The FCC has approved Sinclair Broadcast Group’s plan to sell TV stations in four Midwestern markets to Rincon Broadcasting Group, rejecting a petition to deny filed by Frequency Forward.
As previously reported, the deal calls for Rincon, headed by Todd Parkin, to buy five full-power licenses from Sinclair for $29.4 million. They include:
- Milwaukee: WVTV (CW 18.1)
- Kirksville-Ottumwa: KTVO (ABC 3.1, CBS 3.2)
- Hannibal-Quincy: KHQA (CBS 7.1, ABC 7.2)
- Springfield, IL: WICS (ABC 20.1) and satellite WICD/15.1 (Danville)
Frequency Forward’s petition to deny did not make any allegations against Rincon but argued that the FCC should hold hold a hearing on character allegations against Sinclair before taking action on the applications to transfer the licenses.
In its order, the FCC wrote, “The Commission generally does not reevaluate the qualifications of assignors or transferors unless issues related to basic qualifications have been sufficiently raised in petitions to warrant designation for hearing. Frequency Forward fails to meet this standard, as its allegations concerning Sinclair’s character qualifications have repeatedly been considered and rejected.”
The FCC also concluded that KHQA and KTVO should be able to continue holding two major network affiliations after the sale to Rincon, noting that each market has only two full-power commercial stations.
Rincon is also in the process of buying seven stations in other parts of the country from Imagicomm.