WGN For Sale?

[Bill_W]

I was wondering if The ABC St. Louis Affiliate (KPLR) is also affected in this deal?

ABC's St. Louis affiliate is Sinclair-owned KDNL; KPLR is still a CW affiliate. Other than the aforementioned WGNO, I don't think Tribune has any Big Three affiliates.

On a related note, I might as well ask: Are there too few TV stations in the St. Louis DMA to support an official duopoly? Off-hand, the Local TV/Tribune operation in Denver (KDVR and KWGN) might be able to be made into one (although KDVR's satellite station [KFCT] might have to be left out), but I don't think the similar operation in St. Louis (KTVI and KPLR) could.

Will the Philly MyTV station, WPHL/17, be in the deal as well?

Could Disney or Fox bid for WPHL? If Disney bought WPHL, they could swap ota frequencies for WPVI and WPHL. Put Channel 17 ota on channel 6 and put channel 6 ota on channel 17. Keep the virtual channels as they are now..

 

[Markxxx]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

 

[TVCOOL]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

Sinclair would like to have a TV station in each of the big 3 media markets ,and i see Fox buying WGN-TV (selling 32 to Sinclair) ,Sinclair buying both WPIX 11(NY) & KTLA 5(LA) kissing the CW goodbye and adding local sports to fill airtime.

 

[mgsports]

Scripps should buy it so then KMCI could go National or be a Digital Sub Channel of WGN and Daily Buzz add to it.
Fox should buy it so like then FX Movie Channel and Fuel can be added to Comcast Olathe/MO.

 

[lugnuts6]

Friends, lets think about this....

What if Hubbard Broadcasting is interested in just the mid tier Tribune Owned Stations, ..AND WGN America , but not the big guns (WGN, WPIX, etc)

By Mid-Tier I mean WXMI in Grand Rapids KPLR in Saint Lou,WGNO New Orleans

 

[anotherguyTN]

How about if Weigel buys WGN America and puts ME-TV on cable?

 

[JayR]

How about if Weigel buys WGN America and puts ME-TV on cable?

Affiliates would be highly upset if that ever occurred. WGN America needs an overhaul. When they rebranded, they were on the right track but somehow decided to veer off-course by airing off-network syndicated programs already airing in just about every television market in the country.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

How about if Weigel buys WGN America and puts ME-TV on cable?

Affiliates would be highly upset if that ever occurred. WGN America needs an overhaul. When they rebranded, they were on the right track but somehow decided to veer off-course by airing off-network syndicated programs already airing in just about every television market in the country.

The WB network was on WGN America in it's early days

 

[bpatrick]

Hubbard or some other group might buy KPLR, but don't look
for it to go to ABC. ABC tried to get it when KTVI became a
Fox o&o and it elected to stay with the CW.

 

[justpassingthough]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

Sinclair would like to have a TV station in each of the big 3 media markets ,and i see Fox buying WGN-TV (selling 32 to Sinclair) ,Sinclair buying both WPIX 11(NY) & KTLA 5(LA) kissing the CW goodbye and adding local sports to fill airtime.

I can't imagine Sinclair owning stations like KTLA, WGN or KPIX. Their conservative propaganda and news coverage would go over like a lead balloon in most of these markets.

 

[JayR]

How about if Weigel buys WGN America and puts ME-TV on cable?

Affiliates would be highly upset if that ever occurred. WGN America needs an overhaul. When they rebranded, they were on the right track but somehow decided to veer off-course by airing off-network syndicated programs already airing in just about every television market in the country.

The WB network was on WGN America in it's early days

I am aware of that. When The WB launched the Fort Myers/Naples market did not have an over-the-air affiliate. MediaOne (now Comcast) had a cable-only channel that aired WB; Jones Intercable (later Adelphia, now Comcast) relied on WGN for WB programming (same for Time-Warner Cable, which is now Comcast). ME-TV is a different animal. It airs more hours of programming than the WB ever did in its day.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

Sinclair would like to have a TV station in each of the big 3 media markets ,and i see Fox buying WGN-TV (selling 32 to Sinclair) ,Sinclair buying both WPIX 11(NY) & KTLA 5(LA) kissing the CW goodbye and adding local sports to fill airtime.

I can't imagine Sinclair owning stations like KTLA, WGN or KPIX. Their conservative propaganda and news coverage would go over like a lead balloon in most of these markets.

