the company that bought all the stations of the former Clear Channel TV Division a little over a year ago, apparently isn't doing so well.

They issued this memo to employees (PDF) on Friday announcing all employees would be subject to a 2-week furlough by the end of the year. In other words, 2 extra weeks of vacation, but unpaid. The memo also says the company axed 33 people at 6 stations. Insiders tell me those cuts include people at WXXA in Albany (Fox 23), WIVT/WBGH in Binghamton (NewsChannel 34) and WWTI in Watertown (News Watch 50). I don't know which other Newport stations had layoffs (in any case, they're outside of NY state).

Not sure how many or who got pink slips in Albany. But the Binghamton newsroom was cleaned out for all except 2 people. According to a post on their website, WIVT/WBGH will soon be simulcasting the news from sister station WETM in Elmira. Binghamton's newsroom will consist of just 2 people, who will shoot material and feed it to WETM.

I've been told that WWTI in Watertown will soon begin simulcasting WSYR-TV's newscasts. I'm not exactly sure how this impacts the WWTI newsroom staffing -- they only had about 3 people to begin with. I would assume they'd leave at least 1 or 2 people. Even though Syracuse has routinely sent their own people to cover major events in Watertown, having someone there is still an hour-plus of a head start if there's breaking news even further north... or something noteworthy in Watertown (ie. fire, fatal ax, etc.) that might be gone before Syracuse can get there.

 

[oldschooler1]

WWTI channel 50 in Watertown is back to one newsperson -- John Moore. Back where they were in 1996, before Newswatch 50 started. Who will do the news when he has to take his 2-week furlough?

And WWNY instituted a 5% pay cut last week.

 

[Rochwatcher]

A couple of thoughts here. First of all, my heart goes out to those who lost their jobs in Binghamton and elsewhere. Obviously that is a tough situation there.

With that being said, it has been my thought for years that there is no need for Elmira and Binghamton to be different markets. Elmira markets cover Corning, Elmira, and little else. They forget the Finger Lakes areas all-together for whatever reason, and don't touch much east of Elmira. This new arrangement will force them to expand their coverage.

With the way the industry is, there is just no possible way for all these smallish tv stations to exist unless they are #1 in their market. Markets like Watertown, Elmira, Binghamton, etc. with more than one station? Not likely for too much longer.

Speaking of Elmira, do we even need two stations there? If WETM expanded a bit more now with those workers in Binghamton, they should be more than fine. As far as their competition, no one would notice if WENY was gone. Honestly, WETM has been dominant for so long, it appears that is going to be the case for many more years with an even bigger market now.

 

[Rob Jason]

With that being said, it has been my thought for years that there is no need for Elmira and Binghamton to be different markets. Elmira markets cover Corning, Elmira, and little else. They forget the Finger Lakes areas all-together for whatever reason, and don't touch much east of Elmira. This new arrangement will force them to expand their coverage.

They "forget" the finger lakes because, as UHFs, their signal doesn't get that far into them. As far as the Elmira stations would go is north to the Schuyler County line. And Watkins Glen is in the finger lakes -- Elmira regularly goes there. Plus Hammondsport. That's the Finger lakes. So they don't "forget the Finger Lakes areas all-together". They go where they have viewers. Their DMA doesn't go north of Schuyler or Steuben counties anyway. Once you get past that, viewers are watching Syracuse or Rochester. It's not worth their while to cover (most) stories in -- what-- places like Penn Yan? Dundee? Lodi? Interlaken? Most things that occurred that way, we covered with a phone call or wire copy. And once you get north of those lines, there isn't a whole heck of a lot going on anyway. Farmland and summer cottages. Don't forget, their coverage area also extends the same distance south, into Canton, Mansfield, Bradford County, etc. So they have to keep that end of the DMA in mind, too.


And they don't go east because the cable system in Tioga County, NY has traditionally carried Binghamton stations. Considering the terrain of Tioga County (many valleys), UHF doesn't get in there well, including ETM & ENY. So, why go where you're not seen? WENY used to cover Ithaca news (don't know if they still do), but having lived in Ithaca, they were'nt watching WENY for news -- they were watching ch. 3 or 9 out of Syracuse.

"Force them to expand their coverage?" Let's be realistic - few people in Binghamton will watch WETM for their local news, even if they have a bureau to contribute stories.

