The Independent Station Era Is Coming — Here’s How Local TV Can Survive It
Local television is at a pivotal juncture. Mergers, spinoffs, and shifting network priorities are reshaping the broadcast landscape. More stations are being forced—or choosing—to go independent. This change, while unsettling, also offers an extraordinary opportunity: The chance to reimagine local TV not as a passive network outlet, but as a genuine community institution.
The movement is already visible. Earlier this week, Gray Media’s WANF-TV in Atlanta just ended its 31-year run as the market’s CBS affiliate, and repositioned itself as a fully independent local station focused on news, weather, and sports. In Miami, Berkshire Hathaway-owned WPLG-TV disaffiliated from ABC after more than six decades, officially segueing to independence on August 4 — launching an ambitious 93 weekly hours of local news in the process.
Amid a brewing storm of frenzied station M&A activity in the coming months (Tuesday’s announced Nexstar-Tegna deal is just the start), numerous traditional network affiliations will likely change hands, and along with them, more newly independent stations are likely to emerge in markets all across the country.
Independence Demands Creativity, Not Retrenchment
The often-overlooked resilience of small-market, community-focused radio offers a model worth emulating. As Radio Ink recently noted, stations like those operated by Cromwell Media, Kaspar Broadcasting and Woodward Community Media succeed not by chasing scale or national ad revenue, but by doubling down on their local roots — through community events, digital platforms, and trusted storytelling.
Local broadcast television, with its undeniable visual power and enviable production capacity, has even greater potential to advance this model. But it must rethink its programming — especially local news — not simply as more hours of the same formulaic linear broadcast fodder, but as richer, more meaningful connection points with its community.
First: Rethinking Local News
The old anchor desk routine — crime stories, superfluous live shots, weather, sports, and repeat — is wearing thin, as audiences now want coverage that more genuinely reflects their communities and the issues that matter most to them. As such, independent television stations have a unique opportunity to reinvent local programming with approaches that engage viewers in new and more innovative ways, including:
Community roundtables and town halls, giving residents a voice in local debate.
Neighborhood lifestyle shows, spotlighting local eateries, artisans, cultural scenes, and hidden gems.
Education partnerships, giving students and universities real airtime for journalism, the arts, or local sports coverage.
Digital-first short-form segments, optimized for platforms like YouTube and TikTok, reaching younger audiences where they are.
Non-profit collaborations, turning airtime into a civic asset for organizations often overlooked by mainstream media.
These strategies align content with community needs — and open new paths for sponsorships and underwriting beyond traditional ad spot buys.
Local Sports: Going Beyond The Majors
Nothing unites a town quite like local sports. Besides pursuing local rights for the obvious major league sports franchises, independent stations can also lean into:
Broadcasting (live/linear or streamed) high-school and local-league games, supported by community advertisers.
Securing game rights for local franchises in minor, challenger and alternative pro leagues.
Launching weekly local sports magazine shows, with highlights, personal stories, and community features.
Cross-platform integration, pushing real-time clips to social media and station FAST channels for multi-platform engagement.
These offerings tap into both emotional investment and local loyalty — turning sports into powerful community glue and monetization opportunities.
Podcasts: Enabling New Local Voices
Podcasts are an increasingly vital format — many with video elements and concurrent live events. Independent stations could:
Partner with local podcasters to air video versions of their shows during non-peak hours.
Host live podcast recordings, turning content into events with ticket sales and sponsorships.
Create station-led podcasts, expanding reporting into on-demand and richer storytelling formats.
Podcasts bring in fresh voices, younger audiences, and brand-new sponsorship channels without the expense of traditional primetime production.
Diversifying Revenue Through Community Roots
Community radio has proven that financial resilience comes from more than just ad sales. It thrives on diversified revenue streams — events, civic sponsorships, memberships, and hyper-local content that makes advertisers want to be associated with the brand. Independent TV can adopt this playbook.
Instead of leaning solely on 30-second spots, stations can build sustainable models through sports sponsorships, podcast partnerships, live events, branded lifestyle shows, and community-driven fundraising campaigns. These approaches don’t just generate new dollars — they deepen the station’s ties to local institutions, schools, and businesses.
By stepping away from network dependence, newly independent stations can open the door to a more dynamic relationship with their communities — one where revenue follows relevance.
Public Media As Template (And Even Partner)
Stations don’t have to invent this model from scratch. Scores of public TV and radio outlet across the country have demonstrated how deeply a station can root itself in civic life by centering schools, nonprofits, and local culture.
The difference is that commercial independents can help scale these efforts further with professional polish, stronger production values, and larger audiences. By blending public media’s civic-first ethos with commercial TV’s resources and reach, independents can create a model that’s both financially viable and socially indispensable. And with long-standing funding sources for public media currently under threat, substantial partnership opportunities abound.
The Local Takeaway
Independence will soon become more commonplace in local TV. Stations can either treat it as a setback, clinging to tired formulas of cheap syndicated fare, infomercials and DR ads — or see it as an opening to redefine their role in their respective communities, beyond simple wall-to-wall templatized newscasts.
The recipe for potential success is varied and robust: reinvent local news, embrace local sports at every level, amplify new voices through podcasts, and build revenue streams that grow directly from civic and cultural roots.
In the end, independence is neither a curse nor a cure-all. It is a crossroads. Some stations will wither under the weight of the old model, but others will find new energy in reinventing what local television can be.
The ones that succeed will not just survive — they will matter
Local News To Peruse
Breaking the Story: The Real Cost of Low Wages at America's Largest Broadcaster - [National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians]
Broadcasters Strike A Devil's Bargain With The Trump Regime - Craig Aaron [Free Press]
The Race To Rescue PBS And NPR Stations - Benjamin Mullin [New York Times]
Corporation For Public Broadcasting Ends Its Next Generation Warning System Grant Program - George Winslow [TVTech]
Dozens Of Rural Newspapers Shut Down In Latest Disappearance Of Local Journalism - Stephanie Sy & Karina Cuevas [PBS News]
Going News Heavy in Atlanta - Scott Jones [FTVLive]
Are GMs Headed The Way Of The Dodo? - Kirk Varner [TVND.com]
DirecTV Says It Can’t Broadcast NextGen TV Signals To Customers - Matthew Keys [TheDesk.net]
