The Milwaukee Bucks announced that for the first time in 31 years, their entire season will be carried on broadcast TV. Previously, only a handful of games had been available for broadcast stations to carry, with the rest on subscription services. The games will be carried on Rincon Broadcasting’s “My24” (WVTV-DT2) in Milwaukee and a network of yet-to-be announced stations in other Wisconsin markets. “My24” is the successor to the former WCGV/24, which carried the Bucks from 1988 to 1994.
Meanwhile, Tegna NBC affiliate KARE 11 (Minneapolis) announced it will carry three Minnesota Lynx games this summer.
Scripps stations returned to DirecTV on July 10 after a five-week outage due to a retransmission consent dispute. The outage had affected NBC affiliates WTMJ-TV/4 (Milwaukee) and WGBA/26 (Green Bay) and CBS affiliate KMTV/3 (Omaha), along with stations in 33 other markets outside the Upper Midwest.
After a long journey to reconstruct and relaunch, Civic Media’s WELY/1450 and WELY-FM/94.5(Ely) have quickly moved into public service mode covering wildfires in the Superior National Forest. The fires have forced evacuations in the greater Ely area and created hazardous air quality across much of the Upper Midwest. Tune into the webstream at wely.fm to hear the coverage, which has included long-form hourly updates.
Dr. Jonathan Øverby has announced his retirement from Wisconsin Public Radio after 32 years hosting weekly show “The Road to Higher Ground.” In its time, the show has evolved from talk to live music to world music. WPR will air repeats of the show in the Saturday 5 to 9 p.m. timeslot until new programming is announced.
Twin Cities radio veteran Scott Klohn has died at 70. Klohn’s obituary recalls that he got his first glimpse at the business by regularly riding his bike to KDWB’s studios. He started at KAUS (Austin) before moving to KQRS and then “Hot Rockin’ 104” (KJJO-FM). A memorial service is planned for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 22, at Mueller Memorial, 4738 Bald Eagle Ave., White Bear Lake, with visitation beginning at 10:30 a.m.
News anchor Amy Hockert announced her departure from FOX O&O KMSP/9 (Minneapolis).
Meteorologist Tessa O’Brien has joined Nexstar CBS affiliate WFRV/5 (Green Bay).
Gracie Stockton is moving from Minnesota Public Radio News to Audacy’s WCCO/830 (Minneapolis) as morning news anchor.
Winners for overall excellence at this year’s Iowa Broadcast News Association awards include Hearst’s KCCI/8 (Des Moines), Gray’s KWQC/6 (Davenport), and Coloff Media’s KMCH/94.7 (Manchester). Best Newscast winners include KCCI, Gray’s WGEM-TV/10 (Quincy-Keokuk), KMALand Broadcasting’s KMA/960 (Shenandoah), Wartburg College’s KWAR/89.1 (Waverly), and St. Ambrose University TV’s “SAU Weekly.”
In case you missed it here:
- Townsquare Takes Another Southern Minn. AM Station Off Air
- FCC Monitor: Sioux Falls LPFM Won’t Be Built; More LPTV’s Granted
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Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.