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KCRG TV Sold: Last locally owned station gone

kwwl has excellent graphics and this on the left:

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Good hopefully the new owners will fire Kaj O'Meara, Scott Saville and the two dingbats do the morning news. It's a shame they let Nadia Crow and Clarie Kellett leave.
 
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Not literally, but metaphorically Saville needs to be left in a ditch by the road side. So tired of having to turn off his crappy bits with high school athletes. Heavy perv quotient to the ones with female athletes.
 
HawkeyeHitman said:
Good hopefully the new owners will fire Kaj O'Meara, Scott Saville and the two dingbats do the morning news. It's a shame they let Nadia Crow and Clarie Kellett leave.
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With her good looks and her presence as an anchor, Nadia Crow was eventually going to move on to a larger market. She is doing very well as a weeknight anchor in Salt Lake City now. KWWL has added some nice new female talent lately, especially Olivia Mancino. She won't be in Waterloo much longer.
 
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lucas80 said:
Not literally, but metaphorically Saville needs to be left in a ditch by the road side. So tired of having to turn off his crappy bits with high school athletes. Heavy perv quotient to the ones with female athletes.
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I am glad I am not the only one to share this opinion. The guy just has a creep factor with his elephant ears.
 
crich1 said:
With her good looks and her presence as an anchor, Nadia Crow was eventually going to move on to a larger market. She is doing very well as a weeknight anchor in Salt Lake City now. KWWL has added some nice new female talent lately, especially Olivia Mancino. She won't be in Waterloo much longer.
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Whew!!! I thought I was the only one who watched the news for the newscasters.
 
Interesting to see how it pans out, Gray reps said all the right things at forum with management at the Library. Focus on high journalistic standards, local autonomy, engaging with the community and the like.
Caused immediate end to significant sharing of resources with the Gazette, but claims made that new partnership is being developed.
But headline may be they got one f'ing hundred million dollars. Would end up being a fantastic thing if Gazette co. uses the capital to upgrade their nearly worthless rag.
 
The funny part is they indicated that a main reason was the difficulty in standing alone for negotiations with DirecTV, Dish, Mediacom, etc. Well, thats a red herring as that model has peak and is on the decline. It will come full circle and people using antennas plus streaming will become more and more the norm. The real reason is that the owners could not say no to the pay day. They won't admit to it, but come on....
 
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Early adapters are cutting the cord, but for many in KCRG's market access to affordable high-speed internet isn't where it needs to be for cutting the cord to be a cheaper alternative to DirecTV, Dish, & Mediacom. Cable and Satellite companies are not just going to disappear overnight, I think it is still a smart business move if they can maintain the tie in to the Gazette.
 
No, they wont disappear overnight, but they have peaked and are on the decline. Its a good business move in the sense that they made a lot of money. Nothing wrong with that. Its their right. But, it will mean less of a community type orientation in the future.
 
Things change. When I went to work at The Gazette in 1973, we were told in no uncertain terms to have nothing to do with KCRG. Not only to not share information with reporters from the TV (and radio station at the time) but not to have anything to do with them publicly. Not even share rides to a news event.

The Gazette Co. was one of the few examples in the nation of the major newspaper in a market also owning a TV set, and the FCC seriously frowned on this. In fact, in '75 the FCC banned cross-ownership of a newspaper and broadcast facility that shared the same market.

It was a very touchy situation. I don't know all the ins and outs of what happened, and obviously the rule was later changed. But you can imagine how odd it seemed to me when the paper and TV station basically merged, sharing space, employees, everything.
 
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I've often wondered if the more tenured women there look at a thin, amply chested new hire like Britley Ritz and loathe every breath she takes.

She's still terribly raw, must be her first on-air job (and a bit of a beak on her too) - but she's better than looking at Kaj and Justin, that much is certain.
 
Morehouse published a take on the deal in his column titled 10 takeaways:

8. In news that has slooowed me down today — The Gazette and KCRG will be no more. KCRG has been sold. Lots of great people over there and I wish them the best. That said, this is a competitive business, so I don’t wish them that much of “the best.”

