Raycom Media

It closes on the sale announced in April of the New Orleans Fox affiliate by Louisiana Media Co.

Montgomery, Ala.-based Raycom Media is shifting some of its digital production to Atlanta, taking 14 jobs out of Montgomery. The new digital content hub is set to launch in Atlanta on Jan. 1, said Susana Schuler, EVP for content and operations.

While diginets still have some hurdles to face — such as rising program license fees — they have captured the attention of general-market advertisers and they are looking forward to the rollout of the upcoming ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard with its expanded capacity. What’s more, the multicast networks are relieved that the FCC’s incentive auction and ongoing repack of the TV band isn’t affecting their station carriage deals to any significant extent.

The United States will experience a coast-to-coast total solar eclipse Aug. 21 — the first in 99 years. For the reporters, anchors and news crews at local TV stations, coverage of the celestial event is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With just under two months to go, many stations are deep into their coverage planning.

Andy Miller, Jill Riepenhoff and Megan Luther will join the team led by Lee Zurik.

A general sales manager is needed at Raycom’s NBC-CBS duopoly in Honolulu. WWSB Sarasota, Fla., (ABC7) has a director of sales opening. WWBT (NBC12) in Richmond, Va., is looking for a digital content director and a senior digital sales specialist. To see all job openings visit our Media Job Center here.

2016 Spot Revenue: $730.8 million Stations: 73 in 43 markets Coverage: 15.5% Ownership: Employee owned Key Executives: Pat LaPlatney, president-CEO; Susana Schuler, EVP content & operations; Sandy Breland, VP television; Don […]

Raycom-owned Fox affiliate WBRC Birmingham, Ala. (DMA 45) has scheduled a new weekly news magazine program. Bounce Around Birmingham will air every Monday on the station’s Bounce 6.2 subchannel at 6 p.m. […]

The acquisition expands Raycom Media’s reach and presence in Florida with $68.5 million buy. It also owns Fox affiliates WFLX in West Palm Beach and WPGX in Panama City. Heartland Media steps in to buy the last of Calkins’ stations, WAAY Huntsville, Ala., for $13.5 milllion.

Tom Benson’s Fox affiliate will be the first station in the market for Raycom, which has operated it since 2013.

The Raycom Media Investigative Unit will partner with local investigative units across Raycom Media. It will be headed by investigative journalist Lee Zurik.

Raycom Media on Sunday, March 26, reached an agreement with AT&T U-Verse to restore Raycom Media stations to the AT&T U-Verse cable lineup in 23 markets. The stations went dark at 11:59 p.m. ET on March 15. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that restores our Raycom Media station’s signals on the AT&T U-Verse system,” said Raycom Media President-CEO Pat LaPlatney. “We apologize to our viewers for this inconvenience, and appreciate their patience during the impasse.”

The broadcaster says the MVPD “appears to be using programming disruptions as an opportunity to switch AT&T U-Verse customers to its DirecTV service. When disgruntled AT&T U- Verse subscribers call to lodge a complaint, they are offered a subscription with DirecTV, the very same company as AT&T. In some instances, subscribers are also pushed to DirecTV NOW, a service that in many markets does not carry any local broadcast affiliates: a zero-sum game for subscribers.”

Unable to reach an agreement on a new retransmission consent contract with Raycom, AT&T U-Verse subs in 23 markets found themselves without their local Raycom stations late Wednesday night. Raycom says U-Verse has been harder to deal with since AT&T’s merger with DirecTV two years ago.

If you’ve heard the rumor that MNT affiliate WUAB Cleveland will be going off the air, relax. It isn’t gong anywhere. Its owner, Raycom Media, which also owns the market’s CBS affiliate WOIO, has sold the WUAB ch. 43 frequency as part of the FCC’s spectrum auction and will be airing WUAB on WOIO’s ch 19, with no disruption in signal, according to the duopoly’s GM Erik Schrader.

Raycom promotes the Tucson CBS affiliate’s former news director from interim GM to succeed the retired GM Nick Ulmer.

The new technology, CEO Pat LaPlatney says, “will help us continue to enhance our services to the communities and families that rely on us” in times of crisis.

At last week’s TV2020 conference, TVNewsCheck Editor Harry Jessell sat down with station group heads Jack Abernethy of Fox, Pat LaPlatney of Raycom, David Smith of Sinclair  and Perry Sook of Nexstar for a nuts-and-bolts discussion of the money-making potential of ATSC 3.0. Abernethy liked the technology, but was skeptical about the business models. However, the other three said adopting the new technology is a no-brainer. Said Sook: “It’s the next technological evolution of our business. I think it’s just a matter now of how fast we can roll things out.” Watch the session above.

