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Standard Media buying Citadel stations


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On 9/8/2019 at 11:48 PM, Megatron81 said:

I was surprised this didn't close in in July or Aug TEGNA getting Dispatch was pretty fast I thought that Standard Media would been final before TEGNA and Dispatch merger?

 

20 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

It was probably due to a flurry of M&A activity in this industry, the FCC having to address a few deals as well took some time away from this. I think if it wasn't for that, this deal would've closed a lot quicker than what it did.

 

Oh well, this deal is done anyway.

 

The Standard Media deal was approved on July 3. And it wasn't closed until two months later (9/5). 

 

After approval, sometimes deals tend to close promptly (like within a week or less), and others might close right around the start of the new month (or longer). 

 

Usually after an applicant receives FCC approval, they have 90 days to consummate the transaction. But they can file an "extension of consummation" to get more time to close the deal.

 

I'm still in shock that Tegna/Dispatch was greenlighted so quickly, despite being a $500M+ price tag. I thought this would be a lengthier process.

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1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

 

 

The Standard Media deal was approved on July 3. And it wasn't closed until two months later (9/5). 

 

After approval, sometimes deals tend to close promptly (like within a week or less), and others might close right around the start of the new month (or longer). 

 

Usually after an applicant receives FCC approval, they have 90 days to consummate the transaction. But they can file an "extension of consummation" to get more time to close the deal.

 

I'm still in shock that Tegna/Dispatch was greenlighted so quickly, despite being a $500M+ price tag. I thought this would be a lengthier process.

So what exactly was the hold up in the case of Standard closing the Citadel acquisition if it was approved the day before the 4th of July and didn't close until three days after Labor Day? There's got to be a reason as to why the Standard deal closed as late as it did because this was very similar to that of the Tegna/Dispatch deal.

 

Also @GoldenShine9 which group do you see that is perhaps doable for Standard that won't cost them an arm in the leg?

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13 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

So what exactly was the hold up in the case of Standard closing the Citadel acquisition if it was approved the day before the 4th of July and didn't close until three days after Labor Day? There's got to be a reason as to why the Standard deal closed as late as it did because this was very similar to that of the Tegna/Dispatch deal.

 

 

Companies sometimes hold off on signing things for various reasons.  They could simply not want it on their balance sheet until a certain point, or they could be refinancing debt, and want to complete the debt restructuring before adding the asset.

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15 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

 

I'm still in shock that Tegna/Dispatch was greenlighted so quickly, despite being a $500M+ price tag. I thought this would be a lengthier process.

 

That was a clean deal. No debt involved, no duopoly situations, nothing really too funky. In fact, they didn't even have to change title on anything. The Wolfes just sold their stock in the various companies. It's

If you go to the Franklin County auditor, their property isn't owned by Tegna. It's still owned by WBNS-TV Inc. and RadiOhio Inc.

 

It's like if I sold stock in Marathon or Exxon Mobil ... everything inside ExxonMobil remains the same, just the ownership of the stock changes. 

 

Or maybe the Wolfe family still has a lot of pull in Republican circles and they called in their chits before they expire because they no longer own the newspaper.

 

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15 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

So what exactly was the hold up in the case of Standard closing the Citadel acquisition if it was approved the day before the 4th of July and didn't close until three days after Labor Day? There's got to be a reason as to why the Standard deal closed as late as it did because this was very similar to that of the Tegna/Dispatch deal.

 

Also @GoldenShine9 which group do you see that is perhaps doable for Standard that won't cost them an arm in the leg?

 

Loose single assets, primarily in low markets. Other groups with more money would likely go after the prized assets.

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55 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Loose single assets, primarily in low markets. Other groups with more money would likely go after the prized assets.

So their primary focus should be on acquiring the stations in markets outside of either the top 100 (so that would be markets below Fort Smith/Fayetteville, AR) or below the top 120 (which would be markets below Traverse City/Cadillac, MI)

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On 9/9/2019 at 10:56 PM, TexasTVNews said:

I have question for all of you... do you see Standard Media acquiring small/medium market stations before the year is over and the start of 2020?

No. They want to, but I don't suspect they will.

20 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Those groups would still cost at least $200 million though, which is a lot for them.

 

These guys aren't necessarily broke. Deb has plenty of money sources.

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39 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

 

No. They want to, but I don't suspect they will.

 

These guys aren't necessarily broke. Deb has plenty of money sources.

The fact that Soo Kim has bought stock into Tegna tells me that either a 3 way merger is going to happen eventually or it might give Deb more than enough influence to buy more stations, which ones? No one knows but another group that Standard could target for potential acquisition is Morris Multimedia but there might be some others as well that Deb might throw her hat into for.

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On 9/11/2019 at 6:11 PM, oknewsguy said:

The fact that Soo Kim has bought stock into Tegna tells me that either a 3 way merger is going to happen eventually or it might give Deb more than enough influence to buy more stations, which ones? No one knows but another group that Standard could target for potential acquisition is Morris Multimedia but there might be some others as well that Deb might throw her hat into for.

