What's in Store for a Sinclair Owned WJAR-TV?

With the just announced sale of WJAR-TV to Sinclair Broadcast Group from Media General, staffers at NBC 10 will continue to feel unsettled at the changes that are likely to come.

The winners in this deal have to be the employees at LIN Media owned WPRI-TV, who after months of speculation must feel relief that they are staying under the same management.

It is not yet known why Media General/LIN decided to keep WPRI over WJAR. WJAR took in more revenue than both WPRI and LIN managed WNAC-TV combined last year.

Alan Schroeder, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, told RI NPR's Ian Donnis that deals like Media General's selling of WJAR resemble "a little bit of a chessboard, where the overall strategy may not be apparent just on the surface, but within the corporate context, there's probably some rationale that they have for thinking this is a good idea."

Part of the rationale may be that WPRI represents LIN Media's flagship television station, and with LIN's Vincent Sandusky taking over at Media General when the merger is complete that could have played into the decision.

Jay Howell, VP of Television for LIN was the General Manager of WPRI/WNAC during its big switch back to Eyewitness News in 2002.

Howell was also in charge as LIN invested heavily into news and local programming at WPRI. Currently, WPRI produces 51.5 hours of local news between channels 12 and 64. They also produce the weekday Rhode Show and weekly Newsmakers on WPRI, and the weekday Dan Yorke State of Mind, weekly Executive Suite and Money Pros on WNAC-DT2's MyRITV.

WJAR produces 35 hours of local news, and the weekly 10 News Conference.

Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Sinclair owns or operates a total of 154 stations across the country (165 after all currently proposed sales are approved) in nearly 80 markets, many of which are located in the South and Midwest. Sinclair also owns or operates four radio stations. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be received by 30 percent of American households. SBG is also the owner of the Ring of Honor professional wrestling promotion.

Schroeder further tells RI NPR that Sinclair Broadcasting has a reputation as a very conservative company, and "sometimes that corporate conservatism" has moved over "into its coverage as well. So over the years, there have been some controversies with Sinclair Broadcasting just on the basis of the sort of political ideology of the higher ups in the company." 

Sinclair is well known for the corporate synergy of its television stations, and for "cleaning house" both on-air and off when they purchase a station.

Sinclair's purchase of the television properties of Allbritton Communications recently closed, and with that changes at Allbritton's flagship WJLA-TV (ABC) channel 7 in Washington, D.C. started.

“Everybody [is] shitting bricks,[the] mood is very tense. Everyone thinks there’ll be massive cutbacks and reductions in the next year. Not a single person is happy about the new owners.” a newsroom source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told ARLnow.com when the sale was announced in July of 2013.

On-air staff started to leave the station after the sale was announced because of Sinclair's reputation.

Days before the Sinclair/Allbritton deal closed on August 1, 2014, WJLA general manager Bill Lord was told that he would be replaced at the station.

In an email to staff obtained by FTVLive, he wrote "I have just received word that September 30thwill be my last day at WJLA.   Sinclair will be posting the GM position in the morning so I wanted to tell all of you first.   I will be here over the next two months to operate the station until a replacement is found."

Yesterday, Sinclair announced they have appointed Dan Mellon to oversee WJLA and it's cable property News Channel 8 as General Manager.

Employees at WJAR were told about the news today at a staff meeting, with management trying to put a positive spin on the sale.

Sinclair anticipates that the transaction will close in the beginning of 2015, concurrent with the closing of the Media General/LIN merger.

“This transaction not only allows us to strengthen our portfolio geographically, but because it frees up 0.7% of national ownership cap, it allows us the ability to acquire additional television stations that are core to our asset base,” commented David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair. “The Green Bay stations complete our coverage of all the major cities in Wisconsin, an important political swing state. The NBC affiliate in Providence is the #1 station in the market and provides us another state capital presence, while the Savannah station strengthens our existing presence in Georgia and the
Southeast. Although there is a need for regulatory reform to increase the ownership cap, swaps like this one are advantageous to us in that we are trading a single station MyNet affiliate in a large market, allowing us to acquire quality television stations in smaller DMAs.”

Stay tuned, the story at WJAR is only beginning.

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