Herald columnist Fred Grimm’s column from yesterday pretty much tells the public what the merger between WTVJ and WPLG means.
Two of South Florida’s blood rivals, competitors for five decades in the cage fighting called the evening news, move into the same building, come under the same management, answer to the same owner and cut 100, maybe 200 jobs.
Grimm also correctly points out that the only way the FCC can approve the deal and follow their own rules is if it takes into account WLTV Univision 23 and WSCV Telemundo 51 which then pushes WTVJ to 6th in overall ratings.
He also correctly states that the ratings data will probably have to be cherry picked, since there are time slots when WTVJ does rank 3rd and 4th, at least their newscasts which arguably is the most important thing the station does.
You can tell the FCC what you think.
I might have a better idea, but WPLG will say no to it. How about WPLG as an ABC O&O?
ABC wanted to buy into this market for years while the other two (real) major nets had o&o’s here, but Post Newsweek wouldn’t sell. I still bet we’ll end up with 6 as an indy, 7 with NBC and 10 with ABC–in other words, what we essentially had before NBC came in and began F-ing up the market. Only the ownership of 4 and 6 will have changed. The result would mirror what WaPo has in Jax and allow NBC to make peace with Ansin for originally yanking their affiliation 20 years ago, plus it would give Ansin 2 “Channel 7’s” which are NBC affiliated and in big cities. Hell, he could use the same anchors and use the voice-altering technology Clear Channel uses!
“Herald: TV Duopoly is a Bad Idea”
No shit Sherlock Holmes, you want a cookie for figuring that out? You should have done this a while ago. Fred Grimm, it may be too late.
chuck, nbc didn’t f- up the market as you say, they legitimized it. Before NBC came in and bought wtvj, they were on wckt/wsvn. wsnv’s news was in last place with peter ford and sally fitz and content to be that way. the 11 o’clock show was done by 9 pm, no breaking news, no car accidents or chaos. and yes 6 was an indy back then, but it was a different station, wcix, not wtvj. nbc gave ed ansin every chance to sell to them, they don’t need to make peace with him, he had his chance. they wanted a station, they came to him first, he said no, so they bought someone else. then cbs decides they want a station in miami too, so we’ve gone from mickey mouse to two o&o’s. later 6 and 4 swap channel assignments and wtvj quickly improves on wcix’s weak signal, promotes the fm frequency for listening in your car, etc. that leaves wsvn as “south florida’s news station” and then we get to what really f’ed up the market. JOEL F’ING CHEATWOOD.
he appeals to the lowest common denominator, and this being south florida, we eat it up. other stations are quick to copy it, and the rest is just in, developing, breaking, exclusive history. how did joel’s dog and pony show do when he went up to chicago? well chicago isn’t miami, and he caused both their main anchors to resign rather than share the set with jerry springer. and now joel works for fox news. how appropriate.
just wanted to clarify how this market actually got ruined.
Normally I take great umbrage when criticized here, but I defer to anon. I think the timeline is a bit off, but essentially, anyone who views Cheatwood as the manure peddler of all time is absolutely correct. Ansin, a miserable billionaire (I have said this repeatedly, his face is stuck in permasneer, he’s the crankiest rich guy this side of Sumner Redstone), has squeezed every dime out of 7 without putting it back. They were a perennial #2 going backto Wayne Fariss, for God’s sake, but I think that before NBC bought WTVJ, Cheatwood was already in place with his demon seed, Rick Sanchez, sweating all over Liberty City in a live truck. When Peter Ford came to his senses he was gone and Ricky was the “natural” heir. There is another guy who is forgotten. Barry Leffler, I believe, was responsible for the glossy promotion of 7, and guess what? He is the promo czar for NBC now; he is why NBC stands for “Nothing But Cross-promotion.” Remember, when NBC took over, I believe WTVJ had John Hambrick and Susan Lichtman, right? It’s been a downward spiral since. Perhaps our Boston connections who read here can fill us in, but I understand NBC and Ansin are muchmore cozy now that 20 years has passed. I just don’t see WaPo running two network affiliates here. Channel 4 in Jacksonville was every bit as solid as WTVJ when they were a CBS affiliate but they shook out of a network affiliation in a similar bloodbath to what happened here. My fervent wish is that no honorable, viable people lose their jobs, and the ones who should have stayed out of communications are ushered to new career paths. But I agree wholeheartedly–Joel Cheatwood is the Antichrist. Someone should snap his suspenders–repeatedly.
