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Gray Television to have a deal with Quincy for $925 Million

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

deadline.com

Gray Television Acquires Quincy Media For $925 Million In Cash

Broadcaster Gray Television Monday has acquired smaller family-owned Quincy Media for $925 million in cash in a deal that will land it with stations in 102 markets reaching over 25% of U.S. TV hous…
deadline.com deadline.com


Here are a list of stations affected by the deal. I get the reasons part of this is that Gray is competing against Nexstar, Scripps, Sinclair, Tegna and Hearst for Audiences.

Gray said the stations it will acquire are:

WPTA (ABC/NBC) and WISE (CW) in Fort Wayne, Indiana (DMA 104)

WEEK (NBC/ABC/CW) in Peoria, Illinois (DMA 118)

WREX (NBC/CW) in Rockford, Illinois (DMA 132)

KBJR (NBC/CBS) and KDLH (CW) in Duluth, Minnesota (DMA 136)

KTIV (NBC/CW) in Sioux City, Iowa (DMA 147)

KTTC (NBC/CW) in Rochester-Mason City, Minnesota-Iowa (DMA 156)

WBNG (CBS/CW) in Binghamton, New York (DMA 158)

WVVA (NBC/CW) in Bluefield-Beckley, West Virginia (DMA 162)

WGEM (NBC/FOX/CW) in Quincy, Illinois (DMA 172)

To satisfy regulators, Gray will be divesting Quincy stations in markets where it owns overlapping stations, including Tucson, Arizona, Madison, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a few others.
Click to expand...
 
Gray is also acquiring WGEM (AM)/FM in Quincy, which it will more likely sell it once its acquired, despite Gray still owning KTXC Lamesa/Odessa/Midland as its sole radio property.
 
If Gray Television merges with Quincy Media. I know that they have to spun off tv stations in Tucson, Arizona (DMA 75) Madison, Wisconsin (DMA 80) Paducah-Harrisburg, Kentucky-Illinois (DMA 91) Cedar Rapids, Iowa (DMA 92) La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin (DMA 123) Wausau-Stevens Point, Wisconsin (DMA 134).

My concerned if Gray is going to be sneaky and move the affiliates that they have to spun off to their subchannels and/or low power tv stations? For example, will Gray move KVOA NBC 4 to KOLD CBS 13 subchannel or move to low power/Class A tv stations or will FCC/DOJ stop this from happening
 
en.wikipedia.org

American Spirit Media - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

All one has to do is look for American Spirit Media (Gray's version of Mission and Deerfield) to come forward and get some of the divested Quincy stations to go around the ownership rules. I can see American Spirit Media getting some of the stations and some of the divested Quincy stations going to another party they we do not know yet.

e-dawg said:
If Gray Television merges with Quincy Media. I know that they have to spun off tv stations in Tucson, Arizona (DMA 75) Madison, Wisconsin (DMA 80) Paducah-Harrisburg, Kentucky-Illinois (DMA 91) Cedar Rapids, Iowa (DMA 92) La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin (DMA 123) Wausau-Stevens Point, Wisconsin (DMA 134).

My concerned if Gray is going to be sneaky and move the affiliates that they have to spun off to their subchannels and/or low power tv stations? For example, will Gray move KVOA NBC 4 to KOLD CBS 13 subchannel or move to low power/Class A tv stations or will FCC/DOJ stop this from happening
Click to expand...
 
Random layman speculation, but with Gray and Sinclair set to own both of the network stations in Kirksville-Ottumwa and Quincy-Hannibal, it might lead to the two markets merging. Even together, they'd only make it to a mid 150 market ranking.
 
joebtsflk1 said:
Random layman speculation, but with Gray and Sinclair set to own both of the network stations in Kirksville-Ottumwa and Quincy-Hannibal, it might lead to the two markets merging. Even together, they'd only make it to a mid 150 market ranking.
Click to expand...
That would have made more sense in the analog days, when at least the analog signal of KTVO heavily overlapped the Quincy stations. Part of the goal of KTVO's ill-fated 2000-foot tower at Colony, Mo. was to make KTVO's signal available to viewers further east (well into Illinois) and to possibly combine the two markets. KYOU's analog UHF signal was never much of a factor.

