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CircleSeven

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8 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

The FCC should've acted on this way sooner.

 

As soon as the KRDK's owners filed that petiton to deny, the FCC should've made this ruling right then and there and not let the deal drag on for 25 months.......

 

And Gray can't acquire it now; the station failed so no FSW can be filed if Gray files a CP for a new station on the 27 allocation (unless Ajit's willing to look the other way on even more stuff).

Edited by mrschimpf
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4 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

And Gray can't acquire it now; the station failed so no FSW can be filed if Gray files a CP for a new station on the 27 allocation (unless Ajit's willing to look the other way on even more stuff).

Couldn't Gray, or anyone else for that matter, attempt to apply to build a brand new station on the channel 27 allocation?

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4 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

Couldn't Gray, or anyone else for that matter, attempt to apply to build a brand new station on the channel 27 allocation?

That's going to be a hard sell because It's been a while since the FCC approved a brand new full-power TV station. And I don't think its going to happen in the near term, as stations are still in the process of repacking after the spectrum auction.

 

And anyway, Gray didn't really need another full power TV station. They already have full power KVLY, and those three LPs (KXJB, etc.). If that deal would've went through, they probably would've moved one of those other networks (CBS or CW) over to the new FP.

______________________________

 

New M&A.

 

John Wagner is selling the Ion station in the Mississippi Delta, WFXW (the former CBS station WXVT) as a donation to Christian broadcaster, TCT.

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We have a very interesting M&A.

 

In Fresno, NBC's Telemundo O&O KNSO and Cocola Broadcasting's flagship station KGMC are exchanging facilities.

 

Once the deal is finalized, NBC will take ownership of KGMC's facility on UHF RF 27, while Cocola will own KNSO's facility on VHF RF 11. Callsigns will also be swapped after closing.


Along with the exchange, NBC will pay Cocola $4.5M. And while this deal is pending, Telemundo will temporarily carry programming (simulcast?) on an SD suchannel on KGMC current stick RF 27.

 

Might as well ask the FCC to exchange virtual channels to alleviate confusion while they're at it.

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15 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

We have a very interesting M&A.

 

In Fresno, NBC's Telemundo O&O KNSO and Cocola Broadcasting's flagship station KGMC are exchanging facilities.

 

Once the deal is finalized, NBC will take ownership of KGMC's facility on UHF RF 27, while Cocola will own KNSO's facility on VHF RF 11. Callsigns will also be swapped after closing.


Along with the exchange, NBC will pay Cocola $4.5M. And while this deal is pending, Telemundo will temporarily carry programming (simulcast?) on an SD suchannel on KGMC current stick RF 27.

 

Might as well ask the FCC to exchange virtual channels to alleviate confusion while they're at it.

Are channels changing too?

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1 hour ago, Samantha said:

NextGen TV comes to Portland. KPDX and KRCW's multiplexes will be used by four station groups and OPB.

Its honestly really interesting.

 

KPDX will take...

  • KPDX - MNT
  • KPTV - FOX (this one is obvious)
  • KGW - NBC

Meanwhile, KRCW will take...

  • KRCW - CW
  • KOIN - CBS (also obvious)
  • KATU - ABC

They'll also provide split PBS programming so that OPB can be covered too.

I can't wait to see how this will be handeled but its nice to see all the broadcasters come together to try out the future of television.

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On 3/12/2020 at 4:04 PM, TheRolyPoly said:

Are channels changing too?

From this RBR article last Friday: 

Quote

When the deal is done, KNSO-51 and KGMC-43 will still hold their virtual channels. But, KNSO’s digital channel will be the UHF facility as KGMC takes the VHF signal.

So that means after closing of the deal, callsigns, virtual channels and intellectual properties will be swapped. Both are basically switching sticks. 


Currently:

  • Telemundo - KNSO - Virtual Ch. 51 - RF 11 - Fac. ID 58608
  • Cocola - KGMC - Virtual Ch. 43 - RF 27 - Fac. ID 23302

Post-closing:

  • Cocola - KGMC - VC 43 - RF 11 - Fac. ID 58608
  • Telemundo - KNSO - VC 51 - RF 27 - Fac. ID 23302

OTA viewers would have to rescan their TVs to get Telemundo 51 on a superior UHF signal. And Estrella 43 will be on the VHF allotment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There's a surprise in the Univision sale filing: because some of the owners have attributable interests in WAPA, they are divesting third-rated WLII and not ninth-rated WSTE.

