With the FCC signing off on the Tribune deal it is expected that by the end of this week, Nexstar will take control of the Tribune stations.

When Nexstar announced the deal to buy the Tribune stations last December, the company projected $160 million in cost savings during just the first year.

They said that those savings would come in large part through corporate overhead and station level expense reduction.

In other words, the top-level brass at Tribune would be going away, which was expected.

But what about Jobs?

Nexstar bosses have said to current employees that they think that many of the Tribune stations are “bloated” with staff. It is expected that Nexstar will either impose layoffs or not fill jobs as they open up at some of the Tribune soon to be Nexstar stations.

Also, It will be interesting at what they do with salaries?

Although we don’t have figures, you can bet that if you add up the salary of WGN Morning Anchors Larry Potash, Robin Baumgarten, Paul Korad and Pat Tomasulo (pictured) it would be more money than Nexstar pays the entire news staff at some of their smaller stations.

WGN’s Morning News is No. 1 in the market and beats all the O&O’s head to head.

But, some wonder if Nexstar won’t come in and try to save money on the show and in the end, hurt the ratings.

Is Nexstar really ready to own and operate big market stations?

That the big question and we are about to find out the answer soon.

Stay tuned…