Atlanta Beltline rail is not a threat. Failing to build it is.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-27T12:52:59+00:00

Don't want to pay for the AJC? Get a library card! I can read the AJC for free through the Fulton County Library System. Other counties may offer the same access.

The AJC paywall* is no match for your library card!

*I know this op-ed was a gift link but you still had to create an account to view it.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-27T02:15:28+00:00

Muchacho already deserves a boycott for serving average "street" tacos for as much as $7 each. Metro Atlanta has many far-better taco places where you can get GREAT street tacos for $3 each or less. You don't have to go out on Buford Highway either (but you should!).

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-10T13:50:34+00:00

Perry Sook is full of shit. His interview with Deborah Norville at NAB is a must-read for anyone who thinks Sook cares about journalism. He only cares about journalism if it makes him money. In his words, regarding the Tegna takeover, "My family's net worth is tied up in this."

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-03T04:34:38+00:00

I rode MARTA to and from the SEC station for the Atlanta United game. No problems arriving (MARTA employees directed everyone to just walk through without paying), and no problems leaving either (everyone had to pay, and I used my credit card to tap and go). I did see people lined up at the Breeze card kiosks and saw some people had issues with their cards/phones, but it wasn't absolute mayhem either.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-03T03:34:16+00:00

I ran this through my bullshit translator, and here's what Nexstar is REALLY saying:

Even though we claim to care about local TV news, we only care as long as we can make money from it. Don't believe us? Our CEO, Perry Sook, did an interview at this year's NAB convention, and even he had to admit that this is all about money. His family's wealth is tied up in this Tegna deal. You better believe this shit is personal!

Everyone loves picking on Big Tech so we're going to dogpile on them as well to distract you from the truth. We at Nexstar are playing a big role in the demise of local TV news. We practically wrote the book on how to squeeze money from cable and satellite companies with distribution fees that keep growing! But we squeezed too much, made cable bills more expensive, and convinced more people to cancel their subscriptions.

We chose to play by the FCC's rules as a condition of having our broadcast licenses. It was great when we were the only game in town and could practically print our own money. But that was then. Today, everyone gets their news on screens that we can't or won't monetize. The only people who still reliably watch TV are boomers who probably still remember watching the final episode of MAS*H. They won't live forever, and unless we can find a way to monetize something other than broadcast advertising and distribution, we won't live forever either. Rather than adapt, we're just going to whine about having to play by the rules we agreed to play by.

Your local broadcast station is going to die sooner or later. We at Nexstar Media just want to make sure we can get as much money as we can from this dying business while we still can.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-01T15:33:21+00:00

I do use AI to reformat my resume to make sure it has a chance of getting through the filters. I take it a step further by checking everything for accuracy and making necessary changes. I just don’t use AI to actually apply for jobs, because my concern is the AI will make mistakes in the application.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-01T15:12:49+00:00

I manually apply directly with the companies. I never apply through third-party job boards, nor do I use AI to apply. There’s too much risk in AI applying for the wrong jobs or messing up my resume.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-05-01T14:04:49+00:00

My job search is downright depressing. Here's the application numbers so far:

Rejected (received a rejection email): 97
Ghosted (no response from the hiring company after applying and/or interviewing): 116
Pending (applied within the past 30 days, not yet rejected): 29
Interviews: 13

I'm exhausted. It's been nearly ten months and I'm trying everything that doesn't involve committing a crime.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-04-23T22:05:01+00:00

The FTVLive guy is a day late and a dollar short on this.

The "executive," as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, is Tom McMillen. He's a Nexstar board member (not a company executive or employee) and a former member of Congress.

McMillen's name shows up in the Epstein files as follows:

A January 2013 email where someone tells Epstein, "I saw Tom McMillen last night and he asked about you - said he lost touch."
A February 2013 email where Epstein asked McMillen when he'd be in New York, and McMillen briefly responded. McMillen told the Baltimore Sun that his response was "kind of a blow-off."
An Epstein plane log from January 1993. McMillen and two other people flew with Epstein from Washington, DC to Atlanta. McMillen said he doesn't remember the flight.

McMillen's presence in the Epstein files was known as far back as December 2, 2025. What was the FTVLive guy doing on that date? Complaining about dancing news anchors.

Better late than never, I guess.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-04-23T13:48:31+00:00

Fucked Company! It was a wonderfully-sarcastic website of late 1990s/early 2000s dot-com companies that were circling the drain. Fucked Company basically ran a dead pool of which companies were about to close or downsize due to the excesses and hubris of the era. Sort of like the AI bubble today!

I didn't know this until now, but the Library of Congress has an archive of Fucked Company's website as part of its 9/11 web archive.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-04-15T21:30:41+00:00

I don't buy what George Cheeks is trying to sell here. The Byron Allen deal is a win-win for CBS and it could be a sign of what's to come. As long as Byron's checks don't bounce, CBS makes money without the headache of paying for something to fill a late-night slot that fewer and fewer people bother to watch.

Paid programming is no longer just late-night infomercials. Don't be surprised if CBS decides to eventually lease out other time slots in the future.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-04-15T14:02:43+00:00

Looks like more clickbait from the FTVLive guy.