Speaking of Elmira, do we even need two stations there? If WETM expanded a bit more now with those workers in Binghamton, they should be more than fine. As far as their competition, no one would notice if WENY was gone. Honestly, WETM has been dominant for so long, it appears that is going to be the case for many more years with an even bigger market now.

Competition breeds better stories. One station, no competition, you can get lazy. Plus, doesn't WENY simulcast WBNG's news now anyway?

 

[BobRoss]

With the way the industry is, there is just no possible way for all these smallish tv stations to exist unless they are #1 in their market. Markets like Watertown, Elmira, Binghamton, etc. with more than one station? Not likely for too much longer.

Good point. Utica's been with just one station (WKTV) for several years now. But as Rob noted, no competition can lead to laziness -- and further job cuts. Usually the top station in a market is dominant because it has more people, and those people are being paid more than the other station(s) in town. But once the competition goes away, it's possible for the dominant station to scale back on bodies and salary levels, because they'll be #1 by default. It wasn't long after WUTR closed its newsroom and WKTV was sold to private investors, that WKTV replaced several crew members with robotic cameras and Parkervision (or an equivalent). They also started expecting more multi-tasking... more one-man-bands, more anchors who also produce, that kind of thing. From a quality standpoint, WKTV isn't as good as it was in the mid/late 1990s, but from a ratings standpoint, they still do well because they have no competition.

Similar situation in Watertown. Even though WWTI had a newsroom, I wouldn't really consider it a threat to WWNY. WWTI only did cut-ins for Good Morning America, a 5-minute update at 5:00pm and the rest was all on the web. That always seemed to be the weirdest arrangement ever, and I would never believe they managed to cover 3 salaries just from spots airing during those short cut-ins and ads on their website. Bottom line, not shocked to hear WWTI will be left with just John Moore. As noted, WWNY just cut salaries by 5% ... could there be more cutbacks to come? WWNY barely had competition to begin with, and now they'll really have free reign on the market.

Look back at history... it just seems to be what happens with media. Most cities once had multiple news radio stations and multiple daily newspapers. Now, there's just one of each -- if that. Looks like local TV news is headed the same direction. Just one fully-operational TV newsroom now in Utica, Binghamton, Watertown and (maybe?) Elmira. In Syracuse, channels 3 and 5 are basically merged already, leaving just 2 newsrooms in that market. Similar stories in other markets, with stations either closing and/or merging. Kinda scary.

 

[dustintv]

Well, the troubles which started towards the end of CC's run seemed to have reached their climax. The fall of WIVT has been years in the making. It was never going to be number, never was competitive to either WBNG or WICZ(which is also a joke of station), and didn't even stand a chance against nature when a tornado demolished the station. Alas, when CC first began scaling back operations a couple years ago I had to wonder if how much longer they would keep their newscasts. WWTI has been pretty much been in the gutter since day one, it was impossible to compete.

As for these small markets, I think Bob is dead on in his comparison of TV stations to newspapers. I mean although it's a sad fact reflecting the horrendous decline of the upstate, but I can't think that places like Elmira could have lots of news unless the Elmira stations are extremely local. Syracuse has already been hit, how long before Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, and Plattsburgh are next? The death of local news, next at eleven... :-\

 

[BobRoss]

I think one of the hard-fought lessons here is that it's pretty difficult to raise a TV station from being the #2 (or #3) station in a smaller market, period.

Ackerley did well with WIXT in Syracuse. It was the last "big 3" station in the market to sign on, it started with studios at Shoppingtown Mall. What a joke, compared to the other two stations with their own giant radio/TV buildings on James Street. When Ackerley bought the station, they spent tons of money to build 9's current studios on Bridge Street, on new equipment, bringing in "real" meteorologists, and they slowly rounded up some of the best talent from other stations in town. It took nearly 10 years, but WIXT eventually unseated channel 5 ... in all timeslots except noon, until Ron Curtis retired.

But, the formula for that cinderella story didn't duplicate so well in other markets. Heck, it took Ackerley many years to turn heads in Syracuse. Even though they were somewhat patient with the smaller markets, their stations never quite scored the victories they had hoped for. Viewers in smaller markets are much more set in their ways. In Utica, Watertown and Binghamton, Ackerley spent considerable sums of money, but no matter how good the product looked, it was never enough to steal viewers away from the entrenched leaders.