Wow, just wow, wonder if he meant to title the column a prick's takeaways?
 
I actually look forward to KCRG and the Gazette not being joined at the hip, I often felt their newscasts were often "Let's see what was in the paper today."

I generally watch KWWL in the morning, KCRG at 6 and KGAN at 10 to get a variety of whats going on.
 
pezhawk said:
Early adapters are cutting the cord
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They are. But the realization is also starting to set in. To pay $8 for Netflix, $10 for Amazon Prime, $4 for HBO On demand, $4 for red box, $3 for BTN to go and then $50 for internet adds up to the cost of a typical cable bill. At this point I'm not sure the cost savings are there to cut the cord.
 
LifelongHawk said:
Wow, just wow, wonder if he meant to title the column a prick's takeaways?
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Why?

His job is to be better at news than the other guys. That way you click/buy/tune-in to him over the others guys. There is a business side to the news industry too.
 
ANYCHawk said:
They are. But the realization is also starting to set in. To pay $8 for Netflix, $10 for Amazon Prime, $4 for HBO On demand, $4 for red box, $3 for BTN to go and then $50 for internet adds up to the cost of a typical cable bill. At this point I'm not sure the cost savings are there to cut the cord.
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Totally agree, right now the technology and infrastructure at a decent price point isn't available in Cedar Rapids for me to cut the cord, and I'd guess it's the same throughout the country. That is why I questioned JRHawk saying the cable/sat has peaked.

The ala carte option isn't going to be cheap, spend $100 for 300 channels or hand pick your stations to stream online and get maybe 25 of them assuming you have the data package to support streaming 3-12 hours a day, depending on your family set-up.
 
I am a cord cutter and I use Antenna, Amazon Prime and some sports streaming packages. I dont order up every streaming service. I don't think many cord cutters do. I spent less than $20 a month on it all. I love the antenna. I get baseball once or twice a week, plus NFL on weekends.
 
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JRHawk2003 said:
I am a cord cutter and I use Antenna, Amazon Prime and some sports streaming packages. I dont order up every streaming service. I don't think many cord cutters do. I spent less than $20 a month on it all. I love the antenna. I get baseball once or twice a week, plus NFL on weekends.
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Cutting the cord works for you, but I don't see it being a viable option for many in Eastern Iowa for a few years. The antenna is the thing that cable/sat have tried to pretend doesn't exist, spend $50 to get it over the air, stations going digital has made this easier an more accessible.
 
JRHawk2003 said:
I am a cord cutter and I use Antenna, Amazon Prime and some sports streaming packages. I dont order up every streaming service. I don't think many cord cutters do. I spent less than $20 a month on it all. I love the antenna. I get baseball once or twice a week, plus NFL on weekends.
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I highly doubt that. Amazon Prime is like $8. Let's say the sports is $4. You're up to $12. Are you then telling me you get internet that's fast enough for $8 a month? Sign me up for that plan!
 
ANYCHawk said:
I highly doubt that. Amazon Prime is like $8. Let's say the sports is $4. You're up to $12. Are you then telling me you get internet that's fast enough for $8 a month? Sign me up for that plan!
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Amazon Prime is $99 a year, so its $8.25 a month. I got the MLS package, which was $60 so that's $5 a month. Then I got NBA for $100 as a buddy and I split that. so that comes to $8.34 a month for a total bill of $21.59 plus a portion of the Internet cost. So, lets credit 1/2 of it to stream, which comes to $35. My bill then for TV now is $56.59. Thats still wayyyy better than paying for cable.

