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Meruleo Media Sells Los Angeles TV Station To Church of Scientology
- Thread starter speer360
- Start date
I remember when they ran stock quotes, too. I have no memory of the Japanese “Giant Robot” cartoons, though.
Wow, that is a low price tag. This is a must-carry TV station in the second largest market. I believe every cable and satellite system serving Los Angeles County, Orange County and part of Ventura County must have it on their line-ups. And it only sold for $30 million?
OK, it doesn't include a TV studio or offices, although the Church of Scientology already has that for its own streaming channel. But the deal does include the transmitter shared with KBEH-TV. While it maps to Channel 22, it really broadcasts on Channel 4. VHF channels 2 through 6 are terrible for digital reception. 7 through 13 are also not optimal but not as bad as the lower channels. Never the less, it's still an over-the-air Los Angeles TV channel that has must-carry rights in millions of homes.
As Loveofradio says, this is bad news for all owners of broadcasting properties. If you can only get $30 million for a Los Angeles TV station, how much has the price of your TV and radio outlets dropped? What low figure will 98.7 WEPN-FM sell for when its lease with Good Karma ends in a month? An FM station in NYC won't sell for $50 million if KWHY-TV 22 Los Angeles only sold for $30 million.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That's because my old friend CPH has KWHY and the former KBSC entangled in his memory (probably because both were subscription TV stations for part of their history).
It was channel 52 that had Japanese anime as part of its afternoon schedule for many years, alongside Felix The Cat, the Three Stooges and Little Rascals, and (improbably enough) Doctor Who. Channel 22, going back to its days as KPOL, ran old syndicated shows during non-market hours ... most of which dated back to the 1950s and early 1960s.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Unfortunately for them, that is becoming less and less relevant. I read somewhere that Charter/Spectrum (which is the dominant cable provider in most of Los Angeles and Ventura County) had a net loss of subscribers this year compared to 2022. Lots of cord-cutting going on now, and Spectrum is now pushing Internet, VoIP, and wireless rather than video services.
Possibly. I *do* remember some Japanese content on KWHY in the afternoons, after the market closed for the day. (but before the station became all-Spanish sometime in the early 2000s).
Or it could have been on Channel 18 (KSCI) which had a lot of foreign language content until 2017... maybe I got 22 mixed up with that.
Meruelo paid $40 million, and now sold it for $30 million. Looks like broadcast TV is following radio down the deteriorating asset route.
Goes for all traditional media.
Do cable companies even offer video anymore?
I used to be on what eventually became Frontier from 2005 to 2016. I dumped the video service on Frontier (keeping the internet) in favor of DirecTV, which I kept until sometime in 2022. By then I decided to get rid of DirecTV, and get my TV through Frontier. But by them, Frontier no longer offered baseband video to new customers, just YouTube TV....
Eh. I know of a very low-rated AM signal right here in LA that is selling for
That radio station is paying a monthly fee for the sale is going towards the 7.15 million sale price.
Um....no.
Disney paid $320 million---$217 million to RKO General (which was lucky it was allowed to sell it instead of having to forfeit the license) and $103 million to Fidelity Television, a group which had been contesting Channel 9's license since 1965.
Disney Agrees to Buy KHJ-TV for $320 Million
Walt Disney Co., flush with success in theme parks, television and movies, said Monday that it plans to become a TV station owner by purchasing KHJ-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles for $320 million.
www.latimes.com
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Spectrum/Charter does but they push broadband, home phone and wireless harder.
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It is a lot cheaper for them to have you stream using an app or a Xumo box than to have a massive headend with all the channels transmitted by cable.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Why? They use the same cable runs that carry broadband and VoIP phone.
I think the point was that by using IPTV streams for video services they’re not gobbling up huge amounts of bandwidth on linear channels. This is why cable systems got rid of analog distribution, and now are shutting down the digital QAM channels.
Thanks for the clarification, I had forgotten the exact totals. I had family in on the Fidelity side. Did you know that Westinghouse first looked at the station before Disney? That eventually fell through.Um....no.
Disney paid $320 million---$217 million to RKO General (which was lucky it was allowed to sell it instead of having to forfeit the license) and $103 million to Fidelity Television, a group which had been contesting Channel 9's license since 1965.
Disney Agrees to Buy KHJ-TV for $320 Million
Walt Disney Co., flush with success in theme parks, television and movies, said Monday that it plans to become a TV station owner by purchasing KHJ-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles for $320 million.
Yeah, I’d say. 395 dollars?
Yep. It went on a long time before Westinghouse bailed.
Westinghouse Drops Out of Deal to Buy KHJ : Cites Delays, Complexities in FCC's Approval Process; Plans Other Acquisitions
Westinghouse Electric said Wednesday that it is terminating its $313-million deal to buy KHJ-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, which has been tangled in federal licensing proceedings.
www.latimes.com
Group W wanted both KHJ-TV and WOR-TV in New York, if I can recall from my research. It would have been interesting to see how Group W would have programed two independents in the two largest markets if they would have gotten waivers to keep KFWB and WINS (and KYW/KYW-TV in Philadelphia) or be forced to sell those outlets.Yeah, I’d say. 395 dollars?
Yep. It went on a long time before Westinghouse bailed.
Westinghouse Drops Out of Deal to Buy KHJ : Cites Delays, Complexities in FCC's Approval Process; Plans Other Acquisitions
Westinghouse Electric said Wednesday that it is terminating its $313-million deal to buy KHJ-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, which has been tangled in federal licensing proceedings.
What happened in LA was the FCC transferred the channel 9 license (which had been temporarily reallocated to Norwalk–what was the reasoning for that?) to Fidelity. Disney then paid Fidelity for the license, and RKO General for everything else (physical plant, IP, contracts, etc.) That last part was similar to what RKO did in 1982 when it was forced to relinquish WNAC-TV in Boston.
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