Nexstar-Tegna merger and WNY

NBC 2 WGRZ On Your Side studios in Buffalo; 16 August 2021.

Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 TV station conglomerates Nexstar and Tegna have announced their merger. Of course, this needs approval from the FCC and FTC, and some stations will have to be sold off, particularly where they overlap. One area I know is Buffalo. Tegna, which spun off of USA Today owner Gannett in 2015, own NBC 2 WGRZ, their only station in New York State, while owning many NBC affiliates in other states. Nexstar are far bigger, owning NBC 2's competitor CBS 4 WIVB, as well as CNY's ABC affiliates NewsChannel 9 WSYR in Syracuse and ABC 20 WUTR in Utica to name a few. Since Buffalo is a larger market than Syracuse, having the boys' turf nearby for added ratings to boot, having it like CNYcentral back in my area may not work, which has CW 6, while CBS 4 is sister to O&O CW 23 WNLO. So much for WNYcentral, if you like. NBC 4 could be sold to Hearst, Hubbard, Weigel, Mission, Cox, Gray (who have CBS 12 WBNG in Binghamton and CBS 7 WWNY in Watertown in the state to date), or Deltavision (who just bought CBS 12's rival Fox 40 WICZ and their sister stations Fox 68 WSYT/my 43 WNYS). Scripps already have yet another WNY station, ABC 7 WKBW, while Sinclair have Fox 29 WUTV and my 49 WNYO. Even in the age of streaming, these deals are still lucrative. Tegna also own ABC 16 WNEP in the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area, the other NBC 3 WKYC in Cleveland, and flagship CBS 9 WUSA in Washington, DC. As for NBC 2 and in other markets in the same boat, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said he won't have his and Tegnas stations operations combined, so it's likely these will all be sold over the next year or so, even as FCC policies are changing.

American Dad!: 20 Years On

Roger and Klaus at ComicCon in San Diego County, 2007

 Two decades after it started and over once since it changed networks, American Dad! is coming home to Fox after eleven series at TBS. The Warner Bros.-Discovery merger has not been the best move, and studio brass David Zaslav is getting much of the blame. Even the studios own animated legacy isn't safe, with the classic catalogue dropped from Max and a third-party distributor reportedly finally releasing Coyote vs Acme after being held back. Disney actually own American Dad! and other 20th titles, and they maintain a working relationship with Fox several years after their separation, while the latter have also started their own shows. In the age of streaming, Hulu would also carry all of these along with the Fox app. One stipulation is that Dad! won't be quite as edgy anymore since it will be back on terrestrial, and can go no further than related series Family Guy. I won't have to subscribe to Hulu or go to a pirate site to watch new episodes anymore. I can watch it locally like old times for pennies. It's just that some shows have to be put on hiatus for a period, and there's still an emphasis on reality shows and live-action scripted series. American Dad! should last more than three years' time when they return in September to outlive their run on TBS, where they'll still have reruns until 2030. 

Fox and WOLF

Gnax the Fox furry and Wolfhard the red WOLF furry

 It turns out there are two stations called WOLF affiliated with Fox; one being Fox Sports Radio right here in Syracuse where I am, and the other being a TV station in Northeast Pennsylvania, which is why the post is based there. With Fox Sports Syracuse 92.5 FM and AM 1490, the latter original station used to be Top 40, hip hop/R&B/urban contemporary, and Radio Disney. Fox 56 is in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. The two are unrelated, and the FCC can allow a radio station in one market and a TV station in another to have the same callsign. While I've known about both for a long time (the local one longer, of course), I only recently learned that the one in my hometown are now part of Fox Sports. Terrestrial network radio hasn't been as much of a thing in the US since TV became more dominant in the '50s. Stiff competition from Spotify, Sirius XM and podcasts make it obsolete. Network TV also has less relevance today because of streaming, and Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys are a "UHF island" because of VHF cross-signal interference with the tri-state, Philadelphia quad-state, and NYs Southern Tier (mainly just CBS 12 WBNG in Binghamton now, while analogue channels 6, 8, and 10 were retired, even after 2009s DTV mandate and LP/CD [not that kind] exemption). To boot, Craig Fox owns the WOLF in CNY (he is likely not related to the late William Fox, founder of the original Fox studio). He is a presenter who owns several radio stations in the region. Now that's irony. It takes a Fox to know Fox, or one Canidae to another.

