You keep hearing that things are bad for local TV, right? You won’t get any argument from WLNE in Providence. This week, the station pre-empted its 7pm newscast so they could run a half-hour infomercial for the Genie Bra.

News is the ATM of local TV, a machine that cranks out cash as fast as you can stuff it in your wallet — so if a station is nuking the news to run an infomercial, you know things have really gone bust. TV Spy says that the sagging station plans to use its news as a backup for when it can’t place paid programming in the 7-7:30pm time slot.

Meanwhile, WLNE is in receivership and about to go on the auction block — a situation complicated by ABC’s threat to drop the station from its affiliate roster.

Local TV stations were once a guaranteed investment; now some of them are struggling to pay the power bill.

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