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On 12/12/2018 at 9:41 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

Probably dormant or dead. The deal is not legal and probably not worthy of a waiver.

 

No doubt this deal is dormant. But it's not dead yet. 

 

Both NCTA & the ATVA wrote objections to the deal over the summer. Gray replied to their complaints, with NCTA replying to Gray's comments.

 

But just tonight, Gray has posted this amendment providing some more info to try to convince the FCC that this deal is in the public interest, However. a good chunk of new info is redacted.

 

They're also pending another deal regarding a station in Grand Forks (KCPM), which that deal is also objected.

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On 12/31/2018 at 1:44 AM, CircleSeven said:

 

No doubt this deal is dormant. But it's not dead yet. 

 

Both NCTA & the ATVA wrote objections to the deal over the summer. Gray replied to their complaints, with NCTA replying to Gray's comments.

 

But just tonight, Gray has posted this amendment providing some more info to try to convince the FCC that this deal is in the public interest, However. a good chunk of new info is redacted.

 

They're also pending another deal regarding a station in Grand Forks (KCPM), which that deal is also objected.

And there could be a much further delay in this because if the government shutdown continues, the FCC will suspend its operations as of midday Thursday, meaning this KSFY/KDLT deal will be delayed a lot further.

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  • 3 months later...
1 minute ago, Travis W said:

Tomorrow is one year since it was announced that Gray was buying KDLT. I would guess the deal has to be dead by now, right?

 

I'm not sure. However, Red River did just file yesterday a tolling request for their repack construction permit, citing winter weather in Sioux Falls and, two weeks ago, a major icing situation that prompted KDLT's transmitter to catch fire and put the facility completely out of service for five days (and likely at reduced power for at least a month):

 

Quote

It has been an especially brutal winter in and around Sioux Falls, South Dakota this season (winter, 2018-2019). KDLT was unable to complete its channel change on time because its tower company (Tower King II) withdrew from the area on November 13, 2018, having determined that weather conditions were too unsafe to allow its personnel to complete work on the KDLT tower structure. A November 13, 2018 e-mail message from Tower King II stated:

"... after further discussions and considerations of current and future weather days incurring costs, schedule, upcoming holidays and most of all, safety of our workers, Tower King has decided to de-mobilize crew and equipment out of the KDLT tower site for the winter. We do not feel there is a sufficient amount of consistent weather to complete this year. We will reschedule this project in the spring 2019."

...
 

On or around April 14, 2019, severe icing caused considerable damage to the KDLT antenna system, including damage to its transmission line and its transmitter, which caught on fire. KDLT was unable to transmit until operations were restored partially on April 19, 2019. Red River informed the Commission about this reduced power operation caused by weather-related damage in a letter dated April 24, 2019. It is likely that KDLT will need to apply for an STA to continue at reduced power beyond 30 days.
Winter weather conditions made construction work virtually impossible at the KDLT antenna site for all of March and most of April. The recent storm damage, another act of God outside of Red River’s control, delayed completion of construction further.

 

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On 4/30/2019 at 8:32 PM, Travis W said:

Yes it has been a brutal winter up here so that part I can understand.

 

 

I was there over xmas and it didn't seem so bad that week. The last day there, we got hit by a storm though.

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CubsFan79  Wouldn't Pueblo/Colorado Springs tv be better than Denver?  At least the Pueblo stations would have the ability to send news crews there a lot faster than the Denver stations would..

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13 hours ago, DENDude said:

CubsFan79  Wouldn't Pueblo/Colorado Springs tv be better than Denver?  At least the Pueblo stations would have the ability to send news crews there a lot faster than the Denver stations would..

I lived in Durango for 10 years. SW CO wants Denver over Pueblo/ Colorado SP. We received one COLORADO station, PBS. The rest were New Mexico TV  stations. I knew more about New Mexico than what was going on in Colorado

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16 hours ago, DENDude said:

CubsFan79  Wouldn't Pueblo/Colorado Springs tv be better than Denver?  At least the Pueblo stations would have the ability to send news crews there a lot faster than the Denver stations would..

Albuquerque-Santa Fe is still the closest TV market.

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  • 2 weeks later...

New amendment tonight.

 

Gray has posted a few letters from some of the politicians in the state supporting the KDLT deal. Some were questioning why this deal has been taking this long.

 

The letters where written by U.S. Sen. Thune, Gov. Noem, current state AG Ravnsborg and former state AG Jackley.