I'll keep saying it, really hope someone will buy Morris soon enough. 

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6 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

I've heard that both the sales and news directors at KLKN have been let go in the past couple weeks. Both had been there for much of the station's existence (KLKN only signed on in 1996).

 

I assume they have a plan on who replaces them.  If not, that could easily backfire on them.   Letting go of veteran employees like that is a risky move, to say the least.

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1 hour ago, TheRyan said:

I assume they have a plan on who replaces them.  If not, that could easily backfire on them.   Letting go of veteran employees like that is a risky move, to say the least.

 

You can have veteran talent, but if ratings and sales are poor then changes need to be made. I'm not sure what the replacement plans are, but I do know new ownership and the former ND didn't mesh well.

 

I imagine there will be much more significant changes made at WLNE.

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2 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

I imagine there will be much more significant changes made at WLNE.

Without question there's a lot of work that needs to be done at WLNE and quite frankly that might be what Deb is focusing on right now instead of going on a buying spree, by fixing the mess Citadel created at both KLKN and WLNE then maybe perhaps buy stations.

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1 hour ago, MidwestTV said:

 

You can have veteran talent, but if ratings and sales are poor then changes need to be made. I'm not sure what the replacement plans are, but I do know new ownership and the former ND didn't mesh well.

 

I imagine there will be much more significant changes made at WLNE.

 

1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

Without question there's a lot of work that needs to be done at WLNE and quite frankly that might be what Deb is focusing on right now instead of going on a buying spree, by fixing the mess Citadel created at both KLKN and WLNE then maybe perhaps buy stations.

 

This may or may not have any bearing, but KELO is such a success story, I tend to trust "Deb's" judgement on this. 

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1 hour ago, MidwestTV said:

 

You can have veteran talent, but if ratings and sales are poor then changes need to be made. I'm not sure what the replacement plans are, but I do know new ownership and the former ND didn't mesh well.

 

I imagine there will be much more significant changes made at WLNE.

1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

Without question there's a lot of work that needs to be done at WLNE and quite frankly that might be what Deb is focusing on right now instead of going on a buying spree, by fixing the mess Citadel created at both KLKN and WLNE then maybe perhaps buy stations.

 

If that's the case, then they made the right call.   The last thing Standard needs are people who are resistant to making the changes needed to make the station successful.  I agree with both of you. 

 

On a side note, I recently watched the start of a WLNE newscast and the audio was horrible.  It sounded like the anchor desk was next to a loud fan or something.  They'll need to fix that, as well.

 

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3 minutes ago, DirtyHarry said:

This may or may not have any bearing, but KELO is such a success story, I tend to trust "Deb's" judgement on this. 

And maybe perhaps WLNE becomes the next KELO. It'd be interesting to see what Deb does with that and KLKN

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4 minutes ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

 

This may or may not have any bearing, but KELO is such a success story, I tend to trust "Deb's" judgement on this. 

1 minute ago, oknewsguy said:

And maybe perhaps WLNE becomes the next KELO. It'd be interesting to see what Deb does with that and KLKN

 

KELO is no doubt the # 1 (and not by a close margin) station in that market.   Hopefully she can replicate their success at WLNE and KLKN.

 

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5 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

And maybe perhaps WLNE becomes the next KELO. It'd be interesting to see what Deb does with that and KLKN

 

3 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

 

KELO is no doubt the # 1 (and not by a close margin) station in that market.   Hopefully she can replicate their success at WLNE and KLKN.

 

 

My thinking is that the markets are similar in both Lincoln and Sioux Falls. They are broadcasting to a lot of stalks of corn. Plus, Lincoln is a college town. Whatever formula they used in Sioux Falls should work in Lincoln.

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1 minute ago, DirtyHarry said:

My thinking is that the markets are similar in both Lincoln and Sioux Falls. They are broadcasting to a lot of stalks of corn. Plus, Lincoln is a college town. Whatever formula they used in Sioux Falls should work in Lincoln.

So who could WLNE become? The East Coast version of KELO? You may be right though on KLKN becoming the next KELO

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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

KOLN/KGIN, who dominate Lincoln, would likely have something to say about that though.

 

KOLN benefits from being owned by a large corporation in Gray and being like twice as old as KLKN. They're dominant, but not necessarily quality.

 

2 hours ago, TheRyan said:

 

If that's the case, then they made the right call.   The last thing Standard needs are people who are resistant to making the changes needed to make the station successful.  I agree with both of you. 

 

On a side note, I recently watched the start of a WLNE newscast and the audio was horrible.  It sounded like the anchor desk was next to a loud fan or something.  They'll need to fix that, as well.

 

 

I don't think it was so much resistance as it was an inability to carry out things the way they wanted them done.

 

Regarding audio, the facilities and equipment at both stations are nothing stellar. They use BroadcastPix as their switcher. Audio at KLKN is also poor.

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