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Gray selling WCAV/WVAW, buying WVIR


Ntropolis

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News out of Charlottesville, VA...

 

Gray Television will sell the “Charlottesville Newsplex” CBS/ABC affiliates (WCAV/WVAW) to an affiliate of Lockwood Broadcasting.

 

In turn, Gray is buying WVIR (NBC) from Waterman.

 

It doesn’t appear to be part of any larger acquisition by Gray affecting WBBH/WZVN in Ft. Myers.

 

Read more here.

2SKEXRD

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10 minutes ago, Ntropolis said:

News out of Charlottesville, VA...

 

Gray Television will sell the “Charlottesville Newsplex” CBS/ABC affiliates (WCAV/WVAW) to an affiliate of Lockwood Broadcasting.

 

In turn, Gray is buying WVIR (NBC) from Waterman.

 

It doesn’t appear to be part of any larger acquisition by Gray affecting WBBH/WZVN in Ft. Myers.

 

Read more here.

2SKEXRD

 

Had a feeling this would happen.

 

Now Waterman can entirely focus on WBBH/WZVN.

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Is it just me, or is Lockwood turning into a semi-shell of Gray?  Virtually all of their properties have had ties to their divestitures (or have sold to them in the past....)

 

The only execptions are KTEN, WSKY,  WCWG (which was sold to Hearst) and WHDF (sold to Nexstar...and resale pending?)

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10 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Is it just me, or is Lockwood turning into a semi-shell of Gray?  Virtually all of their properties have had ties to their divestitures (or have sold to them in the past....)

 

The only execptions are KTEN, WSKY,  WCWG (which was sold to Hearst) and WHDF (sold to Nexstar...and resale pending?)

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this.

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The Paperwork is up.

 

Gray is paying Waterman $15M for WVIR. Lockwood is paying $25M for WCAV/WVAW.

 

Here's the interesting thing. When looking at the WCAV paperwork, the sell did not include WAHU-CD, which is the license for the Fox affiliate. Not sure if Gray is keeping the Fox affiliation or not. But if Lockwood is keeping the Fox affiliation (which is also carried on WCAV's sub), along with the CBS & ABC, then what will Gray use WAHU-CD for post-transaction?

 

Also to point out, WVIR operates a Harrisonburg repeater carrying its NBC signal. Gray runs the full-power ABC (WHSV), and an LP carrying CBS & Fox (WSVF-CD). All of this would be legal under FCC standards since its just a full power and two LPs. But do any of you think that Free Press might file a complaint (like they did during the Weigel/Schurz deal over a decade ago) or some DOJ folk might get involved (the same way they did in central Wyoming) since it would be one company running all four major networks in that little market.

 

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51 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

The Paperwork is up.

 

Gray is paying Waterman $15M for WVIR. Lockwood is paying $25M for WCAV/WVAW.

 

Here's the interesting thing. When looking at the WCAV paperwork, the sell did not include WAHU-CD, which is the license for the Fox affiliate. Not sure if Gray is keeping the Fox affiliation or not. But if Lockwood is keeping the Fox affiliation (which is also carried on WCAV's sub), along with the CBS & ABC, then what will Gray use WAHU-CD for post-transaction?

 

Also to point out, WVIR operates a Harrisonburg repeater carrying its NBC signal. Gray runs the full-power ABC (WHSV), and an LP carrying CBS & Fox (WSVF-CD). All of this would be legal under FCC standards since its just a full power and two LPs. But do any of you think that Free Press might file a complaint (like they did during the Weigel/Schurz deal over a decade ago) or some DOJ folk might get involved (the same way they did in central Wyoming) since it would be one company running all four major networks in that little market.

 

I know of at least 3 markets where one company controls all of the Big Four affiliations, but they are all smaller companies.

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5 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

But do any of you think that Free Press might file a complaint (like they did during the Weigel/Schurz deal over a decade ago) or some DOJ folk might get involved (the same way they did in central Wyoming) since it would be one company running all four major networks in that little market.

 

 

Technically, 6. That translator also runs the CW on the digital and then WHSV has MNT.

