On The NFL Today, James Brown was promoting the ALCS airing on TBS & HBO Max. Normally, when a network promotes programming on another channel its either A. same-league programming that airs on competing networks or B. airing a program on a sister network.
So...five days in and Skydance is already cross-promoting between the legacy Viacom and Turner networks.
I'm legitimately asking this as a native Yinzer who hasn't lived in the area in nearly a decade. Tim Horton himself played minor league hockey in Pittsburgh with the AHL Hornets and also had a cup of coffee (no pun intended) with the Penguins later in his career. He met his wife there. They have existing locations in Erie, Meadville, and various locations over the border in West Virginia, not to mention much of Ohio. (I live in Ohio now, within five minutes of three of them actually.) Until relatively recently it also wasn't the strongest Dunkin market, and even now while Dunkin has expanded its not as saturated as New England or Northeast Ohio--the one area in Ohio where Tim Hortons has struggled--and is certainly not on overkill saturation like, say, Sheetz, though I will never complain about Sheetz oversaturation personally.
And its not even just proximity to existing Tim Hortons locations: SIDNEY CROSBY IS A LONGTIME SPOKESPERSON FOR THE CHAIN. Penguins fans often stock up on Timbits during road trips to Columbus, Detroit, Buffalo, and anywhere in Canada. When Crosby retires, Tim Hortons should hand him all of Western PA as territorial rights to Tim Hortons franchises and open up a bunch of stores.
Thoughts guys? Tim Hortons needs to leverage sister chains Burger King and Popeyes for help. Hell, convert the phantom Burger King on East Carson Street on the South Side to a Tim Hortons.
I've never seen KDNL use this logo. Did he actually go out of his way to use AI to come up with this logo, because it would have been a lot easier to Google their logo, which BTW aside from minor modifications hasn't changed since 1997.
I live in Lancaster, Ohio and have never had a problem receiving Columbus locals with an indoor antenna except for occasional reception issues with WOSU, but I decided to get an outdoor antenna to see what else I could get because, among others, I wasn't able to get WHIZ-TV from Zanesville with an indoor antenna despite being almost as far away as Columbus.
After installing it and now able to get 65 free OTA channels (no, that's not a typo), I can get WHIZ-TV in, and after watching their news (and specifically their weather coverage) I noticed that naturally they have a bigger viewing area than what Nielsen and the FCC may claim.
Let's take a look at their ten-county "viewing area" and see which ones makes sense.
Muskingum County, obviously the home of Zanesville and officially the only county in the Zanesville DMA. No-brainer here.
Fairfield County (Lancaster, Pickerington, etc...) Clearly metro Columbus, in fact a small sliver of Columbus spills into Fairfield County. This one definitely stays in Columbus, and I would even debate if it falls under "significantly viewed", since its not even available on cable here either.
Licking County. (Newark, Heath, etc...) Licking is a Columbus metro county but also has a lot of back-and-forth between Zanesville and Newark. Still, it makes sense. Probably falls under "significantly viewed".
Knox County (Mount Vernon), also part of Columbus metro but gets ignored quite a bit. Could go either way.
Coshocton County (Coshocton), fringe Columbus, clearly makes more sense to add them to Zanesville.
Tuscarawas County (Dover, New Philadelphia, etc...) This is on the fringes of the Cleveland market, believe it or not. I'm actually surprised it isn't part of Wheeling/Steubenville market. Wouldn't hurt to add it to Zanesville.
Guernsey County (Cambridge), officially part of the Wheeling/Steubenville market. It seems a little far from their influence. I would add it to Zanesville.
Noble County (Caldwell), kinda surprised it isn't part of Parkersburg, West Virginia if anything. Could go either way between Zanesville and Parkersburg. Its officialy part of Wheeling/Steubenville, and again it makes no sense here.
Morgan County (McConnellsville), wouldn't hurt to add it to Zanesville. Its officially Columbus--that's a BIG stretch there.
Perry County (New Lexington), officialy Columbus but they include New Lexington in their station ID's. Kinda falls under Licking County in that it could go either way, but while Licking leans more towards Columbus, Perry leans more towards Zanesville.
So I guess the majority of it makes some sense. Fairfield definitely does not, Licking, Knox, & Perry are borderline. The rest of the five not including Muskingum actually makes some sense to add to Zanesville. Still be one of the smallest TV markets in the county, but it would serve more of a "local interest" for those counties than most of them being in Columbus or Wheeling/Steubenville.
Thoughts?
