In a major TV industry transaction yet to be filed with the FCC but announced Monday (3/4), Gray Television has agreed to acquire a highly successful NBC affiliate in a big college town that’s home to the University of Virginia from Waterman Broadcasting.
As a result, the CBS, ABC and FOX stations in this market, which it presently controls, are being sold, with Gray stressing it will have no involvement with the stations after they are sold.
Gray is making this very clear. Why? The buyer is a company that has allowed Gray to complete divestments over the last several years in other markets across the U.S.
For an undisclosed price Gray has agreed to sell WCAV-19, WAHU-CD 27 and WVAW-LD 16 in Charlottesville, Va. — the CBS, FOX and ABC affiliates, respectively — to an affiliate of Lockwood Broadcasting.
Concurrently, Gray is acquiring the market’s NBC affiliate, WVIR-29, from Waterman Broadcasting Corporation.
Lockwood has proven to be a key company that has indirectly aided in the growth of Gray Television. In August 2018, four Fox affiliates — WTNZ in Knoxville; WFXG in Augusta, Georgia; WPGX in Panama City, Florida; and WDFX-TV in Dothan, Alabama; were spun to Lockwood in order to complete its merger with Raycom Media and fall within FCC local ownership rules.
On October 1, 2015, Gray announced that it would sell KAKE-TV in Wichita to Lockwood in return for WBXX-TV and $11.2 million.
Commenting on the deal, Gray Chairman/CEO Hilton Howell Jr. said, “In divesting WCAV and WVAW to Lockwood, we are entrusting our employees and stations to a Virginia-based broadcaster who has continued to invest in the television stations that it acquired from us in the past when Gray was required to divest stations due to market overlaps.”
Lockwood is based in Richmond, just to the southeast of Charlottesville. As such, it will have complete control of the stations it is getting from Gray. This point was stressed by Howell in the wake of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s attempts to retain de facto control of stations it planned to divest, but to owners with close ties to Sinclair in deals that allowed Sinclair to reacquire the properties well into the future, when ownership rules were seemingly predicted by Sinclair to evaporate into the ether.
“Following the closing, Gray will not maintain any continuing relationship with WCAV/WVAW, such as joint sales, joint retransmission negotiations, news production, or local marketing arrangements, nor will Gray and Lockwood be party to any options, loans, or financial guarantees involving these or other television stations,” Howell said. “In short, following consummation of the transactions, WCAV/WVAW will operate independently of Gray, just as WVIR will operate independently of its current owner.”
Gray anticipates closing both transactions following the receipt of regulatory and other approvals in Q2 or Q3 2019.
For Waterman President Edith B. Waterman, “The decision to sell WVIR-TV has been challenging and emotional. We have had the great privilege of proudly serving Charlottesville and its surrounding communities since 1986. Our focus has been serving the
good people of central Virginia and taking care of our uniquely talented and dedicated work
family. However, when the opportunity presented itself to turn our work family and our valued NBC franchise over to Gray Television, a company that shares our traditions of community service and broadcast excellence, we knew that this was the right decision. Gray’s ownership offers WVIR and our employees the best prospect for the future.”
WVIR debuted in 1973, providing a local signal for those who could not receive NBC O&O WRC-4 in Washington or Richmond-based WWBT-12 — now owned by Gray — via aerial antenna. For many years, WVIR has ranked as one of the highest rated television stations in the country. In November 2018, WVIR’s all-day ratings made it the ninth-highest rated NBC affiliate in the country.
Elaborating on the Charlottesville spin-and-win that delivers WVIR to Gray, Howell said, “The decision to sell our Charlottesville television stations has been very difficult. After creating WCAV and WVAW from scratch less than 15 years ago, these start-ups managed to accomplish the rare feat of becoming strong local news and sales operations in the face of a very strong legacy television station. Nevertheless, we had to jump at the opportunity to add a station like WVIR to our portfolio, and we are excited to welcome WVIR into the Gray family.”
A Form 314 FCC filing is expected, along with Form 345 filings for the low-power TV stations, later this week.
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