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CircleSeven

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I don't know where you got your info, but KGWN has dominated Cheyenne forever and KCWY passed KTWO several years ago.

 

The rise of KCWY mirrors that of KKCO in Grand Junction, CO, which was a new sign-on in the mid-'90s. Soon, they'll be sister stations.

 

KTWO was hampered by Equity ownership. They sold it a year before their demise, and management was outsourced to notoriously-cheap Wyomedia (owner of KFNB and also operates KGWC in Casper, whose GM was recently arrested for DUI).

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Lots of paperwork tonight. First the consummation notices and you know what these are from.

 

Okay to recap, the stations KGNS, KCWY/KCHY, & KGWN/KSTF were consummated last Friday. So its Frontier's stations for now, as Gray will soon acquire those stations.

 

Also, Chambers-owned Bend, OR ABC affiliate KOHD sale to Zolo Media, was consummated on Halloween. KOHD is now the sister to CBS affiliate, KBNZ-LD.

 

And finally, High Maintenance Broadcasting-owned Corpus Christi Fox station KUQI have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

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Good, I hope somebody decent like Sinclair buys them. I have video of them from August, let me see if I can get it up so you can see how bad this station is.

KUQI has been plagued with technical issues from the day it signed on.

 

As far as their Chapter 11 filing, it was involuntary. The parties who forced the Chapter 11 own a couple of Spanish-language stations in the Western United States. For all I know, they could lose the FOX affiliation and go Spanish. If that's the case, where would FOX end up? A subchannel of KZTV (which is already operated by KRIS)?

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KUQI has been plagued with technical issues from the day it signed on.

 

As far as their Chapter 11 filing, it was involuntary. The parties who forced the Chapter 11 own a couple of Spanish-language stations in the Western United States. For all I know, they could lose the FOX affiliation and go Spanish. If that's the case, where would FOX end up? A subchannel of KZTV (which is already operated by KRIS)?

 

Well look where the last place Fox was in Corpus Christi? One of KRIS's LP sisters. I think it was K47DF.

 

Why didn't London formally closed their deal to acquire KUQI is the real question.

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Well look where the last place Fox was in Corpus Christi? One of KRIS's LP sisters. I think it was K47DF.

 

Why didn't London formally closed their deal to acquire KUQI is the real question.

 

Yes, Fox used to be on K47DF, now an indie station. I could actually see Entravision snapping up Fox like they have in the Valley and in Laredo.

 

It wasn't on London's end, the Caller-Times reported:

 

CORPUS CHRISTI — A deal for a Louisiana broadcasting company to acquire the Corpus Christi Fox TV affiliate KUQI has been terminated, an executive at one of the companies involved in the transaction confirmed.

 

National Communications Inc. of Lake Charles, La. in March agreed to buy the station license, network affiliation and programming contracts of KUQI.

 

The company entered a sales, programming and service agreement with Dallas-based London Broadcasting Co., pending Federal Communications Commission approval, which was granted in August, according to FCC records.

 

"We have been planning for a close multiple times and we have been unable to close the transaction," said Phil Hurley, London chief operating officer. "We elected to withdraw and terminate the deal."

 

London was "very interested in completing the deal, but conditions got such we needed to terminate," he said.

 

KUQI has been plagued with technical issues from the day it signed on.

 

As far as their Chapter 11 filing, it was involuntary. The parties who forced the Chapter 11 own a couple of Spanish-language stations in the Western United States. For all I know, they could lose the FOX affiliation and go Spanish. If that's the case, where would FOX end up? A subchannel of KZTV (which is already operated by KRIS)?

 

This is correct. Their OTA signal is very weak, and I only managed to get caps of them overnight (around 2-3AM). They don't do HD outside of Fox as their plant isn't HD, so the picture quality is bad, really bad. It's almost like low-res 480i. Imagine security camera quality, that's what KUQI's picture looks like.

 

Here's the video as promised. Note that they never did a legal ID within that hour this was the closest thing they had:

[yt]bs0GaF7KUhw[/yt]

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The FCC has approved the acquisition by Alaska telecom GCI of one CBS and two NBC affiliates, giving it TV reach across the entire state.

 

The approval papers of KTVA & KATH was posted this morning. Now they can hurry up and close this deal once and for all. Almost one year since they'd announce the deal.

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The approval papers of KTVA & KATH was posted this morning. Now they can hurry up and close this deal once and for all. Almost one year since they'd announce the deal.

 

And that's what they just done. KTVA & KATH is now under GCI's control. Consummated last Friday. So that finally ends that. Thank The Lord.