Those stations would be too high budget for Sinclair, not like a mid market netlet station

 

[dave73]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

Sinclair would like to have a TV station in each of the big 3 media markets ,and i see Fox buying WGN-TV (selling 32 to Sinclair) ,Sinclair buying both WPIX 11(NY) & KTLA 5(LA) kissing the CW goodbye and adding local sports to fill airtime.

I still don't see Fox buying WGN-TV. They bought WPWR back in 2002, & they bought that station for $425 million. WGN-TV might sell for much more than that today. I don't see Fox selling WPWR-TV to get WGN-TV, as I doubt they'd get back their investment from the purchase of WPWR-TV. Besides, WPWR-TV was a well programmed station under Newsweb, but turned into a dumping ground since Fox took over the station. If any network buys WGN-TV, it's either ABC or CBS for the English language stations, since NBC owns Telemundo & Fox has WPWR-TV. The networks would eliminate news from the station, in order to eliminate competition.

 

[teevee]

OK let's have some fun with this thread...

Supposing the Tribune did sell it's TV stations in pieces, who could realistically buy what and would they want to? What do you suppose a going price would be for WGN, WPIX or KTLA?

Let the speculation begin ;D

cbs should buy them all then run dr phil judge judy et and the insider on both stations then drop the news and add the own news from the other station.

 

[teevee]

cbs should buy wgn wpix and ktla then run dr phil judge judy, et and the insider, without a trace, cold case, et weekend on both stations then cancel the news on all three stations and run news from their other station wait haven't they already done that elsewhere?

 

[Markxxx]

CBS owns two stations in LA and NY already so those are out.

CBS has tried for years to lure the news staff from WGN, especially the morning show.

WGN has decent news which FOX might like. It really depends on how much money a virtual VHF is worth. Also now that WPWR may be moved from RF 51 to RF 14, I wonder if the signal would be the same? It would be nice to see Weigel get its hands on a new TV station, but I doubt they have the money for either WGN or WPWR.

FOX could try to by WGN and put it's new Spanish network on there or WPWR and somehow work out a shell company to allow ownership.

And since it's just fun speculation anyway..

 

[dave73]

CBS owns two stations in LA and NY already so those are out.

CBS has tried for years to lure the news staff from WGN, especially the morning show.

WGN has decent news which FOX might like. It really depends on how much money a virtual VHF is worth. Also now that WPWR may be moved from RF 51 to RF 14, I wonder if the signal would be the same? It would be nice to see Weigel get its hands on a new TV station, but I doubt they have the money for either WGN or WPWR.

FOX could try to by WGN and put it's new Spanish network on there or WPWR and somehow work out a shell company to allow ownership.

And since it's just fun speculation anyway..

Don't be giving them any ideas. We don't need a Granite/Malara or Nexstar/Mission Broadcasting wannabe in Chicago, though it would be a tri-opoly in this case.

As for luring news anchors from WGN-TV to WBBM-TV, the only 2 that come to mind are Randy Salerno (now deceased) & Roseanne Tellez, & ratings didn't change.

 

[1069_KIFR]

How does KRON (Young Broadcasting) play out in this deal?

 

[Markxxx]

Larry Potash was also set to go to WBBM but WGN matched his contract to keep him. As you know Dave WBBM has a history of taking anchors, though only Rob Johnson seemed to have any success. Actually WLS and WMAQ pretty much did the music swap of anchors many times.

Tribune Owns TV Stations in:

Los Angeles
Sacramento - Fox
San Diego - Fox
Denver
Hartford - New Haven - Fox
Waterbury, Connecticut
Washington, D.C.
Miami
Chicago
New Orleans - ABC & CW
Grand Rapids - Fox
St. Louis
New York City
Salem - Portland
Philadelphia - MyNetworkTV
York - Fox
Dallas - Fort Worth
Houston
Tacoma - Seattle FOX & MyNetworkTV

All are CW except as noted. All are on UHF except WPIX NYC and WCPQ Tacoma

So Young in San Francisco wouldn't matter, unless the Tribune station in Sacramento is worth something to someone in the bay area

 

[JeeperOne]

Hubbard Broadcasting is looking into purchasing Tribune Broadcasting properties - including the former "Superstation" based in Chicago.

Well TECHNICALLY that would include KWGN 2 here in Denver. Only problem to that is I don't think Local Media would be willing to give up KWGN after everything they've put into it IMO

Because of this, I honestly can't see how ANYONE except Local Media can make it happen (Even in New Orleans where ABC affiliate WGNO 26 would be on this block)

Just sayin'.....

Cheers & 73 ;D