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WRTV sold to Circle City Broadcasting, to merge with WISH-TV

R

Rollo-Smokes

Big news out of Indianapolis that wasn't on anyone's radar.

And, perhaps a sign of things to come at E.W. Scripps?

www.wishtv.com

Circle City Broadcasting Reaches Agreement to Purchase WRTV-ABC for $83 Million

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Circle City Broadcasting, the parent company of WISH-TV and MyINDY-TV 23, announced Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WRTV-ABC from The E.W. Scripps Company for $83 million. The announcement was made by DuJuan McCoy, owner, president, and...
www.wishtv.com www.wishtv.com
 
Circle City would own three Indy stations if this goes through. Won't one of them (my guess would be WNDY/23) have to be divested?
 
KeithE4 said:
Circle City would own three Indy stations if this goes through. Won't one of them (my guess would be WNDY/23) have to be divested?
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WNDY can stay, MyNetworkTV has really just been two hours of reruns on weekdays for 16 years now. That's it.
 
KeithE4 said:
Circle City would own three Indy stations if this goes through. Won't one of them (my guess would be WNDY/23) have to be divested?
Click to expand...
DuJuan McCoy is under the assumption he can keep all three stations, merge WRTV into WISH, and fire everyone at channel 6. Same reason why Nexstar is under the assumption they can get all of Tegna, they'd fire everyone at WTHR and merge that station into 4/59.

Indianapolis would only have two TV newsrooms if these two had their way.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Indianapolis would only have two TV newsrooms if these two had their way.
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In other words, deja vu 1960s all over again.

I'm old enough to remember when Indy's two major news departments were then-NBC Channel 6 and then-CBS Channel 8. Channel 13 (ABC) was a laughingstock with a weak signal, while Channel 4 was an independent better known for kiddie and horror shows, and college basketball, than news.

As a matter of pure speculation, I wonder if they'd move ABC to Channel 8, CW to 6, and make 23 a Marion/Kokomo-based satellite of both, to get around the ownership cap if it still exists by the time this is approval.
 
KeithE4 said:
Circle City would own three Indy stations if this goes through. Won't one of them (my guess would be WNDY/23) have to be divested?
Click to expand...
nope. They can keep both as its only multiple "top 4 in a market" stations that have to be divested. I doubt CW or My Network are top 4 in Indy ;)
 
Nathan Obral said:
DuJuan McCoy is under the assumption he can keep all three stations, merge WRTV into WISH, and fire everyone at channel 6. Same reason why Nexstar is under the assumption they can get all of Tegna, they'd fire everyone at WTHR and merge that station into 4/59.
Click to expand...

Circle City already fired or ran off roughly half of the newsroom at WISH-TV. Some are speculating those moves were in anticipation of it adding WRTV to its holdings and increasing the workload of those at WRTV.
 
Even if they had to divest a station, WISH and WNDY specturm share, so the programming on WNDY could continue under an 8.x channel. The WNDY license could be turned in or sold to someone else who could spectrum share with another signal.
 
Another thing to add: Scripps operates a master control hub out of 1330 North Meridian Street. According to an internal memo, Scripps will keep the hub there after the sale closes for no more than a year.

This could mean that Circle City is also acquiring the WRTV studio building. But we won't really know until the sale papers are filed at the FCC.

courtesy: FTV Live
35750.jpg
 
KeithE4 said:
As a matter of pure speculation, I wonder if they'd move ABC to Channel 8, CW to 6, and make 23 a Marion/Kokomo-based satellite of both, to get around the ownership cap if it still exists by the time this is approval.
Click to expand...

As 23 channel shares on the 8 signal, it can't be a satellite of 8.

- Trip
 
KeithE4 said:
In other words, deja vu 1960s all over again.

I'm old enough to remember when Indy's two major news departments were then-NBC Channel 6 and then-CBS Channel 8. Channel 13 (ABC) was a laughingstock with a weak signal, while Channel 4 was an independent better known for kiddie and horror shows, and college basketball, than news.

As a matter of pure speculation, I wonder if they'd move ABC to Channel 8, CW to 6, and make 23 a Marion/Kokomo-based satellite of both, to get around the ownership cap if it still exists by the time this is approval.
Click to expand...
Didn't Channel 4 aired Indiana Pacers games and Dick The Bruiser's WWA wrestling territory as well and being a regional SuperStation?
 
TVCOOL said:
Didn't Channel 4 aired Indiana Pacers games and Dick The Bruiser's WWA wrestling territory as well and being a regional SuperStation?
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They aired Pacers games, but were best know for IU and Purdue basketball. Herb Isaacs (better known as kid-show host Happy Herb in the early '60s), Chuck Marlowe (also a kid-show host for a few years, as well as Sports Director), and then Hilliard Gates, who was based in Ft. Wayne for the most part, were the play-callers. I don't have any idea who would have called the games when WTTV was still based in Bloomington (1949-54). Before my time.

Dick Afflis, aka Dick the Bruiser, was probably the best-known wrestler in that part of the Midwest. The Hulk Hogan of his day.

WTTV didn't become a regional superstation until sometime in the '70s.
 


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