Furthermore, several TV News Insiders have told me, Media General is just waiting to meet with its executive staff to go over in specifics, its "KRON dictum."
The furniture ads may have seen their epilogue and the Bentley guy is supposedly a little nervous.
Developing... 
That might explain why Mr. Russell, grandson Josh, and the great Henry Tenenbaum popped up over on Channel 7 the past few weeks doing a show called "Bay Area Buys" after having done "Bay Area Bargains" for years on KRON.
ReplyDeleteGood Riddance. Way Overdue.
ReplyDeleteEver since NBC dumped their KRON affiliation, the station has gone downhill. Even early 1970s channel 36 (with the Carol Doda promos) and pre-Spanish KEMO channel 20 (which had its own dark "off the air" periods under the Leon Crosby ownership era) operated better. Ratings are almost non-existant, the newscasts are poor quality and interrupted with infomercial content, and the overall high amount of infomercial content suggests a time to put the herroraging of red ink to an end.
ReplyDeleteThe nextar / media general merger finally got approval earlier this month.
ReplyDeletenot out of the question, and nothing sinister about it. If you can get a guaranteed return of many times more what the station could produce even if its revenue didn't decline, really makes little sense to avoid the spectrum auction.
unfortunate for a lot of the staff, but reality is having 5 full news operations in town wasn't even tenable back in the glory days of the 70s/80s.
Don;t they have to remain on the air to cash in on the FCC Spectrum auction that is under way?
ReplyDeleteThey could remain on the air with content from one of their multicast services (4.2, 4.3). Why pay to run the primary news operation if all they need to do is keep a signal on the air? They could even run all infomercials I suppose.
DeleteA few stations are looking to cash in with the FCC spectrum auctions. Looks like our Bentley dood may have to get his butt out and look for work!
ReplyDeleteOr NeNe will push him out the door.
DeleteFuck the anchors, I feel terrible for Stan. What will he do with half his day now that he doesn't have KRON to watch and get upset over? Go outside? Terrible news for Stan.
DeletePoor Stay, who will he obsess over next? LOL!
DeleteBalderdash! There will always be a KNBR,a Billy Beane and John Fisher...others.
DeleteAlthough, I might have been KRON's only viewer stalked by the station.
Yes, I know...
What will happen to Miss Fake Cans?
ReplyDeleteWill The Claw Man ask for his Trump donation back? Oh snap!
ReplyDeleteStay tuned for NBC4 Bay Area
ReplyDeleteIf KRON goes poof, NBC should try to get NBC4 as part of their marketing since other majoy markets NBC is on "4".
DeleteThe FCC spectrum auction can result in a lot of things happening. There's an issue of re-stacking stations that remain on the air (think channel-sharing as well as new transmitters). Since digital broadcasting mixes everything up with "virtual channels" that the end-user sees a hell of a lot can get shuffled behind the scenes.
DeleteI wouldn't be shocked if a spanish speaking station jumped in the spot
ReplyDeleteLong before FTV live was talking about KRON in the spectrum auction...you saw it in the comments here...first...more than a year ago.
ReplyDeleteWhen the sports director shames the station world wide and even tells the anchor she has no guts,with no action but to pretend all that is normal? Time to pull the plug.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder their best reporter just walked away...
Who was their best reporter who walked away?
DeleteKate Cagle. She went from being the go to lead off story reporter..to just see ya later KRONsville.
DeleteHer hubbie got a better job? Sure. That was the reason they went to L.A. and are buying Goodwill furniture.
Finally, ND Aaron Pero will get shipped off to go be the asshole Assistant Manager at an Arby's at a rest area he's really always been meant to be. And Darya will just have to become a slutty yoga instructor but she'll tell her Marin friends she "chose it" and it "gives her balance."
ReplyDeleteAgree with others who say the demise of KRON started with them losing their NBC affiliation.
ReplyDeleteLosing the prestige of a network affiliation doomed KRON.
Too bad. It was once a great station.
I have strong memories of watching Bob Jimenez anchor the news.
A lot can happen here. A lot. KRON does hold a highly valuable spot, which is why from a business standpoint, the choice seems obvious. But it's not that easy. There are a total of 62 bidders registered for the spectrum auction including all the major wireless carriers, Dish, Comcast and a few others. I think KRON is the biggest fish out there if the owners (NexStar/Media General) decide they want to cash in. But there are a couple others. CBS could unload the CW, channel 44 and there goes Nightbeat and whatever else that station airs. KOFY channel 20 could become history too. But no one really knows because the auction is highly secretive. It could come out in 2 months or some time next year that a station is gone or moving on the channel lineup.
ReplyDeleteThat's the other possibility. Channel 11, KNTV, is a single entity. So is channel 7, KGO. KGO has deal with channel 20 that allows the news to air at 9 PM. The mouse doesn't own KOFY, TV 20. So maybe they pick up 4, or 20, or who knows. It is all speculation at this point. But if you are reading the writing on the wall, it seems selling KRON at the auction could allow the owner to double their money. But shutting down a station isn't that easy. There are contracts that have to be dealt with and that will take some money too. So even if someone does buy KRON at the auction, locking the doors and turning out the lights isn't a sure fire bet either.
