ARCATA, CALIF. — The first television station to serve a wide swath of coastal California between Portland, Ore., and San Francisco, jokingly known here as “behind the Redwood Curtain,” will soon be owned by the company that controls the crosstown CBS affiliate —a facility once owned by iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel.
Now that this deal brokered by Kalil & Co. has been consummated and the arguably more valuable NBC affiliate is now in hand, the CBS station serving Humboldt and Del Norte Counties is on the block.
In a two-pronged transaction that saw its process begin in mid-March and then solidified on Aug. 15, KIEM-3 in Eureka-Arcata, Calif., is headed to Redwood Television Partners LLC.
According to an official Form 314 filing with the FCC made today (8/23), Redwood is acquiring the station from Pollack/Belz Broadcasting Co. That’s the result of Lost Coast Broadcasting assigning its right to acquire KIEM to Redwood — a subsidiary of Northwest Broadcasting.
Lost Coast struck a deal to acquire KIEM from Pollack/Belz on March 13, and that entity — as is Redwood — is headed by the same person: Jason Wolff.
Wolff signed the paperwork formalizing the assignment of the APA to Redwood, which in addition to KIEM yields two translator stations: K02OD-D in Shelter Cove, a small coastal community to the west of Garberville, in southern Humboldt County; and K07GJ-D in Hoopa, a Native American community on the western edge of the Trinity Alps.
Wolff heads Frontier Radio Management Inc., and has partnered with Brian Brady in television ownership through such entities as Cala Broadcast Partners. Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting is the parent of Redwood, with Wolff heading this subsidiary as the minority owner.
Exhibit 14 of the Form 314 filing made Wednesday visually explains how the Los Angeles-based Wolff’s business relations to those of Brady are structured.
There was no price disclosed in this transaction.
Should the FCC give its OK to the spin of KIEM to Redwood, it would be forced to spin its other TV station serving the Eureka-Arcata market: KVIQ-17, which was on analog Channel 6 until late November 2008. Redwood indicates that a transaction is already in the works.
KVIQ’s recent history saw the Ackerley Group acquire the station from Miller Broadcasting in 1986. Ackerley built local studios and heavily competed against KIEM with its “Action News 6” operation. But, with Clear Channel’s purchase of Ackerley, the costly news operation was dismantled; the studios were knocked down in 2013 to accommodate a signage area for a recently built Holiday Inn Express.
As reported by RBR+TVBR, Clear Channel sold KVIQ to Robert Castro’s Sainte Partners II, which effectively managed the property for the radio-focused company. In December 2013, Redwood acquired KVIQ from Sainte for $1.25 million.
KIEM’s seller, Pollack/Belz Broadcasting, is a Tennessee-based company headed by William Pollack.
Commenting on KIEM’s sale, Pollack said, “We take great pride in the many accomplishments achieved during our 21 years of ownership. Since acquiring KIEM in 1996, News Channel 3 has been the highest rated station in the market achieved by the dogged determination, passion and support of our KIEM-TV family, advertisers and viewers. No doubt, Redwood will continue to build upon the success of KIEM, the Spirit of the North Coast.”
Pollack/Belz will continue to own KLAX-TV and KWCE-LP in Alexandria, La.
The KIEM sale and pending KVIQ transaction result in a change in ownership for every TV station in one of the nation’s smallest DMAs in just the last six months. In April, the Randy Bongarten-led Bonten Media Group sold its stations — including ABC-affiliated KAEF-23, FOX-affiliated KBVU-28, The CW-affiliated KECA-LD 29.1, MyNetwork TV-affiliated KECA-LD 29.2, and Univision-affiliated KEUV-LP 31 in Eureka-Arcata — to Sinclair Broadcast Group.
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