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All about Raycom Media....


tyrannical bastard

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Considering that MNTV is officially only a programming "service" -- or, really, a syndicator -- of reruns of shows that have already been rerun to death, there's hardly anything to act excited about, let alone base station branding on.

We should just consider all MNTV stations to be Independent stations.

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Here we go again...

 

Raycom & Gray to combine for $3.6 billion.

 

https://www.raycommedia.com/gray-and-raycom-to-combine-in-a-3-6-billion-transaction/

Expect a sell-off in Toledo like what had happened the last few times Raycom acquired another company. To add insult to injury, they both own that market's top two stations. EDIT: According to another forum, WTOL will be the station that will be sold off, no word yet on WUPW.

 

At least this will finally mark the return of Raycom into the state of Michigan, where they owned WLUC, WPBN and WTOM until 2006 when they were sold to Barrington.

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A lot of the divestitures are smaller market stations tied to larger market counterparts....i.e. WSWG is tied to WCTV and WPGX iirc is run out of WBRC.

 

I could see the new Standard Media buying the larger stations with established infrastructure and the satellites being sold to a company like Waypoint Media.

 

Expect a sell-off in Toledo like what had happened the last few times Raycom acquired another company. To add insult to injury, they both own that market's top two stations. EDIT: According to another forum, WTOL will be the station that will be sold off, no word yet on WUPW.

 

At least this will finally mark the return of Raycom into the state of Michigan, where they owned WLUC, WPBN and WTOM until 2006 when they were sold to Barrington.

 

For Toledo, EVERY major station will have been owned by either Gray or Raycom at this point. Raycom started off on WUPW, traded "up" to WNWO when Malrite was purchased, then traded up to WTOL with the Liberty merger, and now WTVG with the Gray merger.

 

This also brings WALB back to Gray, since it was once their flagship before it was divested so Gray could buy WCTV (the rules at the time prohibited city-grade signal overlap)

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Well, this was random and unexpected. The sad consolidation of broadcasting groups continues.

Even more random, Gray's the one acquiring Raycom and not the other way around. I mean, I understand that Gray probably was never going to be a seller, but still...

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Even more random, Gray's the one acquiring Raycom and not the other way around. I mean, I understand that Gray probably was never going to be a seller, but still...

I was thinking the same thing.

 

Wonder if there will ever be a "gray news graphic package".

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Close to my neck of the woods, the deal will give Gray stations in both Lawton-Wichita Falls and Ada-Sherman. It would also mark the second time that Gray operated both KXII and KAUZ; both stations were co-owned with each other from 2002 to 2003 (Gray bought KAUZ as part of its purchase of Benedek Broadcasting, and had acquired KXII three years beforehand).

 

Considering the American Spirit Media stations weren't included among the proposed divestitures, I'm assuming Gray is acquiring the JSA/SSAs that Raycom maintains with that group.

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Interesting, in Toledo, that WTOL is being sold off despite being the stronger station.

 

The funny thing is that this deal may be done sooner than Sinclair/Tribune, since Gray/Raycom is making no effort to bend the laws and keep everything.

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I wonder if the RSA (Retirement System of Alabama) is cashing out, or will they have a stake in the merged company.

 

It is a blow to the state of Alabama, since Raycom is based there and has such a strong presence on their stations (Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, etc...). Will the merged company move all operations to Atlanta?

 

One also has to wonder if Gray isn't finished acquiring....could Meredith be their next target? Getting them would be even more complimentary and the only diviestiture they would have to make would be in Flint/Saginaw with WNEM or WJRT.

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States that they will have complete or near-complete coverage in (in addition to what they have now):

 

Alabama - Only missing Mobile (Raycom already was like that but they get a stronger station in Dothan)

 

Georgia - Only missing Atlanta (not bloody likely) and Macon.

 

Kansas - Only missing Kansas City.

 

Kentucky - Will be present in ALL markets serving Kentucky.

 

Louisiana - Only missing Lafayette.

 

Maine - Only missing Portland.

 

Mississippi - Only missing Greenville and Columbus-Tupelo.

 

South Carolina - Only missing Greenville et. al. (Raycom already was like that; Gray had nothing in SC).

 

Gray already had full coverage in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming of states with multiple markets.

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I'm going to make a bold prediction: this deal, despite being introduced 13 months late, will be completed before the Sinclair-Tribune deal is done. They have no intent on bending or fighting the rules and they have no cap issues or waivers requested. Even under old rules, this would have been doable as they are nowhere near any caps.

