Sinclair Broadcast Group has reportedly inked a shared services agreement to manage Columbus CW-affiliate WWHO, which would give the company a virtual triopoly in the market.

Sinclair owns ABC-affiliate WSYX and manages Fox-affiliate WTTE for Cunningham Broadcasting.

While WSYX and WTTE currently operate out of the same building, Sinclair CFO David Amy told Broadcasting & Cable that there were no immediate plans to move WWHO’s operations into the same complex. Read more

Tracy McCool, who has anchored the WJW morning newscast for eight years, has been named the new evening anchor at the Cleveland Fox-affiliate.

McCool replaces Stacey Bell, who left WJW last month to move to New Jersey with her husband. She will anchor the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts.

McCool is an Ohio native who began her career at WJW as an intern and worked her way up to a producer at the station. She made the transition to on-air work at WICU in Erie and WSYX-WTTE in Columbus, returning to WJW in 2000.

“We’re all very proud and happy for Tracy,” WJW president and general manager Greg Easterly said in a statement. “Hers is truly a ‘Cleveland’s own’ success story that all of northeast Ohio can appreciate.”

Sinclair Broadcasting and Insight Cable are facing down a December 31 deadline to renegotiate their existing carriage agreement.

If a deal is not reached by December 31, Sinclair-owned stations that are carried by Insight Cable will be blacked out. The affected stations are WDKY, in Lexington, KY; WSYX-WTTE in Columbus, OH; and WSTR in Cincinnati, OH.

“Like any business, we’re not prepared to sell our product if we can’t get what we think is an appropriate price for the product,” Barry Faber, executive vice president and general counsel for Sinclair, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Insight is currently being purchased by Time Warner Cable, which had their own retransmission dispute early this year. The Herald-Leader reports the carriage agreement between Sinclair and Insight will expire before that deal is completed.

Thirty TV stations across Ohio have reportedly pulled a political ad off the air over its controversial use of footage featuring a great-grandmother from Cincinnati.

78-year-old Marlene Quinn recently signed on to appear in an ad opposing an upcoming ballot initiative.  The ad (embedded above)–in which Quinn recounts how a group of brave firefighters saved her granddaughter’s life–was apparently so effective at swaying voter opinion that a group supporting the ballot initiative used footage of Quinn in its own ad (video inside). Read more

Gabe Spiegel, a former anchor with Columbus’s WSYX and WTTE, appeared in court this week to testify in the trial of his friend Edward Scott Miller, who is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of a bicyclist he struck during an all-night partying binge with Spiegel.

Miller was giving Spiegel a ride home in July of 2009, after an early morning outing at a strip club, when his car struck a bicyclist shortly before 6:00 a.m. The bicyclist, who was wearing a helmet at the time, died four days later from head injuries suffered in the accident.

Spiegel testified that he and Miller discussed calling a cab upon leaving the strip club, but ultimately decided that Miller was okay to drive. According to The Columbus Dispatch, when the prosecution asked Spiegel if he thought Miller was “in a condition to drive,” he answered, “No question.” Read more

Emily Riemer is joining Boston’s WCVB and will co-anchor the ABC-affiliate’s weekend morning newscasts alongside Steve Lacy.

Riemer comes to WCVB from Sinclair duopoloy WSYX-WTTE in Columbus, where she worked as a political reporter and news producer.

In addition to co-anchoring WCVB’s weekend morning newscasts, Riemer will work as a general assignment reporter for the weekday morning newscasts.

Riemer, who became known as a hard-nosed political reporter in Columbus and even did a one-on-one interview with President Obama last year, began her TV career at WCVB, where she was a summer intern during her time at Ithaca College.

Video of Riemer reporting, inside… Read more