In late July, the FCC was asked to approve the sale of seven TV stations and four radio stations across five markets by Waypoint Media and related entity Vision Communications.
The transaction, which saw Kalil & Co. serve as the broker, has now closed, making Coastal Television Broadcasting Group LLC the owner.
The sale marks a significant divestiture for Bill Christian and Mike Reed. Together, they launched, from scratch, a group of television stations serving the Lafayette, Ind., market — the home of Purdue University.
Now, they’ve completed a transaction valued at $36.9 million, with Cumming, Ga.-based Coastal Television now the owner of nine big four network affiliates, five CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates, numerous diginets and the radio quartet.
Specifically, Coastal is now the licensee of television properties WNBJ-LD in Jackson, Miss.; KJNB-LD and KJNE-LD in Jonesboro, Ark.; and WPBI-LD & WPBY-LD in Lafayette, In. The radio stations it now owns are WSHY-AM, WAZY-FM, WBPE-FM & WYCM-FM and FM translators W222AS and W282CJ is also included in this deal, with this group of media properties being sold by Waypoint and associated company Star City Broadcasting.
Coastal is also acquiring from Waypoint the centralized NewsHub in Little Rock and the Nulogic Digital Marketing agency, which serves radio and TV broadcasters.
In the Twin Tiers of New York and Pennsylvania, through Vision Communications, WYDC-TV in Corning, N.Y., and W26BF in Elmira, W20BL-D in Bath, WJKP-LD in Corning, WECY-LD in Elmira, and W15EG-D in Corning were sold for $9.5 million.
Lastly, a third APA filed by Christian and Reed reflects the sale of WGBC-TV in Meridian, Miss., to Coastal for $2,501,788.
Coastal is owned and operated by Founder and CEO Bill Fielder. It owns and operates the FOX affiliates in Anchorage, Alaska; Casper and Cheyenne, Wyo., and Tupelo, Miss.
Christian in July 2021 called the deal “a win-win for all involved.” He noted, “As the broadcasting industry consolidates, it is important for small broadcast companies to scale in size. Mike and I looked out at the landscape, and we felt these stations could best compete by combining with another group to maximize leverage. We are proud of what we have achieved and are grateful to all of our teams who have worked tirelessly to serve our communities, from finding lost dogs to giving life-saving information from tornadoes to COVID, while providing world class entertainment and sports programming.”
