RadioInsight is considered generally reliable on the U.S. radio industry. It is run by Lance Venta (who authors most of the posts except for one notable column) and covers format changes, personnel changes, and other news of the industry. There is also a column on radio programming by veteran radio writer Sean Ross (previously of such publications as Radio & Records). Most changes in U.S. radio in the last decade-plus are covered by the site, and it has a high citation count in our radio pages. If not for RadioInsight, it would be quite hard to write on the radio side, because local news media no longer really cover radio very well.
northpine.com -- seems to be a blog where the author posts information he gets from others in the industry.
Northpine is among a handful of sites in this field where I accept the author as an SME (and I'm pretty picky about that). I would likely have left this if it had been lost to time (which I would have expected 20 years later — the early 2000s kind of have this problem), but [1] is still a live page and would be acceptable as SELFPUB. I am astounded to see that on their live site more than 20 years later.
tvnewscheck.com -- this looks very professional but the address is a private home and I don't see anything about editorial policy or corporate ownership on the site.
The owner of TVNewsCheck is a company called NewsCheckMedia, LLC. It is quite a small company but TVNC is one of a handful of sites covering the business. Its front page is a news aggregator, but there are original stories and columns, and they also sponsor several annual events and run a podcast. It's considered generally reliable in this field. Some stories do have their roots in press releases, where I do try and hold to uncontroversial claims (a station added a newscast, for instance).
rabbitears.info
RabbitEars is a database containing information on TV station subchannels and other technical data. You're the second reviewer in a week to ask about this one, so I'll just rehash what I said for KASA-TV. RabbitEars is generally considered a reliable source for the subchannel information on TV station pages—it is used in pretty much every page about an operational TV station in the United States! It has multiple editors, one of whom works at the FCC (more info). Fairly often, the information is backed up by analyses of the transport streams of the stations themselves.
@Mike Christie: Responded in re: source quality. The sources you've mentioned are all used quite frequently in this topic area; indeed, they're honestly essential. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 07:38, 19 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
OK on all the above; there's still a northpine citation (there were two before you removed one) but I think that's OK. I think these might all get queried again if you took this to FAC. I'll read through the article next; it will be probably be tonight before I can finish a pass. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:52, 19 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
"Interest in the allocation at Albion, 90 miles (140 km) northwest of Lincoln, was also found by a commercial group. KHOL-TV, an ABC affiliate in Kearney, began to ...": "was also found" is passive voice and seems unnecessarily elliptical. How about "KHOL-TV, an ABC affiliate in Kearney, was also interested in the allocation at Albion, 90 miles (140 km) northwest of Lincoln, and they began to ..."?
Done
"The delayed construction process gave rise to a lawsuit filed by NTV in July 1984 against the contractor": wouldn't the lawsuit have been filed by Amaturo? Big 8 had already split from NTV at the time of the lawsuit.
No, because Big 8 and NTV were still co-owned until 1985.
"Amaturo would state that": I think this can just be "stated that", or "later stated that".
Done
"The FCC approved of the sale in November": isn't "approved the sale" the usual wording? "Approved of" sounds less official to me; more like an opinion than an official ruling.
Done
"The station's decision to briefly air unedited films in May 1986 led to boycotts": I assume because the films included material considered more adult than the usual TV fare. Can we make this clearer?
Done
"The move was protested by KOLN as well as KPTM, the Fox affiliate in Omaha": wouldn't KETV have protested too? Another ABC affiliate would have been very direct competition; I wouldn't have that the FCC would want two affiliates of a single broadcasting company in one city.
Those were the two petitions filed. A second ref has been added specifically on this.
From "Another factor" to the end of the paragraph tells a story I don't follow. We don't give dates for the UHF channel assignments, which would help. I assume channel 24 was not in Albion; can we say where it was? Seems to be Elgin, per the next paragraph. Why would not getting the Albion station block Citadel's Lincoln proposal?
So the FCC would have required that a commercial TV station allocation be left in Albion. That's why channel 18. (Ref added) Then two groups sought channels there, so the FCC added 24. It did not take 24 from somewhere else; it was just available to be added if there was interest.
"The launch was further delayed when it was discovered that a 10-foot (3.0 m) section was missing at the 190-foot (58 m) level when the tower had already been built up to 620 feet (190 m)." The image this brings to mind is a 190m tower, the top 130m of which is floating mysteriously 3m above the 58m high base. I'm sure that's not what's intended but I'm unclear what really happened.
Guess they skipped a part.
Why is the parenthetical sentence starting "KLKE was shuttered..." given out of chronological order? Seems like it would go naturally at the start of the next paragraph.
Reorganized
"The deal is awaiting FCC approval." Needs an "as of".
Done — there will likely be a change here in the next 30 days. This deal is, uh, on the rocks.
Spotchecks (footnote numbers refer to this version:
FN 30 cites "Citadel contended that Lincoln was the most underserved city of its size in the United States and among the most underserved state capitals for television service." Verified.
FN 15 cites "Amaturo Group announced in September 1983 that it would split KCNA-TV from the NTV network to become an independent station, move its transmitter to Genoa in Nance County to increase coverage, and rebrand it as KBGT-TV "Big 8" on November 1.". Verified.
FN 52 cites "Citadel exited broadcasting by selling KLKN and WLNE-TV, serving Providence, Rhode Island, to Standard Media for $83 million. Its leader, former Young Broadcasting and Media General executive Deb McDermott, had begun her career in Lincoln at KOLN." Mostly verified, but it's not clear that this was the last of Citadel's properties, as the wording implies. Perhaps "Citadel, who were exiting broadcasting, sold KLKN and WLNE-TV..."? And shouldn't we have another ref to show that the station she refers to from her own past was in fact KOLN?
A second ref explicitly states these were Citadel's last two ABC affiliates. Reworded.
As to the second part, "She spent her first seven years out of college working for the CBS affiliate in Lincoln". That is KOLN.
OK, but I don't see how a reader using the cited sources could know that. Looking at the KOLN article it seems KOLN has been the CBS affiliate for the last 60-70 years, so you're obviously right, but I think a cite to show that would be best (and I hope easy to provide). Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:36, 20 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
FN 22 cites "Amaturo would state that, over the life of Big 8, the venture lost nearly $5 million (equivalent to $10.6 million in 2021 dollars)." Verified.
FN 11 cites "In 1974, NTV Enterprises acquired the network". FN 11 is a dead link and there's no archive.