KRON for sale-Young hires advisers to help make a deal by first-quarter end

[dhett]

Apparently, there is also a possibility that KRON would be sold separately from the rest of Young -- the three buyers that are looking at the overall group are apparently less than interested in owning KRON.

How sad is that? In a normal world, a top-ten market station like KRON should have been the plum and buyers should have been willing to take the other stations just for the opportunity to get their hands on KRON.

 

[azumanga]

Apparently, there is also a possibility that KRON would be sold separately from the rest of Young -- the three buyers that are looking at the overall group are apparently less than interested in owning KRON.

How sad is that? In a normal world, a top-ten market station like KRON should have been the plum and buyers should have been willing to take the other stations just for the opportunity to get their hands on KRON.

As it was in Young's hands for so long, and as its programming has deteriorated, KRON has practically become nothing more than a liability, which the lucky owner would be responsible for. It's so bad, the station went from top of the heap, to the bottom of the barrel, to the Earth's core. Unless a turnaround is done very quickly, I predict either religious or silent for this station.

 

[LKellerIII]

Apparently, there is also a possibility that KRON would be sold separately from the rest of Young -- the three buyers that are looking at the overall group are apparently less than interested in owning KRON.

How sad is that? In a normal world, a top-ten market station like KRON should have been the plum and buyers should have been willing to take the other stations just for the opportunity to get their hands on KRON.

As it was in Young's hands for so long, and as its programming has deteriorated, KRON has practically become nothing more than a liability, which the lucky owner would be responsible for. It's so bad, the station went from top of the heap, to the bottom of the barrel, to the Earth's core. Unless a turnaround is done very quickly, I predict either religious or silent for this station.

Yeah, Young Broadcasting richly deserves all the criticism it gets. But beyond that, the economic climate for selling a broadcast property is horrible now for all the obvious reasons.

Not to mention - KRON is one of 3 independent TV stations in the market- KOFY has less debt and lower expenses (no news department), and KICU is part of the duopoly with KTVU, so its got lots of advantages.

Finally - in a 200 plus channel world, its got to be hard for indies to compete against all the cable channels. How many times a day can we watch Seinfeld, Friends, Frazier, etc?

 

[Newschannel4SF]

The latest news that has developed on Young Broadcasting and KRON is that Silver Point Capital will assume KRON and Young will remain as is minus KRON. So Silver Point operates Granite and KOFY so could this mean a duopoly with KRON?

This should pan out to be an interesting scenario.....

 

[mleach]

Here are my list of potential owners that KRON should be sold to

1.) Belo Corp of Dallas, TX.
2.) Gannett Company of Washington, D.C.
3.) Hearst-Argyle Television of NYC
4.) Fisher Communications of Seattle, WA
5.) Tribune Company of Chicago IL, (Owned by Sam Zell)
6.) Nexstar Communications
7.) Allbrittion Communications
8.) McGraw-Hill Companies of Denver, CO
9.) Local TV LLC
10.) Providence Equity Partners/Newport Television or Cowles Broadcasting Company of Spokane, WA

Some of those names may need to be scratched off that list...

Belo is firing people right and left at Norfolk-Virginia Beach's WVEC ABC 13, not sure about their other stations like WFAA in Dallas for example.

Local TV...The Denver Post just the other day had mentioned Local TV is cutting back..even firing popular KDVR FOX 31 local weather forcaster Chris Dunn despite being in the running for an emmy for "best local weather forcaster in Denver". What a way to honor someone !!!

Isn't McGraw-Hill, at least their TV operations..aren't they based out Indianapolis? For awhile now I have heard that the master control for Denver's KMGH really comes outof Indy's WRTV.

Nexstar has some major debt from what I read on DCRTV not too long ago.

Allbrittion Communications..they only deal with ABC and nobody else.

 

[LKellerIII]

The latest news that has developed on Young Broadcasting and KRON is that Silver Point Capital will assume KRON and Young will remain as is minus KRON. So Silver Point operates Granite and KOFY so could this mean a duopoly with KRON?

This should pan out to be an interesting scenario.....

Where did you get that, NewsChannel? The latest I have (10:52 AM EDT) says that the auction was cancelled, presumably because the bid minimums were not met.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/315182-Young_Broadcasting_Calls_Off_Auction.php

 

[Newschannel4SF]

Response:

Undisclosed source at KRON - but just moments ago we are hearing H.I.G Capital - so nothing is official on this. We may need to wait for a major announcement tomorrow.

 

[Newschannel4SF]

Banks are now running Young until they find and management group - this update as of this morning 7/15/09.

 

[LKellerIII]

Banks are now running Young until they find and management group - this update as of this morning 7/15/09.

