Jump to content

Gray Television - General Thread


The Frog

Recommended Posts

There's no official Gray thread, so I'll start one with the flurry of deals that happened today:

Quote

Gray Television Inc. on Wednesday announced four new station deals and the closing of all three of its previously announced acquisitions. The new transactions are:

  • Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis. (DMA 134): Gray entered into an agreement with Davis Television LLC, to acquire certain non-license assets of WFXS, which had served as the market’s Fox affiliate. Earlier today, WFXS ceased operating. At that time, the parties closed the transaction, and Gray began broadcasting the program streams formerly transmitted by WFXS on Gray's digital low-power WZAW in Wausau. Gray also owns and operates full-power WSAW in Wausau, which serves as the market's CBS affiliate. Kalil & Co. was the exclusive broker for this transaction.

 

  • Laredo, Texas (DMA 184). Gray entered into an agreement with Eagle Creek Television to purchase certain non-license assets of KVTV, which had served as the market’s CBS affiliate. Earlier today, KVTV ceased operating. At that time, the parties closed the transaction, and Gray began broadcasting the program streams formerly transmitted by KVTV on Gray's digital low-power KYLX. Gray also owns and operates full-power KGNS in Laredo, which serves as the market's NBC affiliate.
  • Great Falls and Helena, Mont. (DMAs 191 and 206). Gray entered into an agreement with Cordillera Communications, to sell Gray's KBGF, the NBC affiliate in Great Falls, and KTVH, the NBC and CW affiliate in Helena. Gray said it “believes that Cordillera, as the owner of top-rated stations across the state of Montana, will leverage its strong presence throughout ‘Big Sky Country’ to further improve the service and operations of KBGF and KTVH for the benefit of those stations' local communities.”
  • Helena, Mont. (DMA 206). Gray owns KMTF in Helena, which simulcasts the CW channel broadcast by KTVH-D2. At the suggestion of Cordillera, Gray has agreed to donate KMTF to Montana State University. This donation will allow MSU to operate a full-power PBS station in the state's capital for the first time in the history of the statewide PBS network that MSU operates.

Earlier today, Gray closed all three of its previously announced station transactions:

 

 

  • Odessa-Midland, Texas (DMA 146). Gray acquired KOSA, whose digital channels are affiliated with CBS and MNT.
  • Twin Falls, Idaho (DMA 192). Gray acquired KMVT, whose digital channels are affiliated with CBS and CW, as well as KSVT, whose digital channel is affiliated jointly with Fox and MNT.
  • Presque Isle, Maine (DMA 205). Gray acquired WAGM, whose digital channels are affiliated with CBS and Fox.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/86603/gray-in-4-new-deals-closes-3-earlier-ones

Edited by CircleSeven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well there's no other thread about this massive series of items.

 

The sale of KTVH/KBGF to Cordillera is going to have some major consequences for that station. Cordillera owns the MTN state CBS network, which has a full-power transmitter in Great Falls (KRTV) and a low-power transmitter in Helena (KXLH) with little news output. Because KMTF is now gravy (it was bought by Gray on a failing station waiver), it's going to Montana State which is probably very excited about the opportunity to begin full-power PBS service in the capital of Montana. News consolidation is extremely likely; expect KXLH to move to KTVH's facilities and Cordillera to upgrade them considerably.

 

The Wausau and Laredo moves are interesting. For one, WFXS has largely operated under the orbit of WAOW, with news share and technical agreements. That's going to end very quickly and WSAW is likely to take over the newscasts. In the case of KVTV, this was a Brian Brady station that has always been kind of neglected under various owners. I cannot find ANY technical information on this new KYLX, not even a new LPTV licensed to "Gray Television Licensee", though they have reserved that callsign. (Actually, giving things a closer look, Brady did something absolutely wild. He owned KNEX-LP, which had a CP to move to digital channel 14. He instead opted to apply for digital channel 13 - the same as KVTV - at 3 kW ERP - the same as KVTV - from the same facilities as KVTV. He also applied to run the LPTV on those facilities on STA. He essentially replaced KVTV with an LPTV, KNEX/KYLX. And yes, a sale of that was approved to Gray. So KVTV disappeared today and KYLX, on the SAME TRANSMITTER AND FACILITIES, replaced it. Absolutely genius.)

 

But it makes me wonder about something Gray did in Rapid City, South Dakota. They have an LPTV there ready to duplicate KEVN's coverage in Rapid City. It would make a lot of sense if they were about to buy someone — most likely locally-owned KNBN — and move its programming to the LPTV.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what does this mean for the Montana Television Network, since Cordillera already owns KRTV 3 Great Falls/KXLH-LD 9 Helena? I think they are gonna have to sell KTVH 12 and KBGF 50 eventually, since Cordillera can't own it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

So the KTVH paperwork is up. Cordillera is paying Gray $3M for the station.

 

And since they moved the CW stream to KTVH's subchannel, Gray has turned off KMTF's main signal, as of last Thursday.

 

So what's gonna happen to KXLH-LD in Helena and KRTV in Great Falls ? Eventually, there's gonna be conflict with the Montana Television Network, in which Cordillera already owns there.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
Okay here's a new M&A regarding Gray.

 

They purchase a class-A station in Augusta, Ga, WBEK-CD, for $550K.

 

No telling on what they'll use it for.

 

So they own LPTVs in...

 

Rapid City SD (KIVN)

Augusta GA (WBEK - the asset purchase agreement stipulates a callsign change upon closing)*

Casper WY (KSBF)

 

which are unaccounted for and do not appear to be broadcasting.

 

It would be speculative territory to ask what the plans are for each station, though the most likely station asset buyouts in each market would be KNBN/NBC (Rapid City) and KGWC/CBS (in Casper). The Augusta station could be used to offload the My station they operate there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So they own LPTVs in...

 

Rapid City SD (KIVN)

Augusta GA (WBEK - the asset purchase agreement stipulates a callsign change upon closing)*

Casper WY (KSBF)

 

which are unaccounted for and do not appear to be broadcasting.

 

It would be speculative territory to ask what the plans are for each station, though the most likely station asset buyouts in each market would be KNBN/NBC (Rapid City) and KGWC/CBS (in Casper). The Augusta station could be used to offload the My station they operate there.

 

Gray also owns two other LPTVs in Casper, K16JI-D and K18JQ-D. I wonder if a deal for KGWC would involve KTWO and KFNB as well, since KGWC's owner has close ties to the owners of KTWO and KFNB and KGWC operates out of KTWO's studios.

 

In Rapid City, KNBN seems like the most likely to be bought by Gray and moved to KIVN. A deal for KNBN would also get them KWBH-LP (CW), and MyNetworkTV on KNBN's third subchannel. KNBN's owner also has KKRA-LP, which had aired MyNetworkTV until it began simulcasting KNBN in 2009, and K40GS-D, which simulcasts KNBN to the Lead area.

 

As for Augusta, they might move MyNetworkTV to WBEK, although another possibility is Raycom unloading WFXG.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So they own LPTVs in...

 

Rapid City SD (KIVN)

Augusta GA (WBEK - the asset purchase agreement stipulates a callsign change upon closing)*

Casper WY (KSBF)

 

which are unaccounted for and do not appear to be broadcasting.

 

It would be speculative territory to ask what the plans are for each station, though the most likely station asset buyouts in each market would be KNBN/NBC (Rapid City) and KGWC/CBS (in Casper). The Augusta station could be used to offload the My station they operate there.

Gray recently completed their acquisition of K20MB-D in Sioux Falls, SD for $100,000 at the end of July as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using TVNewsTalk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.