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Hagerstown: WHAG loses NBC affiliation

mvcg66b3r

mvcg66b3r

It's WMGM all over again.

After more than four decades together, WHAG-TV and NBC will part.

Details of the break have not been made public, but Lauren Skowronski, vice president of corporate communications for NBC, said in a one-sentence email Thursday: "I can confirm that the affiliation is ending this summer."

Hugh Breslin, general manager of WHAG-TV, said Thursday night that "we have plans to make a major announcement about exciting changes to our service and programming next week."

NBC also owns and operates WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Hagerstown and the nation's capital are considered to be in the same market, known as a "Designated Market Area," according to the Nielsen ratings maps.
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http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news...cle_77461d4a-d6a9-11e5-88eb-0fedba025d11.html

The article also says:

WHAG-TV, Channel 25, is the only licensed broadcast television station in Hagerstown.
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Wrong! There's also independent station WJAL, with transmitter near Chambersburg PA.

So this summer, Hagerstown will have two independents and would have to rely on DC for network programming. I wonder what led to the breakup? And will Nexstar drop NBC on other stations in retaliation?
 
mvcg66b3r said:
It's WMGM all over again.
...
So this summer, Hagerstown will have two independents and would have to rely on DC for network programming. I wonder what led to the breakup? And will Nexstar drop NBC on other stations in retaliation?
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It probably is deja vu WMGM all over again. Network O&O in the big city running roughshod over the exurban small-town affiliate. And, since both stations are in the same market, guess who wins?
 
Now WHAG wants to be a regional superstation, a la WFMZ.

WHAG Announces $1M Local News Expansion

Following the news that Nexstar Broadcasting Group's WHAG Hagerstown, Md., will lose its NBC affiliation after more than 40 years this summer, the station announced Friday afternoon that it will “significantly expand its highly-viewed locally originated news programming under the Your Local News Leader brand, with the initial launch beginning July 1.”

In association with the news expansion, Nexstar said it will be investing approximately $1 million to relocate WHAG’s news bureaus, open additional field offices, add over a dozen news and production personnel, develop new on-air graphics and purchase new equipment, weather technology and traffic systems to complement the additional programming.

In addition, the station will hire additional marketing and sales personnel to promote WHAG’s suite of multiplatform marketing solutions, including Your4State.com.

The expansion will deliver more than 20 additional hours of local news to its new weekly broadcast schedule, increasing WHAG’s locally-produced news, lifestyle, sports, weather and community programming to over 50 hours per week.

In addition to more local programming hours, Nexstar said the expansion will bring WHAG’s local news coverage “to new geographic areas with the addition of original newscasts unique to local viewing communities in Maryland and Northern Virginia as well as West Virginia’s only available state-wide local news. Importantly, WHAG-TV’s local news expansion directly addresses the needs of the local communities outside the Beltway, particularly in Montgomery County, Md., and Northern Virginia by bringing viewers the only full-coverage local television news programming targeted to their local communities.”

Broadcast in full HD, WHAG said its multimedia journalists will deliver news from its repositioned news bureaus in Winchester, Va., and Germantown, Md., to better reflect the station’s expanded coverage area, and expects to open an additional office in the Centerville, Va., area in the first quarter of 2017.
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http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/92473
 
WHAG is in a much better location than WMGM. Over half of WMGM's coverage is over water, while WHAG's coverage area includes Frederick, Morgantown, Cumberland, and Winchester, all of whom are larger than Atlantic City. This is unlikely, but WHAG may even add some areas to its coverage. For NBC, I think most if not all systems in that area carry at least one of WRC, WBAL, WJAC, or WGAL in addition to WHAG.
 
TheBigA said:
Guess who has the contract to provide cable to Hagerstown?

Comcast.

Guess who owns NBC?

You're right.
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So this is a variation of the move NBC/Comcast is trying in Boston: forcing as many OTA viewers (the ones who can afford to, as poor people are non-persons to Comcast) as possible to become Comcast subscribers by making the OTA signal difficult or impossible to receive?
 
