You think that would stop those suspected companies? Apollo can sell the group as a complete unit and one of these suspected companies could have quietly negotiated a TBA in the background. Once the Apollo sale is complete, whomever buys the stations, immediately sells the radio stations to the 3rd-party. Apollo has no recourse.
The entire idea that the FCC grants licenses or allows local broadcasting to serve the public interest went out the window, when the greedy corporations began slashing budgets, experienced journalists and solely providing shareholder value, instead of catering to their communities. You made your point as if crippling the visual storytelling medium wasn't the entire purpose. Really, the 3 biggest station groups - Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray are lead by Conservative CEOs who are more interested in pushing their own opinions and sucking the assets out of local journalism than providing a public good. Why do we think NewsNation is still around? Sean Compton is a close friend of Donald Trump's. Nexstar's local stations are being siphoned from resources and Nexstar retrans agreement with cable vendors must include NewsNation, which both Neilsen and Comscore demonstrate has little value, but Nexstar keeps taking valuable assets away from their stations to propup Donald Trump's friend. So I call bullshit on the idea that this isn't the entire intent of these organizations and we cannot stop it.