CircleSeven

Follow-Up Time. It's been greenlighted.

Okay, the rest of the closing papers were posted yesterday (1/6). All closed on New Year's Day. ComCorp.

Looks like the long-lasted ComCorp may have finally been closed. Although (at this time) no announcement has been made. Although, if there's any indication, the WEVV deal to Bayou City was closed on New Year's Day. And Nexstar is now listing the ComCorp stations on its website.

This would look so good with the Gannett graphics.

Follow-up time. WTVA & WLOV made amendments to their applications (posted this morning), that stated that they were willing to modify its JSA to reduce it to no more that 15%. The FCC went ahead today and conditionally granted both deals. But on the grant, they were ordered to send an amendes JSA document to the FCC, before closing.

As stated back in October. WMBF's founding VP/GM Ted Fortenberry will be the new VP/GM of Jackson's WLBT. It appears Raycom has found a replacement from within. The station announced yesterday, that its News Director Sarah Miles has been promoted as new VP/GM of WMBF. And while Fortenberry returns to Mississippi to head WLBT, he won't be the only new face there. TVSpy stated that Jonesboro's KAIT's ND Hatton Weeks will become the new ND of WLBT.

It appears to be a done deal. Feder stated that Scott could be starting at Channel 7 by the end of the year.

Former WSET weekend meteorologist Lyndsay Tapases, has been hired as a new meterologist at Charlotte's WBTV 3. She will be starting on the last week of this month.

Well it's about time. WFTS is expanding its morning news offerings. TVNewsCheck states this morning that on January 12th, WFTS will start its morning newscast @ 4:30am. It will also have an hourly 9am newscast, after Good Morning America.

Well ICYMI, there were several FCC approvals yesterday. There was a reasoning behind this. The FCC issued this statement yesterday, stating about making good on their promises to boost minority ownership. The majority of the Gray Spinoffs, the three former Allbritton stations to HSH, the two ComCorp stations to Marshall, and the WEVV deal to Bayou City were among the deals that were greenlighted yesterday. I believe the FCC's starting point in all of this, was their infamous letter they sent to Sinclair, almost one year to the day (12/6/13). I think that moment started to change the atmosphere in this M&A craze.

Alrighty. At last!!! The FCC has conditionally granted the KPEJ/KMSS apps to Marshall. The FCC has also greenlighted the WEVV deal to Bayou City. Therefore, after 19 months, the ComCorp acquisition has FINALLY been greenlighted.

I also want to point out. If you want to look how the M&A craze is affected, look at the Quad Cities market. Within one year, all the major stations have new owners. 4 = Citadel > Nexstar 6 = Young > Media General 8 = Local TV > Tribune 18 = Grant > Marshall (Nexstar) 26 = Grant > Nexstar

We have a plethora of closings tonight. All were consummated on Monday (12/1). First, the Gray acquisition of KMTF in Helena (sister to NBC station, KTVH) has been closed. IWCC is now down to just the Nevada properties that SInclair have the non-FCC licensed assets to. Second, the Griffin acquisition of KSBI in Oklahoma City (to become the new sister of KWTV) has also been closed. And the big one, (as posted on the Nexstar thread) the Nexstar's acquisition of Grant was completed. KGCW was acquired by a "failed station waiver", and KLJB is now owned by Marshall Broadcasting..

Alrighty. After over a year, the Grant deal has finally been completed. It was closed on Monday (12/1). KGCW was acquired by failed station waiver, and KLJB is now owned by Marshall Broadcasting. If there's any significance to this closing, the "Grant" name is now gone for good. Grant use to own stations in Chicago & Philly, and among other cities. Grant will always be remembered for those distinctive style logos. The "Super 66" logo will forever be lodged in my memory. Grant. RIP Milton Grant.

As I stated back in August, Mission withdrew its apps for the Tyler & Baton Rouge properties, and it won't be any "rocky creeks" in Shreveport. If Nexstar is wise, once this deal finally closes (and I say that with caution), they should let Marshall acquire WVLA, and move KSHV's programming KMSS's subchannel. And although I don't condone station shutdowns, who would want to buy a standalone-operated KSHV? As for Iowa, I think that it would be less of a hassle for Tribune to acquire This TV and place it on a sub of WHO (I know that would degrade the PQ of main channel), instead of getting the full channel (via a FSW). Because I have a feeling Pappas wants to keep at least one station, once the spectrum auctions starts.

Reuters stated today that the DOJ has allowed the Nexstar/ComCorp deal to go through, on a condition that they must divest WEVV. As we know, WEVV is being sold to DuJuan McCoy's Bayou City Broadcasting. So with this OK from thd DOJ, it should FINALLY receive the greenlight from the FCC, so this long-awaited ComCorp deal can finally close.

New M&A. This time we go back to Nebraska. It appears that Pappas wants to acquire KFXL outright, for $300K. As of now, Pappas operates KFXL under an LMA. But now its wants the station outright, and they're saying the station's coverage area doesn't overlap with its other properties out west. As of late, Pappas has been selling the remaining of its stations. So I'm thinking, them buying KFXL might attract buyers for the whole NTV cluster. It's their only cash cow that's left in their portfolio.

Follow-up in Montana. It appears that the FCC granted the waiver for KMTF today (11/21).

Okay, y'all. Remember that New Age deal from last September 2013? As of Halloween, it appears that the applications involved in the deal were DISMISSED. So that basically means Sinclair bailed out of this deal right? WRONG. They stated this, as they released their Q3 earnings report last week: So while (technically) the deal is dead, New Age keeps the papers, and Sinclair is now running the show.

A new crime-mystery related digi-net entitled, the "Justice Network", will be launching in January on the Gannett stations. I wouldn't be shocking if it launched, at the same time Live Well shuts down completely.

It is happening in Central Iowa. Nexstar is buying KCWI from Pappas for $3.5M.

This was from the pre-marathon coverage this morning.

Alrighty. There's no tricks about this. The FCC has conditionally granted the KLJB deal to Marshall. And because of this, the whole Grant deal has now been greenlighted. This was another deal (after Sinclair/Allbritton), in which it lasted a year (11/6/13).

RIP to Advantage on WOKR/WHAM. After 21 years.

On the 5pm tonight, I saw Jim Rose's live hit from MSG, as the Bulls is facing the Knicks for their season opener. He held a mic with a WABC mic flag. If I remember last year, Laura Behnke was here in Chicago, and she did her live report from the Cell. with the "just-new" WLS mic flag.