But three other major stations group heads led by David Smith of Sinclair expressed unqualified enthusiasm for implementing the new broadcast standard, saying it will transform broadcasting into a fast-growing business again. “It’s essential for this industry to survive to have ATSC 3.0 in the marketplace as fast as possible,” said Smith.

One highlight of TVNewsCheck’s Nov. 9-10 TV2020 conference on the prospects for Next Gen TV will be the CEO panel featuring David Smith of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Perry Sook of Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Pat LaPlatney of Raycom Media.

The station group lends the digital platform company $14.5 million and extends it a line of credit for $1.5 more. Frankly CEO Steve Chung says the new loan will be used to pay off notes it incurred when it bought Worldnow last year. The noteholders include Raycom and Worldnow founder Gary Gannaway.

TV station groups are realizing that broadcasting is no longer enough — that, while it may be a solid business, it is no longer a great growth business. So they are looking to reinvent themselves by moving into new businesses like digital media and programming that can provide some upside.

Dish and Raycom Media signed a new carriage agreement Thursday evening, averting the blackout of 56 stations in the satcaster’s lineup,

Dish could lose 56 stations Thursday due to a fee fight with their owner, Raycom Media. The stations have posted notices at their websites saying Dish subscribers could lose their signals after 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 4 if current negotiations for a new carriage agreement are not successful.

Raycom Media’s new CEO, Pat LaPlatney, has a broad TV background, but it’s his experience in what digital media can offer that led to his succeeding Paul McTear as the station group’s top exec. He says he sees broadcasting, the web, mobile, OTT and other digital media as parts of a whole. Raycom, he says, needs “to aggregate the biggest video audience we can, gather as much data as we can about that audience and go out and sell it aggressively.”

Stations are finding that recruiting local sales talent at both the staff and management levels is more difficult because of competition from digital media. They can still compete for the best sales talent, the experts, say, but they can’t just sit back and wait for people to reply to a job posting. This is Part I of a three-part series on the challenges facing broadcasters in finding the right people for the rights jobs. Tomorrow, in Part II: It used to be a given that news managers would readily move it if meant a bigger market and a larger paycheck. Not anymore. And, In Part III, on Thursday, the military may become an even bigger source of talent for station IT and engineering departments.

10. RAYCOM MEDIA, Montgomery, Ala.  2015 Spot Revenue: $746.4 million  Stations: 62 in 42 markets  Coverage: 14%  Ownership: Employee owned  Key Executives: Paul McTear, president-CEO; Pat LaPlatney, COO; Susana Schuler, EVP; Warren Spector, CFO; Jeff Rosser, group VP; Brad […]

The station group is opting to use ComScore data in 28 smaller markets where Nielsen’s paper diaries have long been the ratings currency. “We decided not to go forward in diary markets, as even Nielsen will tell you the diary is not adequate in today’s media environment,” Raycom research exec Billy McDowell says, adding: “We still subscribe [to Nielsen] in LPM [local people meter] and set-meter markets along with the new code reader markets.”

Raycom will buy Calkins’ WWSB Sarasota and WTXL Tallahassee, both Florida, while Raycom duopoly partner American Spirit Media will buy WAAY Huntsville, Ala., which will presumably be operated in tandem with Raycom’s Huntsville NBC affiliate, WAFF. “We came to this decision reluctantly and after a long period of deliberation,” Calkins CEO Mark Contreras says in a memo to employees.

The financial and operations executive joins Raycom from Barrington Broadcasting.

Paul McTear, Raycom Media president-CEO, will retire at the end of June after being with the company from its inception in 1997 and serving as CEO since 2001. He will be succeeded by current SVP Pat LaPlatney who joined Raycom in 2007 and who now oversees all revenue for the company along with the company’s growing digital ventures. In addition, SVP Susana Schuler is being promoted to EVP of content and operations.

The new programming partnership between the two station groups is open to anything as long as it has a digital dimension. “I don’t like to box shows into a genre,” says Scripps’ Cater Lee. “What it does have to have — first and foremost — is a multiplatform strategy. Anyone who doesn’t think about programming that way is very short-sighted.”

The companies say their new consortium will develop shows for daytime, early fringe and access. It will offer a combined reach of 29% of U.S. households — including 12 of the top 40 DMAs. Scripps’ Brian Lawlor: “Partnering with other broadcast groups rather than competing against them is a dynamic new way to succeed in this industry.” Paul McTear of Raycom Media: “The strength of our two companies with a rich history in local broadcasting will bring a financial and creative strength to this development consortium.”