This video--yes it uses AI but its one of the better ones, and has a full human narrator--did a "what-if scenario" if Pontiac had survived GM's bankruptcy. Overall, not a bad video, but wanted to point out a few things:
Pontiac had ZERO chance of survival. The Obama Administration pretty much forced GM's hand with regards to their bankruptcy: eliminate brands. Barack Obama told Rick Wagoner personally that they weren't getting a bailout unless they dropped Pontiac. Before we get into a political discussion, I should add that this would have happened regardless of who was President at the time.
The video suggested that NUMMI would have stayed open. I still think NUMMI would have closed in 2010. In the 1980s it was mutually beneficial because Toyota needed to learn American tendencies due to tariffs importing cars from Japan (and especially pickup trucks that to this day are still subject to the 25% "chicken tax") while GM wanted to learn the "Toyota Way" and implement it in their corporate culture. Of course, in typical GM fashion, GM learned nothing from it while Toyota was able to implement its processes to other American plants and without the UAW. By the time it closed it was clear GM needed Toyota more than Toyota needed GM.
BECAUSE this video assumed that NUMMI stays open and doesn't get sold to Elon Musk to build Tesla's, it predicted that the Pontiac Vibe continues to be a Toyota clone of some sort to this day, whether it be the Toyota Matrix or the current Corolla hatchback. If Pontiac had survived I believe the Vibe would have become a Chevy Trax clone by 2013. Maybe take a brief hiatus--build an extended run of 2010 models before NUMMI closes, then skip the 2011 and 2012 model years altogether before bringing back the Vibe as an early 2013 model. They could have also simply moved production to Toyota's plant in Canada where they made the Matrix until the completely-in-house, GM-designed replacement was ready.
Why the Trax? The Vibe and Trax are pretty similar-sized vehicles with similar attributes. And because Pontiac already had an established history with the Vibe and shared dealership showrooms with Buick, it would be the Vibe and not the Buick Encore that is initially sold here. For those who recall, GM initially had no plans to sell the Trax in the US until the unexpected sales success of the Encore prompted them to change their minds. In this scenario, the Trax-based Vibe takes off enough for GM to introduce the Trax and Encore to the US market.
Thoughts?
Well Gray has officially confirmed it is receiving ABC programming in St. Louis, but nothing else was mentioned on any other potential swaps. Has anyone else heard anything?
Toledo seems to be logical, I could see Gray getting WNWO. But what is Sinclair getting in return? My guess here is that in some form it involes Cox.
Either A. Gray and Sinclair are buying Cox together and dividing up the stations, or B. Sinclair is getting WANF/WPCH so that Gray can pursue Cox and get WSB.
Thoughts?
With the new sod being recently installed at Heinz Field (yes, I still call it that), Art Rooney II has said publicly that if it doesn't hold up the Steelers would seriously consider replacing its natural grass surface with artificial turf, presumably FieldTurf.
What are yinz thoughts on that? I'm old enough to remember Three Rivers Stadium and its AstroTurf (though not quite old enough to remember the Tartan Turf, which was replaced in 1983, two years before I was born). On one hand, I prefer the natural grass as it reduces injuries. It also gives the Steelers a competitive advantage in cold weather since the Browns are moving into a translucent roof stadium in 2029 and will have artifical turf. The Bengals and Ravens already have artifical turf.
On the other hand, the field would be more consistent both in the texture and the design--I would assume like the last five years of Three Rivers, the Steelers would have gold end zones year round and no more "plain diagonal white lines" in the south end zone while Pitt is in season. (Oddly enough I like the "plain" south end zone.) Pitt would also have their own unique end zone designs, too.
Native Yinzer here living near Columbus.
My guess here is yes with Wawa, especially with Sheetz moving into Philadelphia. Wawa is already popping up like weeds in Cincinnati and has a location each in Dayton & Lima. My guess is Columbus is next, followed by Cleveland. I'm sure Wawa wants to "circle" core Sheetz territory before making their move.
As for QT, they've popped up like weeds around Dayton and Cincinnati. I was at their store in Jeffersonville, Ohio the other day near Washington Court House (technically Columbus market, but that and Springfield is about as close as they're going to CBus right now) and they told me they're working on a move into Youngstown right now. My guess is, its likely along the I-80 or Ohio Turnpike corridors due to heavy truck traffic and maybe in suburbs like Boardman, Canfield, Girard, Hubbard, Austintown, and Niles, maybe Warren. (I would not expect Youngstown proper to get a QT for obvious reasons.) Being right there, its obvious QT has its sights set on PA.