Sinclair Broadcast Group Cutting Local Newscasts in Five Markets

[Chrysler375Freeway]

So earlier this month, I read an article in TVNewsCheck that said that Sinclair was making cuts at five stations, ending their operations and closing newsrooms after making MAJOR cuts at stations in Macon, Columbia, Flint, Mobile and Eureka, after signing the death warrants and carrying out the corporate executions in Albany (Georgia) (WFXL) and Buffalo (WUTV) earlier this year, replacing newscasts with The National Desk, a low-rent national broadcast with little to no local content, and the more recent cuts made local headlines in the respective markets. It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest? It should be noted that Sinclair also did this at KDNL in St. Louis in 1999 and WTWC in Tallahassee in 2000 instead of actually investing in the local operations.

[Road Hog]

Sinclair took a $500 million bath in the recent collapse of the regional sports networks that they had bought into from Fox. They'll start at the small markets and move up the chain.

[Flint1979]

For Flint they own WEYI which is the NBC affiliate. WNEM and WJRT both have higher rated news programming.

[SectorZ]

So they're going to knock down their carriage fees for these stations immediately I presume?

[formulanone]

I, for one, welcome our new red ant overlords.

Perhaps these trusted TV personalities got lost on the way to the underground sugar caves.

[JayhawkCO]

I, personally, think the residents of those five markets are much better off.

[Takumi]

So they're going to knock down their carriage fees for these stations immediately I presume?

https://youtu.be/_n5E7feJHw0

[Life in Paradise]

So earlier this month, I read an article in TVNewsCheck that said that Sinclair was making cuts at five stations, ending their operations and closing newsrooms after making MAJOR cuts at stations in Macon, Columbia, Flint, Mobile and Eureka, after signing the death warrants and carrying out the corporate executions in Albany (Georgia) (WFXL) and Buffalo (WUTV) earlier this year, replacing newscasts with The National Desk, a low-rent national broadcast with little to no local content, and the more recent cuts made local headlines in the respective markets. It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest? It should be noted that Sinclair also did this at KDNL in St. Louis in 1999 and WTWC in Tallahassee in 2000 instead of actually investing in the local operations.

More than that, normally news operations is a major money generator for local television stations.  In the market that I'm located (which is somewhere around 100), one station as about 5-6 hours of local news per day and that does not include the 3 1/2 hours of national stuff.  Perhaps their existing news organization was in last place and not making much.  Macon is a next door neighbor to Atlanta, so they could repurpose something from that larger market, same as Flint with Detroit (but they don't have any stations in Atlanta or Detroit).  Albany GA is a minor market as is Eureka, Oregon and also Columbia-Jefferson City, MO -if that is it but Columbia SC isn't.  Buffalo and Mobile are strange since they are top 60 markets and in Mobile/Pensacola they have two of the 4 main network affiliates.

This may begin to be a "thing" since I note that in our market there is hardly any local news reports anymore, especially outside of drive time.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

For Flint they own WEYI which is the NBC affiliate. WNEM and WJRT both have higher rated news programming.

In the article, it was mentioned in the mandatory meetings that Nielsen ratings were part of the reason they are out of a job.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

So earlier this month, I read an article in TVNewsCheck that said that Sinclair was making cuts at five stations, ending their operations and closing newsrooms after making MAJOR cuts at stations in Macon, Columbia, Flint, Mobile and Eureka, after signing the death warrants and carrying out the corporate executions in Albany (Georgia) (WFXL) and Buffalo (WUTV) earlier this year, replacing newscasts with The National Desk, a low-rent national broadcast with little to no local content, and the more recent cuts made local headlines in the respective markets. It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest? It should be noted that Sinclair also did this at KDNL in St. Louis in 1999 and WTWC in Tallahassee in 2000 instead of actually investing in the local operations.

More than that, normally news operations is a major money generator for local television stations.  In the market that I'm located (which is somewhere around 100), one station as about 5-6 hours of local news per day and that does not include the 3 1/2 hours of national stuff.  Perhaps their existing news organization was in last place and not making much.  Macon is a next door neighbor to Atlanta, so they could repurpose something from that larger market, same as Flint with Detroit (but they don't have any stations in Atlanta or Detroit).  Albany GA is a minor market as is Eureka, Oregon and also Columbia-Jefferson City, MO -if that is it but Columbia SC isn't.  Buffalo and Mobile are strange since they are top 60 markets and in Mobile/Pensacola they have two of the 4 main network affiliates.

This may begin to be a "thing" since I note that in our market there is hardly any local news reports anymore, especially outside of drive time.