 

As for Gray's acquisition of the Frontier Yellowstone stations, they didn't have to wait to file that paperwork.

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ABC has signed an affiliation agreement with Gray to make KGNS-DT2 the ABC affiliate for Laredo, TX beginning in February 2014. No word yet on what happens to The CW, which currently occupies KGNS-DT2.

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/71776/gray-to-air-abc-on-kgns-subchannel

 

Anyone taking bets on when Excalibur buys up KVTV and moves it into KGNS?

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Anyone taking bets on when Excalibur buys up KVTV and moves it into KGNS?

 

I thought the same way with the Mark III stations (KGWC/KGWL/KGWR) in Casper, WY, to reunite with KGWN. The only benefit for that would be nothing more than the connection of the controls, since KGWC doesn't air any newscasts. I know since Monday, I thought about "what if" one of those Laredo stations could possibly affiliate with ABC. That's probably was Gray's plan from the start. KGNS last affiliated with ABC on a secondary basis in until '84. So this would be 30 years, but it will be a first time they'll see a full-time ABC affiliate.

 

But I doubt Brady would want to sell KVTV. And except for Entravision, that would give Gray almost have dominate media presence there. But of course anything can happen. If some numbers hit to a point, Gray may not have to use its "excalibur". Similar to what Brady is trying to do in Yuma.

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NEW M&A Tonight!!!!

 

And it's not good news.

 

From the paperwork tonight, Access.1 Communications is selling WMGM in Wildwood, NJ to LocusPoint Networks for $6M.

 

LocusPoint Networks is one of a few media companies (Including OTA Broadcasting & NRJ TV) who's been gobbling up stations (mostly low-rated stations, including LP stations) so they can resell them for the upcoming incentive spectrum auctions next year.

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NEW M&A Tonight!!!!

 

And it's not good news.

 

From the paperwork tonight, Access.1 Communications is selling WMGM in Wildwood, NJ to LocusPoint Networks for $6M.

 

LocusPoint Networks is one of a few media companies (Including OTA Broadcasting & NRJ TV) who's been gobbling up stations (mostly low-rated stations, including LP stations) so they can resell them for the upcoming incentive spectrun auction next year.

 

Well, there goes Jersey's last decent news station, let alone their only major network affiliate.

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There's still WWOR's Chasing New Jersey for those who want a New Jersey news fix.

 

I mean it's not the best source but it's there.

 

The reviews for 'Chasing New Jersey' are in!

 

"[...] it's there" -Mrtraveler01

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We have one little M&A tonight. It's not worth an alarm.

 

But Sainte Partners continues to sell their properties. First they sold most of their Northern Cali properties last year to Bonten. Then sold its Medford LPs to Brian Brady.

 

Now they are selling their Sacramento Telemundo affiliate, KCSO-LD to a new firm, Serestar Communications Corporation. for $1.6M.

 

Serestar is ran by Entravision Communications director, Philip Wilkinson. After this sale, this would leave, Sainte Partners with Eureka's CBS station, KVIQ.

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TVNewsCheck is reporting that Excalibur Broadcasting has agreed to purchase WQCW in Charleston' date=' WV from Lockwood Broadcasting and will enter into an SSA with Gray's WSAZ. Maybe Gray can produce a decent newscast on WQCW,

I bet you WBXX in Knoxville is next....either Gray gets them through Excalibur to pair with WVLT...or Media General gets them to pair with WATE....either way, Lockwood's days are numbered!

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TVNewsCheck is reporting that Excalibur Broadcasting has agreed to purchase WQCW in Charleston, WV from Lockwood Broadcasting and will enter into an SSA with Gray's WSAZ. Maybe Gray can produce a decent newscast on WQCW,

So Gray is starting to use this new Excalibur card extensively. The state of Wisconsin could be Gray's next target to use the Excalibur card. I wouldn't be shocked if they try to knock on Nexstar's door an try to buy WLAX/WEUX from them, should Nexstar is unable to try a duo partner, like if Murphy don't want to sell WKBT. I wouldn't even be shock if they use the Excalibur card to acquire WFXS (Wausau) and WBUW (Madison).

 

It would be extremely gutsy if they use the Excalibur card in Bowling Green, where Max may be ready to unload WNKY. I don't think Gray want to take that gutsy chance.

 

I bet you WBXX in Knoxville is next....either Gray gets them through Excalibur to pair with WVLT...or Media General gets them to pair with WATE....either way, Lockwood's days are numbered!

