In April, he announced that he’s seeking to succeed rising GOP House Member Byron Donalds in Congress, running on the Republican Party ticket. He also happens to be the President of Sun Broadcasting, which attracted significant attention in mid-August for agreeing to purchase two Southwest Florida radio stations from Beasley Media Group.
Now, the broadcast media company led by President Jim Schwartzel is investing even more dollars into local media by creating a duopoly that some may already be raising their eyebrows over.
Schwartzel-led Sun Broadcasting, which owns The CW affiliate for Fort Myers-Naples, WXCW-TV, and two low-power TV stations offering Univision and UniMás programming to Southwest Florida, has agreed to acquire WFTX-TV in Fort Myers-Naples from The E.W. Scripps Co.
It’s a $40 million deal, and will create a duopoly; low-power TV stations do not count as full-power stations under current FCC rules. WFTX is branded as “FOX 4,” based on its heritage cable TV channel lineup position across Southwest Florida.
Scripps gained WFTX-TV through its merger with Journal Broadcast Group. That company had acquired the station from Jeff Smulyan-founded and led Emmis Communications, which owned it from 1998-2005.
Privately held Sun Broadcasting expects to close the WFTX transaction in the fourth quarter, “following receipt of regulatory and other customary approvals.”
And, Scripps says, “The transaction does not require relief from any of the current rules governing television station ownership.”
But, what about WINK-TV? That entity is licensed to Fort Myers Broadcasting Co., and is a wholly separate operation from Sun Broadcasting, although it enjoys content and sales partnerships that are controlled by the WINK owner.
As Fort Myers Broadcasting and Sun are different companies, with the former owned by the McBride Family, the owner of CBS affiliate WINK-TV and WAVV-FM, WINK-FM and WTLQ “97.7 Latino” in Fort Myers agreed to purchase WBCN-AM 770, an ESPN Radio affiliate; Gold-based Adult Contemporary WJPT-FM “Sunny 106.3,” and Adult-oriented Tropical WWCN-FM “Playa 99.3″ for $9 million from Beasley. Sun picked up WRXK “96 K-Rock” and WXKB “B103.9” from Beasley in a separate $9 million transaction.
Why did Scripps sell “FOX 4”? The company intends to use cash from the sale of WFTX to pay down debt, Scripps President/CEO Adam Symson said.
“The sale of WFTX to Sun Broadcasting will put the station in the hands of a locally based company with deep roots in the Southwest Florida community,” Symson said. “When opportunities like this arise, we evaluate our business strategies to determine whether we are the best owners for that station or whether a swap or sale makes the most sense. In this case, we believe WFTX and its viewers will be well cared for by the new owners, and Scripps is able to use the transaction to reduce debt and improve our station portfolio’s financial profile.”
The WFTX divestment follows a July 2025 transaction in which Scripps announced it had agreed to swap stations in five mid-sized and small markets with Gray Media.
That transaction, which does require relief from current television station ownership rules, is now in front of federal regulators for review.