Quote

Searchlight, which will hold an attributable interest in Univision after consummation of the Transaction, and funds affiliated with Searchlight and ultimately controlled by Eric Zinterhofer and Andrew Frey have an attributable interest in Hemisphere, parent entity of the licensee of WAPA-TV.  WAPA-TV is the top-rated station in Puerto Rico. Univision currently owns WLII-DT, which is ranked third, and WSTE-DT, which is ranked ninth.  Purchasers intend to divest WLII-DT and its two satellite stations, WSUR-DT and WOLE-DT. An application effectuating that divestiture will be filed promptly once divestiture plans are finalized. Accordingly, as discussed in Sections I and III above, following consummation of the Transaction, for purposes of the local television ownership rule, there would be overlapping attributable ownership interests in WAPA-TV (the top-rated station) and WSTE-DT (the ninth-rated station).  According to the attached BIA Puerto Rico Market Report, there are 18 independently owned and operating, full-power commercial and noncommercial TV stations in the Puerto Rico DMA.  Accordingly, Purchasers can hold attributable ownership interests in WSTE-DT consistent with the local television ownership rule.

 

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9 hours ago, TheRob said:

We tacked on a half-hour to the already hour-long 5:00 Saturday news, so it's 90 minutes now.

 

I think you'll see a lot of stretching of the news with syndication drying up and sports on hiatus and companies looking for every possible point to insert political ads..

Thanks for the clarification. The original post by MidwestTV made it sound as if it was a launch of a half-hour 5:00 p.m. newscast, as opposed to WDAF extending its existing, hour-long Saturday early evening news block by 30 minutes to match said block on weekdays (from 5:00 to 6:30).

Edited by T.L. Hughes
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I think this was missed.

 

The purchase of TEGNA to acquire KTBU has been finalized and closed on March 24th. Three days later, it switched from Mega TV to Quest which is what its currently airing. According to Wikipedia and RabbitEars as well as Mike McGuff, the Vietnamese subs are still on but I doubt it will last there, especially now that its under TEGNA ownership.

 

https://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2020/03/tegna-takes-over-ktbu-55.html

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Tegna has completed its acquisition of KTBU in Houston, giving KHOU 11 a sister station. KTBU has dropped Mega TV and is now carrying Tegna’s Quest on 55.1. Quest previously was carried on 11.4. 

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2 hours ago, Greggo said:

Tegna has completed its acquisition of KTBU in Houston, giving KHOU 11 a sister station. KTBU has dropped Mega TV and is now carrying Tegna’s Quest on 55.1. Quest previously was carried on 11.4. 

 

I really thought we were going to see the reboot of "The Tube"... but, I guess it's not to be.

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On 10/16/2019 at 1:00 AM, Samantha said:

In the "M&A we missed" department, there were three deals affecting stations in Wyoming. All three have not yet had their sale prices revealed as no filings have crossed the FCC.

 

KLWY-TV in Cheyenne, KFNB-TV, KWYF-LD and their dependent stations were sold to Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, LLC (apparently aka Front Range Television). The president and CEO of Coastal is William Fielder III.

 

KTWO-TV in Casper, as well as KKTQ-LD and its other dependent translators was acquired by Vision Alaska (Stephen Brissette, manager).

 

KGWC and its full-power satellites and translators were sold to Big Horn Television LLC (Michael Hogan, member). We don't know much about Big Horn Television but it is clearly related to the other two companies, having been incorporated the same day and being domiciled at the same address.

 

All three companies are incorporated in Delaware. Coastal (and Fielder) owns KTBY in Anchorage, Alaska, and WLOV in the Tupelo market. (WLOV's operations are handled by WTVA under LMA.) Vision Alaska owns the ABC Alaska system, which is LMA'd out to Coastal. Hogan appears to have no other holdings.

