FIRST ON THE BLOG: There have been some changes lately in Southwest Florida. There’s a small change from WINK to a major change on WZVN.
First off, the small change on WINK 11. WINK 11 has recently added a brand new half-hour newscast on Sundays at 6:00 p.m. Obviously titled as WINK News at 6:00, this breaks apart the simulcast that WINK 11 had with its news-sharing sister station WXCW 46 (Cable 6) for a few months after the 6:30 p.m. newscast expanded to weekends back in January of this year, something we told you about FIRST.
And now, WINK 11 airs a separate weekend newscast at 6:00 while WXCW 6 airs a separate weekend newscast at 6:30 p.m., as both now air newscasts at those times on those different stations, 7 nights a week. WINK 11’s 6:00 p.m. newscast competes against WBBH 2 for local weekend news in that timeslot. WXCW 6’s 6:30 p.m. newscast competes against WZVN 26 (Cable 7) in that timeslot.
And now the major change on the other station. WZVN 7 has discontinued its hour-long newscast at 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. Previously titled, ABC 7 News at 5:00/5:30, this now just leaves WINK 11 and WBBH 20 (Cable 2) as the ONLY local stations left in Southwest Florida to air weeknight news at 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. WZVN 7 has since replaced the local newscast with Extra at 5:00 and The Insider at 5:30. WZVN 7 does keep its weeknight 7:00 p.m. newscast, as well as the usual and traditional 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts, aside from their weekday morning newscasts from 5:00-7:00 and 9:00-10:00 a.m.
So there you go, Southwest Florida. I’m glad WINK 11 is still #1 in the market.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 
Isn’t WZVN News the same news as WBBH-TV News? If WZVN News is the same as WBBH News then WBBH still would have a 5:00pm and 5:30pm newscast. You would just have to switch over to WBBH for 5, and 5:30pm news.
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WBBH is owned and operated by Waterman Broadcasting Corporation, which is locally owned and operated.
WZVN is owned by Montclair Communcations, Inc., but operated by Waterman Broadcasting Corporation under a LMA and it has done so since 1995, also making it locally operated.
According to Wikipedia, “It should be noted that station’s operator, Waterman Broadcasting, holds an investment interest in Montclair Communications, even though the two companies file separate financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
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It looks like TV stations are playing newsonomics or stationomics games again but cutting newscasts. If we lived in a WMFL Media Corporation universal I would be a billion dollars TV stations would not be cutting local newscasts as much.
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Slow your horses down on that one.
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As Ronald Reagan said their they go again. Their they go again with TV stations cutting newscasts.
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WINK never really cut a local newscast. All they did was add a 6:00 p.m. Sunday newscast and keep the 6:30 p.m. newscast separate for WXCW.
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I was hoping WZVN would get a 4:30am morning newscast but I guess that will not happen any time soon because they axed their 5:00pm and 5:30pm newscasts.
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WZVN canceled the 5pm and 5:30pm because the ratings were very low. WZVN’s newscasts share a lot of content with WBBH, all the same reporters, a lot of the same reports. Not 100 percent the same, but very close, It’s not that big of a loss. WINK isn’t number one in every slot. Some slots are won by WBBH. The 10pm newscast is very close between WFTX and WXCW.
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[…] ON THE BLOG: It was only back in May of 2015 when we FIRST reported that WZVN would drop its weeknight 5:00 and 5:30pm newscasts and replacing them with Extra and The Insider. But starting next Monday, one of those former […]
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