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WJZY Owner Nexstar Acquires Tegna and WCNC in Charlotte

T

tylerSC

Broadcast operator Nexstar has acquired Tegna, which places WCNC Channel 36 in Charlotte under common ownership with WJZY Channel 46 and WMYT Channel 55. Will this eventually result in a consolidation of news and broadcast operations as one combined Queen City News? Remains to be seen what changes may occur, but NBC, FOX, and the CW in Charlotte are now under the local control of one broadcaster Nexstar, with the 2 of the 3 tallest broadcast towers in the market. The WJZY tower is also the broadcast home of radio stations 95.1, 96,1, and 97.9.

It seems unlikely that a single corporate owner Nexstar will maintain 2 separate news operations competing against themselves. If they indeed merge I hope they will emerge as a stronger operation with the best talent from both. We shall see. But meanwhile WSOC and WBTV still dominate the local news market.
 
With 3 and 9 dominating, there will be a minimum a combination of 36 & 46 news departments. Im reading that Nexstar has plans to do a lot of combining of economies of scale across markets they own stations as of now. Maybe rebranding all news programs they produce for the tv stations under something related to newsnation. They did promise to increase news programming but as we are seeing with Gray already that the big owners are producing shows to fill in time across all markets. I would assume at minimum that 36 and 46 would maintain all current news slots and just simlucast. I could see a lot of the news shows on nexstar to share a lot of coverage of news regional and nationwide. The nexstar stations around Charlotte (Spartanburg, Greensboro, Columbia, Raleigh, Coastal NC, Myrtle Beach and Charleston will probably pull resources to cover the capitals Raleigh and Columbia along with tropical weather coverage.
 
It may not be a done deal yet. Apparently there is litigation in other states and I notice WCNC is no longer displaying the Nexstar logo as they were last week. Probably just a delay but we shall see.
 
Aren’t there ownership caps? I thought broadcasters could only own 2 stations in a market, and only 1 in the top 4 ratings or revenue wise?

WCNC’s newscasts are a distant 3rd, and WJZY’s are dead last. I don’t think combining the newscasts is going to make much of a difference. WSOC has dominated this market going back almost 40 years.
 
Indeed WSOC and WBTV remain the TV news leaders. But Nexstar seems to be about merging and combining operations to cut costs. Although you are correct, it may not make much of a difference in the ratings.
 


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