Second half of Portland ME TV JSA sold

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We knew about the sale of WPXT-DT in Portland ME, and we also knew from the contract for that deal that something was also up for its JSA partner, WPME. Now we know what that something is.


The Channel 35 MNT affiliate is going from its licensee MPS Media of Portland License, headed by Eugene J. Brown, to Triumph Broadcasting LLC, headed by Robert J. McCulloch and Jesse Froslie. Froslie provides a bit of a wrinkle in the transaction in the form of being a citizen of Canada, but with a stake of only 20% the holding does not exceed permissible levels of foreign ownership.

The price for the station is $75K cash.

Like WPXT, the station was formerly part of the now-defunct Pegasus television group. Brown picked it up pursuant to terms of a 8/7/06 contract for only $4K.

As the WPXT contract hinted at a change in ownership at WPME, so does the WPME contract hint at a change in ownership at WPXT.

New Age Media is selling CW WPXT to Frank Copsidas and his Tyche Broadcasting in a deal also valued at $75K. Broker Michael Bergner handled both transactions.

We’ll have to wait and see if the two new licensees strike up a new local agreement. No new LMA or JSA contracts were appended to either deal. But while there were no contract provisions for an ongoing relationship, there was no contract provision pointing to a split, either.