Perhaps Ackerley was spreading itself too thin, trying to repeat the WIXT coup in too many markets at the same time. Or maybe it just was never going to happen, no matter how hard they tried (short of hiring entire anchor teams away from competitors). In some markets, you could argue they didn't try long enough -- for example, Ackerley owned WUTR for only about 5 years when it sold out to Clear Channel. It took a lot longer than 5 years for Ackerley to turn things around in Syracuse. When Clear Channel came in, they were more realistic about investing mostly in markets where they know they'd make a good return (Syracuse, Rochester, Elmira -- where they were already leading the way) and scaling back on spending in the markets where it was obviously going nowhere (Binghamton, Watertown, and choosing to sell off WUTR, rather than some radio stations, to remain within ownership limits).

Of course, you'll still have some people who try anyway -- like in Burlington/Plattsburgh. WPTZ and WCAX have long been duking it out... eventually edging out WVNY. But look what happened in the last year or two... Smith came in and launched news on WFFF (Fox) and even started sourcing newscasts back over to WVNY. (How often do you see a Fox station doing news for ABC, rather than the other way around??) But will it be a success in the long run? (Anyone have ratings for that market?) Only time will tell.

 

[jiminCT]

A couple of points which maybe interesting to some. WSYR (then WIXT) was carried on North Country cable systems for many years in Malone, Potsdam, Ogdensburg, Massena, and Watertown...so the news probably had some following back then for those interested in Syracuse goingson. Another point...because WSTM is deleted off of the Ogdensburg Time Warner system, this will serve to fill in that void. Additionally, many off-air WSTM viewers in the North Country (it came in so-so...but was viewable in the 1000 Islands/Watertown region) will probably soon lose that service due to HDTV distance limitations and terrain. WWTI's carriage of Syracuse news will also fill that void.

 

[Rob Jason]

Some of these issues go way back before Ackerley.

WWTI hit the air in 1988 as WFYF. They missed their target date of Jan. 1, 1988, so their highly-publicized promise of carrying some big bowl game that day was broken.
In those days, they were grossly mis-managed. Ad revenues couldn't support dreams. They set their sites way too high, and had to kill off their news department (save for one person) by 1991. They couldn't get on cable for a year or two, for some reason I forget, and with a UHF signal waaay up on channel 50, their coverage area was limited. I think they went into receivership for a few years in the early 90s. They were an ABC affiliate going up against an entrenched CBS affiliate. In a parochial market like Watertown/North Country, where some people watched ONE channel for thirty years, the toughest roadblock is habit viewing. We called it the "rusted dial" syndrome.
The Bob Smith era is another story, but one similar roadblock: changing viewing habits of ch. 7 viewers. At least Bob gave us a live truck. We won about a dozen awards in NewsWatch 50s first year of operation (counting AP, NYSBA and Syracuse Press Club). Ackerley didn't buy them until about 1999.

For a small UHF to make inroads against a VHF, it takes two thing that owners and GMs do not have: Time and Patience.

UHF WUTR (also ABC) was closing a gap on WKTV in Utica in the early 90s, when WKTV was still a sleepy, cobwebby stuck-in-its-ways VHF. Give them some credit. KTV's nmbers had slipped into the 30s, while UTR was up into the high 20s for share. UTR always had a decent signal. Then Smith bought KTV, they woke up, and the rest is history. Ackerley didn't by WUTR til the late 90s.

It was worse at WIVT in Binghamton. They'd been on the air since 1962, but as a very very weak UHF competitor to WBNG. The terrain of the southern tier meant 34 was tough to pick up (noticing the pattern here? UHFs versus big behemoth VHFs? Blame the FCC for "intermingling" markets like that). They were affliated with ABC which, up until the mid 70s, was the weak third network. Ch. 34 didn't even have film cameras to shoot local news. They didnt have local news-gathering capabilities until portable VT came around -- even then, the field cameras doubled as studio cameras. Their news would get a "1", while BNG would get something like a 60 or 70. When Ackerley bought them in about 1996, they had a tough row to hoe.

Clear Channel also inherited from Ackerley a VERY expensive fiber network tying all these (and other) stations together, with master controls run out of the "hub" in Syracuse. A cool idea to some, but in the late 90s, fiber costs were astronomical. It was ahead of its time. Plus, Ackerley's dopey corporate ND insisted on buying the ParkerVision news automation system at about $750,000 per station (Watertown, Elmira, Binghamton, west coast stations) so there was that bill to pay off. Then, the dot-com bust occurred. Ackerley over-extended itself in upstate NY, and had to sell out before it went belly up.