More context to the top 60 market cuts: In Mobile, morning and midday news on 15 was cut, after  cuts in 2015 and 2018 were made to comply with FCC regulations regarding attributable interest in a station, and the morning and midday newscasts were replaced with The National Desk and Family Feud, resulting in 20 employees being kicked to the curb, and a former employee was very vocal on Twitter after the news of these cuts. No major changes came to channel 3 in Pensacola, outside of the news director being kicked to the curb, and some cuts. In Buffalo on 29, the 10pm newscast was cut entirely, replaced with The National Desk, putting four out of a job, and hurting a city hit hard by industrial restructuring even more because of a loss of jobs. As for WFXL, its news came from Macon, meaning the job losses still had an impact, even though they weren't as significant due to the newscast coming from Macon, but they're still job losses either way. As for Eureka, CA (KAEF) it was announced many of the newscasts would now come from sister station KRCR. And when I said Columbia, it was meant to be South Carolina, because WACH lost its live morning news, and airing in its place is a 10pm news rerun and The National Desk. KRCG is not impacted by these cuts in any way. Also, in a recent Antenna Man video I watched, it was mentioned local TV news may eventually go the way of AM radio as local programming is purged in favor of national programs.

[SP Cook]

It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest?

Federal law states that no one company can own more than one of the four highest rated TV stations in a market.  Except for a few Hispanic heavy places in Texas, that means Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.  For DECADES, under FCCs controlled alternately by appointees  of presidents of both parties of all stripes, NO ONE ever enforced this law against Sinclair, which used paper dummy corporations to control two and in some cases three stations in the same town. 

What makes you think anyone is interested in enforcing the "serve the public interest" law? 

[Chrysler375Freeway]

It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest?

Federal law states that no one company can own more than one of the four highest rated TV stations in a market.  Except for a few Hispanic heavy places in Texas, that means Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.  For DECADES, under FCCs controlled alternately by appointees  of presidents of both parties of all stripes, NO ONE ever enforced this law against Sinclair, which used paper dummy corporations to control two and in some cases three stations in the same town. 

What makes you think anyone is interested in enforcing the "serve the public interest" law?

In one TVSpy article I read, the company wasn't planning mass layoffs or newsroom closures, but at some point, the company reversed course. Per Federal law, they are required to provide at least 60 days notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. However, with their use of corporations which are separate only on paper, I wouldn't be surprised if the employee notifications only came in the mandatory meetings, rather than in February or March (or December or January where they made cuts to positions and news output rather than the ENTIRE operation). Also, Sinclair HAS been hit with fines, a record $48M for deception in a bid to buy Tribune's group of stations (but calls to cancel the licenses of its stations were met with resistance from then-FCC chairman Ajit Pai) and 17 individual stations were slapped with a $9M fine in combination for breach of good faith in retransmission negotiations with AT&T and DirectTV, and last year, $3M fines were collectively proposed against Sinclair, Cunningham (Sinclair by another name) and Nexstar stations for violating children's programming regulations, more specifically those involving commercial matter limits in children's programming, where they aired a Hot Wheels ad in Team Hot Wheels, with Sinclair and Nexstar facing higher fines, because of Nexstar's ability to pay and Sinclair's lengthy history of prior offenses of children's television commercial limitations violations.

[vdeane]

It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren't TV stations supposed to serve the public interest?

Federal law states that no one company can own more than one of the four highest rated TV stations in a market.  Except for a few Hispanic heavy places in Texas, that means Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.  For DECADES, under FCCs controlled alternately by appointees  of presidents of both parties of all stripes, NO ONE ever enforced this law against Sinclair, which used paper dummy corporations to control two and in some cases three stations in the same town. 

What makes you think anyone is interested in enforcing the "serve the public interest" law? 

Would said federal law even still be in effect?  Most markets have at least one duopoly, some have several, and not just Sinclair, either.  Where I live, Sinclair has WRGB (CBS) and WCWN (CW), Nextar has WTEN (ABC) and WXXA (FOX), and Hubbard has WNYT (NBC) and WNYA (MyTV).  This allows for more local news; WTEN is able to have broadcasts from 7-9 AM, 7-7:30 PM, and 10-11 PM on WXXA; WRGB has a 10 PM broadcast on WCWN; and WNYT has a 9 PM broadcast on WNYA.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

It begs the question: how are these stations supposed to serve the public interest if corporate will just give up on them in order to save a few bucks, wiping out jobs in the process? Aren’t TV stations supposed to serve the public interest?

Federal law states that no one company can own more than one of the four highest rated TV stations in a market.  Except for a few Hispanic heavy places in Texas, that means Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC.  For DECADES, under FCCs controlled alternately by appointees  of presidents of both parties of all stripes, NO ONE ever enforced this law against Sinclair, which used paper dummy corporations to control two and in some cases three stations in the same town. 

