Category Archives: Television

Television

How does TV channel 59 serve the local interest?

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Television stations that broadcast on the public airwaves are required by law to operate in the “public interest, convenience,and necessity.” Brookings has a good history of this phrase and how it has been interpreted. There is some controversy over what “public interest” means, but surely if it means anything, airing infomercials 24 hours a day, seven days a week, does not qualify.

But that’s what channel 59, WAOE-TV is doing. Every day in high definition, the station offers no entertainment programming, no news programming, no sports programming, no local programming, no network programming, almost no programming of any kind that could be considered in the public interest except for three hours of children’s programming per week to meet FCC mandates. Other than that, it’s nothing but paid commercial programming around the clock.

What’s the benefit to the television-watching public? The public airwaves are a scarce resource. Surely there are better ways to use such a limited resource than wall-to-wall commercials. But perhaps in this age of streaming programs over the internet, this is just the death rattle of over-the-air television. If so, maybe it’s time to pull the plug.

In fairness, they do have two standard-definition digital subchannels:

  • 59.2 is TheGrio, which provides programming “focused on the African American community,” according to their website.
  • 59.3 is VPOD TV, which airs TV shows and movies in the public domain as well as some original content.

However, neither of these channels provide any local programming, and being standard-definition, the quality of the sound and picture are not very good by current standards. Peoria deserves better.

Television

Sinclair selling WYZZ to shell corporation Cunningham

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Sinclair Broadcast Group is selling WYZZ-TV (43) to Cunningham Broadcasting for $22 million, according to an article in TVNewsCheck.com and an official filing with the FCC. The sale was necessary to comply with FCC ownership rules after Sinclair acquired WHOI-TV (19) from Barrington Broadcasting.

Cunningham Broadcasting has several ownership objections pending against it before the FCC. Local watchdog groups in other media markets as well as the Free Press organization accuse Cunningham of being a shell corporation for Sinclair — a company controlled by Sinclair and used solely to circumvent FCC media ownership rules.

Indeed, in their own filing, Sinclair states that “the majority stockholder of CBC [Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation] is the Carolyn C. Smith Cunningham Trust.” Carolyn Smith, along with her husband Julian Sinclair Smith, is a co-founder of Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the trust beneficiaries are her sons, who are also co-founders of Sinclair. Carolyn died in 2012.

Thus, media consolidation will deepen here in Central Illinois. We have five local commercial stations (WHOI 19, WEEK 25, WMBD 31, WYZZ 43, WAOE 59) which heretofore have been owned by five separate companies but operated by only two companies (Granite Broadcasting Corporation, which operates WHOI, WEEK, and WAOE; and Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which operates WMBD and WYZZ). Now two of those stations — WHOI and WYZZ — are going to be controlled, if not outright owned, by the same company.

Media consolidation is bad. As a perfect case in point, I’ll bet you didn’t know any of the information in this post before I just shared it with you. If we had more media diversity, you would have known about it long before now. But because the Journal Star has had its staff decimated by Gatehouse Media, and because there are only two television news organizations in town — and they both have ties to Sinclair now, by the way — you won’t hear about it. (Well, maybe the paper will mention it in a couple weeks buried in one of Steve Tarter’s columns, especially since I’ve published it on my blog. But don’t count on it. Generally speaking, you’ll never hear about it.)

There are many other things you don’t (and won’t) hear about, because when newsrooms shrink and reporters are let go in the name of efficiency, it means there are fewer people around to act as watchdogs for the public. Do you know how the Journal Star gets its news about Peoria Park District board meetings now? The Park District director (Bonnie Noble) writes up a summary and sends it in. Bet you didn’t know that, either. That’s what passes as “reporting” these days in our fair city. Take a look back through the Park District’s minutes and see how many of them indicate “Press Present: None.” The Park District — a municipal organization with a $15+ million property tax levy — and not a single member of the press attends their meetings to see how they’re spending our money or conducting business.

But I digress.

The sale of WYZZ to Cunningham should be opposed by this community. Other communities have filed official and unofficial protests with the FCC, and have started online petition drives. Here in Peoria, we haven’t even heard about it.

The procedures for filing formal and informal objections to the sale (or “assignment” in legalese) of a TV license are available from the FCC website here.