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21 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

New amendment tonight.

 

Gray has posted a few letters from some of the politicians in the state supporting the KDLT deal. Some were questioning why this deal has been taking this long.

 

The letters where written by U.S. Sen. Thune, Gov. Noem, current state AG Ravnsborg and former state AG Jackley.

 

Talk about a full-court press.

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20 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

New amendment tonight.

 

Gray has posted a few letters from some of the politicians in the state supporting the KDLT deal. Some were questioning why this deal has been taking this long.

 

The letters where written by U.S. Sen. Thune, Gov. Noem, current state AG Ravnsborg and former state AG Jackley.

 

The challenge is - if this deal is abandoned, who else might be willing? KDLT has little value as a standalone station. However, I think ANY deal should be contingent on selling off the KDLT transmitter, which anyone would be able to do whatever they want with. Yes, KELO-Land is the ratings behemoth, but they would be at an unfair disadvantage.

 

The KDLT and KSFY transmitters are virtually identical in coverage, hence I don't think it is suitable for them to hold both of them in this situation. If KDLT indeed is allowed to be sold to Gray, then Nexstar should be free to acquire KTTW+ if they wanted to. As for the other full-power transmitters, there is sufficient distance between them to be reasonable for Gray to own all of them.

 

Rethinking it all, how they could arrange things?

 

KSFY - 13.1 ABC, 13.2 CW (or NBC), 13.3 something else

KABY (LD) - 27.1 NBC (or CW), 27.2 MeTV, 27.3 something else

 

Pierre: KPRY - 4.1 ABC, 4.2 CW; current Ch27 LP - 27.1 NBC, 27.2 something else (status quo)

Huron/Mitchell: KDLV - 5.1 NBC, 5.2 ABC, 5.3 CW (giving KSFY coverage in that area; there is no KSFY signal there)

Aberdeen, Watertown, Springfield, Brookings and Badger: current LPs x.1 NBC, x.2 ABC, x.3 CW

 

A thought: should they do what they did in Nebraska and move one of the news operations to Pierre? What kind of operations does Gray (or Nexstar for KELO) have there?

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  • 2 weeks later...

TVNewsCheck has dropped some big news tonight.

 

The GM of KDLT announced that the DOJ has "cleared" the $32M sale of its station to Gray.

Quote

“Earlier this morning, the DOJ dropped its investigation into the merger of KDLT/KSFY,” GM Katie Haffeman says in the email. “The acquisition now resides with the FCC….”

 

If I was Gray, I would restart that Wyoming deal stat.......

 

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1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

TVNewsCheck has dropped some big news tonight.

 

The GM of KDLT announced that the DOJ has "cleared" the $32M sale of its station to Gray.

 

If I was Gray, I would restart that Wyoming deal stat.......

 

 

And KSFY 13.2 becomes NBC with KDLT becoming The CW in 3, 2...

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The FCC hasn't greenlighted the deal yet. But I'm very surprised about these recent turn of events, which included statements from the politicians favoring this deal. Makan probably would've sat on this deal until Gray would've threw in the towel (the same as the Wyoming deal last year). And should the FCC acts on this deal, this could somehow opens the door for more new top-4 combos in the small markets in the future.

 

And while FCC is at it with this deal, they should also act on that also-prolonged KCPM deal in ND as well. 

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On 6/27/2019 at 2:25 AM, CircleSeven said:

New amendment tonight.

 

Gray has posted a few letters from some of the politicians in the state supporting the KDLT deal. Some were questioning why this deal has been taking this long.

 

The letters where written by U.S. Sen. Thune, Gov. Noem, current state AG Ravnsborg and former state AG Jackley.


Add U.S. Sen. Rounds to the pool of politicians in support of getting this deal done.

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The KSFY/KDLT TV duopoly marriage if allowed to happen, will still have a big hill to climb VS KELO. I am surprised GRAY or RED RIVER Broadcasting did not acquire KTTW TV.  This is SOUTH DAKOTA'S  second Duopoly with KOTA TV and KEVN TV in Rapid City. 

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14 hours ago, Megatron81 said:

Surprised the DOJ dragged it's feet on approving this deal as it should have been approved last year in the fall time just my opinion.

You would have thought the FCC would have reacted by now. It has been festering for nearly 20 months.

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2 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

You would have thought the FCC would have reacted by now. It has been festering for nearly 20 months.

 

Keep in mind that more than a month was lost to government shutdown.

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