Merit Street TV from Dr Phil

Dr Phil McGraw in Jackson County on 9 October 2008. Courtesy Craig O'Neal. CC-by-NC-ND-2.0

 Dr Phil McGraw is Americas therapist. Since Oprah Winfreys beef with beef in 1998 in Amarillo, TX, his tough love tactics have made him a household name. Dr Phil aired in first-run syndication from 2002-23 for twenty-one series (on NBC 3 and CW 6 in CNY). Now he and his wife Robyn have returned to their North Texas/South Oklahoma roots and moved back to the DFW area and started Merit Street Media. While there have been bumps along the road, Merit Street has taken the brand to a new place. However, less than half the country can get it on terrestrial or even cable if they don't want to get the app or their streaming service doesn't provide it yet either. Dish and DirecTV have it coast to coast, as do some streamers. RabbitEars have an affiliate list with some major markets and smaller cities. On Merit Streets own site, you just put in your zip code as would with the old guard to see how to watch in your area (this is how you "Check your local listings" in todays world). In mine, all three major station groups have room on their tiers, while the flagship in the tri-state carry Merit Street on two smaller stations, one being frontline and the other with two more upstart networks that need their own articles, which will have to wait for another day, since I've focused more on the sister blog lately and other other one on occasion. It'd take forever to canvas roughly 200 markets to see who has room, but even the lowest rated ones (population-wise by the Nielsens standards) could somehow squeeze it in somewhere.
    Dr Phil is as much a quotefest as Yogi Berra or any classic film, and his southern wisdom guides me to this day, and I could use him with my own personal issues, even though his Primetime show is not quite the same as its predecessor. He is now independent from CBS/Paramount, which is about to change hands again, which may have been a factor in breaking out of LA and the post-postwar studio system (the infancy of television was a catalyst for the studios' spinoff of cinemas, but not right now).

UPDATE (3 July 2025): Merit TV have entered administration, so there may not be much expansion at this time, since they're showing reruns for now. The partnership with TBN has also soured, with pending litigation. Dr Phil and Steve Harvey have launched the content-driven app Envoy Media Co.

CNY Hall of Fame

Jerry Stiller (SU) at a book signing, 2005

Daniel Krieger (Smoothdude), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 Link

Cable 13

Edited screenshot of logo. Courtesy Syracuse Nostalgia.

 I was given several items to sell (anything pertaining to this business is now sold) by a former presenter/employee of Cable 13, which was on Syracuse CableSystems/Cooke CableVision/Adelphia Cable in the City of Syracuse (covered earlier) and NewChannels in the Suburbs (both absorbed by Time Warner Cable in the mid-to-late '90s and the rest of Adelphia in 2006). Not to be confused with the local public access channel, which I think was on channel 7 in those days (before there was even an internet, let alone a YouTube or TikTok). This couldn't be over the air back then because of ABC 13 WOKR in Rochester (now WHAM), NewsChannel 13 WNYT (NBC) in Albany, and possibly (even though it's further away than PBS flagship WNET in New York) CTV 13 CJOH in Ottawa, ONT (with a repeater of CTV 6 in Cornwall or Deseronto under CRTC regulations and closer to the North Country on US soil), although an unrelated, short-lived low-power station, WNNY-LP 13.1, was registered with the FCC in more recent memory, but the licence was cancelled since the station never even went on the air. I found the logo by screenshot-ting an embarrassing, low-budget promo on YouTube, and later cut out the crawl. From what I can remember, there would be sports, kids shows, teen shows, local sports (high school and college), technology, and public affairs. As cable became more diversified, the scope of channel 13 changed, and would become TWC Sports for CNY (becoming Spectrum by 2016). There was one show called Life Without Shame, which came up on Facebook. Much else has faded into obscurity, but Cable 13 has a unique place in Syracuse TV history.

MyNetworkTV in Miami and Boston

 

Bay State Capital Region fantasy logo

MyNetworkTV was founded in 2006 by Fox after the merger of the WB and UPN formed the CW (now owned by Nexstar) in order to fill the vacuum. Today, it's more of a syndication service much like its sister network in early days. Ironically, two of the largest DMAs on the east coast no longer have a MyNetworkTV affiliate of their own. It could be that it never had high ratings to begin with, exacerbated by the rise in streaming services. Even smaller markets still have it. It depends more on reruns now and stopped having original shows such as English-language telenovelas (Latin American style soaps) and wrestling, which moved to cable.

In Boston, WSBK 38 went back to their indie roots once more (formerly on cable well into UPN days when some other areas had yet to get theirs until SyndEx made 38 useless). Non-network rival WHDH 7 could either have their main channel be the affiliate, or put it on .3.

In Miami and Ft Lauderdale, WBFS 33 could make a late switch. It's one the biggest markets in the South, of course. Then, you wonder if any small towns are missing out.

South Florida affiliate logo. A bit simplistic.

UPDATE (27/3/25): Warren Buffetts ABC/Local 10 WPLG will go indie on 4 August 2025 when ABC moves to 7.2 at Sunbeams (not the bread) Fox 7 WSVN of all places (rare for a Top 10 DMA), moving a local subchannel down. My10 would work too, even though either station could add another subchannel for MyNetworkTV. I only found this out just by going direct to WSVNs site when looking up something more suited to our sister blog (had the wrong area), but anyway. Sometimes, you just know when to strike while the iron is hot. I will update again if I learn anything else on the Gold Coast.

Another lazy composite. I did suggest it to them on X.