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Gray Television - General Thread


The Frog

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Confirmed per NorthPine:

 

Gray TV is buying several low-power TV stations in the Fargo market which could potentially be used to give a full-HD bandwidth home to the CBS programming currently seen on a subchannel of Gray NBC affiliate KVLY-TV/11 (Fargo). Gray is buying construction permits for new LPTV stations K30LT-D (Horace), K28MA-D (Argusville), and K30LR-D (Grand Forks) from Landover 2, LLC for $100,000. The Horace and Argusville CP's currently call for sites near Fargo, and the asset purchase agreement says Landover 2 will give Gray permission to file facility change application(s). CBS has been seen on channel 11.2 of KVLY-TV since last fall.
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All the transactions with Nexstar, along with the Alaska deal, have closed...just in time for them to be involved in Gray's carriage dispute with Dish Network, which thankfully ended an hour ago with zero pullings. To say that would have been an embarrassing way to ring in new ownership is putting it lightly.

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  • 5 weeks later...

The nation's oldest continuously family-owned station has sold. Diversified Communications is calling it quits and has sold WABI and WCJB for $85 million.

 

Diversified will always be remembered for its graphic designer's unique talent to rip off other stations' opens...in the 90s.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=-KhUGrBLFQo;t=628

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The nation's oldest continuously family-owned station has sold. Diversified Communications is calling it quits and has sold WABI and WCJB for $85 million.

 

Diversified will always be remembered for its graphic designer's unique talent to rip off other stations' opens...in the 90s.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=-KhUGrBLFQo;t=628

 

I think I called it in the media predictions thread. I knew it was going to happen, just when and when is now.

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Just a matter of time before Diversified completed its exit from broadcasting; they've been whittling down their portfolio for the past two decades or so. Their Portland-based trade show business is what drives the operation these days. I wonder what becomes of WAGM's local ops. Diversified owned them for a number of years, so this move brings them back into the same corporate fold. I imagine WAGM will become nothing more than a semi-satellite of WABI much like WLBZ's relationship with WCSH. Apart from adopting the corporate website design Gray has done nothing to upgrade WAGM since their takeover; now their lack of investment makes sense.

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Just a matter of time before Diversified completed its exit from broadcasting; they've been whittling down their portfolio for the past two decades or so. Their Portland-based trade show business is what drives the operation these days. I wonder what becomes of WAGM's local ops. Diversified owned them for a number of years, so this move brings them back into the same corporate fold. I imagine WAGM will become nothing more than a semi-satellite of WABI much like WLBZ's relationship with WCSH. Apart from adopting the corporate website design Gray has done nothing to upgrade WAGM since their takeover; now their lack of investment makes sense.

 

It seemed inevitable and well predicted here. I believe WAGM has the Gray on-air graphics package as well. Wasn't WTAP (an ex-Benedek station) rumored to be heading into the fold with WSAZ when Gray acquired the latter about 10 years ago though?

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I wonder what becomes of WAGM's local ops. Diversified owned them for a number of years, so this move brings them back into the same corporate fold. I imagine WAGM will become nothing more than a semi-satellite of WABI much like WLBZ's relationship with WCSH. Apart from adopting the corporate website design Gray has done nothing to upgrade WAGM since their takeover; now their lack of investment makes sense.

 

Wouldn't be surprised. I almost think that Aroostook County (or, for you Mainers, "The County") could be folded into the Bangor DMA considering that WAGM is (and, considering that DMA's size, always will be) the only commercial station in the market.

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Wouldn't be surprised. I almost think that Aroostook County (or, for you Mainers, "The County") could be folded into the Bangor DMA considering that WAGM is (and, considering that DMA's size, always will be) the only commercial station in the market.

WABI has a news sharing arrangement with WMTW in Portland; it will be interesting to see if that arrangement survives the Gray takeover. WGME is partnered with WVII. I have to wonder if WVII is now in play. Will Sinclair or Hearst make Rockfleet an offer they can't refuse?

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Not a surprise at all. It seemed inevitable that Gray would buy another station in Maine given that it seemed ridiculous to have WAGM all by itself. Will be interesting to see if Gray makes WAGM a semi-satellite of WABI or let's it continue to be it's own station.

 

The plus side to this is that WABI and WCJB will now finally have a decent graphics package.

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WABI has a news sharing arrangement with WMTW in Portland; it will be interesting to see if that arrangement survives the Gray takeover. WGME is partnered with WVII. I have to wonder if WVII is now in play. Will Sinclair or Hearst make Rockfleet an offer they can't refuse?

 

I highly doubt Hearst would be interested in WVII, considering that it is by far the last-placed station in what would by far be Hearst's smallest market. Sinclair could make the move though, because...Sinclair. Whomever purchases WVII would have to put a fairly large investment into the station considering that they don't even have a weather department.

 

The plus side to this is that WABI and WCJB will now finally have a decent graphics package.

 

And, in WABI's case, better music. CBS Local, anyone?

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Gray has almost no way to complete a statewide network in Maine though, unless they swap assets or some blockbuster deal forces a divestment there (like Tegna and Hearst merging) given that Portland is pretty much locked up.

 

If they want to expand their reach in the peripheral Northeast, WCAX might be another target for them.

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Gray has almost no way to complete a statewide network in Maine though, unless they swap assets or some blockbuster deal forces a divestment there (like Tegna and Hearst merging) given that Portland is pretty much locked up.

 

If they want to expand their reach in the peripheral Northeast, WCAX might be another target for them.

Unless Hearst wants out of Portland, of course...

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I highly doubt Hearst would be interested in WVII, considering that it is by far the last-placed station in what would by far be Hearst's smallest market. Sinclair could make the move though, because...Sinclair. Whomever purchases WVII would have to put a fairly large investment into the station considering that they don't even have a weather department.

 

 

 

And, in WABI's case, better music. CBS Local, anyone?

Sinclair might have an interest in WVII; they are not allergic to third-place stations, unlike Gray, and there's that existing news sharing relationship...

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Not a surprise at all. It seemed inevitable that Gray would buy another station in Maine given that it seemed ridiculous to have WAGM all by itself. Will be interesting to see if Gray makes WAGM a semi-satellite of WABI or let's it continue to be it's own station.

 

The plus side to this is that WABI and WCJB will now finally have a decent graphics package.

Gray has already indicated that there would be news and resource sharing between WABI and WAGM, but Presque Isle is 2-1/2 hours away from Bangor (a half-hour further away than even Portland) so there are limits as to what would be practical.

http://www.wagmtv.com/content/news/WABI-Purchased-by-Gray--413988913.html

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Unless Hearst wants out of Portland, of course...

 

At least Gray would have the will to upgrade WMTW to HD. At that point they might as well toss WPTZ in too.

 

A wild way in would be WPXT. The local owners who bought them from New Age have wanted out for a while but they don't want to lose the grandfathered LMA with WPME and hitching up with Hearst or Tegna would be a massive headache

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At least Gray would have the will to upgrade WMTW to HD. At that point they might as well toss WPTZ in too.

 

A wild way in would be WPXT. The local owners who bought them from New Age have wanted out for a while but they don't want to lose the grandfathered LMA with WPME and hitching up with Hearst or Tegna would be a massive headache

The acquiring party might still be able to get a failing station waiver, which is how the WPME LMA was cleared at the FCC in the first place. The station has no chance of staying on the air without the support of a rich uncle. A wild card is the spectrum auction - we don't know if either WPXT or WPME (or both) put their license assets up for bid. I have thought that the only reason both stations remained on the air was as spectrum bait.

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