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Gray is buying KDLT from Red River Broadcasting for $32.5 million. This will give them a duopoly with KSFY in Sioux Falls.

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/113255

 

And Gray is not selling KSFY? Holy bleep. They should've. Soon... it'll be KSFY and KDLT vs. the 1,000-ton gorilla KELOLand, a battle in which neither station will win.

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And y'all really think that they're going to keep both news departments will stay separate? Ask KSPR and WAGT where their news departments are.

 

 

They may do that because it does have the room to support both news departments at the facility and they have kept them separate in other cities but I'm approaching this with an on the fence feeling.

 

This also makes you wonder how long KQDS and KVRR will last before they themselves are sold off.

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And y'all really think that they're going to keep both news departments will stay separate? Ask KSPR and WAGT where their news departments are.

 

 

They may do that because it does have the room to support both news departments at the facility and they have kept them separate in other cities but I'm approaching this with an on the fence feeling.

 

This also makes you wonder how long KQDS and KVRR will last before they themselves are sold off.

 

Surprised Gray didn't go for KQDS. Must just not be, you know, enough of a market leader.

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Surprised Gray didn't go for KQDS. Must just not be, you know, enough of a market leader.

 

That and the fact that Gray doesn't do standalone Fox affiliates too often.

 

KVRR, they obviously can't go for because it'd add to the monopoly that they already would have there (consisting of NBC, CBS, CW and the pending acquistion of MNT.).

 

This acquistion of KDLT just makes it all the more ironic that they didn't get KCPO (also in Sioux Falls) when they got KCPM.

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I'm not particularly surprised Red River is selling (once they got out of the radio business, the TV side seemed next), but I am surprised Gray is buying. What's their aim here, eliminating competition?

 

This also makes you wonder how long KQDS and KVRR will last before they themselves are sold off.

 

When the Sinclair-Tribune deal was announced, there were some murmurs of how Sinclair might have once gone sniffing around in this region.

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Not the only thing Gray has done recently.

I'm not particularly surprised Red River is selling (once they got out of the radio business, the TV side seemed next), but I am surprised Gray is buying. What's their aim here, eliminating competition?

 

 

 

When the Sinclair-Tribune deal was announced, there were some murmurs of how Sinclair might have once gone sniffing around in this region.

 

Nexstar may be a better bet. They already have an established presence in North Dakota with the KX Stations and in Wisconsin (part of KQDS' service area) with WFRV, WLAX and WEUX. Acquiring the latter gives them a third Wisconsin market (and gives WLAX a Fox affiliated sibling) while KVRR would complete their network covering North Dakota. This would be a perfect one for them to get.

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Not the only thing Gray has done recently.

 

 

Nexstar may be a better bet. They already have an established presence in North Dakota with the KX Stations and in Wisconsin (part of KQDS' service area) with WFRV, WLAX and WEUX. Acquiring the latter gives them a third Wisconsin market (and gives WLAX a Fox affiliated sibling) while KVRR would complete their network covering North Dakota. This would be a perfect one for them to get.

 

Agreed, Nexstar would be best for the other two stations. As for KDLT, really Gray? Yes, KELO+ is really dominant (and one of Nexstar's strongest stations), but that doesn't mean you can have the #2 and #3 outlets. I don't think this is going to work out well.

 

Someone like Heartland or Quincy would be better.

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As for KDLT, really Gray? Yes, KELO+ is really dominant (and one of Nexstar's strongest stations), but that doesn't mean you can have the #2 and #3 outlets. I don't think this is going to work out well.

 

This exactly. Gray had it's chance before that to double up. As I and others have said before, they could have bought KCPO when they got KCPM. And If they didn't want that then why didn't they try to get KTTW.

 

Yes, that too is in the top 4, but I would have understood their reasoning as, in an era where most Fox affiliates have added at least some form of local programming, KTTW still resembles what most Fox affiliates looked like in the late 80s/early 90s as well as current Tribune CW affiliates that don't operate news departments (and even then, those stations outsource their news to someone else.).

 

They could have put the extra space at KSFY to use by building out a news department for KTTW. I have a hard time trying to understand why this should be allowed.

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This exactly. Gray had it's chance before that to double up. As I and others have said before, they could have bought KCPO when they got KCPM. And If they didn't want that then why didn't they try to get KTTW.

 

Yes, that too is in the top 4, but I would have understood their reasoning as, in an era where most Fox affiliates have added at least some form of local programming, KTTW still resembles what most Fox affiliates looked like in the late 80s/early 90s as well as current Tribune CW affiliates that don't operate news departments (and even then, those stations outsource their news to someone else.).

 

They could have put the extra space at KSFY to use by building out a news department for KTTW. I have a hard time trying to understand why this should be allowed.

Considering that the FCC expanded its waiver program last fall to allow companies to apply for one if they can prove that owning two top-4 stations in the same market in the public interest, Gray may think it can make a suitable claim to secure one to create a duopoly with KDLT and KSFY.

