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WRTV sold to Circle City Broadcasting, to merge with WISH-TV

Here's the announcement from Channel 8.

www.wishtv.com

Circle City Broadcasting completes WRTV acquisition in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Circle City Broadcasting on March 31 closed its deal to acquire WRTV, expanding the locally owned company’s reach across Indiana. The $83 million transaction was first announced in October. With the deal complete, WRTV joins Circle City Broadcasting’s growing media...
www.wishtv.com www.wishtv.com
 
TheRob said:
Pretty much everyone on the WRTV was let go at the end of the workday Tuesday.
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I saw this on a Facebook post from one of their meteorologists, but I wasn't sure if it was real or an early April Fools joke. I find it hard to believe that new owners wouldn't want the best people they can keep.
 
KeithE4 said:
I saw this on a Facebook post from one of their meteorologists, but I wasn't sure if it was real or an early April Fools joke. I find it hard to believe that new owners wouldn't want the best people they can keep.
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In radio this is what is called “buying a stick”. No interest in the staff or much of the existing programming.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
In radio this is what is called “buying a stick”. No interest in the staff or much of the existing programming.
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That would be a foolish business decision, IMNSHO. For example, here in Phoenix, when KPHO-TV owner Meredith bought KTVK in 2014, personnel from both stations remained, and the KTVK studios became the home for both stations.
 
KeithE4 said:
I saw this on a Facebook post from one of their meteorologists, but I wasn't sure if it was real or an early April Fools joke. I find it hard to believe that new owners wouldn't want the best people they can keep.
Click to expand...

Whenever I've seen a company buy its crosstown competitor, that's almost always what happens. It keeps its people and gets rid of everybody it acquires, especially among management.

What happened at KPHO and KTVK is more of an anomaly than you might realize.
 
Kent said:
Whenever I've seen a company buy its crosstown competitor, that's almost always what happens. It keeps its people and gets rid of everybody it acquires, especially among management.

What happened at KPHO and KTVK is more of an anomaly than you might realize.
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Management I can understand. Maybe even some sales-folk and engineers. But experienced news people and other on-air talent? To We The Viewers, they ARE the station.

I still find it hard to believe that one station's personnel, especially a major market network affiliate (which Channel 8 hasn't been since they lost CBS over a decade ago). Channels 6 and 8 were the market leaders for decades.
 
Any truth to the stories that Channel 6 has been dropped by Dish and Xfinity in central Indiana with the ownership change? That's another report I'm seeing on Facebook.

One thing I noticed tonight was that Channel 8's website has been streaming its local newscast even at this late hour, while Channel 6 (still with Scripps' website layout) has shut streaming down.
 
KeithE4 said:
I saw this on a Facebook post from one of their meteorologists, but I wasn't sure if it was real or an early April Fools joke. I find it hard to believe that new owners wouldn't want the best people they can keep.
Click to expand...
It happens in pretty much ever TV merger. BUT when Nexstar or Sinclair do it, they often "invite applications for open positions," which may include things like chief meteorologist.

It's a way to void contracts and knock down salaries.
 
KeithE4 said:
WTTV didn't become a regional superstation until sometime in the '70s.
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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTTV was carried on cable as far east as Huntington WV. It was listed in the Kentucky edition of TV Guide as well as in various Ohio editions (but not the West Virginia edition).

Much of this viewership was microwave-driven, though in the case of the Kentucky edition, WTTV would have been available OTA in much of southern Indiana (where the Kentucky edition was sold) as well as directly on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Louisville, in Trimble and Oldham counties and points nearby.
 
I have a silly question: Now that Channels 6, 8, and 23 are under common ownership, will 23 have to be sold off? I know it's licensed to Marion, but doesn't transmit from there (piggybacked onto WISH), nor is it a satellite of one of the others. I thought the rule for large markets was two to an owner in a given market, and that was it, other than satellites (like WTTK/29 was for WTTV before it became the ATSC 3.0 test bed).
 
Mr Tony said:
no. It is based on if any of the stations are in the top 4 in the market. If two of them are, then yes. But since its CW & My Network the answer is no
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It's not even that anymore.

The reality now after FCC approval of the Nexstar-TEGNA deal is that there are no fixed rules with this Commission. Although courts may always find otherwise (as seen by the injunction that was issued), Carr's FCC has thrown out both the top 4 rule and the previous test for number of remaining owners, and is working on a case by case basis now.
 
Rusty Muck said:
DuJuan McCoy is under the assumption he can keep all three stations, merge WRTV into WISH, and fire everyone at channel 6.
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...and, that's exactly what happened. 1330 N. Meridian is now empty, save for the Scripps MCO hub. Pretty much all of the WRTV staff were terminated, and channel 6 is now airing newscasts produced by WISH.
 
The Zimmer Radio ruling last year is giving Carr just enough legal cover to ignore any prior rules and issue waivers as he so pleases. Nexstar-Tegna was a deal made solely out of political favoritism and the like, but especially in Indianapolis (assuming Nexstar doesn't lose the Tegna assets in the ongoing legal morass, which is not theoretically impossible) Nexstar would have control of 80 percent of all market revenue and viewership by owning 4/29, 13 and 59.

And that 80 percent figure is unintentionally public knowledge because DuJuan failed to redact the information properly when he filed for a waiver request regarding WRTV.
 
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