Television

Sinclair buying WHOI, selling WYZZ

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PEORIA — Sinclair Broadcast Group is buying 18 television stations from Barrington Broadcasting, including WHOI (channel 19) in Peoria, Ill. Sinclair already owns a television station in the Peoria/Bloomington market, WYZZ (channel 43), but FCC rules say they can only own one due to the size of the market. Thus, Sinclair has also announced they will be selling WYZZ.

Currently, WHOI is being operated by Granite Broadcasting (owner of WEEK, channel 25) through a shared services agreement. WYZZ is operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group (owner of WMBD, channel 31) under a local marketing agreement with Sinclair. How the changes in ownership will affect these agreements is unknown at this time since the story is just breaking.

WHOI is an ABC network affiliate; WYZZ is a FOX network affiliate.

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

Channel 31 now offers Bounce TV

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WMBD-TV, channel 31, has been the only terrestrial television station in the Peoria market not to offer a digital subchannel — until today. Starting today, WMBD will begin broadcasting Bounce TV, “the nation’s first-ever over-the-air broadcast television network designed exclusively for African-American audiences.” Here’s part of the new network’s press release:

The new network […] will target African Americans primarily between the ages of 25-54 with a programming mix of theatrical motion pictures, live sporting events, documentaries, specials, inspirational faith-based programs, off-net series, original programming and more. Bounce TV will air twenty four hours a day, seven days a week as a digital terrestrial network designed for carriage on the digital signals of local television stations. […]

Live sports and events will be part of the Bounce TV schedule and the network today announced a multi-year rights agreement with Urban Sports Entertainment Group (USEG) to televise both football and basketball games from the nation’s largest African American athletic conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA.) Bounce TV will air the CIAA Championship football game and select quarter- and semi- final CIAA tournament basketball games as part of the agreement.

Bounce TV’s Founding Group includes two legendary figures of recent American history and the network’s leadership team is filled with veteran entertainment industry executives. The Founding Group is led by Ambassador Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III and Andrew “Bo” Young III. Rob Hardy and Will Packer, co-founders of Rainforest Films, one of the top African American production companies in the world, will also play important roles with Bounce TV. Hardy will serve as Chief Content Officer while Packer will be Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer. Former Turner Broadcasting executives Ryan Glover and Jonathan Katz will serve as Executive Vice Presidents. Bounce TV will be majority owned and operated by African Americans, with Ambassador Young, Andrew “Bo” Young III, Rob Hardy, Will Packer and Ryan Glover part of the initial ownership team. The network is leveraging the marketing, digital, post production and operational resources of Atlanta-based CSE, one of the country’s leading independently-owned sports, entertainment and television production agencies. […]

Bounce TV will be an ad-supported network with half of that time being available for insertion of local advertising by affiliates. Former EVP of U.S. Syndication Sales for Sony Pictures Television, Jeffrey Wolf, currently head of The Lobo Group, will handle network distribution of Bounce TV.

Wikipedia says the name “Bounce” was chosen to signify “a network that is ‘going somewhere with energy,'” and lists 56 channels on which Bounce TV will premiere, including WMBD. The following digital terrestrial channels are now available in the Peoria area:

19.1 WHOI-TV (ABC)
19.2 The CW
25.1 WEEK-TV (NBC)
25.2 WEEK-WX Weather First
31.1 WMBD-TV (CBS)
31.2 Bounce TV
43.1 WYZZ-TV (FOX)
43.2 The Cool TV
43.3 The Country Network
47.1 WTVP-TV (PBS)
47.2 PBS World
47.3 Create TV
59.1 WAOE-TV (MyNetworkTV)
59.2 Antenna TV

Television

Peoria ‘one of the worst cases of covert media consolidation in the country’

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The media reform group FreePress has a campaign called Change the Channels, and it is currently profiling our fair city, saying, “Peoria, Illinois is suffering from one of the worst cases of covert consolidation in the country; all five of its commercial TV stations produce just two distinct newscasts and are controlled by only two companies.” Those two companies, of course, are:

  • Granite Broadcasting, which owns and operates WEEK (channel 25) and, through a local marketing agreement (LMA), operates WHOI (channel 19) and WAOE (channel 59)
  • Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which owns and operates WMBD (channel 31) and, through an LMA, operates WYZZ (channel 43)

They go on to say, “This situation is unacceptable. Two newsrooms simply cannot provide Peoria…with the amount of local news coverage and diversity of perspectives that residents need to stay informed.”