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I agree with some of ya, Gray should've bought KTTW and not KDLT. This makes no sense to me either.

 

But even if Gray bought either KTTW or KDLT, they're still gonna lose to the South Dakota-giant KELOLand.

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I agree with some of ya, Gray should've bought KTTW and not KDLT. This makes no sense to me either.

 

But even if Gray bought either KTTW or KDLT, they're still gonna lose to the South Dakota-giant KELOLand.

 

It's such a behemoth that Nexstar is basically giving it special treatment - different website, different graphics and setup.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Agreed, Nexstar would be best for the other two stations. As for KDLT, really Gray? Yes, KELO+ is really dominant (and one of Nexstar's strongest stations), but that doesn't mean you can have the #2 and #3 outlets. I don't think this is going to work out well.

 

Someone like Heartland or Quincy would be better.

 

Gray will do what it's done in other markets (see: Fargo, Augusta, et al) and just sell the KDLT license to some subchannel operator, put the NBC programming / KDLT intellectual property on an LP station and stick to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit.

 

If anyone thinks Gray will keep both news departments they're dreaming.

 

That's the lie they told at KYTV/KSPR.

 

For as much as people here give Gray credit for aesthetically spicing up its stations, they're truly a cheap operator. Almost every family-owned station they've acquired has led to a loss in photographer positions as well as production staff.

 

They absolutely massacred WDBJ and KYTV/KSPR and turned them from legacy stations that punched well above their market weight into typical mid-small market MMJ shops.

 

They're known for being strict on overtime even though they often pay the lowest wages in any given market. Bottom line: they treat people like shit.

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If anyone thinks Gray will keep both news departments they're dreaming.

 

So, what you're saying is that, in some ways, they're worse than Nexstar and possibly even Sinclair.

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The Paperwork is up!

 

And they are asking the commission to allow the two top-4 combo of KDLT & KSFY.

 

Among some of the public interest benefits mentioned on the second link, they want to place a simulcast on each other's main signals on each other's subchannels (i.e. NBC on 13.2?, ABC on 46.2?, etc.), start a Pierre news bureau, and add local sports and events.

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The Paperwork is up!

 

And they are asking the commission to allow the two top-4 combo of KDLT & KSFY.

 

Among some of the public interest benefits mentioned on the second link, they want to place a simulcast on each other's main signals on each other's subchannels (i.e. NBC on 13.2?, ABC on 46.2?, etc.), start a Pierre news bureau, and add local sports and events.

 

Ohhh the old "community farming" thing.

 

next stop...

Communism.

 

Sure you just go and make it easy for the ruskies to take out all the comms to a fair sized town, one strike.

 

I'm alerting Dale and his fellow 'Preppers".

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The Paperwork is up!

 

And they are asking the commission to allow the two top-4 combo of KDLT & KSFY.

 

Among some of the public interest benefits mentioned on the second link, they want to place a simulcast on each other's main signals on each other's subchannels (i.e. NBC on 13.2?, ABC on 46.2?, etc.), start a Pierre news bureau, and add local sports and events.

 

Interesting findings. The sticking point is Sioux Falls itself, and one of the stations there needs to be sold off IMO.

 

There isn't a great deal of overlap among their satellites, and I can understand the simulcast part. But, that should still require selling off either KDLT or KSFY (with or without programming), even if the satellites are unaffected. KDLV is also problematic as it overlaps significantly with the Sioux Falls and Pierre signals, but without it Mitchell loses coverage as it falls on the fringe of Sioux Falls signals.

 

It's an interesting scenario not unlike that in Nebraska.

 

I can see this setup working:

 

KSFY: 13.1 ABC, 13.2 NBC OR KDLT: 46.1 NBC, 46.2 ABC (the other must be sold)

 

KABY-LD: 9.1 CW, 9.2 MeTV

KPRY: 4.1 ABC, 4.2 NBC, 4.3 CW

KDLV: 5.1 NBC, 5.2 ABC, 5.3 CW (it becomes the de facto NBC affiliate, not unlike KSNB)

 

All current LD's for KDLT become x.1 NBC, x.2 ABC, x.3 CW, except for Pierre which becomes 27.1 CW, 27.2 MeTV to avoid overlap with the full power.

 

One thought: maybe they could move the KDLT news operation to Pierre and set up a dedicated news operation there, at least for some newscasts and weather, not unlike North Platte/Scottsbluff/Hastings?

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Reading through the numbers, I wonder if KDLT can even survive as a standalone station? It is a ratings dog...KELO is so far out in front, with KSFY getting most of the rest.

 

The real sticking point is two full-power stations, that is not allowed.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Reading through the numbers, I wonder if KDLT can even survive as a standalone station? It is a ratings dog...KELO is so far out in front, with KSFY getting most of the rest.

 

The real sticking point is two full-power stations, that is not allowed.

 

KDLT has never survived alone, always being last in the market and if teaming up with KSFY, it still wouldn't help. KELOLand will continue to run those stations to the ground.

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