It once owned 23 broadcast television stations until seeking protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2006 under CEO Don Cornwell. As of today, it is the licensee of a single station in New York State, operated under an LMA by Sinclair Inc. since it acquired the Barrington stations some 12 years ago.
That’s about to change, ending Granite Broadasting‘s time as a TV station owner.
With President Carl Lane signing off on the deal, Granite is selling the facility on digital channel 18, using virtual channel 5, with the call letters WTVH-TV in Syracuse.
The buyer is Deerfield Media, a licensee that largely allows bigger publicly traded broadcast TV station ownership groups operate its properties through a shared services agreement.
Deerfield President Stephen Mumblow signed off on the sale, submitted for regulatory approval by legal representative Scott Flick of Pillsbury Law. Serving as Granite’s legal counsel is Henry Wendel of Cooley LLP.
Terms call for Deerfield to pay Granite $6.25 million for WTVH, which celebrated its 77th birthday as Syracuse’s first TV station on December 1 by shedding its CBS affiliation and taking the Roar digital multicast network for its DT1 signal and Charge! for its DT2 signal. The CBS affiliation and “CBS5” branding moved to WKOF-TV, which uses Channel 15 and is a full Sinclair-owned sibling to WTVM-3, the home of NBC and The CW on its DT2 signal.
The deal is historic, as WTVH first signed on the air in 1948 as WHEN-TV under Meredith Corp. ownership. And, it was on Channel 8 until a 1961 move. The WTVH call letters came in 1976, when Meredith sold the station. Granite purchased WTVH in 1993. Sixteen years later, a poor economic climate led Barrington Broadcasting to agree to a merger. Barrington then sold its stations to Sinclair in 2013. However, local ownership rules preempted WTVH’s inclusion in the deal. As such, Granite retained the license while becoming a holding company, and giving operations to Sinclair through permitted operational agreements under FCC regulatory policy.
There is no broker or finder associated with this transaction.