It is viable in most of eastern IA. I am in Eastern IA, and not even in a place with the fastest speeds and its very viable even with a 5 Mbps connection.
 
pezhawk said:
Early adapters are cutting the cord, but for many in KCRG's market access to affordable high-speed internet isn't where it needs to be for cutting the cord to be a cheaper alternative to DirecTV, Dish, & Mediacom. Cable and Satellite companies are not just going to disappear overnight, I think it is still a smart business move if they can maintain the tie in to the Gazette.
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the only thing keeping the cable and satellite companies from becoming dinosaurs is live sports, imo. If these leagues adopted a model where you can stream one teams games for a set price, then its game over. Buying NFL sunday ticket just isn't worth the amount of money it costs in my opinion. you get the MLB.tv or Extra innings package and you have 6 teams blacked out in Iowa.
I would prefer to subscribe to my own teams games and then watch whatever i can find over the air.

I went the streaming/antenna route earlier this year. save about $50 or so a month (with the mediacom service we switched to and then the netflix and hulu subscriptions we signed up for) haven't felt i missed too much and there are sites you can go for sports.
 
ANYCHawk said:
They are. But the realization is also starting to set in. To pay $8 for Netflix, $10 for Amazon Prime, $4 for HBO On demand, $4 for red box, $3 for BTN to go and then $50 for internet adds up to the cost of a typical cable bill. At this point I'm not sure the cost savings are there to cut the cord.
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Still even with those 4 channels (throw in Hulu Plus for good measure). It's still only $40 bucks for "cable" on top of internet. My DirecTV bill is currently $90 with HBO (plus internet). That is still a decent chunk off my bill every month. I'm not cutting the cord anytime soon but it does look appealing once you start peeling back the layers
 
pezhawk said:
Totally agree, right now the technology and infrastructure at a decent price point isn't available in Cedar Rapids for me to cut the cord, and I'd guess it's the same throughout the country. That is why I questioned JRHawk saying the cable/sat has peaked.

The ala carte option isn't going to be cheap, spend $100 for 300 channels or hand pick your stations to stream online and get maybe 25 of them assuming you have the data package to support streaming 3-12 hours a day, depending on your family set-up.
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Who do you have internet through that you can't use those streaming services? I assume Mediacom because you have a cap. Look at getting Imon. No cap.
 
JRHawk2003 said:
Amazon Prime is $99 a year, so its $8.25 a month. I got the MLS package, which was $60 so that's $5 a month. Then I got NBA for $100 as a buddy and I split that. so that comes to $8.34 a month for a total bill of $21.59 plus a portion of the Internet cost. So, lets credit 1/2 of it to stream, which comes to $35. My bill then for TV now is $56.59. Thats still wayyyy better than paying for cable.

It is viable in most of eastern IA. I am in Eastern IA, and not even in a place with the fastest speeds and its very viable even with a 5 Mbps connection.
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That set up would not be viable for our family. First how do you watch Iowa games? How many hours of tv does your household watch a day? We would be way over our data plan with mediacom if we streamed everything and we have I'm guessing the same service you do based on $70 a month. Our connection isn't strong enough to stream two things at once, without bogging one of the streams down.

Your programming options are pretty limited, and not something I would see appealing to a family with kids, so again viable for you, but not for everyone.
 
fredjr82 said:
Who do you have internet through that you can't use those streaming services? I assume Mediacom because you have a cap. Look at getting Imon. No cap.
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We do have mediacom, as IMON isn't in our neighborhood on the SE side of CR, and Quest or what ever they are called now only has 1.5 Mbps DSL service in our part of town.
 
pezhawk said:
We do have mediacom, as IMON isn't in our neighborhood on the SE side of CR, and Quest or what ever they are called now only has 1.5 Mbps DSL service in our part of town.
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Well my first advice would be to get the hell out of the SE of CR. Maybe you're in the good area, I don't know. If and when you get the chance with Imon pull that trigger. Had them for internet ever since we got the house in 2008 Always reliable and fast too. No cap. $50 a month. Avoid DSL (Century Link/Old Qwest) like the plague.

One other question. What's your cap with Mediacom?
 
