There will be no “Great Affiliation Swaps” in any of the 21 markets where Sinclair Broadcast Group owns CBS network affiliates, thanks to a freshly signed comprehensive, multi-year distribution agreement announced on Friday by CBS parent Paramount.
Sinclair’s stable of CBS stations is comprised of properties that include the world’s first broadcast TV station, and an innovator of color television: WRGB-6 in Schenectady, N.Y.
Other stations include KEYE-TV in Austin; KBAK-TV in Bakersfield; KFDM-FM in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tex.; KBOI-TV in Boise, Idaho; KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids, Ia.; WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, KRCG-TV in Columbia-Jefferson City, Mo.; KDBC-TV in El Paso; KCBY-TV/KPIC-TV/KVAL-TV in Coos Bay, Roseburg, and Eugene-Springfield, Ore.; WWMT-TV in Grand Rapids; WHP-TV in Harrisburg-York; KTVL-TV in Medford, Ore.; KTVO-TV in Ottumwa, Iowa; WGME-TV in Portland, Me.; KHQA-TV in Quincy, Ill.; KUTV-TV in Salt Lake City; KPTH-TV in Sioux City, Iowa; WSBT-TV in South Bend, Ind.; KLEW-TV in Spokane; WPEC-12 in West Palm Beach; and KIMA-TV in Yakima, Wash.
Additionally, Paramount reached an agreement to renew the affiliation of WTVH-5 in Syracuse, the final station to be owned by Granite Broadcasting; and New Age Media-owned WGFL-TV in Gainesville-Ocala, stations to which Sinclair provides services.
New Age Media is based in Wilkes Barre, Pa., and headed by CEO John Parente. He’s based at the company’s “flagship” stations, WOLF-TV and WSWB-TV, the Scranton DMA’s FOX and The CW affiliates. While New Age agreed in April 2013 to sell the stations outright to Sinclair Broadcast Group, the deal was scratched six months later, with a shared services agreement instead put into place.
