Balto Media

30/07/2024

WJZ 13's Mark Viviano to throw out the first pitch at tonight's Orioles game.

30/07/2024

Not local, but it is in the Washington Examiner and I did predict this. I said that going after FOX TV licenses would only result in a payback and here it is. Judicial Watch has filed an FCC complaint against NBC, and likely WRC and others soon. Wait for it. My predictions so far have been spot on. I predicted the Trump Assassination attempt too. So, I'm winning like Charlie Sheen, basically, I guess? 😂

Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the FCC against NBC for airing an “obscene and indecent” Olympic opening ceremony skit some say mocked the Last Supper.

27/07/2024

The first lawsuit regarding the merger of Skydance with Paramount/CBS is here, so yep WJZ 13, Barry Diller dropped out of the Paramount+/CBS fight, looks like Allen did also, but more lawsuits are predicted. The Harry Horni gossip continues in the LA Times. 😂
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-07-25/paramount-skydance-deal-draws-shareholder-lawsuits

26/07/2024

WHGM filed another STA Extension to operate the AM station from basically the equivalent of a Radio Shack Kit at 10 watts.
This goes back to 2108. The plans keep changing, never get very far for whatever reasons. They're still operating 2 FMs from this 10 watt signal. One was sold, but WHGM is still not fixed.
Maybe time for the FCC to pull the plug?

26/07/2024

Not local, but could definitely affect some local TV stations around here. My only comment on this is, "Be careful what you wish for if you take Philly's FOX 29 away from FOX..." Why? Because if Trump were to become President again, he's already suing ABC/Disney (people forget, but yep, it's going forward), don't you think he'll have the FCC start going after ABC/Disney properties next? And CBS after that?

The Preston Padden-backed nonprofit advocacy group seeking the denial of the license renewal on Thursday submitted a document featuring the signatures of some 25,532 individuals who side with the Media and Democracy Project, and ask for the matter to be considered by the FCC’s Administrative La...

25/07/2024

Latest Radio Ratings from June for Baltimore & DC. A little late, but just click on the two pics below. I'll write up more after my surgery tomorrow.

25/07/2024

SITE NOTICE: I got an unwelcome notice from Facebook that you will soon see ads here. What kind, I have no clue. Just don't blame me. They're NOT my ads. 😕

Send a message to learn more

25/07/2024

I missed this, but this past spring, Baltimore jumped in the Nielsen Radio Rankings from #23 to #22, moving above Portland.
I found it interesting that both Portland and Seattle dropped after so much public protests. Clearly the damage is still there.
Nashville moved up 1 too but Pittsburgh dropped one spot. I found that interesting because there's this story out about Baltimore development being "The Next Nashville"?

Nielsen has updated its market rankings as the Spring ratings period gets underway, showcasing a shift within the top ten.

25/07/2024

WYPR 88.1 FM is launching a capital campaign to build a new larger HQ with a bigger newsroom. It's expected to take 2-3 years to raise the money from donations.

The expansion could include adding coverage to Frederick and the Eastern Shore.

24/07/2024

A Baltimore Sun update. It appears as if private browsing of The Sun now works around the Paywall, at least for now.
So, here's your chance to try the new owner out. 😀♥
www.baltimoresun.com

24/07/2024

So I wanted to write something about streaming, but the best way to describe something is with a picture sometimes over words. I'm writing this on a 32" Viewsonic Cinema type display, but I never throw away old displays or TVs if they can do something, so I've hooked them all up to an Apple Mac Pro. The goal? I want to watch 5 MLB games at the same time, 3 news nets, and several pages. Technically, this should be possible with Xfinity right? Well they might not specifically state you cannot do it and each one of these streams, I could get through Xfinity in some way, but no way Xfinity would allow it. They don't announce their restrictions on purpose, so instead of spending a week on the telephone arguing with them, I simply did it without their help. By doing it outside of Xfinity, they don't exactly know how many streams I'm running and they have no individual control over any one of them. They have a bandwidth cap on that, but if you do it yourself, you can do this. My trickery involves a combination of PIP, window sizing and overlays. Here is the result:
TOP: MASN via Xfinity, Below it: CNN, FOX News, & MSNBC, and at the Bottom: the other 4 MLB games.
And technically, I am paying Xfinity for these channels.
With some occasional skipping and reloads aside, it all works out pretty well. But of course, when I tell my therapist I'm doing something like this, she questions my sanity. But I said, "Don't worry doctor. I'm not listening to all the voices at the same time too." 😂