What makes you think anyone is interested in enforcing the "serve the public interest" law? 

Would said federal law even still be in effect?  Most markets have at least one duopoly, some have several, and not just Sinclair, either.  Where I live, Sinclair has WRGB (CBS) and WCWN (CW), Nextar has WTEN (ABC) and WXXA (FOX), and Hubbard has WNYT (NBC) and WNYA (MyTV).  This allows for more local news; WTEN is able to have broadcasts from 7-9 AM, 7-7:30 PM, and 10-11 PM on WXXA; WRGB has a 10 PM broadcast on WCWN; and WNYT has a 9 PM broadcast on WNYA.

For me, duopolies or multiple full-power stations operated by one company close to and in where I have lived (Detroit and Atlanta) are (by market; for the purposes of this, affiliations only involve the Big Four: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the minor networks of The CW and MyNetworkTV; stations with no affiliation or any minor network other than the CW and MyNetworkTV are considered independent for the purpose of this):
Detroit:
WXYZ (ABC) and WMYD (independent)
WWJ (CBS) and WKBD (CW)
Flint-Saginaw:
WEYI (NBC), WSMH (Fox) and WBSF (CW)
Toledo:
WTOL (CBS) and WUPW (Fox)
Lansing:
WLNS (CBS) and WLAJ (ABC)
Atlanta:
WANF (CBS) and WPCH (independent)
WXIA (NBC) and WATL (MyNetworkTV)
Birmingham:
WABM (MyNetworkTV) and WTTO (CW)
Chattanooga:
WTVC (ABC/Fox), WDSI (independent) and WFLI (CW/MyNetworkTV)
Columbus (Georgia):
WTVM (ABC), WXTX (Fox) and WLTZ (NBC)
Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville:
WLOS (ABC/MyNetworkTV) and WMYA (independent)
WSPA (CBS) and WYCW (CW)

[westerninterloper]

Sinclair is also ending its "local" newscasts for WNWO 24 in Toledo; I say "local" because the past few years, Sinclair has used studios in South Bend Indiana for the Toledo newscasts, though they've had reporters broadcasting locally.

They were by far the lowest-rated newscasts in the Toledo market (after corporate-owned WTVG 13 ABC, and WTOL 11 CBS), and their editorial content, particularly during the Trump years flirted with fascism, so there isn't much dissatisfaction in Toledo about the end of these newscasts.

[Flint1979]

I wonder what they're going to do with their studios on Willard Road in Clio for WEYI. The last time I drove past there the gate was shut and locked.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

Sinclair is also ending its "local" newscasts for WNWO 24 in Toledo; I say "local" because the past few years, Sinclair has used studios in South Bend Indiana for the Toledo newscasts, though they've had reporters broadcasting locally.

They were by far the lowest-rated newscasts in the Toledo market (after corporate-owned WTVG 13 ABC, and WTOL 11 CBS), and their editorial content, particularly during the Trump years flirted with fascism, so there isn't much dissatisfaction in Toledo about the end of these newscasts.

And the interesting thing about KPTM's cancellation of the lone newscast: As late as 2022, the Fresno-produced news program was described by its general manager as a nice looking, locally flavored, profitable newscast. And the Omaha area as a whole is growing, with El Salvador adding a consulate in the city. And yet, they choose to cut the newscast, indicating they could care less for what the GM said. Sioux City is also growing, making it into the high growth cities in Iowa, but corporate just gave up on its stations there.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

I wonder what they're going to do with their studios on Willard Road in Clio for WEYI. The last time I drove past there the gate was shut and locked.

The studios are actually along Piersen Road in Flint, paired with those of WSMH and WBSF. The transmitter is what is on Willard Road in Clio.

[brad2971]

Sinclair is also ending its "local" newscasts for WNWO 24 in Toledo; I say "local" because the past few years, Sinclair has used studios in South Bend Indiana for the Toledo newscasts, though they've had reporters broadcasting locally.

They were by far the lowest-rated newscasts in the Toledo market (after corporate-owned WTVG 13 ABC, and WTOL 11 CBS), and their editorial content, particularly during the Trump years flirted with fascism, so there isn't much dissatisfaction in Toledo about the end of these newscasts.

And the interesting thing about KPTM’s cancellation of the lone newscast: As late as 2022, the Fresno-produced news program was described by its general manager as a nice looking, locally flavored, profitable newscast. And the Omaha area as a whole is growing, with El Salvador adding a consulate in the city. And yet, they choose to cut the newscast, indicating they could care less for what the GM said. Sioux City is also growing, making it into the high growth cities in Iowa, but corporate just gave up on its stations there.