Of course, most of this isn’t news to the residents here in Peoria, but they did have one other claim that I hadn’t heard before: “Three of those stations, WEEK, WHOI and WAOE, are part of an anti-competitive conspiracy that spans two states.” They explain:

Granite’s Shared Services Agreement with Barrington Broadcasters is a particularly outrageous anti-competitive conspiracy between the two companies. Each company owned one station in the Peoria market, as well as one station in the Syracuse, N.Y., market. In order to avoid competing with one another in both markets, they simply “swapped” control of the stations, yielding these comparable markets completely to their former competition. This shady deal cost more than 30 jobs in Peoria (along with 45 in Syracuse), destroyed competition and left viewers in both communities with less local news.

Note that phrase: “to avoid competing with one another.” Barrington Broadcasting owns WHOI in Peoria, and when they were producing their own news program, it was unique in the Peoria area, often including investigative reports and stories that the other stations weren’t covering. Once Barrington and Granite entered into an LMA, the reporters were fired and the anchors moved to a set in the same building as WEEK. Now the WEEK and WHOI news programs are nearly identical.

Granite is now in a dispute with the Peoria chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) over contract language that would give Granite “jurisdictional flexibility” — something they could use to move the anchor jobs to their central broadcasting hub in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, for example. The local general manager denies the company has any plans to do so, but he won’t explain why the company insists on having the “jurisdictional flexibility” language in the contract. Granite imposed the contract, and AFTRA has filed a grievance.

The Change the Channels campaign is asking those opposed to these kinds of shared services agreements (which they call “covert media consolidation”) to write to the Federal Communications Commission and ask them to put an end to the practice.

The rules are supposed to protect localism, diversity and competition on the public airwaves, but in almost 80 markets across the country, these rules have been circumvented. Media companies have taken advantage of loopholes to covertly consolidate more than 200 stations, colluding rather than competing in order to cut costs.

As a result, communities are getting less local news than ever before. When the exact same news is aired on several stations, fewer stories told, fewer viewpoints are presented, and the public airwaves are wasted on copycat broadcasts.

Continue reading Peoria ‘one of the worst cases of covert media consolidation in the country’ →

Television

WMBD-TV parent company for sale

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Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., the parent company of WMBD channel 31 and the operator of WYZZ channel 43 here in Peoria, is for sale. The company issued a press release on July 21 that stated:

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST) announced today that its Board of Directors has decided to explore and evaluate strategic alternatives intended to maximize shareholder value, including a possible sale of the Company. The Company has retained Moelis & Company as its financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as its legal counsel.

The Company has not made a decision to pursue any specific strategic transaction or other strategic alternative and there is no set timetable for the process, so there can be no assurance that the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in a sale of the Company or any other transaction. The Company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the progress of its strategic review until such time as the Board has approved a transaction or otherwise deems disclosure appropriate.

RBR.com notes that “It is the second time that Nexstar has been on the auction block, with a previous sale attempt called off in 2007 after the market soured.” They also report that the Wall Street Journal Online expects the company to sell for over a billion dollars. These kinds of transactions are called (positively) “mergers and acquisitions,” or “M&A,” by the industry, and (negatively) “media consolidation” by media watchdog groups and concerned citizens.

The website TVNewsCheck.com defends big media:

With each deal, there will be an outcry from those opposed to “media consolidation” as if bigness were in and of itself a bad thing. Bigness can be a good thing. It can provide the resources and legal backing that enterprise and investigative journalism often requires, job security and perks that are disappearing from small companies.

What matters is not how big the new owner is, but who the new owner is. Is it a company that measures the value of a TV stations only in dollars and cents or one that respects the special role TV stations occupy in their communities? Is it one that is in for the long haul or one that will look to flip the group in five to seven years?

That all sounds great in theory, but we’ve yet to see any of these benefits of bigness in Peoria. GateHouse Media and Granite Broadcasting have not improved journalism, nor offered its employees better job security or perks. Quite the opposite.

Television

WAOE adds new sub-channel

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There’s a new TV channel in Peoria. Antenna TV, a new network owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting in Chicago, is now being broadcast over-the-air on channel 59.2, a sub-channel of WAOE. “The network features classic television programs and favorite movies,” and just debuted the beginning of this year according to the network’s website. I just discovered it over the weekend as it was showing “The Partridge Family,” “The Monkees,” and other classic shows.

