Super Bowl Update

A graphic new anti-abortion campaign commercial will air 22 times on television stations in Louisville, Bowling Green and Evansville between now and Friday, and there's nothing anyone can do about it - but at least one station will make an effort to warn its viewers.

Andrew Beacham, an Indiana anti-abortion activist who is running - despite federal law that requires candidates for Congress to live in the state where they run for office - against Kentucky's incumbent Republican 2nd District Congressman, Brett Guthrie, is running the ads.  He's made a pretty powerful charge - that President Obama has been giving Planned Parenthood money "to murder babies."

The ad shows "a dismembered fetus and images of dead Christians and Jews," according to an Associated Press report.

Beacham is one of seven candidates running for Congress who are affiliated with Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who himself ran for president this year, appearing on the ballot in just four states (Alaska, Missouri, New Hampshire and Oklahoma). All are using similar commercials.

As for Beacham's ad, at least one station - WBKO in Bowling Green - intends to warn its viewers of the commercial's graphic content.

"[W]e have no right to censor the ad, and we can't refuse it either," said Rick McCue, the station's general manager. "We can at least give people a heads up, and we intend to do that," McCue said, explaining that his station would do so through the use of a disclaimer. "How we're going to word it, I don't know yet."

And this may not be the last we hear from Beacham or Terry's other candidates.  Terry has plans in place to use at least 12 such commercials between now and the election on Nov. 6.

Gray Television, Inc., which owns Bowling Green, Ky. ABC/Fox/CW affiliate WBKO and operates WKRN, the ABC affiliate in Nashville, for Young Broadcasting, today that it is commencing a refinancing of its existing capital structure. Gray has commenced a cash tender offer for up to $225 million of its outstanding 10½% senior secured second lien notes due 2015.

Note holders are being offered $1,078.75, plus an early tender premium of $5.00, amounting to a total of $1,083.75 per $1,000 of face value.

Gray also announced today that, in addition to entering into discussions with its lenders relating to an amendment to its senior credit facility necessary in order to complete the Tender Offer, it has entered into discussions with certain banks relating to an overall refinancing of its senior credit facility, subject to market and other conditions. Gray expects that its refinanced senior credit facility would provide for total commitments of $665.0 million, consisting of a $40.0 million revolving credit facility and a $625.0 million term loan facility.

Proceeds from borrowings under the refinanced senior credit facility are expected to be used to repay outstanding borrowings under the company's existing senior credit facility, repurchase or redeem any notes not previously purchased in the Tender Offer, redeem the outstanding shares of the company's Series D perpetual preferred stock and pay related fees and expenses.

The Kentucky Lottery announced Tuesday morning that it will is ending the nightly TV broadcast of its drawings. Starting Sept. 16, the drawings will instead be streamed live and archived on the lottery’s website, kylottery.com.

Currently, the Lottery's drawings are produced by M&S Works, a Louisville-based production company.  With the move from TV to online, production of the drawings will be done in-house.

The Lottery's drawings are currently carried by six TV stations (WLKY/Me-TV in Louisville, WKYT/CW in Lexington, WDKA in Paducah, WBKO in Bowling Green and WCPO-9.2/9.3 in Cincinnati) as well as WHAS-840 AM in Louisville.

This move does not affect the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings, which will still be broadcast live on WGN America, which is available on cable and satellite across Kentucky.

“When we started our draw show 23 years ago, the internet as we know it didn’t exist,” said Kentucky Lottery president and CEO Arch Gleason. “Newspapers, retailers and the nightly show were the main places where people found winning numbers. Now, more than half of our players – 54% at last count – say they use the Internet to find their winning numbers. This is more than double the amount which find drawing results in the next highest ranked outlet, newspapers at 25%.”

In moving away from TV, the Kentucky Lottery joins lotteries across the United States that have done so in the past. Kentucky's neighbors, Indiana and Tennessee, have shut down their shows completely, and are among 25 states which no longer televise their drawings.

