Imagicomm Communications plans to sell its TV stations

[Howard Beale 94]

Imagicomm Communications is getting out of the TV news business.  Paywalled articles at News Blues and the Radio & Television Business Report say the company plans to sell the TV stations it purchased from Apollo (dba Cox Media Group), including:

 

• KYMA (Yuma, AZ)
• KIEM / KVIQ (Eureka, CA)
• KPVI (Pocatello, ID)
• KLAX (Alexandria, LA)
• WABG / WNBD / WXVT (Greenville, MS)
• WICZ (Binghamton, NY)
• WSYT (Syracuse, NY)
• KOKI / KMYT (Tulsa, OK)
• KMVU / KFBI (Medford, OR)
• WHBQ (Memphis, TN)
• KAYU (Spokane, WA)
• KFFX / KCYU (Yakima, WA)

 

With President-elect Trump due to become President Trump in less-than one week, it seems clear that the broadcasting industry truly believes a Trump administration will be pro-merger.  Many of these are small-market stations that probably turn very little of a profit, if any, so anyone’s guess is good at this point about what happens next.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

32 minutes ago, Howard Beale said:

Imagicomm Communications is getting out of the TV news business.  Paywalled articles at News Blues and the Radio & Television Business Report say the company plans to sell the TV stations it purchased from Apollo (dba Cox Media Group), including:

 

• KYMA (Yuma, AZ)
• KIEM / KVIQ (Eureka, CA)
• KPVI (Pocatello, ID)
• KLAX (Alexandria, LA)
• WABG / WNBD / WXVT (Greenville, MS)
• WICZ (Binghamton, NY)
• WSYT (Syracuse, NY)
• KOKI / KMYT (Tulsa, OK)
• KMVU / KFBI (Medford, OR)
• WHBQ (Memphis, TN)
• KAYU (Spokane, WA)
• KFFX / KCYU (Yakima, WA)

 

With President-elect Trump due to become President Trump in less-than one week, it seems clear that the broadcasting industry truly believes a Trump administration will be pro-merger.  Many of these are small-market stations that probably turn very little of a profit, if any, so anyone’s guess is good at this point about what happens next.

 

I wrote my thoughts in the Speculatron. Basically, look to the surrounding markets for clues - the smaller ones with news would likely need to be helped by them. Those without news could just go to non-commercial outlets with the networks added to incumbent stations. WHBQ and KOKI are the only real prizes.

[TDNProd 6]

Will be interesting to see what happens to the smaller stations.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

Yeah, I was gonna say.

 

The rest, ehh... but WHBQ and KOKI? Those are the grand daddy of them all. Nexstar, Gray, and TEGNA can't get involved in Memphis, neither can Scripps, Griffin, or Sinclair in Tulsa.

 

So there's really no company that can get those two stations together without some kind of conflict of interest.

[TDNProd 6]

14 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Yeah, I was gonna say.

 

The rest, ehh... but WHBQ and KOKI? Those are the grand daddy of them all. Nexstar, Gray, and TEGNA can't get involved in Memphis, neither can Scripps, Griffin, or Sinclair in Tulsa.

 

So there's really no company that can get those two stations together without some kind of conflict of interest.

It's interesting that they bought them together from CMG and are now selling them to whoever will buy them.

[NYAZSporty 197]

1 hour ago, Howard Beale said:

Imagicomm Communications is getting out of the TV news business.  Paywalled articles at News Blues and the Radio & Television Business Report say the company plans to sell the TV stations it purchased from Apollo (dba Cox Media Group), including:

 

• KYMA (Yuma, AZ)

Wonder if Gray would be interested in the Yuma duopoly with KYMA & treat Arizona like Georgia having a station in each market. They already have that somewhat by having KAZS 27 there just over a year ago as part of Arizona's Family Sports ahead of airing Suns games, but unlike the other 2 markets, they don't have a direct local presence there as the only newscasts that air are the ones from KPHO/KTVK that are simulcasted there to the whole state.