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9 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

The Paperwork is up.

 

Gray is paying Waterman $15M for WVIR. Lockwood is paying $25M for WCAV/WVAW.

 

Here's the interesting thing. When looking at the WCAV paperwork, the sell did not include WAHU-CD, which is the license for the Fox affiliate. Not sure if Gray is keeping the Fox affiliation or not. But if Lockwood is keeping the Fox affiliation (which is also carried on WCAV's sub), along with the CBS & ABC, then what will Gray use WAHU-CD for post-transaction?

 

Also to point out, WVIR operates a Harrisonburg repeater carrying its NBC signal. Gray runs the full-power ABC (WHSV), and an LP carrying CBS & Fox (WSVF-CD). All of this would be legal under FCC standards since its just a full power and two LPs. But do any of you think that Free Press might file a complaint (like they did during the Weigel/Schurz deal over a decade ago) or some DOJ folk might get involved (the same way they did in central Wyoming) since it would be one company running all four major networks in that little market.

 

 

If WAHU-CD is not included and Lockwood keeps FOX, then expect WAHU-CD to be the new CW currently being used from WVIR 29.3

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Plus the 15 million dollars for WVIR, Waterman is getting $46 million in the spectrum auction to move to RF 2. The low-vhf band is useless for digital. I can see Gray using the low power station to rebroadcast WVIR. 

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On 3/4/2019 at 11:40 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

Is it just me, or is Lockwood turning into a semi-shell of Gray?  Virtually all of their properties have had ties to their divestitures (or have sold to them in the past....)

 

The only execptions are KTEN, WSKY,  WCWG (which was sold to Hearst) and WHDF (sold to Nexstar...and resale pending?)

 

Same could be said for Gray and Heartland Media as well, whom is owned by a former head of Gray.

 

On 3/5/2019 at 3:45 PM, DENDude said:

Something tells me that soon WBBH will be sold, hopefully not to Gray tho.   And maybe it will force a split between WBBH & WZVN.  

 

WBBH/WZVN will probably still be owned by Waterman for the foreseeable future. It will be how this sale goes about that will determine if Waterman works with Gray again on the Ft. Myers properties. I'm almost certain Gray will get them. As far as a split, that isn't logistically possible. That would require millions and millions and millions of dollars to split those two, whom have been joined at the hip for like two decades now.

 

On 3/5/2019 at 5:13 PM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Meredith or Hearst. 

 

Keep dreaming. Hearst would never buy into a shit TV market like Fort Myers and put themselves up against WINK. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

As I've mentioned hundreds of times before, Meredith only makes deals that help their bottom line. All decisions to buy stations have to be strategic for the company's portfolio and Fort Myers isn't.

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6 hours ago, KentBrockman said:

 

Same could be said for Gray and Heartland Media as well, whom is owned by a former head of Gray.

 

Heartland is more like a reincarnation, because Bob Prather left Gray and started Heartland several years later.  He put his mark on the company, much like he did with Gray before.

 

 

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1 minute ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Heartland is more like a reincarnation, because Bob Prather left Gray and started Heartland several years later.  He put his mark on the company, much like he did with Gray before.

 

It didn't take several years. It was within months. Just as soon as he left Gray that June of 2013, he bought that first station that October. Smith Media's WKTV.

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  • 1 month later...

So the Charlottesville deals were greenlighted back on Monday.

 

But one thing I found out just now. We all know that Gray is keeping WAHU-CD. But earlier this month (the 5th), Gray took WAHU-CD silent. The Fox programming still carried on WCAV's subchannel and Lockwood will continue to carry Fox after the deal is over. Gray will keep WAHU off the air until they complete the station's move to WVIR's facility & to secure new programming for the LP. 

 

Might as well run the CW on WAHU-CD.

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/5/2019 at 11:25 PM, doublejman69 said:

Plus the 15 million dollars for WVIR, Waterman is getting $46 million in the spectrum auction to move to RF 2. The low-vhf band is useless for digital. I can see Gray using the low power station to rebroadcast WVIR. 

Tech heads I have talked to say that low band VHF will perform a lot better under ATSC 3.0.

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