WTVJ has been sold to Post-Newsweek/WPLG.
Update 12:01pm: Channel 10’s top story at noon. Showing the stations Post-Newsweek owns, statement from the president and WPLG General Manager Dave Boylan
Update 1:56pm: John Wallace, NBCU president sent this memo to WTVJ staffers
From: Wallace, John
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 10:00 AM
Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT
Today we announced that NBC Universal has signed an agreement with the Post-Newsweek Stations to purchase WTVJ.
Post -Newsweek is a respected broadcasting company that currently owns
six local television stations, two of which are already NBC affiliates.
They are seasoned broadcasters, who have a solid reputation in the
industry and a long-standing commitment to meeting the needs of the
South Florida community. We look forward to working with Post-Newsweek
as affiliate owners for many years to come.Now that this announcement has been made, we wanted you to be aware of
the next steps in this process. The deal is subject to regulatory
approvals, but at this time we don’t anticipate any issues that would
affect the closing. We expect the deal to close by the end of the year.As we mentioned during our visit in March, GE Benefits experts will be
coming to the station at some point before the close to help explain
how the sale will affect your current GE benefits. We will update you
with dates for those visits as soon as we can.Once again, we thank you for your continued hard work and dedication
throughout this process. We will do everything we can to make this
transition as smooth as possible and will provide additional
information as it becomes available.
Oneline coverage notes:
Bob Mayer’s article on NBC6.net noting WTVJ’s acomplishments in the last 59 years. It feels like an obituary to me, we’ll soon probably know that it is.
NBC6.net article on the Post-Newsweek deal
Local10.com notes ‘South Florida’s Television Landscape Set to Change’ and points to Clear Channel’s disastrous multi-station ownership (14 in South Florida) as an example of duopoly
CBS4.com notes the WTVJ sales and that Florida’s first TV station will remain an NBC affiliate, rehashes everything said before and interestingly lists WTVJ’s acomplishments
Last night Maggie Rodriguez wished WFOR viewers good night for the last time before leaving the station for her new job at CBS The Early Show. Her colleagues gave her a nice send off and CBS4.com has a whole page of viewers well wishes.
Cought an updated tease for the 5pm newscast using the new graphics and music. I’ll try and dig out the old version and post it if I can.
This one’s a bit different. It runs during commercial breaks in the afternoon and teases the top stories for the 5pm newscast. And this one has that hot music from last years promos.
