Highland Park Broadcasting LP’s (Robert J. Watkins, President) Religious/Community-oriented WHPR-TV Highland Park/Detroit (W33BY-CD), has been sold to Locus Point Networks. It broadcasts with 15,000 W @ 313’ AGL on Channel 33. The exclusive broker was Patrick Communications (Greg Guy, Broker).
The station is a Class-A operation, even though the station’s official calls are still translator-style calls. W33BY is the only remaining American station in the Metro Detroit area to still broadcast only in analog. There is a CP on file with the FCC for digital conversion.
LocusPoint Networks is the owner of several TV stations in the US. The company is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group. One of the company’s recent acquisitions, WMGM-TV Wildwood/Atlantic City, NJ (managed by Access.1 Communications) was rumored to have been purchased only to be sold in the spectrum auction. NBC recently announced it would end its affiliation with the station at the end of the year. In fact, LocusPoint is positioned to sell off some or all of its stations’ bandwidth when the FCC conducts the spectrum auction, scheduled for June 2015.
Other LocusPoint stations:
City of license / Market Station Channel TV (RF) Affiliation
San Francisco, California KFTL-CD 28 (28) ZUUS Latino/HSN (DT2)/24/7 Network (DT10)/ZUUS Country (DT15)
Orlando, Florida WRCF-CD 29 (35) Independent
Plano, Illinois WLPD-CD 30 (35) America One
Towson, Maryland WMJF-CD 39 Independent
Detroit, Michigan WDWO-CD 18 (18) TCT
Edison, New Jersey WDVB-CD 23 (23) Independent
Wildwood, New Jersey WMGM-TV 40 (36) NBC
Buffalo, New York WBNF-CD 15 (15) TCT
RBR-TVBR observation: These stations are prime real estate for the spectrum auction, as they’re in fairly large markets, where the most demand will be from wireless bidders. It’s becoming a lucrative business, grabbing up medium and large market LPTVs to auction off for top dollar.