I still wish Belo or Cox would acquire WTVJ, and not Post-Newsweek. I wonder if Bonton Media Group, Four Points Media Group, Local TV, or Newport TV would be interested in WTVJ… if Belo and Cox don’t seem like they’re interested.
Newport bought out most of Clear Channel’s television stations group… FCC ordered Jacksonville duopoly of WAWS and WTEV to disband. Four Points bought out several fomer CBS O&O’s, including WTVX in neighboring West Palm Beach market. Local TV bought out 8 former FOX O&O’s. Bonton is in the process of acquiring WTVF Nashville from Landmark Communications… NBC acquiring The Weather Channel.
All I can say is… Poor WTVJ.
I agree Eric. Honestly, i think everyone would prefer other buyers. We can only hope that the FCC denies the buy, and someone else buys WTVJ. I don’t care what station WTVJ carries, i just want them to keep their news team. I really feel bad for the anchors and reporters who have settled in South Florida, and will now be out of work.
I too wish for other buyers. I know it has been written before but citizens have to complain to the FCC about this merger. I know I will hear “you can’t fight the FCC”! At least fill out the form and succinctly explain that Ch51 and Ch23 should be taken out of the data that they are using. This is not a good deal for Miami!! If there are enough complaints perhaps someone sane at the FCC will see the folly of this sale! SAVE WTVJ (at least try)!
Well, I’m one of the people who in the past have said “you can’t fight the FCC”, but now that newspapers are publishing what a bad idea it is, and a lot of people are against it, I feel like there may be a slightly larger chance of the FCC taking notice to the citizens’ views. Now, saying that, just because they see the views of about a hundred fans, doesn’t mean they really give a rat’s ass. The way I look at is whose interest are they really looking out for? The South Florida citizens? …Or mega-rich Post Newsweek? You decide.
from someone who was there a few clarifications.
at WMAQ.. while cheatwood wrecked much of the news product the idea for springer was the GM’s, and forced on joel, joel took the hit for it, but it wasn’t his baby.
as for chuck’s comments, mostly on target, though when peter ford left for washington, rick was still cutting his teeth. steve dawson inherited the throne and was there for the final days of nbc at channel 7 and was the first main guy when the station went independent. rick didn’t get bumped up until dawson was let go in ’90-’91.
see ya
Let us not leave out the vibrating anchor, Sally Fitz. She makes Belkys Nerey look like Diane Sawyer.
stop bitching and just fill out the forms! What’s the worst that can happen? They don’t read it. It will take 2 minutes out of your life, that’s it.
duh,
teflon rick sanchez wasn’t cutting his teeth, he was quickly shuffled off to texas because of his questionable relationships with the great corrupter of hialeah, alberto san pedro. rick would return to get drunk and run over people in his car, but he had already been anchoring for wsvn before he left. no teeth cutting to be done. then of course he’d fail spectacularly at msnbc, get shipped back to miami to burn up his nbc contract at wtvj doing an embarrassing talk show, and then go on to get tased on youtube to the glee of viewers everywhere.
I would really like to see this Post-Newsweek deal fall apart… NBC-Universal selling WTVJ to a different company.
In my previous post above, I mentioned 4 companies… which are private subsidiaries of equity groups. I could picture 1 of those companies acquring WTVJ, and truly being committed to saving the South Florida television station… a long overdue turn-around that could possibly restore the station back to its glory days.