Edited January 15, 2025 by NYAZSporty

[ScottSchell 423]

I’m hoping Hearst, Nexstar (who should have originally bought KOKI instead of Cox), Tegna, or Gray decides to buy KOKI.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

1 hour ago, NYAZSporty said:

Wonder if Gray would be interested in the Yuma duopoly with KYMA & treat Arizona like Georgia having a station in each market. They already have that somewhat by having KAZS 27 there just over a year ago as part of Arizona's Family Sports ahead of airing Suns games, but unlike the other 2 markets, they don't have a direct local presence there as the only newscasts that air are the ones from KPHO/KTVK that are simulcasted there to the whole state.

 

The only problem I see with that is that KYMA is operated by News-Press and Gazette Company, which also owns KECY and KESE.

[AmericanErrorist 267]

Back when Imagicomm first bought these stations, there was debate here over what their play was: ATSC 3.0 or an OTA feed of INSP. Whatever it was (if there even was one), it won't get to come to fruition.

[norcalTVfan 58]

I honestly believe this may spell the end of local news in Eureka, CA. Station KIEM - with partner KVIQ (LP) air the only local news after Sinclair closed up shop (on a much better product) and rolled everything to Redding in an adjacent market. I don’t think KIEM will roll into Redding as the other owner is Allen. I don’t think anyone wants KIEM and, if they do, will have trouble keeping news in that stagnant economy. This probably should go in the speculation thread. 

[nathannah 2792]

1 hour ago, AmericanErrorist said:

Back when Imagicomm first bought these stations, there was debate here over what their play was: ATSC 3.0 or an OTA feed of INSP. Whatever it was (if there even was one), it won't get to come to fruition.

I always believed it was like the 'minority owner' racket in the 2010s where a distant woman or other racial group were suddenly 'running' stations stripped to do-nothing subchannel farms in the middle of the Great Plains until Gray and Nexstar could buy them back under a GOP FCC. INSP was so hands-off I was shocked and pretty much ran the stations status quo, so it feels like Imagicomm was actually Legacy 2.0.

[TennTV1983 870]

6 hours ago, Howard Beale said:

Imagicomm Communications is getting out of the TV news business.  Paywalled articles at News Blues and the Radio & Television Business Report say the company plans to sell the TV stations it purchased from Apollo (dba Cox Media Group), including:

 

• KYMA (Yuma, AZ)
• KIEM / KVIQ (Eureka, CA)
• KPVI (Pocatello, ID)
• KLAX (Alexandria, LA)
• WABG / WNBD / WXVT (Greenville, MS)
• WICZ (Binghamton, NY)
• WSYT (Syracuse, NY)
• KOKI / KMYT (Tulsa, OK)
• KMVU / KFBI (Medford, OR)
• WHBQ (Memphis, TN)
• KAYU (Spokane, WA)
• KFFX / KCYU (Yakima, WA)

 

With President-elect Trump due to become President Trump in less-than one week, it seems clear that the broadcasting industry truly believes a Trump administration will be pro-merger.  Many of these are small-market stations that probably turn very little of a profit, if any, so anyone’s guess is good at this point about what happens next.

 

Kinda figured that Imagicomm would ultimately decide to cash out after a few years. Outside of INSP and a production company that makes direct-to-video films, them owning TV stations didn't really make much sense other than just holding assets for a company in Cox/Apollo that was looking to dump stuff in order to make its own portfolio more attractive to potential would-be suitors.

 

5 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Yeah, I was gonna say.

 

The rest, ehh... but WHBQ and KOKI? Those are the grand daddy of them all. Nexstar, Gray, and TEGNA can't get involved in Memphis, neither can Scripps, Griffin, or Sinclair in Tulsa.

 

So there's really no company that can get those two stations together without some kind of conflict of interest.

 

With ownership rules expected to be loosened (if not outright repealed), nothing should be considered off the table as to who buys who. There may be a trade or two along the way (I'll discuss the rest over in the Speculatron).

[jjj 26]

It's interesting how so many station groups have come out that they are selling or are for sale but I don't recall any having come out saying they want to buy.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

7 hours ago, jjj said:

It's interesting how so many station groups have come out that they are selling or are for sale but I don't recall any having come out saying they want to buy.

The industry has seen better days, so the willing buyers are few and far between.  Even the current state of buyers (Allen, Gray, etc..) are crying poverty and cutting their stations to the bone, especially in smaller markets.