So as of July 1 at 4AM it switches to H&I. But looks like H&I will fill some of what was NBC programming

Just looking at schedule from 6/30 to 7/1 shows the differences
7-8 was Today...will be more local news
8-11 was Today...now H&I
1-2 was Days...now paid programs
2-3 was paid programs..now Christina
3-4 was Judge Cristina Perez...now Mablean
4-5 was Judge Mablean...now Doctors
6:30-7 was NBC nightly news...now an extra 1/2 hour local news
7:30-8 was Insider...now news
8-10 was NBC...now H&I
10-11 was NBC...now news
11:30 was Fallon...now Insider
midnight was NBC...now H&I

so looks like H&I is on
M-F Midnight-4AM, 8-11a, 8-10p
weekend from noon-6 and here and there

http://tvschedule.zap2it.com/tvlist...annel=25.1&sgt=grid&aid=tvschedule&type=print
 
I hope they do well with the expanded newscasts. On a side note, now that they are no longer NBC maybe they can get on cable in some other parts of their coverage area (maybe there were some cable companies reluctant to carry it as NBC because of a in market NBC getting mad)
 
So other than the new and current shows that focus on local content, WHAG 25 will produce 51-and-a-1/2 hours of local news and weather per week,
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That is a lot of news for a non network station......but my local FOX (KMSP Minneapolis) which is a O&O has 52 1/2 (!!!)
M-F 4:30a-10a, 5-6:30p, 9-10:35p
Sa 7-9a, 5-6p, 9-10p
Su 7-8a, 9-11a, 5-6p, 9-11
 
Both of the cable systems in Allegany County, MD stopped carrying WRC the day that WHAG launched in the early 1970's. Both carry WJAC out of Johnstown, PA (Atlantic Broadband Cumberland did not until 2007).

Comcast Frostburg (which also serves Keyser, WV) added WRC this week on channel 19 in SD and channel 814 in HD. No word on Atlantic Broadband yet.
 
meanwhile all hell broke loose on the WHAG facebook page about the changes and yet even though folks have posted the reasoning (Comcast not renewing the agreement) folks are blaming WHAG for the loss of NBC

the one comment I found funny was "I dont like the new afternoon programming with the judge shows"....um, the judge shows were on in the afternoon when it was NBC. They just moved it up and hour
 
As much as I hope this change will be a success for WHAG however on the other hand I would not at all be surprised if WHAG will end up being a 24/7 religious or home shopping channel in a few years..if that. Reading the Facebook comments I did see this "....A good suggestion would be to the staff to make sure their resumes are up to date.. Odds are you're gonna need them.". That may not be a bad idea at all..hey ask Gray Television. Years ago Gray launched a local TV news service for both Winchester-Front Royal, VA ( DC market ) as well as Fort Collins, Colorado ( Denver DMA ). Unfortunately both are gone now. In the case of Fort Collins the many of viewers there just continued to watch the local Denver stations and simply didn't bother watching their own Northern Colorado TV newscast and it was pretty much the same with Winchester too. In WHAG's press release they mention about plans to start up a newscast targeting the Northern Virginia & Maryland suburbs of Washignton. Ah good luck with that WHAG. Do they really think many viewers will give up watching the Washington DC newscasts in favor of them ? Here is the quick answer...NO !!
 
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....A good suggestion would be to the staff to make sure their resumes are up to date..
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being that WHAG is a small market station I'm sure folks had their resume already updated long before they lost NBC. That station is a "get your feet wet" station. We have one of them in Minnesota, KEYC (CBS/FOX). Only station in the market. The reporters are there 6 months to a year tops then move to "bigger markets".

Years ago Gray launched a local TV news service for both Winchester-Front Royal, VA ( DC market ) as well as Fort Collins, Colorado ( Denver DMA ). Unfortunately both are gone now
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Winchester one lasted 6 years and NoCo one was 5 years. Thats pretty good compared to how quickly newscasts are scrapped. ;)
 
unclehonkey said:
Winchester one lasted 6 years and NoCo one was 5 years. Thats pretty good compared to how quickly newscasts are scrapped. ;)
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I agree but there was one strange thing with both "TV3 Winchester" and "NoCo5" as they were actually still hiring staff all the way to the end come to think of it I believe Gray even still had help wanted ads in the local papers looking for help the very week both channels would shut down. I do know that with Winchester Gray had actually hired a new weatherman and managed to get a female anchor from Norfolk/Portsmouth's WAVY-TV 10 just a week or two before the shut down. Far cry from Martinsburg, West Virginia's long defunct WYVN FOX 60 and Fredericksburg, Virginia's long long LONG defunct WHFV NBC 69...both stations had pretty much laid everyone off before the end would finally arrive.
 
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