23/07/2024

So I haven't talked to Dave Kolesar in quite awhile, so I missed that The Gamut, ALL DIGITAL AM RADIO, is now WSHE AM 820.
I'm really amazed about what he's done at the old WWFD. The irony of this is that I suggested to Kolesar about expanding the AM 820 signal since there are not a lot of AM 820 radio stations, the closest being in NYC, but he said Whoa, just converting to ALL DIGITAL was enough on my plate, but the irony is that AM 810 WYRE is the station most restricting the AM 820 signal.
In the spirit of all digital, instead of giving you a link, Here's a QR Code to listen to WSHE 820! 😂

23/07/2024

REPOSTED with CORRECT LINK to GREAT MUSIC...
So I've been hearing more WRNR rumblings. WYRE 810 appears to be being shopped around according to a tip I got, and the ownership of W260BM has also changed. It appears that Steve Kingston has brought in some extra capital and talent, but added some money and Jason Kidd is now part owner. Since WRNR needs the FM, I assume the sale of WYRE 810 will be contingent on a subchannel at least on AM 810? Either that or they have bigger plans for buying another stick. I really don't know, so your guess is as good as mine. I thought Steve explained the plan mostly here already, but the tips I'm getting are confusing, so I guess we'll just play the waiting game. So here is the link for WYRE/WRNR Online, a very good quality stream I might add. With my admittedly old AKG Studio Reference Headphones, WRNR sounds fantastic. Your AM Radio Experience might vary.
QR Code to fantastic music and link, if Zuckerberg allows it. 😀
http://tun.in/seoXf

23/07/2024

With the bad sometimes comes the good.
Here are the 2024 Annual Diversity Scholarship Winners from Sinclair.

Sinclair on Monday announced that the company has awarded scholarships to 12 university students as a part of its annual Diversity Scholarship program. The annual Sinclair Broadcast Group Diversity Scholarship …

22/07/2024

I got busted by Sony! Yay!
They went after the Jerry Turner tribute from WAY back.
Nice to know our DMCA law is protecting you all from criminals like me. Lock me up. I want that law so repealed or altered. It takes away nearly all consumer Right of Personal Use, or other such purposes. Clearly, I'm not handing out free music or stealing anything. I'm not a for profit enterprise either.

21/07/2024

So I've been hearing more WRNR rumblings. WYRE 810 appears to be being shopped around according to a tip I got, and the ownership of W260BM has also changed. It appears that Steve Kingston has brought in some extra capital and talent, but added some money and Jason Kidd is now part owner. Since WRNR needs the FM, I assume the sale of WYRE 810 will be contingent on a subchannel at least on AM 810? Either that or they have bigger plans for buying another stick. I really don't know, so your guess is as good as mine. I thought Steve explained the plan mostly here already, but the tips I'm getting are confusing, so I guess we'll just play the waiting game.

21/07/2024

Sinclair stated that it's looking to get out of certain markets, so I guess the first step is cost cutting by ending local news. If I had to read the tea leaves, I'd say this is a market Sinclair is looking to exit, but either way, BAD NEWS for El Paso.
https://elpasomatters.org/2024/07/19/el-paso-cbs4-ends-much-of-its-local-news/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR35eIn-sASP1iWRrdEQIkwyhVQxu-KNLZVrVnuvpOB-H7I9MIwY3CNik3I_aem_jdrMj98eXt9o4_j0qqxbPg

El Paso’s first TV station is eliminating most of its own local news broadcasts.

21/07/2024

More tributes to Mark Viviano as he's retiring from WJZ 13.

https://www.facebook.com/CBSBaltimore/videos/508464851840724
https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/wjz-sports-director-mark-vivano-to-retire-from-broadcast-in-july/

21/07/2024

Not local media at all, and without any political comment.
I'll just say, oh that wacky NY Post and its covers. 😂

20/07/2024

More about Nextgen TV in DC and Baltimore... What is supposed to happen for Nextgen TV to work properly is that every market will produce an SFN, one or more, depending on what weight existing towers can provide. A single Frequency Network, blankets the market for everything from Car computer updates to things not even thought of yet like possibly digital radio. DC, unlike Baltimore is missing one essential element. DC does not have a 300m main TV tower like Baltimore at 1000 feet, let alone 375 meters that WNUV/WBFF have. The Merrifield site would likely be easiest since the current goalpost tower is adjacent to VDOT, so there is useable public land for anchor points. What Sinclair is planning for WJLA 7 is many low power channels 7s all around DC on smaller towers to micro-broadcast a blanketing signal with as many as 5 or more towers. As the FCC has the status of ATSC 3.0 still in its experimental stage, none of this is currently possible. The entire industry has to switch from an ATSC 3.0 Lighthouse channel, to one or more ATSC 1.0 lighthouses, while the other TV stations all switch on Nextgen TV.
ONLY THEN, will people see what it can really do.