Well, I do have 4 kids and they live with me part time. We seem to get by just fine. They play a lot of X-Box, so that cuts down on TV time. We dont have a data plan. We pay a flat fee for the level of speed. Its not super fast, and when everyone is trying to do stuff at once it can bog down. They watch a lot of Youtube stuff and use their own devices. They seldom watch TV shows in the way people have in the past. Iowa games? For football I go to them or watch at a bar or friends. For hoops I find a stream on the web over the PC. I get one free MLB game a day on the app even without the subscription. I get 2-4 baseball games a week on the antenna.

You really don't miss anything and adjust quickly.
 
lucas80 said:
She is one of the best at the faux concerned/empathetic face in local news.
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Beth Malicki has the best smile on television. Period.

I just wish she wouldn't wear the outfits that make her look so thick hipped. They aren't flattering at all, and I've seen her in jeans and a t-shirt on live remotes...looks miles better in those. I know she's got some baby baggage and must be in her 40's now, but still...she's still a babesteak, show it off a bit.
 
fredjr82 said:
Well my first advice would be to get the hell out of the SE of CR. Maybe you're in the good area, I don't know. If and when you get the chance with Imon pull that trigger. Had them for internet ever since we got the house in 2008 Always reliable and fast too. No cap. $50 a month. Avoid DSL (Century Link/Old Qwest) like the plague.

One other question. What's your cap with Mediacom?
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I like the SE side, we are not in the hood...lol. I'm not sure on what our cap is off the top of my head, but we've been getting notifications generally in the last week of the billing cycle that we are down 10-15% etc. when we log on.
 
pezhawk said:
I like the SE side, we are not in the hood...lol. I'm not sure on what our cap is off the top of my head, but we've been getting notifications generally in the last week of the billing cycle that we are down 10-15% etc. when we log on.
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Good to hear you don't have any bullet holes in your house. Stay safe

One thing I wanted to note, was that there are websites out there that will calculate your cap for you. They'll break it down by email, video streaming, music streaming, etc. May not be a bad idea to look out there and see where you sit. Not ideal but the possibility is there for you to cut the cord.
 
I don't get the CL hate, Fred. I've had their DSL for 12 years now. It's gone down once. For 6 hours. On the day of the flood in 2008.

Now, if you're in a non-fiber area, sure. 3Mbps just doesn't cut it. I'm in a fiber area...never once had an issue.
 
fredjr82 said:
Well my first advice would be to get the hell out of the SE of CR. Maybe you're in the good area, I don't know. If and when you get the chance with Imon pull that trigger. Had them for internet ever since we got the house in 2008 Always reliable and fast too. No cap. $50 a month. Avoid DSL (Century Link/Old Qwest) like the plague.

One other question. What's your cap with Mediacom?
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I know your question wasnt directed to me, but I jumped on mediacom when i "cut the cord" earlier this year, as I was only getting speeds of 140 KB/s download DSL speeds in my SE CR location (good area) century link DSL...They said even if i paid for higher speeds, I would not be able to get them in my location. I would've loved to go with IMON if they were in my neighborhood (saw their trucks a few summers ago in neighborhoods about 3-4 blocks away

I initially went with Mediacom's 350 gb plan, but with our streaming and antennae usage we were barely going over that a month (we are talking about a few GB's over in the last couple of days of the billing cycle...so instead of paying an extra 10 for 50 extra GB of data, we bumped up to the next plan of 999 GB cap and dont even come close to sniffing that. right now we pay 49.99 a month for internet (it should go up another $5 or so after the first year) plus the cost of netflix and hulu. We have had amazon prime for a while, so we were already paying for that as far as that streaming service goes....but we are saving a considerable amount on the $140 we were paying for our directv/century link bundle......and we didn't have DVR service and pretty much the "choice" package --- meaning we didn't have any extra sports or movie add ons.

now, for full disclosure, we use the inlaws mediacom account to log into the Watch ESPN app on the Amazon Fire (which gives us live ESPN/ESPN2) and i use the ESPN app on the xbox one for ESPN3 from my internet account, but the FOX Sports app sucks bad, and I had to use alternate options online to watch the Michigan/Utah game last night.
 
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