“By making this commitment to the platform most of our players are using to find winning numbers – and not completely shutting down the show as has been the case in other states – we’re keeping the drawings available for viewing in the place where a majority of players look for results,” said Gleason.

Players can receive text messages or emails with winning numbers by signing up for the Kentucky Lottery’s Player’s Fun Club on the website, or subscribe to the lottery’s Twitter feed that automatically distributes winning numbers.

The savings from this move will be substantial, according to Rick Kelley, the lottery's VP of finance. “Our current production costs for the drawing are slightly over a half-million dollars per year,” said Kelley. “By bringing this production in-house, a significant amount of what we were spending (around 95% after start-up costs) can be saved.” 

“Every dollar we save is a dollar that goes to help send students in Kentucky to college,” said Gleason. “The Kentucky Lottery is the sole funding source of the popular KEES scholarship program, and provides a majority of funds for the CAP and KTG college grant programs. When we take an action like this to save funds, that means more money we send to the Commonwealth – and more Kentucky kids get help to pay for their college education.”

Gray Television, which owns Bowling Green, Ky. ABC/Fox/CW affiliate WBKO-13 and manages ABC affiliate WKRN-2 in Nashville for Young Broadcasting, reported its second quarter earnings this morning.

For the three months ending June 30, the company took in $94.691 million, a record for the company and a 24% increase over the same period in 2011.  The company credited the big gains to substantial increases in ad spending and retransmission fees.  Indeed, some ad categories were way up over 2Q2011, led by political advertising (up 467%) and internet advertising (up 31%).

Retransmission fees paid to Gray by cable and satellite operators were up 64% for the quarter, and the company's income from the management of the seven Young Broadcasting stations held steady at $600,000.

For the first half of 2012, Gray has whittled its long-term debt down by $11 million, and improved its borrowing position with a $9 million increase in its senior borrowing facility.

The company expects gains to continue in the third quarter.

Get ready, folks:  Bill Cunningham is coming to your TV screen.

The attorney and conservative talk radio host, whose Sunday night radio program, Live on Sunday Nights It's Bill Cunningham, is distributed nationally to over 300 radio stations, is bringing his TV talk show to the CW television network and its more than 200 affiliates nationwide beginning Sept. 17.

The Bill Cunningham Show debuted last fall on Tribune Broadcasting's TV stations throughout the country as well as two Local TV, LLC-owned stations and Raycom's WXIX in Cincinnati (Cunningham's hometown).  The expansion to the CW stations means that viewers in the Tri-State will now get to experience what's been described as a traditional conflict-resolution style tabloid show with Cunningham's viewpoints blended in.

Stations which will carry the show in and around the Tri-State include WAZE-LP (Evansville); WQWQ, WQTV and KFVS 12.2 (Paducah/Murray/Cape Girardeau); WBKO 13.3 (Bowling Green); WBKI and WMYO 58.3 (Louisville); KPLR (St. Louis*) and WNAB (Nashville).  In the Indianapolis market, WXIN-Fox 59 carried the show last season, and it's not yet known if it will remain there or be moved to its sister station, WTTV/WTTK, which can be seen in Terre Haute and nearby communities.

“We are very pleased to add The Bill Cunningham Show to our weekday afternoon block,” said John Maatta, chief operating officer at the CW, when the network announced Cunningham's addition earlier this year. “Bill is a talented host with a fascinating program, and we know he’ll be a terrific asset for the CW and our affiliated stations.”

Local air times for the show have not yet been announced; I'll bring you those in early September when they become available.

Eyewitness News reports this afternoon that a Tell City, Ind. native is one of five finalists to co-host the syndicated Live! with Kelly for a day.

Rory Kramer, an aspiring actor who now lives in Los Angeles, submitted a video and was chosen from thousands of hopefuls who want a chance to sit in the chair next to Kelly Ripa.

Kramer will travel to New York next week to compete against the other four finalists for the guest-host gig.

Good luck, Rory!