Woodstock, Va., is exactly 94 miles from the main campus of American University, in Northwest Washington. Yet, that’s the home for a low-power TV station that relocated to the broadcast tower famously adjacent to south dormitories that houses the transmitter for NBC’s WRC-4.
The move from the I-81 corridor to the south of Winchester is a direct result of the FCC’s incentive auction, and co-locates this LPTV with another LPTV facility already using the tower.
Now, these two small TV signals are set to become siblings to the ABC affiliate serving the National Capital Region.
Sinclair Broadcast Group is agreeing to acquire both WDCO-CD 10, licensed to Woodstock but broadcasting from the AU tower; and D.C.-licensed WIAV-CD, which holds a Construction Permit for Channel 30, from Venture Technologies Group subsidiary WMTM, LLC — located in a different suite of a Mid-Wilshire office tower in Los Angeles.
For Sinclair, the purchase of WDCO-CD and WIAV-CD is being done by subsidiary “ACC Licensee LLC,” with Miles Mason of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman handling the transaction as legal counsel for Sinclair.
Is it a spectrum play based on the ATSC 3.0 “NEXTGEN TV” offerings focused on data, rather than an over-the-air expansion for Sinclair? That remains to be seen. But, Sinclair has taken a leadership role in the build-out of ATSC 3.0, as seen with Friday’s announcement that its OneMedia 3.0 arm is hosting a forthcoming series of webinars designed to explore monetization and financial growth opportunities associated with the business applications of NEXTGEN TV.
The deal is valued at $8.5 million, and a $425,000 escrow deposit has been made to U.S. Bank N.A., as escrow agent.
Once the deal is complete, WDCO-10 and WIAV-30 will become siblings to WJLA-7. That’s the former Allbritton flagship that was acquired by Sinclair in a multi-station deal filed with the FCC in August 2013.
While the transaction was met with DOJ scrutiny, it went through — unlike Sinclair’s proposed merger with Tribune Media, which was terminated in August 2018.
