YOU GOT $500M sitting around? Buy KRON, it's for sale. Well, everything is for sale (today and yesterday) the word on the street? KRON's owner, Nextstar, wanrs to unload its biggest station so it can pour some needed revenue into its piggy bank to pay off debt.
$500M sounds a bit high to me but think Top 10 market and think frequency. NO, I don't think NBC is a taker.
*This morning on KCBS, the all-commercials leader was interrupted by news.
*The KRON 2020 playbook: hire 100,00 weather people and everything else, phone it in.
*From now until the end of the year, you'll be seeing (and hearing) holiday fill-in help as your favorite news, sports and weather people take time off to celebrate the holidays, spend time with family and give thanks for a wonderful year it was, 2020, pass your mask and please wear it. No? OK.
*KPIX, your scarlet letter TV station.
*KTVU, the station in town that continues to rock with steady ratings and an atmosphere where everyone is trying to split. Fox treats its people the same way Disney treats its folks only Fox doesn't have Disneyland. Wait a minute, Disneyland is closed. Oh well.
*Bill Martin saying "Happy Hanukah" in a promo about as heartwarming as watching Steve Harvey host Miss Universe.
*Julie Haener about as warm as those vials of Covid-19 vaccine kits.
*Julie used to smile more often and seem friendly over the years but is now applying the Claudine Wong iteration.
*Alex Savidge, if/when Somerville departs, is the Channel 2 leader to take over at 10 PM.
*Someone that does smile but it's rather phony: Rosemary Orozco. Who still isn't on prime time because it's obvious Rosy is still Wheel of Fortune material and not Jeopardy.
*Liz Kruetz: now at 900 Front, everyone hates her because she's perceived as the station snitch. Good, now Ming Sze has a partner in crime.
*And yes, Ama Daetz HATES Kristen Sze. And Trixie doesn't know what to do.
*Trixie has cool holiday plans for the rank and file: she's gonna go to Subway and cut up a 12-inch meatball sandwich and feed them to staff. The Disney way because well, you know, it's building a better Bay Area. Merry Christmas, staff.
*Trixie is to warmth is what Loooooooooooooooooooooose PENYA! is to news acumen.
*BREAKING NEWS! Circle7 GM Tom Cibrowski got a new chair and made a memo about it. The guy is a genius.
*Cibrowski thinks Terrilyn Joe is the Asian Jackie O.
*"The Ronn Owens Report" --about as interesting as a Yuba City Arby's.
Sell it to Univision or Telemundo, no body really watch TV these days
ReplyDeleteThat's what everybody claims, yet they still have 3x or greater the audience of anything digital.
DeleteDoes KING a hole Pero come with it? That would be the best thing about KRON being sold, his his quick demise.
ReplyDelete"Julie Haener about as warm as those vials of Covid-19 vaccine kits."
ReplyDeleteOh God, isn't that the truth.
I particularly like her completely phony, "Oh, isn't that a shame, tsk-tsk"s after every sad story.
"Rosemary Orozco ... still isn't on prime time because it's obvious Rosy is still Wheel of Fortune material and not Jeopardy."
Kyla Grogan blows her out of the water for professionalism. Rosemary probably hates her.
But Rich, the Yuba City Arby's is shut down because of Covid! Oh, well at least we wont be catching that epidemic!
ReplyDeletePut Michael Savage in the same line out the door as Ronn Owens, Di Fi, get in line also...
ReplyDeleteThrow in Pelosi and Newsom. Actually, the populace may throw Newsom out in the upcoming recall election this coming summer.
Delete@2:00
Delete"...the populace may throw Newsom out in the upcoming recall election this coming summer."
State has nearly 40 mil people and most of them are not likely to be recall-happy lemmings. Besides, when residents discover who's backing this effort they'll be even less inclined to ditch Newsom.
Maybe ESPN could mix things up a bit, venture into station ownership and buy KRON. They've got lots of content. I'm sure the agreement between Comcast and ESPN has an renewal/expiration date, And sports does bring in the advertising dollrs. Of course with the recent ESPN layoffs there might be an indication of a cash issue, but interest rates are low now.
ReplyDeleteAnd since ESPN and KGO-TV have the same owner - no need for KRON to move off Front Street.
DeleteOr maybe Zwerling (KSCO) can get up a collection and buy the station. And watch Daria drop her mouth when Rich walks in to do the daily "415 Dirt" segment! :)
A dream scenario...CBS buys KRON sells off KPIX to another buyer...that way CBS gets at least a newscast worth watching than KPIX...a dream YES but would it happen NO...hey tho you know never know!
ReplyDeleteIs Darya included in the KRON sale?
ReplyDelete- I second 9:53. Telemundo getting a VHF channel number in the Bay Area would boost them to no end.