It took WIXT many years to upset the #1 WTVH. WTVH also made mistakes which accelerated that trend.

 

[jiminCT]

If the industry in Watertown continues the way its going you may have this?

7.1-CBS
7.2-FOX
7.3-ABC
7.4-NBC (we can dream)...

CW will be dead soon.

 

[cnymike]

No, WWTI will continue life as a satellite of WSYR.

However, it would be nice to see NBC on the seven family.

 

[BobRoss]

If the industry in Watertown continues the way its going you may have this?

7.1-CBS
7.2-FOX
7.3-ABC
7.4-NBC (we can dream)...

CW will be dead soon.

I originally had a post written to defend this idea -- because as crazy as it looks at first glance, with the way the economy has been going, this doesn't seem as "out there" as it might have a few years ago.

But then I remembered -- there wouldn't be enough bandwidth to carry four good HD signals on the same channel. I'm not an engineer, but IIRC, I once read you probably can't expect more than 2 HD signals to share the same channel, unless you start doing some serious compression. And compressed HD kinda defeats the purpose (but you don't have to take my word for it; just ask any other Time Warner Cable customer ;D ).

Still, you have many "big 3" affiliates that are already carrying CW or MyTV on their subchannels. And in Elmira, ABC affiliate WENY now carries CBS on 36.2. Wouldn't be surprised to see smaller markets where you have more and more "big 3" affiliates carrying 2 of those 3 networks. Someone in Watertown could easily subchannel NBC and someone in Utica could subchannel CBS (doesn't look too shabby as a verb, does it?). According to Wikipedia, WUTR is supposed to be subchanneling low-power sister station WPNY. That'll definitely help the MyNetwork affiliate's reach. If WKTV chooses to keep CW on a subchannel, then WFXV could add CBS as 33.2.

No, WWTI will continue life as a satellite of WSYR.

If the decision was WWTI's alone, you'd probably be right. But there are two sides to a network affiliation contract. If ABC, for whatever reason, doesn't like WWTI, it could always choose not to renew. There's nothing mandating ABC to stay partnered with WWTI. The network could very well try to convince WWNY to carry ABC on one of its subchannels.

When you look at it that way, DTV is a big win for the networks. Instead of being "stuck" with the weakest affiliate in the market, networks can now try to get carried as with subchannels on the "leading" stations.

 

[jiminCT]

I think the notion of NBC as a SD subchannel could happen..and maybe have it as a HD service for the TW Systems. Win-Win...plus Watertown NBC would be distributed to most of the north country. Additionaly, antenna viewers would be able to pick up NBC (WWTI and WWNY have good reach up in the 1000 ISlands area).
Plus, many of the Canadian operators would pick it up as SD service.

 

[Silkie]

CW will be dead soon.

Promise?

 

[JustinCase]

The whole idea of WETM news from Elmira on WBGH/WIVT in Binghamton will just make the stations less profitable. It's not like News 10 Now, where generic studios in one area (Syracuse), produce recorded versions of their cable news segments for each area. This will be Elmira news on tv in Binghamton. That's like Rochester news being on in Syracuse. Why would someone in 'Cuse care about a house fire or car accident 60 miles away, when one could have happened a block away? They're basically throwing away local advertising stock and specialty revenues of segments they had for morning news, 5 & 6pm hours and 11pm on two stations the ABC and NBC affiliates.

I'm not sure many remember, but when WICZ switched to Fox from NBC back in the 90's, we had WETM on in Binghamton before, it was brought back cable only initially for the '96 Olympics in Atlanta, and the news was a huge failure with local stories, no one watched, the NBC station eventually spun into the WIVT/WBGH simulcasts of Newschannel 34, using a programming feed from Syracuse.

Binghamton and Elmira/Corning are not one market... parts of the Binghamton market can be as much as 3 hours away from parts of the Elmira/Corning area.

 

[BobRoss]

It's not like News 10 Now, where generic studios in one area (Syracuse), produce recorded versions of their cable news segments for each area. This will be Elmira news on tv in Binghamton. That's like Rochester news being on in Syracuse. Why would someone in 'Cuse care about a house fire or car accident 60 miles away, when one could have happened a block away?