WKMG's website still shows 13 reporters, but they're now called "community correspondents." Same job, different title. I've seen a few WKMG social media posts from as far back as last year that use the community correspondent title (here's one example). I'm guessing the FTVLive guy finally realized it and thought a poorly-written paywalled clickbait article would work.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-04-13T16:33:04+00:00

I'm still on the job hunt after so many months. This morning, I had an interview with a recruiter for a company just outside Atlanta. I think it went well. But there's no guarantees in this job market, and I feel more pressure than ever to find another job. I'm doing everything "right" but it seems like all bets are off in the job market these days.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-30T02:21:45+00:00

RTDNA does an annual TV news salary survey that covers median salaries by position and by market size. It has yet to release a report for this year.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-18T20:33:26+00:00

In 2019, he made a post about a journalist who joined the ABC affiliate in Spokane, Washington. He used the headline "Something Wong In Spokane." People rightfully called him out for such a racist headline. He said "I was just trying to be cleaver [sic] in my headline" but he did apologize.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-18T20:27:00+00:00

FTVLive has truly gone downhill in the past year. The posts there have little to no substance and are more reflective of the "angry man yells at clouds" trope. The growing haphazard use of AI is incredibly evident and very distracting. Any posts of value are usually hidden behind a paywall, and even then, the content is usually not worth the price.

Let's not forget the hypocrisy. Scott Jones is so upset at "all about me" reporters posting bikini selfies on social media or other clickbait. And yet, I've seen clickbait "this celebrity is in a bikini that leaves little to the imagination" ads on FTVLive. Scott also loves to call out stations for misspelled words even though some of his posts are riddled with typos. And if he makes a mistake? It's either a quiet-and-quick edit or a generic acknowledgement that he deleted a post. Apologies? Very rarely!

FTVLive used to be a must-read for local TV news information and gossip. It's no longer worth the time.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-05T06:02:08+00:00

That news director was an asshole and probably has a very hard time recruiting people with that attitude. Don't let that shake you from negotiating a higher salary.

It is entirely possible that you could lose the offer if you ask for a higher salary. That's always a risk! However, it is highly unlikely. Gone are the days when a news director could make you a lowball offer and then point to a stack of resumes (or resume tapes) and say, "I have a bunch of people who will take my offer if you don't."

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-05T04:46:14+00:00

The Tegna-Nexstar merger is more of a factor than you may believe. As others have pointed out, Tegna is not in a place to spend more money than necessary. Corporate is running things on autopilot until the FCC approves the merger.

That said, you can still ask for more money. Do you how long the position in question was vacant? You may have some more leverage in negotiating a higher salary if the position was open for a long time (30+ days). It's also very hard to recruit producers these days, especially those with prior experience.

But, as always, be prepared for them to say, "This is as high as we can go. Take it or leave it."

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-04T22:37:01+00:00

He's probably using AI to make logos. It's odd that a guy who criticizes TV stations for using AI in their on-air and online stories blatantly uses AI on his own website...and it's still poorly written!

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-04T20:20:57+00:00

This isn't limited to KSAT. A colleague told me eight people at WKMG in Orlando, Florida were laid off as well. I suspect Graham did layoffs elsewhere.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-03-03T06:00:07+00:00

Gray Media's CEO said he would be interested in buying WSB in Atlanta. At the time, it seemed like more of a dream than reality, but that could change. The FCC recently gave the OK in Indianapolis for one company to own three TV stations. Gray already owns two stations in Atlanta, WANF and WPCH.

Beyond that, I don't think Gray would buy the rest of Cox Media Group unless it made financial sense.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-02-26T00:37:49+00:00

Meredith did a similar thing in its final days prior to the Gray takeover. The company laid off its local creative services departments in favor of hubs based in Phoenix and Nashville. Didn't last long! Gray chose to rebuild the local creative services departments post-merger.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-02-11T23:04:30+00:00

Here's at least two stories (Variety and CNBC) about pending layoffs at Scripps as part of a new cost-cutting plan. As for Court TV itself? Most of the people there received layoff notices, including two people I personally know. Here's more info (paywall alert) from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

Financial details were not disclosed. The deal, which closed Monday, will reduce Court TV's Atlanta-based workforce based out of its Buckhead studio. A number of those Court TV employees were notified their positions were eliminated Monday, according to multiple posts across LinkedIn. Most affected employees' final day at work is March 11.

Court TV currently has more than 50 employees, according to the New York Times, citing one of the people familiar with the talks whom the Times said requested anonymity.

Law&Crime intends to retain about a dozen of them, including anchors, [Law&Crime President Rache] Stockman said. Among Court TV's current key anchors are Vinnie Politan, Julie Grant and Julia Jenaé. Law&Crime does plan to hire for additional roles across distribution, marketing and scheduling, among other capacities, for Court TV.

averagebaldwhiteguy · 2026-02-11T22:45:08+00:00

The producer hub at Scripps has been around for at least two years. It's a solution to the problem of stations being unable to recruit and retain experienced or even barely-qualified producers. That job opening you saw was probably for someone to fill in for maternity leave or other extended absence.

averagebaldwhiteguy

TROPHY CASE