1. Just because workers from Central America are increasingly working in Sioux City and Omaha meat packing plants doesn't mean there's high growth in either city.

2. KPTM-Fox42, from the first time they produced newscasts in the 1990s, has struggled getting out of fourth place in Omaha TV ratings. This has been the case even with CBS-affiliate KMTV continually downsizing ITS news coverage. Goes to show that there really isn't that much demand for each major TV affiliate to produce at least 10 hours of news per week.

3. Due to the concentration of TV station licenses among just a few companies, there could be quite a few changes in how AND who delivers news in DMAs. For example, Nexstar owns the ABC affiliate (KCAU) in Sioux City and the CBS affiliate up I-29 in Sioux Falls. What stops Nexstar and Sinclair from trading Sioux City CBS and ABC affiliates, then having Nexstar close up KCAU's news team in favor of delivering the local news from Sioux Falls? Furthermore, Gray Television owns the rights to ABC and Fox programming in both Sioux Falls and Rapid City DMAs. Since Nexstar already does this with CBS affiliate KELO, what stops Gray from closing down Rapid City's news studios and having the local news out of Sioux Falls?

[brad2971]

BTW, how many of us remember Locast, which was shut down in 2021? Nexstar, Gray, and Sinclair (and possibly Scripps and TEGNA) missed out on a golden opportunity to purchase Locast and turn that app into the Hulu of local broadcasting. And if they had done so, the Supreme Court's Aereo decision would have become irrelevant, as Fox/CBS/ABC/NBC would have been in NO position to stop their big affiliate owners from doing this.

[Flint1979]

I wonder what they're going to do with their studios on Willard Road in Clio for WEYI. The last time I drove past there the gate was shut and locked.

The studios are actually along Piersen Road in Flint, paired with those of WSMH and WBSF. The transmitter is what is on Willard Road in Clio.

They have studios there, I've been to the transmitter site before.

[Life in Paradise]

BTW, how many of us remember Locast, which was shut down in 2021? Nexstar, Gray, and Sinclair (and possibly Scripps and TEGNA) missed out on a golden opportunity to purchase Locast and turn that app into the Hulu of local broadcasting. And if they had done so, the Supreme Court's Aereo decision would have become irrelevant, as Fox/CBS/ABC/NBC would have been in NO position to stop their big affiliate owners from doing this.

I remember that Locast was one of those ideas to get around not wanting to pay cable TV prices to pick up local broadcast without putting up their own antenna, and was priced quite low.  Local broadcasters have become hooked on the monthly retransmit dollars that "cable" supply them.  Otherwise there would be no reason why my local ABC/CW affiliates (combined company) are whining that Dish network is not carrying them anymore because they didn't want to pay increased fees.  I note that they don't go out of the way to instruct people on other ways to get their signal for free (rabbit ears, other inside antenna, outside antenna).

[vdeane]

It's unfortunate that there's no way to get locals other than cable if you can't get an antenna to work for some reason.  At my old apartment, reception was spotty.  I could usually get ABC, but would sometimes have to move the antenna, which was really inconvenient, it being in a different room than my TV.  Same for NBC.  CBS I'd have to move every time.  FOX and PBS were hardly receivable at all.

At my new apartment (just upstairs and a couple units over), other the other hand, I can get all the "major" stations (CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, FOX, CW, MyNet, and ION) and usually YBN (an independent station broadcasting eight subchannels), although FOX and MyNet can require moving the antenna (now in the same room as the TV, so this is no big deal, although it does mean that I'd never be able to DVR those stations if I got a DVR).  Intrigue (four subchannels, including France24 and NASA TV) is spotty, due to some kind of encoding issue; the signal is strong.

[Henry]

BTW, how many of us remember Locast, which was shut down in 2021? Nexstar, Gray, Hearst, Cox, and Sinclair (and possibly Scripps and TEGNA) missed out on a golden opportunity to purchase Locast and turn that app into the Hulu of local broadcasting. And if they had done so, the Supreme Court's Aereo decision would have become irrelevant, as Fox/CBS/ABC/NBC would have been in NO position to stop their big affiliate owners from doing this.

There was the big drawback: that you couldn't watch newscasts outside your local market like you can with other apps. Combined with all the legal drama surrounding it, no wonder it met its tragic fate two years ago. For this reason, I enjoy having PlutoTV on all my flatscreen TVs so I can keep up with the latest Chicago news via WBBM's round-the-clock coverage, all the way from Seattle.