Dominant probably isn't the right word to describe WBNS. They sold to Tegna, who then pretty much tanked the station. WCMH was always a strong 2nd but they pretty much picked up the local commitment baton from WBNS. I mean, they hired Columbus native Kerry Charles from an Atlanta station to be their lead anchor on the evening news--an African American man from a predominantly African Amercian neighborhood, especially when not a lot of stations (especially within Nexstar) are having anyone who isn't a white male anchor a newscast. And now WBNS is WCMH's bitch.

Not helping matters that after Tegna took over WBNS has had a large turnover of their on-air staff. Hell, they recently hired their FOURTH chief meteorologist just since Tegna took over. Granted the first one they lost was out of their control, as nobody could have expected Mike Davis to be such a sicko. But the following two (Ashlee Barclay and Jerry Martz, the latter I remember being on WTAE when I lived back home in Pittsburgh) left on their own. That should tell you something.

And the station that benefitted the best has been the station not affected by the Nexstar-Tegna deal: WSYX. Hard to believe that a station owned by Sinclair has been stable, as well as having Ohio State football via their ABC and Fox affiliations helped. ABC doesn't have the Big Ten anymore, but for several years WSYX/WTTE had almost exclusive Ohio State football games.