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Which station(s) in your market will go off the air first?

Reportedly Bridgeport, Connecticut will lose both their stations WZME Channel 43 which is Heroes and Icon on the .1, The Works on the .2, and Comet on .3 and Connecticut Public Television will shut down WEDW Channel 49 PBS.

There is a rumor that Media General will shut down WCTX Channel 59 in New Haven and move their programming to a sub channel of WTNH Channel 8.
 
It won't be nearly as many as you think. There are some spectrum speculators who are buying some stations to sell them to companies that want frequencies for the auction. Most other stations will stay put unless the bidding gets far higher than most think.
 
tested said:
It won't be nearly as many as you think. There are some spectrum speculators who are buying some stations to sell them to companies that want frequencies for the auction. Most other stations will stay put unless the bidding gets far higher than most think.
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ION might be the only national network to take the offer for all of their stations. Their network consists of O&Os run off satellite. Might make more financial sense to take down their network for easy cash!

NRJ is one of them. They own KUBE-TV, the sole English-language independent TV station here in Houston. Apparently they manage the famed KDOC in the L.A. market for another spectrum speculator.

Liberman may take the money and run. They are known to have financial troubles. The KZJL feud has added to that. The TV station and the 3 rimshot FM stations they own have been running anti-Xfinity/Comcast commercials. They still have not been able to resolve retransmission consent after being off the Xfinity system for 9 months and counting!

KZJL is a good property since it is the only Houston-licensed station not a Big 6 network station; perfect for an English-language independent. Looking at the coverage maps, it seems that they have superior HAAT and ERP compared to the other suburban licensed UHFs. So much potential--would be sad to see them go!
 
KTN Corp said:
ION might be the only national network to take the offer for all of their stations. Their network consists of O&Os run off satellite. Might make more financial sense to take down their network for easy cash!

NRJ is one of them. They own KUBE-TV, the sole English-language independent TV station here in Houston. Apparently they manage the famed KDOC in the L.A. market for another spectrum speculator.

Liberman may take the money and run. They are known to have financial troubles. The KZJL feud has added to that. The TV station and the 3 rimshot FM stations they own have been running anti-Xfinity/Comcast commercials. They still have not been able to resolve retransmission consent after being off the Xfinity system for 9 months and counting!

KZJL is a good property since it is the only Houston-licensed station not a Big 6 network station; perfect for an English-language independent. Looking at the coverage maps, it seems that they have superior HAAT and ERP compared to the other suburban licensed UHFs. So much potential--would be sad to see them go!
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Agreed on all points, KTN. I'll go even a step further and predict KFTH's demise as well. 67 is already at 45.2, Escape at 45.3. How hard would it be to move Get & Grit over to 45.4 & .5, effectively calling it quits on a facility who's best days on record were that of a Home Shopping Network affiliate operated by Silver King? 67 has never seen much or steady success. This would be an effective opportunity to cash in for Univision.
 
Is it possible any statewide PBS networks (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc...) might keep their main affiliate and sell all of their statewide simulcasts and in exchange lease HD-2/3 channels of commercial (ABC/CBS/NBC) stations and possibly buy more translators in all markets to continue PBS service to the state (seems like PBS could probably get HD subs on major network affiliates at a low price?).
Statewide carriage on cable/sat/UVerse is a given.

Loss of SD PBS sub channels would be a shame, but are they cost effective given the option of piggybacking the main PBS signal on the HD-2 of one of the market's top TV stations? Perhaps PBS secondary channels could be offered to low power/less expensive channels around the states?

I've never seen a proposal to mix commercial with non-commercial TV in the consolidation.
 
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seedless said:
I've never seen a proposal to mix commercial with non-commercial TV in the consolidation.
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As far as I know, there are no specific prohibitions against a non-commercial broadcaster either channel sharing with, or leasing a subchannel from, a commercial broadcaster.
 
KTN Corp said:
Liberman may take the money and run. They are known to have financial troubles. The KZJL feud has added to that. The TV station and the 3 rimshot FM stations they own have been running anti-Xfinity/Comcast commercials. They still have not been able to resolve retransmission consent after being off the Xfinity system for 9 months and counting!
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Liberman is cash flowing from the TV operation. And Hispanics have the highest usage of over the air TV of any group in the uS. Giving up the broadcast signals would have a major ratings and sales impact for them.

Liberman's problems have to do with debt service, not operations. Liberman is a frugal and profitable operator with considerable cash flow from operations.
 
KTN Corp said:
ION might be the only national network to take the offer for all of their stations. Their network consists of O&Os run off satellite. Might make more financial sense to take down their network for easy cash!
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How about TBN?
 
MarioMania said:
I'm guess all the Stations below Ch. 34 is Safe
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Bad guess. Everything is subject to change as a result of the spectrum auction. Until we know which channels transmitting on the low UHF channels decide to sell out, which ones will opt to channel share, and which ones will have to move to maintain distance separations afterwards, nothing can be presumed.
 
Expect to see a lot of school-owned noncoms go dark. These stations have been bleeding money for years and when the Feds come along and put 100 million dollar price tags on them, what incentive do school admins have for keeping them? The schools need to feed those pension funds and pay those salary increases somehow. Besides, with distance learning via the web growing in usage, the days of the televised classroom are pretty much over.

The other group that will more than likely bail out en masse are the Class As. They've been the most hammered by the FCC and changing viewing habits. I know of several Class A station owners who plan on taking the money and running…no matter how low the auction price goes. Whether any of these stations enter a CSA is hard to say at this point.

That leaves full powers and LPTV. A few of those will disappear, of course, but I think the majority of auction participants will be noncoms and Class As. And in case you haven't noticed, PBS is very worried about it.
 
I may be missing something but outside of the congested NE, and places like Chicago and LA, is anyone going to really need stations in wide open rural areas? I think the station owners will get a lot less than they think unless they happen to be in congested, highly dense populated areas. So they may want to sell, but will they find a buyer??
 
TVCOOL said:
We really don't need more than one PBS channel per market in 2015.
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But you may not get even one per market unless PBS can get down off its high horse and start negotiating with stations it normally wouldn't touch, like LPTV. Starting next year, the TV landscape will drastically be changing, beginning with the disappearance of many noncoms. But the majority of LPTV stations will still be here.
 
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