FCC Filings Provide Details of Gray TV’s Plans for Quincy Media Stations

Posted on by Jon Ellis

Documents filed with the FCC on Feb. 12 for Gray TV’s purchase of Quincy Media indicate Gray plans to keep the FOX affiliation in Rochester, consider expanding its news operation in Duluth, and switch a northern Wisconsin satellite station to a different network.

Gray announced plans to buy Quincy Media for $925 million on Feb. 1, a deal which will include divestitures of overlapping stations in six markets, including four in the Upper Midwest. Buyers for the stations to be divested have not been announced.

The applications to transfer Quincy Media’s licenses to Gray reveal several items not included in the initial announcement:

  • Quincy NBC/CW affiliate KTTC (Rochester) will continue to operate SagamoreHill FOX affiliate KXLT (Rochester) through a shared services agreement after the sale to Gray.
  • Gray says it will seek opportunities to expand local news production in Duluth, where it is seeking a failing station waiver to buy CW affiliate KDLH alongside NBC/CBS affiliate KBJR-TV. A failing station waiver is required because there are fewer than eight ownership voices in the market. (Gray is also seeking failing station waivers in the Fort Wayne and South Bend markets.)
  • Gray will divest ABC affiliate WAOW (Wausau) but plans to keep WAOW satellite WYOW (Eagle River), switching it over to Gray’s existing CBS/FOX affiliate WSAW (Wausau). It will still divest WAOW’s other satellite, WMOW (Crandon).

As previously reported, Gray will divest NBC/CW affiliate KWWL (Waterloo) and ABC affiliates WKOW (Madison), WXOW (La Crosse), and WQOW (Eau Claire), along with WAOW and stations in Tucson and Paducah, where Gray already owns stations. (La Crosse and Eau Claire are considered one market for regulatory purposes, but WXOW and WQOW operate with separate identities and newsrooms.)

Besides the stations already mentioned above, regional stations Gray is buying also include NBC/CW affiliate KTIV (Sioux City), NBC/FOX/CW affiliate WGEM-TV (Quincy), NBC/CW affiliate WREX (Rockford), and KBJR satellite KRII (Chisholm). The other stations are in the Peoria, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Binghamton, and Bluefield markets.

Once the deal closes, Gray will own stations in every Upper Midwest market except Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Des Moines.

As part of its filing, Gray details its history of building award-winning news operations across the country. The company operates its own Washington news bureau, has a national investigative unit, and produces a national news program hosted by Greta Van Susteren.

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