A “for the record” type of post here: Multiple network affiliates serving areas in Iowa were off Mediacom cable systems for two weeks but are now back on the lineups*. This time, the retransmission-fee dispute was with Media General, which owns KIMT, KWQC, and KELO**.
The link from Broadcasting and Cable reports the additional nugget (as I interpret it) that places where the Media General stations were carried as a nearby but not primary affiliate will be dropped. It doesn’t say whether that would affect any Iowa locations — but I had this blog post from February about KIMT cutting its weather map area, and a comparison of WQAD’s most recent weather-cast to a map from last year shows it’s dropped every non-border county in Iowa except Henry, and also dropped Lee County.
*I had written “on the air” but the whole point isn’t about availability on the public airwaves, but on Mediacom cable, where it seems we can’t go a year without a dust-up like this.
**That link goes not to KELO but the reprinting of a form letter from Mediacom with its side of the story. You can tell it is a form letter because the first line needs to say “Sioux Falls” instead of “Fort Wayne”.