So...it is correct that the auction was cancelled because the debt minimums were presumably not met - And that the debtors (banks) will take over the stations (in that debt for equity swap mentioned in the Broadcast & Cable article). According to that article, the banks are likely to hold onto the Young stations until the market (read: "economy") improves. But I imagine they would find a management group to operate the stations day by day.

 

[Newschannel4SF]

So I presume it is business as usual at most of the Young stations - no changes in the foreseeable future we hope....

 

[azumanga]

Though no doubt the stations would eventually be sold -- just like Equity's chain of television stations.

One thing that actually is likely -- the names of the licensees will now have "debtor in possession" to their names, which, in my opinion, was always a sign of a failing station.

 

[JackBauer112]

Here are my list of potential owners that KRON should be sold to

1.) Belo Corp of Dallas, TX.
2.) Gannett Company of Washington, D.C.
3.) Hearst-Argyle Television of NYC
4.) Fisher Communications of Seattle, WA
5.) Tribune Company of Chicago IL, (Owned by Sam Zell)
6.) Nexstar Communications
7.) Allbrittion Communications
8.) McGraw-Hill Companies of Denver, CO
9.) Local TV LLC
10.) Providence Equity Partners/Newport Television or Cowles Broadcasting Company of Spokane, WA

Some of those names may need to be scratched off that list...

Belo is firing people right and left at Norfolk-Virginia Beach's WVEC ABC 13, not sure about their other stations like WFAA in Dallas for example.

Local TV...The Denver Post just the other day had mentioned Local TV is cutting back..even firing popular KDVR FOX 31 local weather forcaster Chris Dunn despite being in the running for an emmy for "best local weather forcaster in Denver". What a way to honor someone !!!

Isn't McGraw-Hill, at least their TV operations..aren't they based out Indianapolis? For awhile now I have heard that the master control for Denver's KMGH really comes outof Indy's WRTV.

Nexstar has some major debt from what I read on DCRTV not too long ago.

Allbrittion Communications..they only deal with ABC and nobody else.

I forgot one other potential owner, Raycom Media.

 

[Newschannel4SF]

We are hearing that Gray Television out of Atlanta will be running the Young Stations. This news was received this morning.

 

[1069_KIFR]

"The news was received this morning" Was it a welcomed reception? How are they and what are some of the immediate expectations?

 

[Newschannel4SF]

Seven of the Young Stations will be managed by Gray Television out of Atlanta. KRON here in San Francisco,
WATE Knoxville and WLNS Lansing will still be under the Young group and managed by Deb McDermott. We really haven't received any reaction from the station staff other than they are concerned and can only hope for the best.

 

[Robnoxious]

We really haven't received any reaction from the station staff other than they are concerned and can only hope for the best.

Rearranging the deck chairs doesn't stop a boat from sinking.

 

[azumanga]

Personally, I still won't rule out KRON going dark -- if a major Canadian broadcaster can close down a legacy VHF station (see the Canadian forum about CHEK-TV and CHCA-TV), what would stop KRON from biting the big one?

 

[TexasTom]

Personally, I still won't rule out KRON going dark -- if a major Canadian broadcaster can close down a legacy VHF station (see the Canadian forum about CHEK-TV and CHCA-TV), what would stop KRON from biting the big one?

It doesn't seem likely -- surely KRON is worth *something*, even if it is just a small fraction of what Young originally paid. But even selling it for, say, $50 million seems like it would be a better move than taking the station dark.

On the other hand...I think most observers were surprised when Field Broadcasting took WKBS/48 Philadelphia dark in the early eighties.

 

[recto101]

Here are a few idea that I thought about....

Young Broadcasting should sell the station to the owner of KTSF! So that Lincoln Broadcasting would have duopoly in SF market too. I think this would be a good idea,... they can have programming in even more languages!!!!

How about selling the station to ABC so that they too can join the duopoly party!!!! Just keep KGO as ABC and carry ESPN programmings on KRON.... KRON 4, The Bay Area's News & Sports Station!

ESPN on KRON might actually not a bad idea, since KRON will for sure benefit as far as rating is concerned.

Selling KRON to ABC is a bad idea because KGO is already in a duopoly with KOFY.

and KOFY is already playing old ABC shows. Well ABS-CBN and GMA in the Philippines should consider owning a San Francisco Station like KRON. unfortunatelly ABS-CBN and GMA can't obtain KRON due to FCC reguations

 

[recto101]

Hey Jim Gabbert KRON Channel 4 is 4 Sale! Work your magic!

unforunatelly Gabbert is back on KOFY and on KGO-am