tvpirate05 1 Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=117079&ran=101423 The group is Oak Hill Capital Partners. Anyone know anything about them? Track record? History? WTKR to be sold in deal announced Thursday By LARRY BONKO, The Virginian-Pilot © January 5, 2007 | Last updated 9:43 PM Jan. 4 NORFOLK - The long-anticipated sale of local CBS affiliate WTKR was announced Thursday when The New York Times Co., the station's owners since 1995, entered into an agreement to sell its broadcast media group to Oak Hill Capital Partners. The group - consisting of nine stations, their associated Web sites and a digital operating center in Norfolk - collectively went for $575 million in the deal, said Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive of the Times Co., in a statement. "These are strong, well-situated stations with very talented employees," she said. "Over the years they have provided their communities with high quality programming while contributing significantly to our financial performance. We believe, however, that our focus now should be on developing our newspapers and rapidly growing digital businesses and the increasing synergies between them." Oak Hill Capital Partners, whose principal investor is Robert Bass, son of legendary Texas oilman Perry Bass, is a private equity firm that manages $20 billion in investments, according to Forbes. The magazine listed Bass as No. 43 on its latest list of Forbes 400, pegging his net worth at $5.5 billion. Oak Hill Capital Partners has major investments in about three dozen companies, including TravelCenters of America Inc.; Atlantic Broadband Group LLC, a cable operator serving six states; and Oreck Corp., the vacuum manufacturer. A spokesman for Oak Hill Capital Partners, which has offices in California, New York and Connecticut, had no comment beyond what was contained in Thursday's announcement. In announcing the sale agreement seven minutes into Channel 3's newscast at 6 p.m., anchorman Pat McReynolds assured viewers that it will be business as usual. "Don't expect anything different," he said of the station's day-to-day operations. Station officials were not available for comment Thursday. The Times Co. said the sale is expected to close in the first six months of this year. It is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission. J. Taylor Crandall, a managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners, said in Thursday's announcement that the company looked "forward to maintaining the standard of excellence that the Times Company achieved over the last 30 years." In acquiring WTKR, Oak Hill Capital Partners will take over a station with the market's lowest-rated newscasts. In the most recent Nielsen sweeps in November, Channel 3's newscasts at 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m. came in third or fourth. In the ratings for 6 p.m., for instance, "Judge Judy" on WGNT finished ahead of WTKR. Hampton Roads ranks No. 42 in the U.S. market with 700,000-plus TV households. Other stations involved in the sale agreement include WHO (NBC) in Des Moines, Iowa, KFSM (CBS) in Ft. Smith, Ark.; WHNT (CBS) in Huntsville, Ala.' WREG (CBS) in Memphis, Tenn.; WQAD (ABC) in Moline, Ill.; KFOR (NBC) and KAUT (My Network TV) in Oklahoma City; and WNEP in Scranton, Pa. The Times Co. acquired WTKR from Narragansett Television Inc. in 1995 for $76 million. Previous owners included then Knight-Ridder Inc. and Landmark Communications Inc., the station's founder, which sold Channel 3 in 1981. Norfolk-based Landmark, which owns The Weather Channel and TV stations in Nashville, Tenn., and Las Vegas, is the parent company locally of The Virginian-Pilot and Dominion Enterprises, which specializes in classified advertising. In calculating the revenue of the Times Co. in 2005, BIAfn Media Access Pro Data listed WTKR annual revenues at $20.1 million, the fourth-highest among the Times' nine stations. # Reach Larry Bonko at (757) 446-2486 or at [email protected]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 742 Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 That's OLD news from like two days ago. Refer to this thread here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvpirate05 1 Posted January 7, 2007 Author Share Posted January 7, 2007 That's OLD news from like two days ago. Refer to this thread here. I see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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