[Dave Lampstein 294]

Not sure if I missed it in this thread but Marquee is picking up two of their markets already - Eureka and Medford

https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/marquee-broadcasting-buys-4-imagicomm-stations/

[atlnews2 631]

16 minutes ago, Dave Lampstein said:

Not sure if I missed it in this thread but Marquee is picking up two of their markets already - Eureka and Medford

https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/marquee-broadcasting-buys-4-imagicomm-stations/

well that was quick. Guess they’re ok selling piecemeal instead of “all or nothing “ 

[GoldenShine_10 263]

36 minutes ago, atlnews2 said:

well that was quick. Guess they’re ok selling piecemeal instead of “all or nothing “ 

 

That was quick! As far as Medford, they might want to consider a news partnership with KOBI?

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 1158]

21 hours ago, ScottSchell said:

I’m hoping Hearst, Nexstar (who should have originally bought KOKI instead of Cox), Tegna, or Gray decides to buy KOKI.

I doubt this would happen with Hearst, but it would be nice to have... They can be like Griffin and have 2 strong stations

Edited January 16, 2025 by MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie

[GoldenShine_10 263]

7 minutes ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I doubt this would happen with Hearst, but it would be nice to have... They can be like Griffin and have 2 strong stations

 

Another factor is that, by buying KOKI, it closes a door for any company if Griffin comes up for sale and they have the two strongest stations in Oklahoma.

Edited January 16, 2025 by GoldenShine_10

[EVVTV12 204]

13 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Another factor is that, by buying KOKI, it closes a door for any company if Griffin comes up for sale and they have the two strongest stations in Oklahoma.

Griffin will shut down the tv stations before they ever sell. 

[mre29 1967]

8 hours ago, atlnews2 said:

well that was quick. Guess they’re ok selling piecemeal instead of “all or nothing “ 

 

About time someone was! 

 

[Megatron81 343]

I was surprised that Imgicomn Comm bought TV stations a couple of years ago from CMG weren't theses TV owned by Northwest at one time. Other than Mem & OK.  

[johnintx 20]

On 1/16/2025 at 1:45 PM, EVVTV12 said:

Griffin will shut down the tv stations before they ever sell. 

Griffin is now in a unique position. They outlasted corporate owners in OKC, bought KOTV several years ago, and now have 800 pound gorillas in both markets. Oklahoma is very provincial to begin with, and they play the locally owned card to their advantage. They have new studios in both cities and are positioned to dominate for years to come. They'll be the last ones standing.

Other markets would do well to have at least one local owner as OKC/Tulsa do. We're past that stage in most places.

[TennTV1983 870]

2 hours ago, johnintx said:

Griffin is now in a unique position. They outlasted corporate owners in OKC, bought KOTV several years ago, and now have 800 pound gorillas in both markets. Oklahoma is very provincial to begin with, and they play the locally owned card to their advantage. They have new studios in both cities and are positioned to dominate for years to come. They'll be the last ones standing.

Other markets would do well to have at least one local owner as OKC/Tulsa do. We're past that stage in most places.

 

Locally-owned is a misnomer these days in a broad sense, especially with all of the mergers that have happened over the last two decades.

 

While some of the smaller groups who own a TV station in the same market where they are headquartered have managed to weather the storm (i.e., Capitol with WRAL, Graham with WDIV, Sunbeam with WSVN, Bahakel with WCCB, etc.), they have the deep pockets and/or resources to do so, and could've cashed out at any time, but chose not to. Others are not so fortunate.

Edited January 24, 2025 by TennTV1983

[Georgie56 3661]

9 hours ago, johnintx said:

Griffin is now in a unique position. They outlasted corporate owners in OKC, bought KOTV several years ago, and now have 800 pound gorillas in both markets. Oklahoma is very provincial to begin with, and they play the locally owned card to their advantage. They have new studios in both cities and are positioned to dominate for years to come. They'll be the last ones standing.

Other markets would do well to have at least one local owner as OKC/Tulsa do. We're past that stage in most places.

 

Griffin also has their food business keeping them afloat.