Let's not forget that Lockwood bought three stations within this past year, including making a duopoly in Knoxville (WBXX & WKNX), WCWG in Greensboro, and WSKY in Manteo, which that should be closed any day now.

 

If Lockwood wants to unload, I don't think they just want to unload WBXX without unloading WKNX as well. Huntsville's WHDF could also be either Dreamcatcher or Mission/Rocky Creek's meal ticket. That's if Nexstar is probably eyeing on the Calkins' WAAY, and might want to throw some rocks and call it dibs for WHDF. Tribune could also use the Dreamcatcher card to get WHDF, and place their 9pm news on their.

 

But back to Knoxville. Why can't Gray aim a bit higher? Merge with Raycom and terminate the news agreement with WBIR, and let WVLT produce the news on WTNZ. In markets where Gray and Raycom is at, it make a boatload of sense. But so far Raycom have been very silent in this phase of the M&A craze.

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It seems, other than the networks, Scripps and Hearst are the only major companies with no shells...a matter of time before they start one?

 

Seems unlikely, both of those companies don't seem to be in any rush to expand when compared to Sinclair, Nextstar etc.
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I bet you WBXX in Knoxville is next....either Gray gets them through Excalibur to pair with WVLT...or Media General gets them to pair with WATE....either way, Lockwood's days are numbered!

 

Don't forget about KTEN in the Sherman, TX market. That station seems to have Nexstar written all over it to me.

 

Another acquisition target that Nexstar may want: Rockfleet. Think about it. WJFW would fit in nicely with WFRV, WJMN and soon WLAX/WEUX, and WVII isn't too far away from the WVNY/WFFF duo.

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I bet you WBXX in Knoxville is next....either Gray gets them through Excalibur to pair with WVLT...or Media General gets them to pair with WATE....either way, Lockwood's days are numbered!

 

The Lockwood business model is similar to a company that fell hard--Equity. Buy a bunch of independent or CW stations, run them from a centralcasting hub, and ????? I just don't see standalone independent or CW stations in mid-size or smaller markets as a good business model to begin with.

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One more thing, and I didn't think about this either. When I stated about Tribune could use the Dreamcatcher card to get WHDF, I wouldn't be shocked if they might eye WCWG from Lockwood as well. At first, I thought Tribune proper could get WCWG by itself, but Greensboro is one of the markets have 9 full-powers (8 commercial, 1 non-com) and it still need eight-commonly owned voices. Let's not forget they're the largest group of CW affiliiates. And they would love to add This TV on WCWG, since its one of the markets where they don't have a This TV affiliate (WXII was the market's last This TV affiliate, until it switched to Me-TV). That's some homework the Trib can work out in the not-too-distant future.

 

Don't forget about KTEN in the Sherman, TX market. That station seems to have Nexstar written all over it to me.

 

Another acquisition target that Nexstar may want: Rockfleet. Think about it. WJFW would fit in nicely with WFRV, WJMN and soon WLAX/WEUX, and WVII isn't too far away from the WVNY/WFFF duo.

My only problem with KTEN is that I think Nexstar isn't too keen to all those subchannels. But it's basically a two station market. But I think Nexstar would probably make an exception. It could be really crazy and Gray try to jam that Excalibur card and monopolize that whole market. I doubt that would happen.

 

As for Rockfleet, and knowing all those stations are underdogs, it would really fit Nexstar's footings grately. The WVII/WFVX can have their programming hubbed in Rochester. And all stations involved use an Arnold theme, so that's already a plus. But Nexstar can breathed some life into those stations. I'm just hope they don't drop the Circle 7 logo at WVII.

___________________________________________

 

We have two new FCC approvals tonight, on this week ending Friday Night.

 

TVNewsCheck posted earlier tonight that the FCC has greenlighted the sale of WIYC in Troy, Alabama to Neal Ardman. Ardman bought WIYC from Josie Park Broadcasting for $650K.

 

Also, the FCC also greenlighted the sale of KTLM in Rio Grande City, TX to NBC. NBC is buying this Telemundo affiliate from Larry Patrick's Sunbelt Multimedia for $8.5M.

 

___________________________________________

 

And Finally, I know I'm not suppose to post this on this thread, but since it's been talked about many times, I think it's worth a mention. There's been talk that The Simpsons repeats would be aired in cable syndication. Tonight, the Daily Variety stated that Fox announced that their cable network, FXX will carry the repeats. The terms of the deal is around $750M. Along with the 730+ episodes being shown on the cable channel, segments of the program will also be stream through Video-on-demand websites and its soon-to-be released FXNow mobile app. B&C states that the repeats will begin airing in August of next year.

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