Journal Broadcast Group

Dish Network subscribers will continue to receive Journal Broadcast Group stations in nine markets.

Owner Journal Broadcast Corp. admits violating FCC rule that requires broadcasters to disclose the identity of program sponsors and will pay $115,000.

The group’s CEO, Steven Smith, says Journal’s appetite for acquisitions “has not dissipated at all” and it’s actively looking at stations other groups may have to sell to stay within the FCC’s new regulations.

The former Fisher Communications executive succeeds Andy Laird who is retiring later this year.

Under the agreement, Internet Broadcasting Systems will provide digital advertising operations for Journal Broadcast Group’s 13 television and 35 radio stations. “We are the back office execution for their sales campaigns,” says Elmer Baldwin, IB’s CEO.

WTVF GM Debbie Turner will oversee TV, while Steve Wexler takes on radio, with both reporting to Andre Fernandez. KNTV GM Jim Prather will assume group-wide strategic responsibilities for a number of strategic television efforts including retransmission consent agreement negotiations, network relations, original programming initiatives and TV Everywhere.

It comes to terms with AT&T, Cable One and Cox Communications for stations in nine markets.

Time Warner Cable used the dispute as a lesson for other station groups, local and nationally, hoping to raise retransmission fees, but likely lost customers. Journal Broadcast ended the blackout just in time for NBC’s fall prime-time TV season, but TWC bumped them to channel 2, even though the station has been on channel 4 since 1953.

Three frustrated Time Warner Cable customers on Thursday sued the cable TV provider over its decision last month to drop Journal Broadcast-owned NBC affiliate WTMJ Milwaukee from its lineup. TWC dropped WTMJ on July 25 over a retrans contract dispute. Both companies have been running public relations campaigns ever since trying to convince the public the other side is making unreasonable demands.

A Milwaukee police officer is suing the Milwaukee NBC affiliate and parent Journal Broadcast Group, saying WTMJ promoted and aired a story that put him in a bad light even though the station knew he had done nothing wrong.

WTMJ Milwaukee is among the Journal Broadcast Group stations carried on Time Warner Cable that could remove themselves from the carrier if a contract dispute over retransmission compensation is not settled. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Journal CTO Andy Laird isn’t your typical 70-year-old. This November, the broadcast veteran will compete for a national powerlifting championship and is confident that he can also bring home some new national records. He’s also an accomplished musician and avid diver, having spent a month exploring Antartica’s peninsula islands.

Journal Communications on Wednesday named Alvin Pritchard vice president of finance for the Journal Broadcast Group. Pritchard will begin on April 1 and will report to President-CFO Andre Fernandez. Pritchard […]

Journal Broadcast Group is seeking a “failed station” waiver at the FCC to get approval of the deal to buy the Ace TV-owned MNT affiliate that Journal has been operating under an LMA for 18 years with its NBC affil WGBA.

Journal Broadcast Group, a division of Journal Communications, on Tuesday announced that Michael J. Gay was named VP of interactive media. In this role, Gay will lead the design and […]

The broadcaster reups with ABC in Boise Idaho; Las Vegas; Twin Falls, Idaho; and Tucson, Ariz.

The new additions — In Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Tucson, Omaha and Boise — bring the multicast network’s coverage to 47% of U.S. TV households.

Although I’ve been critical of Fox’s tactics, I agree fundamentally with what it is trying to achieve. If the Big Four are going to survive and prosper, they are going to have to keep pushing up the revenue they derive from retrans, directly through O&Os and indirectly through their affiliates. But Fox needs to recognize that every affiliate is different. If Fox is determined to negotiate with each station group individually, it should treat them as individuals, tailoring their demands to reflect each group financial situation. Insisting that each coughs up the same fee as if every business were the same makes no sense.

While the network says recent affiliation changes aren’t ultimatums and that it needs a revenue stream from its stations, others see Fox’s increasingly tough stance as one of “either come to the table and negotiate or we’re going to slit your throats.”

Journal Broadcast Group, which owns 13 television stations, has a retransmission-consent agreement for its stations with Dish Network that expires on April 28, Journal Communications Inc. CEO Steve Smith told analysts Tuesday. Journal has a plan to communicate to its viewers information on the Dish Network talks “as well as alternatives,” Smith said.