In the digital era, KTVO's digital signal is a fraction of its former analog signal. There is very little overlap with the Quincy stations, and it pretty much makes Kirksville-Ottumwa its own little market.
 
joebtsflk1 said:
Random layman speculation, but with Gray and Sinclair set to own both of the network stations in Kirksville-Ottumwa and Quincy-Hannibal, it might lead to the two markets merging. Even together, they'd only make it to a mid 150 market ranking.
Click to expand...
KTVO tried to move into the Quincy market by building a tower closer, which fell. When I lived there, it was the defacto ABC affiliate for Quincy-Hannibal, though I believe ABC is on a subchannel there now.
 
SteveRichards said:
That would have made more sense in the analog days, when at least the analog signal of KTVO heavily overlapped the Quincy stations. Part of the goal of KTVO's ill-fated 2000-foot tower at Colony, Mo. was to make KTVO's signal available to viewers further east (well into Illinois) and to possibly combine the two markets. KYOU's analog UHF signal was never much of a factor.

In the digital era, KTVO's digital signal is a fraction of its former analog signal. There is very little overlap with the Quincy stations, and it pretty much makes Kirksville-Ottumwa its own little market.
Click to expand...
The main thing that might motivate Gray and Sinclair management at this time is the parallel affilations they will have. Sinclair will have CBS and ABC in both markets. Gray will have NBC and FOX in both. CW is the only OTA net (net-let) that the two groups split.

I don't know what efficiencies merging the two markets might bring. It would probably be a PR nightmare and probably not worth the trouble.
 
e-dawg said:
If Gray Television merges with Quincy Media. I know that they have to spun off tv stations in Tucson, Arizona (DMA 75) Madison, Wisconsin (DMA 80) Paducah-Harrisburg, Kentucky-Illinois (DMA 91) Cedar Rapids, Iowa (DMA 92) La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin (DMA 123) Wausau-Stevens Point, Wisconsin (DMA 134).

My concerned if Gray is going to be sneaky and move the affiliates that they have to spun off to their subchannels and/or low power tv stations? For example, will Gray move KVOA NBC 4 to KOLD CBS 13 subchannel or move to low power/Class A tv stations or will FCC/DOJ stop this from happening
Click to expand...

Rockford, Illinois is also another market that would be affected by this merger...Gray already owns WIFR (CBS), but because they're now classified as a low-power station, they (Gray) can run a WREX-WIFR duopoly with no issue. Nexstar/Mission control the only other full-power stations in the market--WTVO (ABC) and WQRF (Fox). What you're suggesting in Tucson could very possibly happen in Rockford...between WREX and WIFR, they have a lot of subchannels (Antenna TV, Cozi, MeTV, The CW, and Ion) between them; it wouldn't be much of a shock if WREX has NBC, CBS, and The CW on their transmitter, and some of the other diginets move to the WIFR stick. Weigel owns a low-power station in Rockford, which carries Heroes & Icons, Telemundo (via Milwaukee's WYTU), Start TV, and a simulcast of WIFR's main signal...should WREX drop MeTV, it could end up moving to the Weigel station.

As far as Tucson...I think Gray would have to get CBS' blessing for such move, and KOLD may have several years remaining on its affiliation agreement. It's also a mid-sized DMA...most of these moves recently with Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray and others moving network affiliations from a full-powered station to a lower-powered one (or a subchannel) have all taken placed pretty much exclusively in markets smaller than Tucson. $tranger things have happened...
 
joebtsflk1 said:
The main thing that might motivate Gray and Sinclair management at this time is the parallel affilations they will have. Sinclair will have CBS and ABC in both markets. Gray will have NBC and FOX in both. CW is the only OTA net (net-let) that the two groups split.

