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Fox buying KOMO, KVI & KPLZ?

This really has nothing to do with radio. The article listed and numerous others today in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Variety only state that Sinclair may spin FOX affiliate KCPQ and My Network TV KZJO to Fox Television Group. Sinclair would keep KOMO, KUNS, and the three radio stations. Fox Broadcasting does not have a radio group, and would not be buying the three stations mentioned in the teaser headline.
 
This really has nothing to do with radio. The article listed and numerous others today in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Variety only state that Sinclair may spin FOX affiliate KCPQ and My Network TV KZJO to Fox Television Group. Sinclair would keep KOMO, KUNS, and the three radio stations. Fox Broadcasting does not have a radio group, and would not be buying the three stations mentioned in the teaser headline.

Show me where it says Sinclair would keep the radio stations.
 
?????Show me where they say they are selling the radio stations to Fox? That story you linked to does not even mention the KVI or KPLZ calls or anything about Radio stations.

Further more why would Sinclair want to dump KOMO and the Fisher Plaza properties where they have spent the last 3 years getting staff and station integrated into Sinclair, only to start over again? Sinclair has made an investment in KOMO, I don;t think they are going to throw that away and start over at KCPQ/ch13.

Selling CH13 is the easiest solution. Other wise what are they going to do swap master control? That might be the only way CH4 gets spun would be to point the Fisher Plaza stl at CH13 and the KCPQ STL to the CH4 transmitter. But the cleaner solution is to just sell CH13.
 
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Yes, Fox is going to get KOMO-TV. There is no word on the radio properties, nor the other Sinclair TV stations in the NW, including KATU Portland, also Boise and Tri-Cities. Speculation is just that at this point.
 
FOX getting KOMO would end up probably result in a giant re-affiliation shift in the market, much to the level of what happened in Denver in 1995. I'd say ABC would want to go to KIRO, with CBS ending up at KCPQ. Too much upheval though. I think FOX would stay with KCPQ, and things will be the same.
 
And nobody benefits from a big affiliate-network realignment. Seattle went through a small version of that years ago, when KIRO lost CBS to KSTW. Ultimately it blew up for both stations.

A couple points to consider: The Adweek article was wrong about some of the existing affiliations, so I wouldn't get too excited about what was said there. Since Ch. 13 is already a FOX affiliate, it's a no-brainier that FOX and Sinclair would want to keep any transaction as clean as possible. Sinclair remains with the KOMO-KUNS duopoly, and yes, with the radio stations.
 
Why would Sinclair want to change the letter head again and all the rebranding for the Seattle properties they just got migrated into the Sinclair way. The simplest thing if Fox were to buy CH4 would be to swap transmitter sites, but that still requires Sinclair to throw all the stationary and logos away and rebrand. Still simpler to just sell KCPQ to fox
 
Doubt Fox will take KOMO's affiliation. They will buy out KCPQ from Tribune (soon to be Sinclair), since the Seahawks are a major cash cow for Fox. KOMO-KUNS-KOMO/AM-KPLZ/FM will stay with Sinclair for now.
A major affiliation switch would be a total disaster for Seattle. 'KOMO 13'? 'Q-4 Fox?' Not gonna happen after that KIRO/KSTW fiasco over 20 years ago. But we could be surprised, uhhh....didn't we hear about Entercom switching some 4+ decade heritage country station called KMPS to 'relaxing favorites at work'?
 
We like our TV grid the way it is. The KIRO/KSTW switcheroo of 1995-97 was a mess. Sinclair hasn't exactly been warmly embraced here in The People's Republic of Seattle and that probably influenced their decision to put us on the divest list. But Fox probably wouldn't fare much better. And another big affiliation switch is the last thing we need. And don't EVEN think of 'KOMO 13' 'Q-4 Fox' in a market still in recovery after the flip of KMPS to Soft AC.

As for the radio stations, I don't think Fox is going to keep them if this thing goes through. I could be wrong, but I just don't see what benefit one small cluster of radio stations in a single market would be to a major TV network O&O.
 
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