Gray/Raycom Merger Thread

[CircleSeven 1955]

BREAKING NEWS!!! The FCC has greenlighted the Gray-Raycom deal.

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

BREAKING NEWS!!! The FCC has greenlighted the Gray-Raycom deal.

Time now for the $1,000,000 question... which station groups will receive the GRAYcom spinoffs?

[GoldenShine9 1513]

2 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Time now for the $1,000,000 question... which station groups will receive the GRAYcom spinoffs?

That's already been settled too.

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

18 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

That's already been settled too.

But they've yet to be announced.

[channel2 979]

Marquee Broadcasting is getting WSWG, TEGNA is getting WTOL and KWES, Scripps is getting KXXV/KRHD and WTXL, and Lockwood is getting WTNZ, WFXG, WPGX and WDFX. These deals were announced months ago.

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

9 minutes ago, channel2 said:

Marquee Broadcasting is getting WSWG, TEGNA is getting WTOL and KWES, Scripps is getting KXXV/KRHD and WTXL, and Lockwood is getting WTNZ, WFXG, WPGX and WDFX. These deals were announced months ago.

Oh whoops! Sorry. Man, I've had a miserable day to even forgot about this.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Have the spinoffs been greenlighted yet?

[CircleSeven 1955]

15 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Have the spinoffs been greenlighted yet?

Everything has been greenlighted. Even the spin-off properties to the third-party entities. And Gray will keep the top-4 combo in Hawaii!!

Press Release from Gray:

Quote

Gray Television, Inc. has received approvals from both the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission of its previously announced acquisition of Raycom Media, Inc. (“Raycom”) including the related divestitures of certain television stations due to market overlaps. Furthermore, the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act has now terminated.

The DOJ and FCC approvals require that Gray and Raycom divest the same television stations that we identified in our June 25, 2018, announcement of the merger and that we agreed to divest in the merger agreement with Raycom. The regulatory consents include no unexpected or unusual terms and conditions.

Gray, Raycom, and buyers of the divestiture stations intend to close these transactions effective January 1, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of all conditions in each of the respective agreements.

December 20 appears to be a lucky date of approving deals. Because five years ago, the Gannett-Belo & Tribune-Local TV deals were greenlighted on the same day.

 

[GoldenShine9 1513]

I wonder how they feel in Hunt Valley tonight? 6 months and the deal will have closed even though it was nearly as big.

[channel2 979]

In a way, bigger! More licenses changing hands.

[dman748 1256]

On 12/20/2018 at 6:37 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

I wonder how they feel in Hunt Valley tonight? 6 months and the deal will have closed even though it was nearly as big.

Gray was honest, straightforward and truthful to the FCC and the Justice Department, they didn't pull the garbage the folks in Hunt Valley pulled

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

On 12/20/2018 at 7:37 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

I wonder how they feel in Hunt Valley tonight? 6 months and the deal will have closed even though it was nearly as big.

Tribune/Sinclair = 2 years and nothing.
Gray/Raycom = 6 months and closed in full.

That's what happens when you play by the rules. Gray did it right. Sinclair did it wrong. Its so obvious as to why Sinclair is the most hated broadcasting company.

[CircleSeven 1955]

So Waco is not the only one that's making the subchannel shuffle. 

 

Midland is also shifting its subchannels around. Gray has acquired the CW & Telemundo affiliation from the Raycom deal.

 

They did not say if/when the changes are going to be in effect, or if the changes already happened.

 

Here's the new lineup from KOSA:

 

7.1 CBS

7.2 The CW (from KWES 9.2)

7.3 Telemundo (SD) (from KWES 9.3)

7.4 Ion

 

7.5 Telemundo (HD) 

7.6 MyNet (from KOSA 7.2)

7.7 H&I (from KOSA 7.3)

 

Not sure if 7.5-7.7 is KTLE's Digital channel 20's signal. It would be major bandwidth issues if all these subchannels are on KOSA-TV's stick.

 

But the big changes will occur for Big Spring's KWAB. 

 

No NBC. No CBS. The CW will be on the main signal.

 

4.1 The CW

4.2 Telemundo

4.3 H&I

 

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Why they aren't at least putting CBS on 4.2 I don't know. There is no real signal overlap.

[mvcg66b3r 100]

44 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Why they aren't at least putting CBS on 4.2 I don't know. There is no real signal overlap.

 

They still got KOSA translator K31KJ-D in Big Spring.

[CircleSeven 1955]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Why they aren't at least putting CBS on 4.2 I don't know. There is no real signal overlap.

17 minutes ago, mvcg66b3r said:

They still got KOSA translator K31KJ-D in Big Spring.

 

Look at the map of both signals, plus the contour of KOSA's.

 

There isn't much overlap. other than a small chunk of the NE section of the contour. And that LP on RF 31 damn near clones KWAB's contour.

 

[GoldenShine9 1513]

I'd guess the deal closes Wednesday? Or does it even have to be a business day?

[broadcastfan9751 140]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

I'd guess the deal closes Wednesday? Or does it even have to be a business day?

 

The press release from Gray announcing FCC and DOJ approval of the merger says they intend to close the deal January 1 (tommorow).