I don't know what efficiencies merging the two markets might bring. It would probably be a PR nightmare and probably not worth the trouble.
Click to expand...
A Quincy-Hannibal-Kirksville-Ottumwa market would make as much sense as Marion-Muncie, Indiana (which is radio only). Kirksville and Quincy are around 75 miles away, I'm not sure how much commerce the 2 areas have in common---one look at the map and you see "you can't get there from here"--- the 2 markets' radio stations don't reach the other market (I worked at 100,000 watt KGRC; we had nothing to do with Kirksville let alone Ottumwa). There are longstanding markets like Asheville-Greeneville-Spartanburg but this would be brand new.

As a side note, back in 1985-86, I saw more commercials for small radio stations in the hinterlands of Northeast Missouri and Southeast Iowa than I had ever seen before when watching KTVO.
 
stations included in sale

The stations are in markets where Gray already owns major network affiliates. The $380 million deal includes:

-KWWL (NBC) Waterloo-Cedar Rapids
-WKOW (ABC) Madison
-WXOW/WQOW (ABC) La Crosse-Eau Claire
-WAOW/WMOW (ABC) Wausau
-WREX (NBC) Rockford
-WSIL (ABC) Paducah
-KVOA (NBC) Tucson

Gray is keeping WYOW (satellite of WAOW) Eagle River, WI and turning that into a satellite station of Gray owned WSAW CBS/FOX (right now there is a translator in the area of WSAW..this will upgrade the signal in the northern part of the market)
 
tvnewscheck.com

Gray Buying Meredith Local Media For $2.7 Billion

It’s getting 17 stations in 12 markets and will spin off its Flint, Mich., ABC affiliate WJRT since it’s acquiring CBS affil WNEM there. With a combined net revenue exceeding $3.1 billion on a blended 2019-20 basis, Gray said its acquisition of Meredith’s television stations will transform Gray...
tvnewscheck.com tvnewscheck.com

Turns out Gray is buying Meredith local media too and that means WGCL-TV and WPCH-TV Atlanta will be part of this deal.
 
RadioPatrol said:
tvnewscheck.com

Gray Buying Meredith Local Media For $2.7 Billion

It’s getting 17 stations in 12 markets and will spin off its Flint, Mich., ABC affiliate WJRT since it’s acquiring CBS affil WNEM there. With a combined net revenue exceeding $3.1 billion on a blended 2019-20 basis, Gray said its acquisition of Meredith’s television stations will transform Gray...
tvnewscheck.com tvnewscheck.com

Turns out Gray is buying Meredith local media too and that means WGCL-TV and WPCH-TV Atlanta will be part of this deal.
Click to expand...
As will KTVK and KPHO Phoenix. I wonder what Gray's plans for those duopolies will be.
 
KeithE4 said:
As will KTVK and KPHO Phoenix. I wonder what Gray's plans for those duopolies will be.
Click to expand...
In Atlanta there was a proposed "Studio City" project that Gray was planning to build but prior to the announcement it was viewed as pie in the sky. Now If the deal is approved WGCL-TV and WPCH-TV could end up moving to this Studio City office in Atlanta.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Turns out Gray is buying Meredith local media too and that means WGCL-TV and WPCH-TV Atlanta will be part of this deal.
Click to expand...

By buying Meredith, Gray buys a lot of magazines that were originally part of Time Inc, spun off from Warner Media.

Apparently it will spin this group off to shareholders before the sale closes:

Meredith will spin off to its existing shareholders its National Media Group operating division, which owns the nation’s largest portfolio of magazines as well as digital and marketing assets.
Click to expand...

My sense is this deal has been in the works a while. Some Meredith stations have been airing some Gray TV productions.
 

Here is Gray's possible new offices for WGCL-TV if it were to be approved both construction of their Atlanta offices "Studio City Georgia" and the Meredith deal were to be approved.
 
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