I was actually surprised to hear this, I didn’t think the sale would be approved;
The FCC ruled Tuesday that Gray Television could buy KDLT-TV from Red River Broadcasting Co. Gray announced the $32.5 million deal in May 2018 and with approval from the FCC and Justice Department was able to complete the deal today, according to a KSFY report.
I thought for how long this was taking they may have been some hiccups, but it looks like Gray convinced the FCC they are going to provide us MORE news by acquiring KDLT, even though I think this is about advertising dollars and NOT providing us more news;
The FCC noted that the No. 1 station in the Sioux Falls market, KELO-TV, “has consistently earned a majority of advertising revenue, making it harder for the other stations in the market to effectively compete against it. The applicants note that KDLT-TV is already struggling to maintain a profitable local news operation and that, without relief, ‘it is only a matter of time before KDLT-TV is forced to eliminate its local news.’ â€
So in order for KSFY to compete with Stormland TV they need to buy up more stations? How about better programming and news instead of the latest food truck or dog race story? Oh, Oh, Oh, but wait . . .
Gray has committed to add at least 28 hours per week of local news programming across the two stations, more local news programming than either station currently airs in an average week, according to the FCC. The company also plans to open a news bureau in Pierre, the capital, to provide better coverage of state government and install a state-of-the-art weather radar that will enable it to provide more accurate information about severe weather in the Sioux Falls market, the order states.
So they will have a reporter in Pierre for 40 days? That’s nice. Where do I sign up for that miserable job? And I guess I was a little surprised to hear that neither station was providing state-of-the-art weather reporting. So what? Were they just winging it all these years? I actually get my forecasts from KDLT, because I think they lay it out better.
According to a statement from Gray, there will be no changes at either station for awhile.
LOL. And we won’t be holding our breath either. Bring on the Weiner Dog fashion show!
This merger reminds me of the time when Nash and Hudson became the American Motors Corporation….. #NeedISayMore?
But the good news is that my collector’s KDLT severe weather radio has probably gone up in value, because of this merger, however.
Network TV is struggling like newspapers. There’s better programming on cable channels and streaming has become popular. Local weather is available and more accurate from cell phone app. Obviously, people are not concerned with local news. There will be impact but, for now, it’s best to look the other way unless/until crime and political corruption presents a decision to move. I’m looking, are you?
Gray Television essentially bought an FCC license and some advertising sales department accounts, rather than much in terms of hard assets. The existing KDLT studio facility at 3600 S. Westport will likely be a throwaway. Operations will be co-mingled at the newer KSFY operations center downtown. Maintaining the expense of two independent news operations by a single parent company in a market this small would be silly, long term. I predict a merger of the news teams, and the possible addition of another earlier local newscast on one of the stations (4p or 4:30p in addition to existing 5p & 6p) and/or that local newscasts might be staggered with the respective ABC/NBC network newscasts…if ABC/NBC will allow their network news to run at other than 5:30p CST. That would give competitive alternate viewing options against KELO’s existing 5p local news, 5:30p network news, 6p local news programming formula. Or . . . KDLT or KSFY could drop the 5pm or 6pm local newscast and counter-program against KELO news with syndicated programming for the time slot. Any of those changes could give KDLT/KSFY some “product differentiation” to sell to local advertisers against KELO.
(“So I see on your resume, that you have worked for KELO from Aberdeen and Rapid”…….”So, I guess you would be perfect for the Pierre gig, huh?”)
Of course you’re right. This is about revenue and nothing more.
Every TV station acquisition these days is about consolidation and more $$$.
Newsrooms will shrink. News programs will be added with no resources to actually generate content.
Take a look at terrestrial radio around the country. Virtually irrelevant.
Television is going down the same path.
Local stations try to stay relevant as their networks create digital outlet and begin their migration.
TV is just not a very good investment as a career…or as an industry.
One way the local stations can improve their news reporting is to separate human interest stories (like the food trucks and animal stories) into separate non-news segments rather than trying to report them as straight up news, or even make an entirely new lifestyle show that advertises these kinds of things. They could show it in a weekend timeslot alongside Home Ideas.
As for radio, I think they are struggling to stay relevant rather than being completely irrelevant. People don’t like the limited playlists and increasing amount of commercials, which is why streaming services like Spotify are thriving. When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, big corporate entities like Clear Channel and Cumulus started buying out all the smaller locally owned stations and formed the large six-station clusters that we have today, homogenizing the content in the process. There are still a few true live-and-local stations out there like KISD in Pipestone MN, or KWYR in Winner, but those stations target a mostly older audience, while the current generation practically ignores them. Once their target audience starts passing away and ad dollars dry up, those small independent stations could be in serious trouble.
On a closing note, I wonder how KTTW Fox 7 is doing financially. They have never had a news operation, and they appear to be run on a shoestring budget. They still sign off each night at 2am, and nearly all of their non-Fox programming is syndicated court shows, old comedy reruns, movies, or infomercials.
KDLT TV STRUGGLED WITH RATTINGS. It did not surprise me that the FCC approved the merger. Ownership in smaller markets of 1 tv station is dying. The CBS ABC NBC only news source are gone. Having to compete with Cable TV and cable news and also the internet. I think the Sioux Falls tv market will have a KELO/ KTTW TV duopoly in the near future. It’s sad but welcome to the 21st Century
10 years ago, i was in duluth, for a week. two of there stations were owned by the same company, in the same building. during the newscasts, the weather person would start on one station, while the anchor was on the other. they’d also have the sports guy on both stations at different times. that’s what’s coming folks.
I have spoken to a production person at KSFY a few months ago about this. They said, the preliminary plan is to obviously share administration and production staff, that would be obvious. They would probably share sales staff. But they told me that the ‘plan’ was to have two studios (in DT building) and have different anchors and personalities at the different stations. What we really did NOT discuss is if they will share beat reporters and footage. In other words, if they do video of a downpour, would that appear on both stations. Also ‘content’ if there is a major local story, how will the different stations report it? Will the script be the same? What a lot of people don’t realize is that the producers write the script for the anchors, so are they going to write two different scripts for a major story? Highly unlikely.