Gray TV to Buy Quincy Media, With Several Divestitures

Posted on by Jon Ellis

Weeks after Quincy Media confirmed that it had put itself up for sale, Gray TV has announced that it is the buyer.

Gray is buying Quincy for $925 million but will have to divest many of its stations due to overlap with existing Gray stations, splitting up Quincy’s current group. Wells Fargo Securities is looking for buyers for the stations to be divested.

In the Upper Midwest, Gray will keep:

  • Duluth: KBJR (NBC/CBS) and KDLH (CW); the company will have to obtain a failing station waiver to retain KDLH under current FCC rules. Many people still mistakenly refer to KDLH as the market’s CBS affiliate even though the network was moved to KBJR-DT2 five years ago. (April 2021 update: A failing station waiver is no longer being sought for KDLH since a Supreme Court ruling eliminated the need for the request.)
  • Quincy: WGEM (NBC/FOX/CW), with its market including southeastern Iowa.
  • Rochester: KTTC (NBC/CW); the news release does not mention KXLT (FOX), which KTTC runs under a shared services agreement.
  • Sioux City: KTIV (NBC/CW)

but Gray will divest:

  • Cedar Rapids-Waterloo: KWWL (NBC/CW), where Gray already owns KCRG (ABC)
  • La Crosse-Eau Claire: WXOW/WQOW (ABC/CW), where Gray already owns WEAU (NBC)
  • Madison: WKOW (ABC), where Gray already owns WMTV (NBC/CW)
  • Wausau: WAOW (ABC/CW), where Gray already owns WSAW (CBS/FOX)

The deal also includes several stations in Illinois and other states, creating a new duopoly in the Rockford market that will combine low-power CBS affiliate WIFR-LD with NBC affiliate WREX. See the news release for the complete list. (May 2021 update: Gray ultimately decided to sell WREX.)

The deal also includes WGEM/1440 and WGEM-FM/105.1 (Quincy), but Quincy Media’s print assets will be sold before the sale to Gray closes. Gray’s only other radio holding is a station in Texas that it acquired as part of its purchase of Raycom.

Gray will own TV stations in 102 markets once the deal is complete.

Regionally, the deal will give Gray a presence in almost every Upper Midwest market. Besides the markets already listed above, Gray owns stations in Davenport, Ottumwa, Mankato, Green Bay, Marquette, Fargo, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Omaha, Lincoln, and North Platte, with multiple big-four network affiliations in more than half of its regional markets.

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