Actually, some corrections on your notions about News 10 Now.
The "generic studio" where the news anchors shoot their content is located in Albany. The Albany studio does all anchor segments for News 10 Now and Albany's Capital News 9. The Syracuse studio is now devoted to weather only, for News 10 Now, Capital News 9, and R-News in Rochester. (Anyone else: Do they also do Buffalo wx now, or is that separate?)

What you see on News 10 Now in Syracuse is exactly the same thing you'd see on News 10 Now in Binghamton, Watertown, Massena, Oswego or Utica. There's no "separate feed" being sent to different areas. At the very most, you may have regional locations inserting their own local ads. That's it. If they were doing separate feeds for each region, Weather on the 10s wouldn't be wasting the Syracuse's market time by talking about the forecasts for Binghamton and Watertown. They have the technology to make a lot of things happen, but maintaining entirely separate feeds for each market or "sub-market" requires a lot more resources, both in terms of machinery and people. News 10 Now doesn't generate enough ratings to go to that trouble... if it weren't for cable subscriber fees, News 10 Now probably wouldn't even exist.

As far as WIVT/WBNG losing profit, that's not a big concern to Newport. The Binghamton stations (and WWTI in Watertown) were already lagging far behind their competition to begin with. When your ratings are that bad, it's hard to justify paying a full newsroom staff. No matter what you put on to replace news, the ratings can't go down much further -- but the station is now saving on all those salaries and benefits. So the station will continue to make about the same, or slightly less -- but it's paying out a LOT less.

Why the WETM news? The #1 reason is that it's free. The fiber network is already in place to let it happen. WETM employees will be making not one penny extra for having their work appear in two markets. (Maybe not true, but even if everyone at WETM was given an extra $1000 a year, the company is still saving a lot of money.) The #2 reason is that it's free. And the #3 reason is that it's still "semi/quasi-local" as opposed to some canned syndicated fare, which is (a) non-local and (b) not free. Instead of giving up half of the available commercial spots to syndicators, WIVT still maintains full local control of all commercial breaks (and even more, since WETM will be simulcasting more news than WIVT did on its own).

Even if WIVT's revenue during these half-hours drops by 50%, Newport could still wind up being more profitable because they're saving on the expense of staffing a newsroom. That's the sad reality of corporate owners... in certain situations, you can be more profitable without local news, and they'll shut those newsrooms down without any concern about public service.

The real question is how WETM is handling things on their end. Can't see WETM or WIVT from here, so I don't know. WETM does very well in Elmira, and they need to maintain that position. WETM should not attempt to "win over" Binghamton viewers or get into battle with WBNG. No matter what they do, they can't win in Binghamton. And if they over-extend themselves trying, they'll be very vulnerable to attack from WENY.

Of course, you can expect to see WETM running Binghamton stories a little more often than they normally would have in the past. But they need to be careful not to overdo it. For example, I hope there's no "mandate" from management to run items from Binghamton just for the sake of having "something" from Binghamton in every newscast, even if it's lame. Just because you CAN doesn't mean you HAVE to. Too much Binghamton content will bore the Elmira viewers, and WENY will be there to scoop 'em up. If I were in charge of WETM, I'd proceed business as usual, as if Binghamton doesn't even exist. Keep the blinders on, stay focused on excelling where you excel.

 

[cnymike]

It's official. Eleven @ 11 will start on Monday on WWTI.

WWTI has an option to add 6pm in September.

Unheard of is mornings, noon, and 5pm.

 

[BobRoss]

WWTI has an option to add 6pm in September.

Unheard of is mornings, noon, and 5pm.

Probably depends on the contracts for the syndicated shows in WWTI's lineup. Right now they air Judge Judy at 6pm. Would be a matter of deciding whether to renew all the syndie shows, or to drop 1/2 hour (Judge Judy or something else) to make room for 6pm news. The only drawback to carrying 6pm only is that WSYR is already in news from 5pm, so they don't always start the 6pm portion hard-up at 6:00:00. If WSYR is running a minute early or late, WWTI viewers will wind up joining the show right in the middle of a story.

