{"id":14072,"date":"2017-05-02T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=14072"},"modified":"2017-05-02T06:53:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T11:53:40","slug":"tribune-media-sale-cut-wgns-hometown-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2017\/05\/02\/tribune-media-sale-cut-wgns-hometown-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribune Media sale will cut WGN\u2019s hometown ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> WGN Television Opening Night (April 5, 1948)<\/p><\/div>\n

Don\u2019t look now, but \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d may not belong to Chicago much longer.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who buys Tribune Media<\/a> \u2014 and right now the leading contenders appear to be Rupert Murdoch\u2019s 21st Century Fox<\/a> and Sinclair Broadcast Group<\/a> \u2014 it is all but certain to mean the end of local ownership for\u00a0WGN-Channel 9<\/a> and WGN AM 720,<\/a> two venerable hometown icons.<\/p>\n

WGN Radio was founded in 1924 by Chicago Tribune publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick, who adopted the call letters from the slogan on his masthead (\u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Newspaper\u201d). WGN Television followed in 1948. They\u2019ve been synonymous with Chicago ever since.<\/p>\n

With a legacy of \u201cBozo\u2019s Circus,\u201d Jack Brickhouse, \u201cGarfield Goose,\u201d Wally Phillips, \u201cFamily Classics,\u201d Tom Skilling and so many other uniquely treasured programs and personalities over the years, WGN is part of our collective DNA.<\/p>\n

Until this week, speculation has focused on Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group as the most likely to acquire Tribune Media\u2019s 42 television stations, WGN America<\/a> cable network and WGN Radio. The last major impediment to a deal was lifted April 20 when the FCC voted to ease limits on broadcast TV ownership.<\/p>\n

Not that anyone at WGN would welcome a takeover by Sinclair. As the country\u2019s largest operator of local television, the company is known for politically motivated news and programming decisions and for close ties to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

During the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump's campaign struck a deal<\/a> with Sinclair to \u201csecure better media coverage,\u201d according to Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Just last month the company hired Boris Epshteyn, the campaign\u2019s former senior advisor and White House assistant communications director, as chief political analyst. <\/a>Sinclair said Epshteyn will \u201cplay a pivotal role in our mission to dissect the stories in the headlines and to better inform and empower our viewers.\u201d He\u2019ll also appear as a commentator on all of Sinclair\u2019s stations.<\/p>\n

With WGN Television now producing 70\u00bd hours of local news each week (and adding more all the time), the prospect of Sinclair calling the shots has people who care about ethics and integrity in the newsroom more than a little worried.<\/p>\n

WGN Radio staffers have their own anxieties about Sinclair, which has little interest in the radio business. The company now has only four radio stations in its portfolio \u2014 all in Seattle\/Tacoma, Washington.<\/p>\n

Just when Sinclair was poised to make its move, another potential buyer suddenly emerged. According to published reports, Murdoch\u2019s 21st Century Fox has teamed up with the private equity firm Blackstone Group to try to outbid Sinclair for Tribune Media. But would they really be any better?<\/p>\n

21st Century Fox also owns Trump\u2019s favorite network, Fox News Channel. Fox News is still trying to dig its way out of the sexual harassment and gender discrimination scandal that claimed founding chief executive Roger Ailes and top host Bill O\u2019Reilly. On Monday Fox News co-president Bill Shine also resigned.<\/p>\n

Fox Television Stations already owns WFLD-Channel 32<\/a> and WPWR-Channel 50<\/a> in Chicago (although WPWR recently agreed to relinquish its bandwidth<\/a> in the FCC spectrum auction). A Tribune Media deal would put WGN Television and Fox 32 under common ownership and management. If that occurs, you can bet that many jobs will be lost and quality will suffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBloodbath\u201d was the one-word prediction a top executive shared Monday.<\/p>\n

In preparation for a sale, Tribune Media has divested most of its real estate here, including its landmark Tribune Tower headquarters at 435 North Michigan Avenue and WGN studios at 2501 West Bradley Place. They\u2019re just tenants now.<\/p>\n

The deadline for final bids is Thursday. Whether the top bidder turns out to be Murdoch or Sinclair or Nexstar Media Group<\/a> or someone else, WGN soon will be in the hands of out-of-town owners for the first time in its 93-year history.<\/p>\n

When that happens, something special will be lost forever.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\"Bozo's Circus\"<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t look now, but \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d may not belong to Chicago much longer. Regardless of who buys Tribune Media \u2014 and right now the leading contenders appear to be Rupert Murdoch\u2019s 21st Century Fox and Sinclair Broadcast Group \u2014 it is all but certain to mean the end of local ownership for\u00a0WGN-Channel 9 and... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14072"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14087,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072\/revisions\/14087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}