August 7th marked the FCC’s deadline for comments on the merger of Sinclair Broadcasting and Trib Media. As reported in trade papers such as Variety and Broadcasting and Cable, the main opposition came from smaller cable companies and their trade associations who feared the merger would provide Sinclair with too much negotiating power. The silence from Chicago was deafening. Trib Media has been the only Chicago based company that expends major dollars on original entertainment broadcast programming albeit never produced in Chicago. The merger is expected to end Trib Media’s WGN America cable channel as a distributor of self-produced content.
The only objections emanating from Chicago is the usual grousing about Sinclair being a conservative and Trump defending operation. The irony in all this is that the cable companies that are opposing the merger are mostly conservative news channels who fear the larger Sinclair will squeeze them out of cable packages; thus the overall conservative voice may be reduced by the merger. The loss of the last Chicago-based media giant doesn’t seem to anger anyone in Chicago.
June: It is the end of an era, the end of Chicago as a national media center, but still very much in Chicago’s cultural traditions. It is the purposed sale of Tribune Media to Sinclair Broadcast Group for a few pesos under four billion dollars including the assumption of Tribune Media debt. At the beginning of the commercial television era at mid-twentieth century, Chicago was allotted five VHF licenses (channels 2,5,7,9, and 11) one of which was reserved for a public broadcaster which became WTTW Channel 11. With the sale of Tribune Media, none of the VHF license owners will be Chicago based and only WCIU on the UHF band is Chicago based. One small station!
The reaction in Chicago was muted and restrained. It isn’t as though a New York company was buying an iconic Chicago department store or the City’s last stockyard meat packer. A few commentators questioned whether Sinclair might have a conservative orientation or even be friendly with the Trump administration. God forbid that there might be some diversity to the official Chicago liberal positions.
It isn’t as though Tribune Media has been much of an asset to Chicago in past decades. They have invested in original entertainment programming but never produced in Chicago. While they have made major capital investments purchasing production studios in other cities, they have done nothing to augment Chicago’s own television production industry. Still it is a major loss to Chicago’s position as a self-proclaimed “world-class” city. We are no more a national media center than Grand Island, Nebraska. Programming decisions on Chicago’s “very own” WGN will now be made in Maryland.
As will all license renewals or major corporate mergers, there will be several Government approvals needed to complete this sale. What should be Chicago’s position? And exactly what institution in Chicago should speak in the City’s interest? Chicago has a long history of ignoring the regulatory process even when Chicago’s own interests are the subject of the Government review.
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