So the next question is: should WWTI just take the entire 90-minute block of Syracuse news? If it were my call, I'd say no. WWTI would be smart to leave things alone. They have Oprah at 4, followed by Dr. Phil at 5. Decent combo, despite Oprah's gradual decline. If WWTI got rid of either show to accommodate 5pm news from Syracuse, you can bet WWNY would pick up whatever WWTI drops (Oprah or Phil) and air it at 5pm... either show would be a much better lead-in to WWNY's 6pm news than sitcom reruns. And since WWTI would be in news at 5pm, WWNY wouldn't be violating the "don't air Oprah at the same time a competitor is airing Dr. Phil" clause. WWNY would be able to pick up either show and run with it without any problems.

Back to 6pm... probably wouldn't hurt WWTI to run the news, if they don't mind WSYR not being "right on time" at 6:00 every night... or perhaps Syracuse could make a concerted effort to give the 6pm open a hard start time every night. Judge Judy airs at 7pm as well, so it's not like she'd have to be taken completely off the lineup.

Now, about noon... WWTI is airing double episodes of "Judge David Young" (whoever he is) at 12 and 12:30. They could easily make that 12:30 only and simulcast WSYR's noon news.

Early morning is kind of a toss-up. Seems like mornings are more "local" in terms of the stories, the banter, the weather, and definitely when it comes to things like traffic reports and wintertime school closings. WSYR wouldn't be able to focus enough on the Watertown market to compete with WWNY or to get better ratings than the national ABC News programming currently airing in WWTI's 5-7am timeslot. My gut feeling would be to leave it alone. Let the network fill the time, but find some way to air local school closings crawls when needed, even without a newsroom staff in place.

 

[jiminCT]

Good points Bob-I think the larger picture should be a no-brainer...why would Watertown TV viewers want to be overloaded with such a large block of SYRACUSE related news from 5 to 6:30? I cant see a city 70 miles away having any relevence to Watertown, unless WSYR customizes a newscast with heavy Watertown content.

I get the feeling this is one step towards a virtual translator of WSYR in the North Country. If there is no programming overlap of WWNY and
WSYR....one could envision this potentially happening.

 

[BobRoss]

I cant see a city 70 miles away having any relevence...

Having once lived in the northern fringes of the NYC market, I know the feeling. When you're living 2 hours away from the center of the market, in a different city with its own complete set of politics, events, and so forth, it doesn't make much sense. At least Watertown still has WWNY, and that's why WWNY will remain successful. Just as I posted earlier regarding WIVT and WETM, there's no way that the out-of-market simulcast could or should compete with the entrenched market leader. It's just an alternative "time filler" that's cheaper than plugging in syndicated programming. If WWTI has decent numbers with the programming already in place (Judge Judy at 6, Judge Whatshisname at noon) they should keep them intact. I'd only bring in the news simulcast if it was a matter of the ratings already being in the toilet for that timeslot with no other obvious solution that could do better.

I get the feeling this is one step towards a virtual translator of WSYR in the North Country. If there is no programming overlap of WWNY and WSYR....one could envision this potentially happening.

Both WWTI and WWNY are ABC affiliates and master control for both is already run from Syracuse... so many of the hurdles are already cleared. As long as there are no programming conflicts, yes, WWTI could eventually become a "mirror" of WSYR, with the exception of running their own IDs and local commercials.

Conflicts:
5-7am: WWTI could either stay with network programming or simulcast WSYR's local news.
9am: WSYR and WWNY both run Regis & Kelly (but I've heard WSYR may be dropping them next year). WWTI runs Millionaire (9) & Feud (9:30).
10am: WWTI runs "The Doctors" but that could easily be dropped to accommodate WSYR's "Bridge Street."
Noon: WWTI would need to drop Judge David Young (12 and 12:30) to carry WSYR news and Millionaire, respectively.
5pm: WWTI would need to drop Dr. Phil to carry WSYR news. (WWNY would probably pick it up to air at 5pm as a 6pm news lead-in.)
6pm: WWTI would need to drop Judge Judy to carry WSYR news.
7pm: WWNY has Wheel and Jeopardy. WSYR has neither. Plenty of options available to get WSYR and WWNY in sync for access hour.


After thinking about it some more, I'm wondering why WWTI never tried something similar to the arrangement WPTZ and WNNE have in Vermont. WPTZ does all of its regular newscasts like normal, and they are simulcast on WNNE. But for one segment (usually the B-block), WNNE cuts away to do it's own "local local" news, timed out perfectly to rejoin the WPTZ newscast in the following block. It's obviously too late now to consider that, since WWTI has already been cleaned out... but just a neat "what if" scenario in hindsight.