Forum Announces Plan to Buy Fargo, Duluth FOX Affiliates

Fargo-based Forum Communications has announced plans to buy the FOX affiliates in Fargo and Duluth, with details of how the company proposes to comply with ownership caps in Fargo yet to be announced.

Forum owns ABC affiliate WDAY-TV/6.1 (Fargo) and reported Tuesday that it will buy FOX affiliates KVRR/15.1 (Fargo) and KQDS-DT/21.1 (Duluth) from Red River Broadcast Corp. The purchase price was not announced but will likely be revealed when documentation is filed with the FCC.

Forum also owns several newspapers in both markets.

Current federal regulations prohibit the owner of one top-four TV station from buying another top-four station in the same market. KVRR’s report on the sale suggests that it will seek a waiver to allow the combination with WDAY-TV, while Forum’s announcement says details are still being worked out.

Companies in dozens of markets, including Gray TV’s Fargo and Duluth operations, get around the top-four rule by using subchannels and/or low-power TV stations to host network affiliations, since they are not covered by ownership rules.

The only-ever case in which the FCC allowed a combination of two top-four, full-power stations was another transaction involving Red River: The 2019 sale of its Sioux Falls NBC affiliate to Gray TV, which already owned the Sioux Falls ABC affiliate.

It’s worth noting that Jessica Rosenworcel, who now heads the FCC, spoke out against the 2019 approval, though the situation was tied up in a broader court battle over FCC regulations.

It’s not yet known if Red River and Forum will seek a similar type of approval in this situation. Details will be revealed when formal documentation is filed with the FCC.

The Forum and Red River stations compete with Gray TV NBC/CBS combinations in both Fargo and Duluth and a Hubbard Broadcasting ABC affiliate in Duluth.

Forum’s announcement says the deal will also include “certain satellite stations” of KVRR, wording that leaves open the possibility that not all of the satellite stations will be sold. They are KBRR/10.1 (Thief River Falls-Grand Forks), KNRR/12.1 (Pembina), and KJRR/7.1 (Jamestown).

Grand Forks is also served by WDAY satellite WDAZ/8.1 (Devils Lake), though WDAZ and KBRR’s transmitters are actually 65 miles apart.

Forum also owns the ABC affiliates in the Bismarck-Minot market, which relay WDAY’s newscasts.

In Duluth, the combination brings the Duluth News Tribune and KQDS-TV under common ownership. It’s a reunion of sorts since the DNT provided daily updates for FOX 21 News from 2007 to 2010. (Full disclosure: Your reporter worked at KQDS-TV during that period.)

The transaction raises questions about whether KVRR and KQDS-TV will maintain their existing news websites, since they compete with Forum’s properties. WDAY-TV is a rare network affiliate without its own website, instead combining its online efforts with Forum’s subscription website.

Red River has owned KVRR since the 1980s and launched KQDS-TV as a FOX affiliate in 1999, adopting the callsign of a radio station that was then co-owned. KVRR added a news department in 2000 followed by KQDS-TV in 2007.

At one time, Red River sister company Red Rock Radio owned dozens of radio stations in and near the Duluth TV market. They were sold following the 2013 death of Myron Kunin, who headed Red River/Red Rock majority owner Curtis Squire, Inc.

Note: Jon Ellis was employed by Hubbard Broadcasting’s WDIO, a competitor to KQDS-TV, at the time this post was first published. He is now employed by Gray TV.