Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Television, which operates stations that compete with those covered in this report. The statements and views expressed in this posting are my own and do not reflect those of Gray Television.
The proposed sale of the Fargo and Duluth FOX affiliates has been terminated by the seller, according to a report by the buyer’s flagship newspaper.
The Forum reported that Red River Broadcast Corp. has exercised its option to terminate the contract to sell KVRR/15 (Fargo) and KQDS-TV/21 (Duluth) to Forum Communications after more than a year passed with no regulatory decision.
Forum, which already owns ABC affiliate WDAY-TV/6 (Fargo) along with The Forum, had been seeking a rare waiver to buy KVRR because ownership rules prohibit the combination of two top-four, full-power licenses in the same market. The only such waiver ever approved came under the previous administration.
While combinations of “big four” network affiliations are common in other small and medium-sized markets, almost all of them involve one of the affiliations being placed on a subchannel or low-power TV station, which are not covered by ownership rules. (Gray TV operates the NBC and CBS affiliates in Fargo, with CBS carried on low-power station KXJB-LD and simulcast on a subchannel of NBC affiliate KVLY-TV.)
The FCC has not approved or denied the KVRR and KQDS-TV license transfer applications. The deal was first announced in November 2021 and formal applications were filed in January 2022. They had not yet been formally withdrawn as of Wednesday evening, June 7.
Earlier this year, Forum and Red River submitted an amendment urging the FCC to make a decision, saying the stations were facing “operational difficulties” directly related to the sale being in “limbo.” The amendment said the companies believed the lack of action had contributed to employment and hiring difficulties.
Josh Rohrer, Forum’s vice president of broadcast, told the company’s newspaper that the FCC “did not seem inclined” to hear their case for a waiver. He told the paper that the company continues to look for TV expansion opportunities, especially in markets where they already have a print or digital operation.
Besides KVRR and KQDS-TV, the sale would have included three full-power KVRR satellites and seven KQDS-TV translators.
If the waiver had been approved, Forum pledged to add newscasts on KVRR and make capital investments in the station.
In Duluth, the deal would have put KQDS-TV under common ownership with the Duluth News Tribune, a combination which is allowed after newspaper cross-ownership rules were dropped. KQDS-TV reported that it continues business as usual and that it will continue to cover local news, weather, and sports.