19/07/2024

RANT:
THIS is false advertising. Rachel Maddow refused to go to Milwaukee. How is it SPECIAL COVERAGE? She is not there. It is beneath her. And MSNBC pretending she's there is pathetic with the LED or green screen they are using. It's been exposed already. Why keep pretending if your message is so authentic?
Sad.

18/07/2024

RIP The great LOU DOBBS.
Will Greg Gutfeld get his hot tub?
Too soon? 😂

18/07/2024

It looks like WBAL Hearst sister station WTAE 4 in Pittsburgh, got a major break in the Trump Assassination story, with live footage of the shooter scouting out the Event site unimpeded by any officers, who were actually on the property too. Pittsburgh, like Baltimore, has a CBS O&O, a Hearst, and a Sinclair station. Scripps also has a full power ION station in the market, something Baltimore does not have.

18/07/2024

Eastern Shore radio news. B106.1 is now Delmarva Gold from WHGM. WGOP is now airing what was on the B.
I really liked B-106, but the Casketmaker of Radio has gotten hold of it. Drats. I need to listen to Devil Went Down to Georgia to get this one out of my system. That is all.
All apologies to Steve. I wasn't referring to Steve.

18/07/2024

So, yeah, I"m open to shameless promotion. Nobody usually sends me anything, so why not?
FACTOID (if that is a word): WCBM 680 daytime covers more of Maryland than WBAL 1090 for the Daytime talkers, but the exact opposite at night, when few are listening.

17/07/2024

I'm not specifically covering the news of the RNC Convention nor is it local, but I did notice that CNN & FOX News were carrying the 10pm hour fairly complete, but MSNBC looks like a Group Therapy I was once in that I had to get out of before I had their problems too! It must be miserable going to work every day.
I just feel so sorry for them.

17/07/2024

OPINION:
Is Nextgen TV Dead?
With the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, it gave me a chance to check if the Top 50 markets all have ATSC 3.0. NOPE, not Milwaukee and most markets above The Top 50. I think 2 markets in the Top 50 don't have it with no plans that I see yet in place. So Nextgen is stalled to say the least, no new markets have been launched and no 4k TV is even being tested much, so they are missing the boat and it's sailing to Streamland getting a 40% market share. And when they get there, many will never come back to OTA Broadcast TV.
#2 DRM kills everything. Apple proved that. But they also proved that people are just as happy renting their music just as much or more than owning it, but the option of buying is still there.
#3 A whole generation of people who've not watched broadcast TV news ever now exists and it's growing among GenZ, away from Broadcast TV EVEN IF IT IS FREE! If you can't show them, then why build it out?
Milwaukee is not all that unlike Baltimore in some ways. It has 1 O&O Network station, and Scripps and Sinclair, so I don't really see the holdup there except that the TV companies have decided to STOP building. There's no more money left.

14/07/2024

I was watching live for some reason, so I immediately put all 3 news nets on, while cycling between ABC/CBS/NBC on my Mac Pro 30 inch. MSNBC wisely stuck mostly with NBC News versus their pundits, but Hannity sure showed up on FOX News. I"ll admit most all stuck to facts rather than rhetoric. The most interesting report actually came from the BBC, who found people who had been pointing to the guy on the roof. In the Salisbury market, all of the locals cut in for their local news, and I forget, but one didn't even mention that it happened! How did the DC or Baltimore locals handle this?

13/07/2024

The Baltimore Sun ran a story criticizing Orioles attendance being lower than the average in the league, but it's obviously a poorly written story. All you have to do is look up the stats and obviously The Sun did NOT. The Orioles are nearly 2000 more people per game average than the Nats and the NY Mets are 1000 people MORE per game. One is a market twice the size and METS are a winning team with possible playoff game. NYC obviously many times more population. So I'd say that's not too shabby. Nope Baltimore Sun, the sky is not falling.
OFFICIAL ATTENDANCE RANKINGS:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance
Baltimore Sun story about how bad attendance is.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/07/12/orioles-attendance-at-camden-yards-is-complicated/ #:~:text=So%20far%20this%20season%20the,have%20bigger%20average%20home%20crowds.