Huge changes in the Central Savannah River (Augusta) market…

WJBF 6 / Augusta, GA – Aiken, SC (“ABC 6”)

WAGT-DT 26.2 / Augusta, GA – Aiken, SC (“CW Augusta”)

WRDW-TV 12 / Augusta, GA – Aiken, SC (“News 12”)

WAGT 26 / Augusta, GA – Aiken, SC (“NBC 26”)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: There has been some huge changes in the Augusta television market, more known there as part of the Central Savannah River area. And it involves almost every single television station in the market, thanks to the Gray/Schurz merger.

First off, the station with the least affected changes. WJBF 6 (ABC) is unaffected the merger, with the exception of their 10:00pm newscast. The 10:00pm nightly half-hour newscast that was seen on WAGT 26.2 (CW), which was known as WJBF NewsChannel 6 at 10:00 on CW Augusta, has since been discontinued and has been replaced by The CW Plus programming, which is currently Seinfeld on weeknights and Saturdays at 10:00pm and Cougar Town on Sundays at 10:00pm. This now leaves WFXG 54 (FOX) as the ONLY local primetime newscast in the market. Other than that, not much else has been discontinued, in terms of newscasts, from WJBF 6, even though they have now lost a sister television station, thanks to the Gray/Schurz merger…

Now that the merger is almost complete, as of today Tuesday February 16th, WRDW 12 (CBS) has officially taken over operations of their newest sister station, WAGT 26 (NBC/CW). Because of this, several newscasts are now affected from both stations.

First thing about this new operation… the weekday morning newscast is now simulcast on both WRDW 12 and WAGT 26 and will air News 12 This Morning in its entirety from 4:30-7:00am. The next thing to note is that weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00pm as well as weekends at 11:00pm, WRDW 12 will simulcast with WAGT 26 during those timeslots. Basically, News 12 at 6:00 (weeknights) and News 12 at 11:00 (nightly) will be seen on both WRDW 12 and WAGT 26. Last thing to note is newscast discontinuations because yes, there are some on WAGT 26.

WAGT 26 has stopped airing a weeknight half-hour 7:00pm newscast and an hour-long weekend morning newscast at 9:00am. The 7:00pm program has since been replaced by two episodes of The Big Bang Theory from 7:00-8:00pm as Modern Family also gets taken off the 7:30pm timeslot. And in terms of local news, there is now no local station that airs a 7:00pm newscast in the market. The 9:00am program has since been replaced by Mom’s Everyday, a Gray TV-produced program and 50 Plus Prime, a program described by them as The TV News Magazine for Baby Boomers. Also in terms of local news, nobody is airing a local newscast at 9:00am during weekend mornings in the market and now leaves WJBF 6 (ABC) as the ONLY station to air a weekend morning newscast in the market, as their weekend edition of WJBF NewsChannel 6 – Good Morning Augusta airs for an hour from 7:00-8:00am.

So there you go folks. It seems like there are less local news now in the Augusta market, again otherwise known as the Central Savannah River area. Congrats folks. I’m glad I don’t live there.