In August 1966, after three previous incarnations following its license grant from the FCC and a 1963 debut as an African-American focused broadcast TV station, KWHY-22 in Los Angeles came to fruition. It was largely known for stock market coverage in the days before FNN and, ultimately, CNBC. At night, it was a pioneer of broadcast premium television as a SelecTV station.
That all changed in April 1989, when Spanish-language programming not seen on network stations across town debuted, with full-time en español fare coming a decade later.
Soon, KWHY will be making another programming transition, as its current owner has sold it.
The buyer is an entity founded by the late L. Ron Hubbard.
Sunset Boulevard Broadcasting Corp., an entity of the Church of Scientology, is agreeing to acquire unaffiliated KWHY-22 from Meruelo Television, a division of Meruelo Media.
Paperwork was finalized on July 15 and filed with the FCC for regulatory approval late Monday (7/29).
Importantly, the transaction’s terms also call for Meruelo and Scientology to enter into a channel-sharing agreement with respect to Meruelo-owned KBEH-63, as the two stations each use VHF digital channel 4 for broadcasts.
Meruelo is earning $30 million from the sale of KWHY — a station that became the first asset tied to Alex Meruelo, known as the owner of the Sahara in Las Vegas and the owner of the former Arizona Coyotes until selling the team to the National Hockey League under pressure due to a future arena land side dispute between the cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale. Local newscasts at 7pm and 10pm are meshed with Spanish-language syndicated fare as “Your Local Superstation.”
KWHY was acquired by Meruelo from a divestment trust headed by José Cancela after NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises in January 2011 made good on a promise to sell it and lower its L.A.-market assets to two in order for NBCU and Comcast to win regulatory approval of their merger. This left NBCU with KNBC-4 and KVEA-52 as NBC and Telemundo West Coast flagships, respectively.
Meruelo in 2011 paid $40 million for KWHY.
Fast-forward 13 years later, and the Church of Scientology is moving forward with a bit of a bargain. A $3 million escrow deposit is being held by Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth. Meruelo’s broker of record is Kalil & Co.
Anne Goodwin Crump of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth served as the Church of Scientology’s legal counsel in this deal, while Meruelo’s legal counsel of record is Lerman Senter PLLC.
KWHY once fetched hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2001, Telemundo created a duopoly prior to its acquisition by NBCUniversal, buying KWHY-22 for $239 million.
One year later, when NBCU and Telemundo combined, the FCC granted a waiver allowing for a three-station operation in L.A. While a 2007 attempt to sell KWHY fizzled, the Comcast merger with NBCU left no choice but to divest it.
Once the deal closes, KWHY will operate from the “KCET Studios” on Sunset Blvd. From 1970 through the early 2010s, it was home to KCET-TV, a flagship PBS Member station that is today part of “PBS SoCal.” In 2011, the facility was sold to the Church of Scientology and is the hub for its Scientology Network.
With KWHY, the network will gain its first over-the-air home in the U.S. It also appears on DirecTV Channel 320.