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Interesting, in Toledo, that WTOL is being sold off despite being the stronger station.

What makes this very more interesting though is WTOL may be stronger in network programming, but WTVG actually has stronger newscasts. Funnily enough, both stations keep claiming that they are first place in news.

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Here’s the list from this morning’s release.

 

Two things...

 

1) Gray is keeping WCTV but leaving WSWG. That's trouble for WSWG as they'll be without local news if they don't create their own local news department.

 

2) Welcome back to Gray, WALB!

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Close to my neck of the woods, the deal will give Gray stations in both Lawton-Wichita Falls and Ada-Sherman. It would also mark the second time that Gray operated both KXII and KAUZ; both stations were co-owned with each other from 2002 to 2003 (Gray bought KAUZ as part of its purchase of Benedek Broadcasting, and had acquired KXII three years beforehand).

 

Considering the American Spirit Media stations weren't included among the proposed divestitures, I'm assuming Gray is acquiring the JSA/SSAs that Raycom maintains with that group.

Gray will be present in Southern Oklahoma (South of I-40) and the Panhandle.

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Once the merger is complete soon, some current Gray and Raycom stations will soon be sold to other broadcast groups. Just hope and pray they don't sell it to Sinclair.

I wonder whether Gray will sell off the Raycom stations inside the top 60:

 

DMA 11a Sarasota, FL - WWSB (ABC - Scripps?)

DMA 19 Cleveland, OH - WOIO/WUAB (CBS/IND)

DMA 23 Charlotte, NC - WBTV (CBS)

DMA 35 Cincinnati, OH - WXIX (FOX)

DMA 37 West Palm Beach, FL - WLFX (FOX - Currently managed by Scripps)

DMA 44 Birmingham, AL - WBRC (FOX)

DMA 49 Louisville, KY - WAVE (NBC)

DMA 50 Memphis, TN - WMC (NBC)

DMA 51 New Orleans, LA - WVUE (Fox on line 1)

DMA 55 Richmond, VA - WWBT/WUPV (NBC/CW)

 

DMA already has Sinclair presence (or about to)

DMA does not have Sinclair (yet)

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These are my dream pics on which station will be bought.

 

DMA 19 Cleveland, OH - WOIO/WUAB (CBS/IND) - CBS, Cox, or Meredith

DMA 23 Charlotte, NC - WBTV (CBS) - Scripps or Meredith

DMA 35 Cincinnati, OH - WXIX (FOX) - FTS (Fox Television Stations)

DMA 44 Birmingham, AL - WBRC (FOX) - FTS

DMA 49 Louisville, KY - WAVE (NBC) - Cox Media Group, Meredith or NBCUniversal (Maybe)

DMA 50 Memphis, TN - WMC (NBC) - Tegna, Cox Media Group, or Meredith

DMA 51 New Orleans, LA - WVUE (FOX) - FTS

DMA 55 Richmond, VA - WWBT/WUPV (NBC/CW) - Tegna, Cox Media Group, or Meredith

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These are my dream pics on which station will be bought.

 

DMA 19 Cleveland, OH - WOIO/WUAB (CBS/IND) - CBS, Cox, or Meredith

DMA 23 Charlotte, NC - WBTV (CBS) - Scripps or Meredith

DMA 35 Cincinnati, OH - WXIX (FOX) - FTS (Fox Television Stations)

DMA 44 Birmingham, AL - WBRC (FOX) - FTS

DMA 49 Louisville, KY - WAVE (NBC) - Cox Media Group, Meredith or NBCUniversal (Maybe)

DMA 50 Memphis, TN - WMC (NBC) - Tegna, Cox Media Group, or Meredith

DMA 51 New Orleans, LA - WVUE (FOX) - FTS

DMA 55 Richmond, VA - WWBT/WUPV (NBC/CW) - Tegna, Cox Media Group, or Meredith

This should be moved to Speculation if it hasn't been done so already.

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So we have conflicts in Augusta, Toledo, Dothan, Panama City, Knoxville, Tallahassee, Midland/Odessa, and Waco. Will be interesting to see what they do with these stations.

Add Savannah, GA to the list

So we have conflicts in Augusta, Toledo, Dothan, Panama City, Knoxville, Tallahassee, Midland/Odessa, and Waco. Will be interesting to see what they do with these stations.

I looked at the merger story and I am wondering why Savannah, GA is on the list of overlap markets. I don’t remember Gray owning any station there, but Raycom owns WTOC there.

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