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Name: Sinclair Broadcast Group
Age: 42
Occupation: broadcasting giant
Last Seen: Hunt Valley, MD
Bee-otched For: making northern Michigan's TV viewing experience even worse---
It's official: if you live in northern Michigan, you'll soon have two TV stations owned by Obama haters and another two that bow to infomercials and televangelists.
It was announced last week that NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 and the shared services agreement of ABC station WGTU 29&8 were part of a mega deal between current owner Barrington Broadcasting and Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair is buying out Barrington for $320 million, and will give the company stations in all markets in Michigan except for Detroit and Lansing (they recently sold ABC affiliate WLAJ 53 to Sheilds Broadcasting, which has a shared services agreement with CBS station WLNS 6).
Sinclair would now own WLUC 6 (NBC)/6.2 (Fox) Marquette, WPBN/WGTU, WWMT 3 (CBS) here in west Michigan, and WEYI 25 (NBC), WBSF 46 (CW) and WSMH 66 (Fox) in Flint and the Tris. It's likely that Sinclair would have to sell one of the Flint stations to meet FCC regulations.
Under the new ownership, 7&4 would now be co-owned with WWMT, which is ironic since WWMT - fka WKZO - was once the sister station to 7&4's long-time rival, WWTV 9&10. Both stations were once owned by John Fetzer, who also owned the Detroit Tigers.
Sadly, if the Barrington/Sinclair deal is given the FCC blessing, it would further damn the television landscape of northern Michigan. Right now as-is, northern Michigan's "big 4" stations are run by two broadcasters, with Heritage Broadcasting running both 9&10 and WFQX Fox 32.
Since the duopolies were formed in the late 2000's, true, the on-air quality of 29&8 and Fox 32 have improved somewhat, but programming-wise, you have both 7&4 and 29&8 aiming towards yentas with Oprah clones and 9&10 and Fox 32 airing 20,631 ads for the My Pillow and crooked televangelists like Pat Robertson.
But now, 7&4 and possibly 29&8 will now be run by the same company that made headlines during the Bush II era when they ordered all their stations to run a 60-minute paid documentary trashing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military record and ordered all of their ABC affiliates to dump an episode of Nightline that showcased those killed in the Iraq War. In recent years, the company even aired an anti-Obama infomercial, attacking his policies.
It appears that once again, people up north are stuck with owners kissing conservative ass for their TV choices. I sadly doubt if the FCC will reject the deal, but God only knows. When people are stuck with few choices, they'll end up having to make do with what they have. I hope that Sinclair will keep their yapper shut in regards to Obama and the Democrats. We need more media for the people and less lies that big media keeps pushing on us.
Somewhere, Les Biederman and John Fetzer are both spinning in their graves.
----
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
Age: 42
Occupation: broadcasting giant
Last Seen: Hunt Valley, MD
Bee-otched For: making northern Michigan's TV viewing experience even worse---
It's official: if you live in northern Michigan, you'll soon have two TV stations owned by Obama haters and another two that bow to infomercials and televangelists.
It was announced last week that NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 and the shared services agreement of ABC station WGTU 29&8 were part of a mega deal between current owner Barrington Broadcasting and Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair is buying out Barrington for $320 million, and will give the company stations in all markets in Michigan except for Detroit and Lansing (they recently sold ABC affiliate WLAJ 53 to Sheilds Broadcasting, which has a shared services agreement with CBS station WLNS 6).
Sinclair would now own WLUC 6 (NBC)/6.2 (Fox) Marquette, WPBN/WGTU, WWMT 3 (CBS) here in west Michigan, and WEYI 25 (NBC), WBSF 46 (CW) and WSMH 66 (Fox) in Flint and the Tris. It's likely that Sinclair would have to sell one of the Flint stations to meet FCC regulations.
Under the new ownership, 7&4 would now be co-owned with WWMT, which is ironic since WWMT - fka WKZO - was once the sister station to 7&4's long-time rival, WWTV 9&10. Both stations were once owned by John Fetzer, who also owned the Detroit Tigers.
Sadly, if the Barrington/Sinclair deal is given the FCC blessing, it would further damn the television landscape of northern Michigan. Right now as-is, northern Michigan's "big 4" stations are run by two broadcasters, with Heritage Broadcasting running both 9&10 and WFQX Fox 32.
Since the duopolies were formed in the late 2000's, true, the on-air quality of 29&8 and Fox 32 have improved somewhat, but programming-wise, you have both 7&4 and 29&8 aiming towards yentas with Oprah clones and 9&10 and Fox 32 airing 20,631 ads for the My Pillow and crooked televangelists like Pat Robertson.
But now, 7&4 and possibly 29&8 will now be run by the same company that made headlines during the Bush II era when they ordered all their stations to run a 60-minute paid documentary trashing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military record and ordered all of their ABC affiliates to dump an episode of Nightline that showcased those killed in the Iraq War. In recent years, the company even aired an anti-Obama infomercial, attacking his policies.
It appears that once again, people up north are stuck with owners kissing conservative ass for their TV choices. I sadly doubt if the FCC will reject the deal, but God only knows. When people are stuck with few choices, they'll end up having to make do with what they have. I hope that Sinclair will keep their yapper shut in regards to Obama and the Democrats. We need more media for the people and less lies that big media keeps pushing on us.
Somewhere, Les Biederman and John Fetzer are both spinning in their graves.
----
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