[mvcg66b3r 100]

9 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Here's the new lineup from KOSA:

 

7.1 CBS

7.2 The CW (from KWES 9.2)

7.3 Telemundo (SD) (from KWES 9.3)

7.4 Ion

 

7.5 Telemundo (HD) 

7.6 MyNet (from KOSA 7.2)

7.7 H&I (from KOSA 7.3)

 

Not sure if 7.5-7.7 is KTLE's Digital channel 20's signal. It would be major bandwidth issues if all these subchannels are on KOSA-TV's stick.

 

 

Would someone please explain to Bigddan11 on Wikipedia that KOSA and KTLE are separate stations with separate licenses and separate transmitters? He put 7.5-7.7 on KOSA as part of that station. I took it off, but he put it back. I took it off again, now he just might put it back.

 

Now Bigddan11 is saying there's a 7.8 (KOSA in SD). I say it might be coming from KTLE.

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

11 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

So Waco is not the only one that's making the subchannel shuffle. 

 

Midland is also shifting its subchannels around. Gray has acquired the CW & Telemundo affiliation from the Raycom deal.

 

They did not say if/when the changes are going to be in effect, or if the changes already happened.

 

Here's the new lineup from KOSA:

 

7.1 CBS

7.2 The CW (from KWES 9.2)

7.3 Telemundo (SD) (from KWES 9.3)

7.4 Ion

 

7.5 Telemundo (HD) 

7.6 MyNet (from KOSA 7.2)

7.7 H&I (from KOSA 7.3)

 

Not sure if 7.5-7.7 is KTLE's Digital channel 20's signal. It would be major bandwidth issues if all these subchannels are on KOSA-TV's stick.

 

But the big changes will occur for Big Spring's KWAB. 

 

No NBC. No CBS. The CW will be on the main signal.

 

4.1 The CW

4.2 Telemundo

4.3 H&I

 

Question... what will be the replacements for KWES on 9.2 and 9.3?

[GoldenShine9 1513]

57 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Question... what will be the replacements for KWES on 9.2 and 9.3?

 

That will be up to TEGNA to negotiate.

[CircleSeven 1955]

4 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Question... what will be the replacements for KWES on 9.2 and 9.3?

3 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

That will be up to TEGNA to negotiate.

 

KWES have yet to announced what diginet's they'll replace it with. We'll probably see in the coming day, as Tegna takes over that signal.

 

Same thing goes for KXXV/KRHD in Waco. Although Scripps does own the Katz Networks. So I wouldn't be surprised if they would add Grit and/or Escape on KXXV in the future (Nexstar's KWKT/KYLE already carries Bounce & Laff).

 

However, I'm pretty surprised that Gray was able to snag the MeTV affiliation away from Tegna's already-owned KCEN, and place it on KWKT/KNCT, and not take the affiliation away from WTOL (another station Tegna is getting), and placing it on WTVG. I'm just surprised the The CW & Telemundo networks would allow Gray to snag those affiliations from the old Raycom outlets. You would think they would keep those diginets intact for the new owner to honor the contracts for that specific station.

 

7 hours ago, mvcg66b3r said:

 

Would someone please explain to Bigddan11 on Wikipedia that KOSA and KTLE are separate stations with separate licenses and separate transmitters? He put 7.5-7.7 on KOSA as part of that station. I took it off, but he put it back. I took it off again, now he just might put it back.

 

Now Bigddan11 is saying there's a 7.8 (KOSA in SD). I say it might be coming from KTLE.

 

First, I didn't see a 7.8 on the release. Unless he lives in the Midland-Odessa market, it's pretty hard to prove. Not saying he's lying but it's best to get proof. Like I said earlier, we don't know if KOSA will carry all seven strems on KOSA, or being broken up with 7.5-7.7 being used on KTLE. So i think its best to wait until the switch occurs. so we'll know whether 7.5-7.7 are on RF 7 or RF 20. I just realized that Gray also owns another LP (K08PL-D - yet I doubt they'll light up this signal because the contour is too narrow.) 

 

I wished KOSA would announce the date of when the switch goes in effect, like KWTX did.

[CircleSeven 1955]

A reporter for Telemundo in Midland posted this vid on their last show from KWES yesterday.

 

Vid courtesy of Roberto Mendoza's FB wall.

 

Question. Did Telemundo share the news set with the parent KWES. Or was this a separate set?

 

[Georgie56 3307]

20 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

A reporter for Telemundo in Midland posted this vid on their last show from KWES yesterday.

 

Vid courtesy of Roberto Mendoza's FB wall.

 

Question. Did Telemundo share the news set with the parent KWES. Or was this a separate set?

 

 

Shared set.

[CircleSeven 1955]

5 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Shared set.

 

That meant that they pre-taped their Telemundo show, prior to the NewsWest 9 live broadcasts. I guess this practice will be a status quo once they move to KOSA.

 

On 12/31/2018 at 9:23 PM, broadcastfan9751 said:

The press release from Gray announcing FCC and DOJ approval of the merger says they intend to close the deal January 1 (tommorow).

On 12/31/2018 at 7:29 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

I'd guess the deal closes Wednesday? Or does it even have to be a business day?

 

Despite their announcement, I had a feeling they weren't going to close it out today (1/1) because it was obviously a holiday.

 

Media General didn't announced the completion of the Young merger until the day after Veteran's Day (11/12/13). When was the last time a big merger was completed on a holiday?

 

But I have a feeling tomorrow (barring any further delay) will be a dawn of a brand new day at Gray.