 

The deal will also see KJUD and KATN, which Coastal operates under time brokerage agreements, be assigned to Coastal proper.

 

So small follow up.

 

The FCC has greenlighted the KFNB (and satellites) Front Range transaction. But the KGWC (Big Horn) & KTWO (VIsion WY) is still pending.

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4 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

Did GRAY TV try to buy KGWC TV a couple of years ago and was blocked by the DOJ.

 

The DOJ was going to block the sale (and that was after the FCC approved parts of that deal (except for KFNE). So Gray called off that sale.

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11 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

 

The DOJ was going to block the sale (and that was after the FCC approved parts of that deal (except for KFNE). So Gray called off that sale.

What are the possibilities of the FCC approving the sale of KGWC and KTWO TV to their respective companies 

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2 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

What are the possibilities of the FCC approving the sale of KGWC and KTWO TV to their respective companies 

 

Usually the FCC would approve all three-related transactions concurrently. But I remember back in 2014, when the FCC approved the Gray/Hoak transaction, but not the related KHAS & KXND/KNDX deal to sidecar "Excalibur Broadcasting". Those stations would be spun off to minority broadcasters later that year.

 

We'll see what happens. But remember, the FCC just went back to the 2016 ownership rules, after the Third Circult vacated Pai's 2017 dereg rule last Fall. One of the rules was the relaxation of the JSA attribution rule from the Wheeler-era.

 

 

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19 minutes ago, WxNerd said:

So now that it's got FCC Approval, did I read this correct that the new owners have 90 days from April 7th to Consummate the sale?

 

Yes. Once the FCC greenlights a deal, the parties have 90 days to complete the sale. That's with any transaction.

 

But the parties can file an "extension of consummation" to add another 90 days if they need to. That's a rare though.

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6 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Yes. Once the FCC greenlights a deal, the parties have 90 days to complete the sale. That's with any transaction.

 

But the parties can file an "extension of consummation" to add another 90 days if they need to. That's a rare though.

Surprised KTWO TV and KGWC TV did not close the next day. The FCC okayed the deal on April 16. When Gray TV had the okay by the FCC on KDLT TV deal, the sale was consumed the next day.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/10/2020 at 6:41 AM, CircleSeven said:

The FCC should've acted on this way sooner.

 

As soon as the KRDK's owners filed that petiton to deny, the FCC should've made this ruling right then and there and not let the deal drag on for 25 months.......

 

 

Expect it to drag on even longer (this is the Gray deal to buy KCPM in Grand Forks/Fargo that we thought was dead in March); the shambling remains of GIG and Gray are campaigning to restore the license and use the backup KVLY transmitter as the new KCPM tower to broadcast local COVID news conferences, tele-learning from local school districts and Gray public affairs programming (they also argue it's Grand Forks' only station, which must mean the entire market has hallucinated the existence of WDAZ for 60 years despite its Devils Lake COL). With a month left in the school year. In an area with a low number of cases right now.

 

Of course a sane FCC would just say 'you've got MeTV on 11.3, just use that', but this could probably be approved even though many MyNetworkTV stations can barely get an advertiser an ad break at this point.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/5/2020 at 12:07 AM, mrschimpf said:

Expect it to drag on even longer (this is the Gray deal to buy KCPM in Grand Forks/Fargo that we thought was dead in March); the shambling remains of GIG and Gray are campaigning to restore the license and use the backup KVLY transmitter as the new KCPM tower to broadcast local COVID news conferences, tele-learning from local school districts and Gray public affairs programming (they also argue it's Grand Forks' only station, which must mean the entire market has hallucinated the existence of WDAZ for 60 years despite its Devils Lake COL). With a month left in the school year. In an area with a low number of cases right now.

 

Of course a sane FCC would just say 'you've got MeTV on 11.3, just use that', but this could probably be approved even though many MyNetworkTV stations can barely get an advertiser an ad break at this point.

The FCC saw through GIG's charade, told Gray that 'you really couldn't check if 27.1 was on the air the last six years?!' and has dismissed the petition. KCPM is in all intents and purposes, television history.

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