ReplyDelete- CBS has way too much history with KPIX to depart with them, even during the Westinghouse-Group W years. Example: Edward R. Murrow during his glory years named dropped dozens of CBS affiliates in the 1950s, with KPIX mentioned on multiple See It Now broadcasts. Keep Juliette Goodrich, Elizabeth Cook, Maria Medina (when she returns from a COVID-related sabbatical; she shared it on Facebook), and perhaps a few others, but overhaul the rest of the newsroom not to mention middle management. Nothing a few changes - even with the VDLC-tragedy snafu in the way - can't alleviate.
- Big difference between uncontrollable energy prices and a pandemic. Unlike Gray Davis' downfall - and Arnold Schwarznegger's rise to the top of Kal-ee-fornia - Gavin Newsom has too strong a base with Bay, LA, and Sacramento factions still with them, plus San Diego is becoming dramatically blue the last couple of days.
- Pelosi and Savage still have strong bases as well (the latter would never ever encourage secession or a civil war like the Lard of the Radio did last week; even Geraldo Rivera called Limburger Limbaugh's comments "reckless"). Feinstein, unfortunately, has clear signs of dementia. Other than lates Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd, I don't remember any other U.S. Senator reaching incapacitated status in Congress.
- The time for Buyout Bill Martin to go was yesterday.
- Trixie's pal on the Disney Board still wants all 3 Circle7 news divas. As knuckleheaded as Trixie is, she is in a Catch22 with Kreutz and the Countess as a Board-supported tandem, but Daetz very much respected by KGO-TV's Biggest Two.
- Is the Dysfunction Smile still eyeing Dysfunction with Darya?
"VHF" channel numbers really don't mean anything, anymore, certainly not anywhere near $500 million. Plus, currently, KSTS shares a transmitter antenna with their primary competitor, Univision. There would not be anywhere near enough upside to justify paying any kind of large sum for channel 4 when then they would probably have to turn around and sell channel 48 for far less (and then have to advertise the heck out of the channel change so people would know where to tune).
DeleteRich, are you kidding? KRON's not going to sell for $500 million. There haven't been any comparable sales in years.
ReplyDeleteThe FCC limits group broadcasters like Nexstar, Sinclair, Tegna, CBS, ABC, Fox, etc. to any combination of stations that reaches 39% or less of the country. KRON isn't very profitable compared to network affiliates in smaller markets. And the San Francisco DMA is 2.2% of the nation. So if Nexstar is able to dump KRON, it can buy several smaller market network affiliates that add up to 2.2% with higher profit margins. So it's a "fire sale" situation for Nexstar.
No group broadcaster wants to buy a barely-profitable station that takes up 2.2% of their cap. Moreover, Fox, CBS/Viacom and NBC wouldn't be allowed to buy KRON because they already have duopolies here.
That leaves Sinclair, Tegna, Gray and Scripps as potential buyers, but they all have reasons why they wouldn’t want KRON.
One big reason is that KRON, with no major network, gets almost no retrans fees from cable/satellite operators.
In sum, KRON is a big white elephant.
My guess is that Nexstar is keeping the KRON news operation alive in order to make the station look more attractive to a buyer. But when it sinks in that nobody wants KRON, they'll shut down the newsroom, contract with another station to provide newscasts (like KGO does for KOFY), and fill the air time with low-cost syndicated shows and infomercials.
Another possibility is to shut down KRON and sell the bandwidth and its future ATSC-3 capability to Google or a telecom.
Jim Gabbert may put together a team to buy KRON. Instead of making another KOFY, call it KREM, Cream!!!
ReplyDelete$500M? No way. Maybe if KRON still owned the land at 1001 Van Ness. But no network or other broadcast company is going to give half-a-billion $$ for broadcast rights. That is all KRON has, right? I'm sure everything else is leased including the floor at 900 Front. If I were NBC, walk in and give $250M. It would be a complete slap in the face and last laugh for NBC as I'm sure they're still remembering how they were outbid by Young. And isn't Telemundo part of NBC? Offer KRON at 50-75 cents on the dollar and give Telemundo the KNTV market. Heavy Hispanic base in the South Bay so that would go well with KNTV there and NBC having KRON, like it should've been back when the Hearst family wanted to dump it. Bah! Or just sit back (NBC) and watch the ship send out an SOS with NBC being the Coast Guard.
ReplyDeleteNBC wouldn't gain much by buying KRON except channel "4" and part ownership of Sutro Tower. KNTV already broadcasts from Mt. San Bruno, so the footprint would only change the pockets in SF that Mt. San Bruno can't hit at the expense of the areas of San Mateo County where Sutro Tower can't hit. NBC owns the building in San Jose whereas KRON is a renter in SF. So, it's doubtful that moving to channel 4 is worth anywhere near even $250 million given everything else.
DeleteRich, Sinclair acquiring KRON would be an interest purchase. They would tap into the KSFO/KTRB audience. Do you that would a smart move for Sinclair to broadcast news with an ultra-conservative editorial desk?
ReplyDelete$500. Million? Yoko Ono could afford it. She likely has that much cash just stuffed into her brassiere.
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