KRON has seen better days, and used to be one of the strongest performing NBC affiliates in the country. When the new millennium began, NBC had been shut out from getting the San Francisco O&O they had desired for years, when the former Young Broadcasting outbid NBC in acquiring the station. Young didn't wish to run KRON as a de facto NBC O&O, so NBC acquired KNTV instead, and KRON went the independent route on January 1, 2002. December will be 2 years since KRON moved in with KGO, after closing their former broadcast home on Van Ness, and Young selling to Media General in 2013.
ReplyDeleteOther than KRON, I could see KOFY being potential spectrum bait. Since Granite Broadcasting sold most of its TV stations 2 years ago to Quincy Newspapers, and sold Buffalo and Detroit stations to Scripps, and held on to KOFY. Nexstar and Sinclair have been buying up stations left and right since analog broadcasting ceased. The FCC implementing the JSA/SSA bans, and is actively exploring ending the UHF discount.
Assuming KRON (as we know it)m does go dark, I could see NBC exploring virtual channel change (from 11 to 4), which NBC would have to petition the FCC. I'm not sure of the chances of NBC phasing out its current KNTV call letters and petitioning for the KRON calls, which may sound very far-fetched, whether it would be feasible. Hmmm.
They'll petition for call letters, KFRC-TV
DeleteCall letters are irrelevant. Especially in TV. NBC Bay Area would get nothing out of changing its call letters---especially to KRON, which has been horrendously devalued.
ReplyDeleteCBS owns the KFRC call letters. They're in use on 106.9.
If KRON goes dark for the spectrum auction, there will be NO CHANNEL 4. That's the point. So this bullshit about NBC "needing" to be on Channel 4 is not only bullshit, but pointless.
And yo...Negin...NBC is on 5 in Chicago, Dallas and Seattle, 10 in Philadelphia, 7 in Boston (moving to 60 next year), 11 in Atlanta and Minneapolis, 2 in Houston and Orlando, 8 in Tampa, 12 in Phoenix, 6 in Miami, 9 in Denver, and 3 in Cleveland and Sacramento.
Yep. Call letters really don't mean squat in TV. You can call yourself just about whatever you want, but it is all about the channel and branding. If there is a channel swap, things get interesting. Viewers get confused because they aren't dealing with the day-to-day operations like those in the business. They will go turn on channel 11 one night and see something else and wonder where the hell it went. Or they'll turn on 4 and get nothing. Hit the channel up or channel down button and their problem is solved. Or they'll go to their second favorite station. Call letters really don't mean anything at all. Much like real estate it's location, location, location.
DeleteIf Comcast swoops in and buys KRON's spectrum that would be very spicy.
I was thinking of the the stations in NYC and LA.
DeleteOK, am I mis-understanding something here? Surrendering a particular frequency assignment does not mean that a station is going dark. KRON could continue to exist by leasing a sub-channel from another broadcaster. HD feed would still be provided via direct fiber optic link to Comcast and other cable/satellite providers. OTA would be SD. As far as branding is considered the FCC allows KCBS in SF and KCBS-TV in LA and most channels now transmit on a frequency other than their virtual channel ID so imagining KRON 4 as a brand would not be a stretch. I think Media General sees a great opportunity here.
ReplyDeleteBarryOB/Oakland
Funny you should bring up... " HD feed would still be provided via direct fiber optic link to Comcast and other cable/satellite providers.". Lately, if I'm home early from work, I'll turn to Get TV (In The Heat of Night is my cheesy fave)on one of KRON's sub-channels and at exactly the same time every day, the signal goes out on all of KRON's channels... just like it does with my antennae (not just KRON)- depending on the angle of the sun, then it'll come back as clear as the angle of the sun changes. You mentioned a direct fiber optic feed from KRON to Comcast. This had me thinking is Comcast getting their local feeds from OTA ? Nothing wrong with that but I swear my CABLE signal on some of my local channels goes out at different times of the day at the same time until the sun changes position significantly. Looking for a real answer from someone who KNOWS... no snarkiness meant or desired.
DeleteI know that for a number of years the major stations (especially those who were originally VHF stations) have had their signals sent directly to Comcast and DirecTV as OTA pickup would be subject to all the signal issues associated with pickup by home antennas. I was surprised to learn years ago that DirecTV was also getting dedicated feeds, those feeds then going to El Segundo for uplink. Not sure if hop to El Segundo was via satellite or fiber optic. I learned this from engineering manager at DirecTV when I had issues as a subscriber.
DeleteBarry
I really don't see this as a big issue. There are many other stations up and down the "dial" running info-mercials night and day, so anything lost if KRON goes away is easily found elsewhere.
ReplyDelete