WGN America is a loose competitor to CNN and Fox. They are attempting to compete but the result is dismal. Newsnation will never compete with the big boys. I will give them credit for trying but they will likely fail.
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WGN tries but fails
- Thread starter seatownmedia
- Start date
Maybe NewsNation will just be a national news content provider for the Nexstar owned stations like WPIX, KRON, KTLA and WGN.
Note other Nexstar owned stations like KTXL Sacramento, KSWB San Diego, KGET Bakersfield and KLAS Las Vegas get their national news content from Fox, NBC and CBS respectively.
They weren’t competing well with the “big boys” with what they were doing previously.
Also WGN America was previously competing against TBS for "superstation" status back when having a "superstation" carried value to cable operators in the 1980's and 1990's. However given the recent rise of Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon Studios, HBO Max and Paramount plus the Superstation means nothing at this point given that having a direct streaming feed is important in this decade.
WGN TV OTA is not the same as WGN America the cable programming provider
And even when WGN was a superstation, it had a hard time getting onto cable systems in areas far from the Midwest. I remember it sharing a channel on the Time Warner system in suburban Boston with the PBS affiliate in Providence, WSBE. It was only on after WSBE signed off, which was 10:30 or 11:00, depending on the day of the week. WGN never made it onto Dimension Cable (later Cox) here in central Connecticut at all during those years when it was simply a simulcast of OTA WGN's programming.
He's right, even in the '80s WGN was not carried on a lot of major cable providers, even when they were a full-blown superstation simulcasting everything. Seattle folks never saw it, nor did Spokane, or here in Ellensburg. They were carried in many smaller and rural towns on cable. From a 1988 Spokesman-Review TV insert, they were carried in little towns like Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho, Moses Lake, and Othello WA. I guess WGN didn't gain as much traction because WTBS was treated as a cable network ala USA or ESPN, and WGN carried local commercials, local news, and syndicated programming that people could just watch on their local affiliates.
Please don't say WGN. They don't deserve this flack. Just call it as it is... NewsNation.
it was never on Chicagoland cable systems until a few years ago after they dropped local 9PM news
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Banned
Missing WDAF.
WGN Superstation was a pretty good channel. Remember seeing it as a kid when I went to grandma's or even when I got satellite in the mid 90s they aired alot of syndicated shows that either didn't air in that market in syndication or either late nights. Remember watching shows like Xena and Hercules that aired Saturday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm where it aired on Fox 17 late nights at 1:30am later Abc 5 at 10:30pm. Newsnation isn't a very good channel to air an all news network there are other Cable networks that do better. They should have rebranded WGN as a Superstation by airing a variety of classic and newer programming that would be more watchable than newsnation.
WGN was once a local Chicago station that managed to get national exposure. I guess the progressive thinkers have turned it into a national station. Don’t expect local news from WGN anymore. They have completely sold out, but perhaps to increase overall ratings. If I owned them I would have done the same.
I can't see the point of renaming the entire channel News Nation yet. They need to still call the channel WGN America or some other name during the non-news times.
The thing is, WGN couldn't continue to be a superstation, much like TBS could no longer be considered one. Syndex rules, and network programming, destroyed that.
The other problem is, stations that do JUST rerun programming, are going extinct. Cable companies no longer want to pay to carry channels that only show things you can also see in many other places, because it doesn't stand out in a sea of streaming services as a reason NOT to cancel cable. Cable is only worth paying for to get news, sports, and original programming that you can't get anywhere else. I can watch reruns of The Office on Peacock, and I can do the episode I want at the time I choose with less (or no) commercials for a lower price.
So, Nexstar was left with a choice. Do News, do sports, or do original programming. Well, sports is expensive, and original programming is expensive (with a lot of "misses") so they chose news. It's not only cheap, but they can use stories from the local stations AND have a national arm for their non-affiliates to use. Win-win.
The other problem is, stations that do JUST rerun programming, are going extinct. Cable companies no longer want to pay to carry channels that only show things you can also see in many other places, because it doesn't stand out in a sea of streaming services as a reason NOT to cancel cable. Cable is only worth paying for to get news, sports, and original programming that you can't get anywhere else. I can watch reruns of The Office on Peacock, and I can do the episode I want at the time I choose with less (or no) commercials for a lower price.
So, Nexstar was left with a choice. Do News, do sports, or do original programming. Well, sports is expensive, and original programming is expensive (with a lot of "misses") so they chose news. It's not only cheap, but they can use stories from the local stations AND have a national arm for their non-affiliates to use. Win-win.
Amazingly, though, it is still in my cable package. Which includes only broadcast stations, what used to be called News 14, public access and home shopping.
And WTNH Hartford is a Nexstar owned ABC affiliate.
WGN is in a tough spot. Newsnation has a tough outlook because of competition.
Especially when half of the news is must-run Sinclair crap or 'what's trending now.' Which makes news watching useless in a small place like Yakima. What's it like for towns that lost their local TV news station to a simulcast of a bigger market? Are most people just getting news nowadays from Facebook? Radio? Newspaper (in some places)? Even the ranch hand who lives in Wyoming, 25 miles from the nearest town? I'm curious to know what it's like in rural America.
I have family in the Lebanon, NH/White River Jct, VT area. There is no local TV news. Significant news in the area -- usually dealing with Dartmouth College or Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a large regional hospital -- makes the newscasts on network affiliates in Manchester, NH, or Burlington, VT, but those stations' primary coverage focus is their own metro areas, which for the Burlington market stations also includes Plattsburgh, NY.
As for radio, there is a local news-talk station, WUVR, but it's syndicated right-wing outside of mornings 6-9, which is locally originated news and (mostly) talk. The syndicated fare includes two right-leaning shows out of Boston, Howie Carr and Grace Curley, and the far-right Mark Levin, Jim Bohannon and Red Eye Radio. Weekends have "best of" Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro.
The Valley News, a daily paper based in West Lebanon, does an admirable job of covering the area with limited resources, but like all papers, it is fighting a losing battle on two fronts: circulation and advertising.
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