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Sun Broadcasting Bulk-Ups In Fort Myers-Naples

J

JayR

www.insideradio.com

After Beasley Deal, Sun Broadcasting Bulk-Ups In Fort Myers-Naples.

Sun Broadcasting is expanding in Fort Myers-Naples, striking a $40 million deal to buy WFTX-TV from E.W. Scripps, weeks after agreeing to acquire two Beasley FMs in the market. The
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

“Sun Broadcasting is moving to further bulk up the size of its Fort Myers-Naples, FL cluster just weeks after announcing it was buying two of Beasley Media Group’s radio stations in the market. The Jim Schwartzel-led Sun has struck a $40 million deal to buy ‘Fox 4’ WFTX-TV from the E.W. Scripps Company.”

If this deal goes through what will become of the WFTX newsroom? Will Sun Broadcasting simply move the WINK newscasts to WFTX from WXCW?
 
WFTX's news department will cease to exist and become a rump of WINK. Either WXCW's newscasts move to WFTX or are simulcast on the two.

Also... only $40M? Are we overlooking something far more intrinsically wrong with the Fort Myers market when Beasley gave up on their home market and Scripps gave up on WFTX in a literal fire sale?
 
WFTX anchor (or what ever Scripps calls their anchors), Amy Wegmann, posted on Facebook today that she was cleaning out her desk and the station will move to the WINK studios as soon as the sale closes (my prediction: in the next few days).

Interestingly, her husband works in the same building as a host on Sun’s news talk radio station.

I believe every WFTX newscast airs at the same time as newscasts on either WINK or WCWX. It’ll be interesting to see if they simulcast or air them on only one station. I could see them taking the 10:00 PM newscast off WCWX and only having airing it on WFTX for example.
 
BoboKnight said:
I believe every WFTX newscast airs at the same time as newscasts on either WINK or WCWX. It’ll be interesting to see if they simulcast or air them on only one station. I could see them taking the 10:00 PM newscast off WCWX and only having airing it on WFTX for example.
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It’s WXCW.

I see the newscasts moving from WXCW to WFTX. It means WXCW will either have to pick up more shows or re-air existing shows in their inventory to fill the time slots left empty by the loss of the newscasts.
 
I've actually seen from schedules that WXCW and WFTX will simulcast together from 7-11am and 10-11pm with WFTX having an exclusive newscast at 6:30 and WXCW having an exclusive one at 7:30pm.
 
So the growing SW FLA tv market will be down to two tv station news departments. This is at least market 53 but can not find the latest market ranks anywhere I look. Then again a few months ago market 52 (Providence) the same thing happened there.
 
RadioRonnie285 said:
So the growing SW FLA tv market will be down to two tv station news departments. This is at least market 53 but can not find the latest market ranks anywhere I look. Then again a few months ago market 52 (Providence) the same thing happened there.
Click to expand...
Not sure if it’s growing or remaining stagnant (population growth offset by declining local news viewership).

That said, since WBBH signed on, there have only really been two players in the market. WEVU (now WZVN) was not a serious player in news until their duopoly with Waterman (now Hearst) in the early 1990s.

That was about the same time WFTX launched their newscasts. WFTX’s only advantage was having a 10:00 PM newscast, which WINK eliminated by their duopoly with WXCW. Their quality has always been far below WINK and Hearst/Waterman. The last time I watched one of their newscasts (about 5 or so years ago, they only had a couple local stories. I believe they had more stories from their Tampa sister station than from Their reporters.
 
BoboKnight said:
Based on promos I’ve seen and tv listings, Sun is no longer running newscasts on WXCW. The morning (7-noon), 6:30 PM and 10:00 PM newscasts are airing exclusively on WFTX.

WINK (the CBS station) and WFTX aren’t airing newscasts at the same time either.
Click to expand...

Correct. I figured that was the plan all along.
 
BoboKnight said:
Based on promos I’ve seen and tv listings, Sun is no longer running newscasts on WXCW. The morning (7-noon), 6:30 PM and 10:00 PM newscasts are airing exclusively on WFTX.

WINK (the CBS station) and WFTX aren’t airing newscasts at the same time either.
Click to expand...

You are correct. All newscasts that used to air on WXCW are now on WFTX, with the exception of Sunday mornings at 9:00am, since both WINK and WFTX air national network programming during that time (CBS Sunday Morning and FOX News Sunday).
 
itsTheRolyPoly said:
You are correct. All newscasts that used to air on WXCW are now on WFTX, with the exception of Sunday mornings at 9:00am, since both WINK and WFTX air national network programming during that time (CBS Sunday Morning and FOX News Sunday).
Click to expand...
How are they going to deal with newscasts that are delayed because of sports on WFTX?

Somewhat frequently, sports pushes the start of Fox local newscasts past 10:00 PM and sometimes past 11:00 PM. Are they going to air an abbreviated newscast until 11:00 or not one at all (if the start time pushes to close to or past11:00)?

The only alternative, since they share a studio and on air talent with WINK would be to tape an hour long newscast at 10:00 and air it whenever sports ends. That would probably be confusing to viewers though with the same talent on both WINK and WFTX not simulcasting.
 
Don't forget that these days, local newscasts are also consumed via live streaming, so most stations that produce news for both Fox and big three affiliates start producing the Fox newscast at 10 even if the network is still in sports. The streaming audience sees it live and it's delayed in a server (which is trivial to do these days) until Fox airtime.

I doubt many viewers are watching both stations these days just to notice it's all the same talent.
 


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