As some of you know, I began my (paid) tv career in January 1998 as a production assistant in Fort Myers, Florida. At the time, it was market 84, although it has now climbed to 55 in DMA standings. I thought it was a pretty darn good market to start in and I worked for what was then called Waterman Broadcasting. Waterman ran both NBC2 and ABC7 in town.
Waterman Broadcasting was a family-owned media business with tv stations at the time in Charlottesville, Virginia and Fort Myers, Florida. It also owned a handful of radio stations. Back in 1998, the effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 were not yet really off and running in local television, although Clear Channel (now known as iheart) was already stretching its radio station buying legs.
But now, family-owned or even smaller regional ownership groups are becoming few and far between thanks to ownership deregulation dating back to the Tele Act and publicly-owned corporations needing to keep their stockholders happy. While I won't dig too deep into the weeds about this here, my research page has more on how ownership impacts local communities and media organizations.
What does all of this have to do with Waterman Broadcasting? At midnight on July 1, 2023, Waterman Broadcasting in Fort Myers ceased to exist and Hearst now owns NBC2 and runs ABC7.
While this is not surprising news, it is somewhat bittersweet. Bernie Waterman, who we worked for and often saw around the stations, passed away a few years ago. His widow is nearly 100. The family has been selling off its media holdings over the years. As a media business and labor researcher, I knew it was nearly inevitable that this would be the eventual outcome. In our local media landscape here in the U.S., however, every loss of an independently (or somewhat independently) owned station feels like a bit of a dagger to the spirit of local media.
This is because your local broadcast stations are granted licenses to broadcast in your public interest. From the FCC:
In exchange for obtaining a valuable license to operate a broadcast station using the public airwaves, each radio and television licensee is required by law to operate its station in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” Generally, this means it must air programming that is responsive to the needs and problems of its local community of license. To do this, each non-exempt station licensee must identify the needs and problems and then specifically treat these local matters in the news, public affairs, political and other programming that it airs.
Most do this by focusing on what is happening in their geographic area. They bring you news you generally won't find elsewhere. Local news sources know the quirks of their communities. Losing that local connection hurts the people that live there.
But Carey, the station isn't going away! No, thankfully it isn't. And it has been purchased by Hearst, a company with a solid reputation for broadcast news and community. But the more ownership consolidation that happens across the country, the more homogenized the look, the feel and the content become, again, to the detriment of the local quirky community. For example, TEGNA stations have the same graphics look. You can travel around the country and immediately know you are watching a newscast brought to you by TEGNA. Sinclair has pushed centralized (and often political) content to its local stations for some time and is even closing smaller market newsrooms in favor of a centralized news desk unrelated to the community.
Long story even longer: The sale of Waterman to Hearst is part of a much larger pattern in local television ownership in the United States. During my 20+ years in local tv, the parent company of one station I worked for bought out another company, duopolized us with another station in town, and swapped affiliations. Another station I worked for was purchased and then shuffled around a bit as that owner rearranged its holdings. That station just had another sale fall through. It's the way of the business.
But it still makes my broadcast heart hurt to hear about more consolidation.
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