Springfield television viewers will soon be able to get local news and not have to put up with Sinclair Broadcasting's propagandist-in-chief, Mark Hyman. Currently, the only TV news organization in town belongs to WICS Ch. 20 which is owned by the ultra-conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. That monopoly is about to end. According to the Springfield Journal-Register:
Beginning in April, WCFN-TV, Springfield's UPN affiliate, will air a
half-hour local news broadcast at 9 p.m. each weekday. WCFN broadcasts on
Channel 49.
[snip]
"Springfield viewers have asked for this, and asked us many, many times,"
said Russ Hamilton, vice president and general manager of WCFN and its sister
station WCIA, the Champaign-based CBS affiliate for the
Springfield-Decatur-Champaign television market. NexStar Broadcasting Group, in
Irving, Texas, owns both WCIA and WCFN.
Jim Gee, news director for WCFN and
WCIA, said WCFN's newscast will focus exclusively on Springfield and the
surrounding area. The station's nightly news will be compiled and reported by a
staff of full-time reporters and photographers...
[snip]
No anchorperson has been named, but Gee said WCIA's chief weathercaster,
Judy Fraser, will deliver weather forecasts tailored to Springfield. Sports
content, also devoted to Springfield-area athletics, will see contributions from
WCIA sports anchor Jason Elliott.
WCFN's newscast will air at 9 p.m. because
that is when UPN's prime-time programming ends each evening.
The manager of Ch 20 then tells a lie:
WICS general manager Johnny Faith said he welcomes the competition.
"I'd like to wish them well," he said.
And that's not all. Apparently, WICS Ch. 20 and WAND Ch. 17 are switching affiliations:
Papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2004 by
Sinclair Broadcast Co., which owns WICS, have scheduled a switch of network
affiliations between WAND and WICS for September 2005.
When that happens, WAND will broadcast NBC network programming, and
WICS will switch to ABC.
I'm not sure what the switch is all about. I know it going to leave me confused for a while since Ch. 20 has been NBC for my entire life.
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