Florida NewsCenter web-site

[atlnewsfan03]

I don't know if any of you are aware of this or not. 1st, Gray Television, owner of prominent ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates in smaller markets... incuding WRDW (Augusta, Georgia), WTVY (Dothan, Alabama), WJHG (Panama City, Florida), and WCTV (Talllahassee, Florida) have given the Florida NewsCenter web-site... www.flnewscenter.com, a cease and desist order.

Now, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, owner of prominant ABC and NBC affiliates in bigger markets... including WEWS (Cleveland, Ohio), KSHB (Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas), WFTS (Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida), and WPTV (West Palm Beach, Florida) have given the same web-site a cease and desist order.

The Florida NewsCenter web-site, along with the ATL News Now web-site, and other "news gossip" web-sites mean a lot to me. In fact, it's why I'm what you'd call a "news junkie".

I don't know about any of you. It would appear the Florida NewsCenter web-site needs our help. If you want to hep save this web-site, feel free to write to contact the following parties...

Gray Television...

Gray's Executive Offices

Gray Television, Inc.
3470 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30319

Gray's Administrative Offices

Gray Television, Inc.
126 N. Washington Street
Albany, GA 31701

WJHG-TV
8195 Front Beach Road
Panama City, FL 32407

E-mail Tracy Connors, WJHG-TV's General Manager... [e-mail].

WCTV-TV
4000 County Road 12
Tallahassee, FL 32312

E-mail Nick Waller, WCTV-TV's General Manager... [e-mail].

Gray's Legal Team

Leventhal, Senter, & Lerman, PLLC

Jennifer T. Miller
2000 K Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006-1809

E-mail Jennifer Miller... [e-mail].

[atlnewsfan03]

Scripps-Howard Broadcasting...

E.W. Scripps Company
312 Walnut Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

E-mail William Peterson, V.P. of TV Station Operations... [e-mail].

WFTS-TV
4045 N. Himes Avenue
Tampa, FL 33607

E-mail Bill Carey, WFTS-TV's General Manager... [e-mail].

WPTV-TV
1100 Banyan Boulevard
West Palm Beach, FL 33401

E-mail Brian Lawler, WPTV-TV's General Manager... [e-mail].

Scripps-Howard's Legal Team

David M. Giles, Esq.
Associate General Counsel
The Scripps-Howard Company
312 Walnut Street, Suite 2800
Cincinnati, OH 45202

E-mail David Giles... [e-mail].

[gartv]

It is a shame that Florida News Center is having this problem. and I am more saddened that a televison station that I grew up watching is involved in this mess.

WPTV is the leading station in West Palm Beach and crushes the other stations in the area in everything they do. It has always been well respected in the area and has absolutely nothing to fear about any website sharing information about the station and their high quality newscasts.

I remember in 1994 when FOX purchased stations from New World Communications (owners of WAGA and WTVT Tampa) and announced their intention to turn those stations into FOX affiliates, SCRIPPS-HOWARD flexed their "power" with ABC by threatening to pull ABC from their top station in Cleveland (WEWS) if they did not award ABC affiliation to WFTS which was losing their FOX affiliation while WTSP was to take over CBS from WTVT. ABC could have chosen another Tampa station like WTOG-44 which was the only UHF station at the time with a newscast.

When the ABC/Scripps deal was made for WFTS, Scripps owners tried to have ABC removed from WWSB-40 in Sarasota (now called "ABC-7" because of their cable channel number) so that WFTS would be the exclusive ABC affiliate for Sarasota AND Tampa Bay. (Tampa stations are also local to Sarasota and Sarasota had their own ABC station because ABC's original Tampa signals were too weak in Sarasota)

Anyway, there was some lawsuits filed by WWSB and they remain the local Sarasota ABC affiliate.

My impression of Scripps is that of a bunch of bullies.

As for Gray, If only they were as concerned about actually having decent TV stations. Anyone who has ever watched WCTV, WTVY or WJHG could clearly see that their product is not much to feel threatened about.

[atlnewsfan03]

After nearly a month on hiatus, the web-site is now back up and running once again. However, you won't be seeing anything related to the stations, such as multimedia and screencaps for the Scripps-Howard O&O's and the Gray Television O&O's. We'll only be seeing news stories pretaining to the stations.

As most of you are already aware, Gray Television, owner of WCTV (Tallahassee) and WJHG (Panama City) slapped the webmaster of the FNC website with a cease and desist order. Then, Scripps-Howard, owner of WFTS (Tampa-St. Petersburg) and WPTV (West Palm Beach) also imposed a cease and desist order as well.

Thought I'd share this bit of info with each of you.

[extvtog]

I agree with the above stated:

"As for Gray, If only they were as concerned about actually having decent TV stations. Anyone who has ever watched WCTV, WTVY or WJHG could clearly see that their product is not much to feel threatened about."

Especially WCTV. I really do not like their news product. I never have.