Tag Archives: WMBD

Television

Barrington Broadcasting, owner of WHOI, to be sold

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PEORIA — Barrington Broadcasting, owner of 24 television stations including local channel WHOI (19, ABC), may be bought out by Nexstar Broadcasting Group or Sinclair Broadcast Group, according to TVNewsCheck.com. Nexstar owns or manages 55 television stations including local channel WMBD (31, CBS), and Sinclair owns or manages 74 television stations including local channel WYZZ (43, FOX).

Under FCC ownership rules, one company cannot own two of the television stations in a market Peoria’s size, so if the sale of Barrington goes through to either Nexstar or Sinclair, it appears they would have to divest themselves of one of Peoria’s channels.

Television

WMBD and WYZZ to split

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Nexstar Broadcasting Group, owner of WMBD channel 31, entered into an outsourcing agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of WYZZ channel 43, on December 1, 2001. In April 2002, WYZZ added a 9 p.m. newscast, produced by WMBD’s news department.

It appears that arrangement is coming to an end.

Requests for comment from Sinclair and local General Manager Coby Cooper have gone unanswered. But a reliable source tells me WMBD and WYZZ are splitting as of April 1, 2010. My source says that WYZZ will move back to 2714 E. Lincoln in Bloomington, and the WMBD news bureau that is currently occupying that building has been asked to relocate. A job posting on CareerBuilder.com shows Sinclair is looking for a “General Manager/GSM at WYZZ-TV in Bloomington, IL.” Reportedly they’re in the process of building a separate staff altogether.

Not known is whether that staff will include a news director or reporters. If not, then this move will likely be the end of Fox 43 News at Nine — not that it would be any great loss, considering it’s essentially the same newscast that’s on WMBD at 10:00.

Television

Goodbye, analog

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I admit it, I stayed up until midnight last night to watch all the analog TV signals go off the air. WTVP had a short countdown just before midnight that said, “after 37 years” on their analog frequency, they were shutting down “in just a few moments,” but that programming would continue on 47.1, 47.2, and 47.3. Once the countdown hit 0, the signal was gone. Nothing but snow.

When I went to WMBD (31), they were already off the air. WYZZ (43) and WEEK (25) ceased regular programming, but kept their transmitter on to broadcast a public service announcement loop on how to make the conversion to digital television. WHOI (19) did not go off the air yet, opting to keep their analog signal on until the extended cutoff date in June.

There’s no question that the quality of picture and audio is far superior on digital television. The only thing I will miss is the ability to pull in weak signals of television stations from other cities. For instance, I could get an analog signal from channel 8 in the Quad Cities and channels 12 and 17 from Urbana and Decatur, respectively. They were a little snowy, but could still be watched. I cannot get the digital signals from these stations. Not a big deal; just a little something I’ll miss. When I was a little kid, I remember getting a snowy picture of channel 55 out of Springfield, and once — just once, on a freak night — channel 44 out of Chicago.

Farewell, analog. Welcome, digital. I’m looking forward to seeing the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series in beautiful high-definition glory!

Peoria Journal Star

The decline and fall of the Journal Star

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My wife commented this morning that the Journal Star has cut the size of its paper. Sections that used to have six pages (e.g., Taste, Business) are now down to four. The Cue section has shrunk from ten pages to eight.

Then I turn on the Markley & Luciano show on 1470 WMBD and hear that they’re also cutting staff. Luciano called it “Bloody Thursday.” While not mentioned in the Journal Star article about the layoffs, Phil said five employees in the newsroom were given pink slips, as well as five or six non-newsroom employees.

This is bad news for Peoria. Fewer reporters means fewer stories get covered, fewer leads are followed, and the watchdog capability of the fourth estate is reduced. It also means that more people are going to cancel their subscriptions, which will undoubtedly result in further cost-cutting. The future looks dismal for the largest downstate Illinois newspaper.

No word yet on which reporters were canned. Maybe one of the remaining reporters will investigate that for a future article.