A group of investors with various television investors have acquired low power television assets in New York and Philadelphia since the beginning of the year, and now they’re adding to the group with assets in the Los Angeles DMA. And in all, they will pay more than $16M to do so.
Two contracts were filed with the FCC. In one, Local Media will be getting Channel 25 KNET-CA for $7.6M, and in the other, it will be getting Channel 50 KNLA-CD and licensed-but-silent Channel 68 translator KNLA-LP for $8.8M. Both are cash deals, and for those of you who do not have your calculators handy, the total of the two deals is $16.4M
Both contracts send assets from Venture Technologies Group to Local Media TV Los Angeles LLC, which is a partnership primarily between Loop Partners and Telcom Local Media.
The principals of the buyer include Monish Kundra, James Fleming, Rajendra Singh, Serge G. Martin, Paul Koplin, Lawrence Rogow. As was the case in the earlier Philadelphia deal, Koplin and Rogow are also on the seller’s side of the table.
In the earlier deals, Local Media has agreed to buy New York DMA properties WLNY-CD Mineola NY, W27CD Stamford CT & WLIG-LD Morristown NJ from David Feinblatt’s WLNY LP for $6.5M; and in Philadelphia, it’s getting WTSD-CA from Koplin and Rogow’s Loop entity for a relatively modest $302K.
RBR-TVBR observation: Regardless of whether these acquisitions are being made with an eye toward incentive auctions a few years hence or as long-term going concerns, we strongly recommend that the FCC’s rules and regulations governing the operation of Class A television stations be adhered to with the utmost diligence.
The FCC has shown clear signs that it has unracked its scattergun, donned its hunting cap, asked the audience to be “vewwy vewwy qwiet” and begun stalking Class As with an eye toward knocking them down to LPTV status in advance of any banging of the auctioneer’s gavel.
