Miss USA’s New Station

What REELZ will gain is notice. People who don’t know it exists today might know its channel number next week. For a thinly watched outlet this is a huge deal.

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Miss USA won’t be seen on NBC. The whole Donald thing was too much for them and many of their sponsors to take. Now Miss USA will be broadcast on REELZ, a channel I get but have never watched.

The guy behind REELZ is Stan E. Hubbard. As soon as I heard the name lights began flashing. Mr. Hubbard is from the broadcasting family who have owned KSTP in St. Paul (serving Minneapolis and St. Paul) as long as I can remember.

Stan Hubbard’s dad, Stanley, was a broadcast pioneer. He bought a satellite truck and transponder time then started an interstation satellite news exchange early on. To say he was a forward thinker willing to risk his own money is an understatement.

Hubbard started the All News Channel, an early competitor to CNN. Though a long term failure, it was a ballsy move from a little company in Minnesota.

I even did a live shot from Mystic Seaport on a weekend morning show the Hubbard’s companies produced and syndicated back in the late 80s.

Alas, Mr. Hubbard’s broadcast operation has a reputation for employee/employer legal wrangling. Hubbard ended up on the wrong end of a few lawsuits. Maybe that comes with the territory. It always felt to me as if Hubbard was taking advantage of naive employees, having them sign contracts which greatly favored the company.

Stan (the son) Hubbard says he won’t make much, maybe nothing, from this fire sale rights purchase. He’s probably right.

What REELZ will gain is notice. People who don’t know it exists today might know its channel number next week. For a thinly watched outlet this is a huge deal.

Bottom line for me, it sucks that someone will commercially benefit from Donald Trump’s massively unwarranted attack on Mexicans.

If anyone had the cajones to give it as try, Hubbard is no surprise.

One thought on “Miss USA’s New Station”

  1. Hubbard also owns television stations in New Mexico (KOB-TV, NBC in Albuquerque) and Texas. A very gutsy and insulting move on Hubbard’s part.

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