TV Deals

The TV station airing the Spanish-language Azteca América broadcast network in the nation's No. 1 Hispanic DMA — Los Angeles — is trading hands. How is this possible, as the station participated in the FCC's Spectrum Auction? The party that holds its Channel-Sharing Agreement just sold the CSA to a Wisconsin-based player, making this a "zombie" deal that sees the transfer of programming rights, and not an actual broadcast TV facility.

A noncommercial TV station operated by a community college district in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose DMA could have earned millions of dollars from participating in the FCC's Spectrum Auction. That didn't happen, and now the facility is being sold for a fraction of what it could have fetched — allegedly due to one person's error. Who's the buyer? It's a player north of the Golden Gate Bridge that's now salivating at an opportunity to challenge PBS giant KQED.

A new era for Saga Communications has officially begun. As of today, it's a radio industry pure-play. And, that seems to be good news for investors, based on its Wednesday activity on Wall Street.

A digital LPTV station serving a small city halfway between Dayton and Toledo has just been sold. This results in a religious broadcaster's exit from the tiny market, and the emergence of a different Christian-focused owner. It's the lone deal featured in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Friday, Aug. 25, which also sees a radio deal brokered by Michael J. Bergner close in Florida.

It's awfully quiet out there in Deal City and Transactions Town. What gives? According to one key industry observer, everybody's waiting ... and eyeing the radio business' three biggies. This insider also sheds some light on the overall atmosphere for buyers and sellers, and if any talk about Townsquare Media selling stations is just folly.

On Wednesday, RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY detailed the sale of NBC affiliated KIEM-3 in Eureka-Arcata, Calif., to an entity tied to Northwest Broadcasting. To make the deal happen, it had to spin the other station it owned in this small Northern California market. That transaction has just been finalized, and a Form 314 has been submitted to the FCC.

In January 2007, WNKU Radio Inc. filed a Form 314 application with the FCC to acquire a Class A FM station serving a rural corner of southwestern Alabama. The Commission gave its nod on March 3, but more than a decade later it has been found unable to pay a sizable amount due to the seller. As a result, it is relinquishing the facility, and it's the top deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

In a transaction brokered by Kalil & Co., the NBC affiliate serving the Redwood Coast some 4 1/2 hours north of San Francisco is trading hands. The buyer owns the crosstown CBS affiliate, and that's now on the market.

In a transaction that the company says will be "highly accretive" to its operating results immediately after a Q4 closing, Nexstar Media Group is acquiring the non-spectrum operating assets of the CW affiliate serving DMA No. 52. It's a nice bonus payday for the seller, which had no pre-Auction CSA but gained one ahead of relinquishing this station's spectrum for a winning bid of $125,932,367.

A full-power TV station and its low-power simulcast partner, properties once owned by Equity Media, have traded hands. The new owner is already in control of the pair, which are airing Christian-themed programming in the Rocky Mountain region's biggest DMA. Closing has transpired, with Kalil & Co. representing the seller in this transaction.

The multimedia company superserving Hispanic consumers across the U.S. is purchasing an NBC affiliate in the Coachella Valley of Southern California, in addition to the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. The deal gives Entravision a formidable cluster in the market, as it already owns three low-power TV stations and two radio stations—all serving Spanish speakers.

Gray Television has gone a little "Retro" by getting into Florida's capital city with a purchase of a UHF station and its associated translator station. All it took was a little Budd deal. That's the top deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for July 11, which also sees Channel 2 in Los Angeles sell for $200,000 — really.

Fresh details were revealed Wednesday regarding Sinclair Broadcast Group's blockbuster merger plans with Tribune Media, thanks to the official filing of a flurry of Form 315 applications with the FCC. While the deal could only be made possible with the pending reinstatement of the FCC's "UHF discount," Sinclair revealed that it could divest stations in no less than 10 different markets.

ION Media has moved to take advantage of the FCC's anticipated return of its UHF Discount by pulling a duo of full-power UHF stations out of a trust created in late 2013 as a result of the bankruptcy of Roberts Broadcasting. At the same time, ION is acquiring its affiliate in Boise, Idaho, for an undisclosed price.

In 2016, one of the largest television networks in the Dominican Republic gained an over-the-air home in Puerto Rico. Now, the owner of the Carolina, P.R., based UHF facility is selling the station. The buyer is the parent company of a station that has largely served as a west-island affiliate of one of Puerto Rico's biggest TV stations.