WAOE (“my59”) is an affiliate of MyNetworkTV, owned by Four Seasons Broadcasting, and operated by Granite Broadcasting. Granite Broadcasting is reportedly going to impose its “last, best, and final” contract on union employees at its Peoria stations this Saturday, July 16.

See also: Steve Tarter’s blog entry.

Television

WEEK/WHOI reject offer, plan rally

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From the Journal Star:

Members of the Peoria local chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists at WEEK-TV Channel 25 and WHOI-TV Channel 19 rejected what Granite Broadcasting called its “last, best and final offer.”

The vote taken on Friday was 27 to 1.

…The union plans to hold a rally at the East Peoria station at 5 p.m. Wednesday to drum up community support for their position.

“The rally at the station is hoped to let the company see that the community supports local and professional news,” said [local union President Garry] Moore.

The sticking point is still “flexibility” language that is included in the contract which the union believes will allow Granite to outsource local news broadcasts to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. You can read more about the union’s concerns here on their Facebook site.

City of Peoria, Television

Management says local news operation will remain local

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In the interest of fairness, I e-mailed WEEK’s general manager Mark DeSantis yesterday, and asked him about the employees’ concerns about outsourcing our local news to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Here’s what he had to say:

[T]he one point that seems to be the most vital to the viewers of Central Illinois is that the local news operation remain local. I have gone on record with the union and with the public that there is no plan and no proposal to move the news outside of our East Peoria facilities. We have invested millions to build a dual digital control room, outfit a second studio, purchased and installed digital cameras in the studio as well as cameras used in the field to produce 11 hours of local news each day. There is so much invested and so much news content to produce that it could not be moved to another entity. It does not make financial sense.

The local news operation here will remain local. Period.

According to published news reports and interviews I’ve heard, the troubling language that Granite Broadcasting (owner of WEEK) wants to insert in the contract is something called “jurisdicitional flexibility.” The employees believe that, regardless of current plans, this language will give the company the option of outsourcing the news if they desire.

So I asked Mr. DeSantis, if the company plans to keep local news operations local, why are they pushing for this “jurisdictional flexibility” language? What does the company hope to gain by including this in the contract? What are some examples of the types of things the company could or would do with this contract language?

DeSantis declined to answer, saying, “Obviously we cannot get into specific issues with regard to language proposals. These are employee issues and getting into specifics would be a breach of our relationship with the union. What I can say is that the proposed language is becoming industry standard and exists with units in many stations including stations represented by AFTRA. So there is nothing in the proposal that would be new to the union representing the WEEK/WHOI newsroom. It is, understandably, new to this unit and I understand that change is not easy for employees to accept.”

My take: To some extent, the news is always going to have to be gathered locally. If you want to get on-camera interviews with local newsmakers, you have to have someone in Peoria holding the camera and asking questions. If you want to cover local sports, someone has to be in Peoria attending the games and getting footage. In essence, you have to have some kind of reporting/newsgathering staff here locally, and you have to have some amount of camera equipment to support that function. But everything else — editing, voice over, and especially anchoring — can be done remotely, from a technical standpoint.

It’s true there has been investment in equipment and sets, but those can be moved. When Granite entered into a local marketing agreement with Barrington Broadcasting, owner of WHOI, they moved WHOI’s sets to WEEK’s studio, as well as their equipment. If Granite wanted to move the whole works to Ft. Wayne, they could pack up the sets on a truck and move them out to Indiana in a jiffy. The digital equipment could be repurposed to Granite’s other stations, or kept here for use as a production facility (i.e., creating commercials or other production services for hire). Even if they sold the equipment, any loss could arguably be covered by the decreased personnel costs.

The bottom line is that many local residents just don’t trust Granite Broadcasting. We’ve seen them move all their master control out of the area, resulting in job losses here. We saw them try to move the weather reports out of state for a while. We’ve seen the increase in technical glitches during the news programs. We saw them get rid of reporters when they brought WHOI into the fold. It’s hard not to be skeptical of their assurances that they’re heavily invested in the area and have no plans to move the local news operation in light of all these other actions that have hurt our local news coverage.