In a bulletin Wedensday night by John Eggerton of B&C on-line edition he reported...
"That makes four stations for New Vision, which bought WIAT(TV) Birmingham, Ala., and KIMT Mason city, Iowa, both CBS affiliates, for $35 million back in August."
"CFO Eric Simontis says that the fact three of the first four stations were CBS affiliates is coincidence and the company is hunting for affiliate and geographic diversity in medium to large markets. It has offices in L.A. and Atlanta."
"Look for more announcements in the next month. Simontis says they are in due diligence on a number of other stations."(Update: The Youngstown-Warren Business Journal reports in tonight's on-line edition that the sale price of the two stations was 47M.
Is SJL/Lilly in a selling mode? They just sold Altoona and a few others stations in the East.
9 comments:
If you look at SJL/Lilly you will notice that the vast majority of holdings are located WEST of the Mississippi River. The only two stations owned by SJL/Lilly EAST of the Mississippi? You guessed it! WICU-TV/WSEE-TV Erie, PA. At the end of your post you asked the question, "Is SJL/Lilly in a selling mode?" That has got to be the worst kept secret in Erie Broadcasting. The employees at WICU-TV and WSEE-TV have known the answer to that question for several months now. When an owner wants to put a Television station up for sale that owner will "clean up the balance sheet" to make the station look more appealing. Look at all the cuts made recently at WICU/WSEE and you have all the proof you need. And your answer: YES! WICU-TV AND WSEE-TV ARE BOTH FOR SALE!
I worked for WKBN for years back in the days when it was a power house. Piedmont raped and pillaged through the ranks till it was just a ghost of its former self. Lets hope that New Vision truely HAS some vision.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!
I am happy WICU/WSEE are up for sale. I think SJL has been a terrible owner. However, we must hope for a new owner that would be BETTER than the previous scum ownership!
mmm...
There are some similarities between Vision and SJL/Lilly. Vision is very much committed to new technologies but not sure if it for the benefit of the viewer or the checkbook.
More on this next week.
Let's all calm down a bit. This is not the first report of a possible sale. It seems a group is always touring the station doing "due dilligence."
Too early to sing "DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!"
I can say that a part of that"due dilligence" has been that a number of broadcast groups have visted EMGR in recent months.
You can't hide from the internet.
Can someone please explain to me all the "cuts made recently at WICU/WSEE"?
After hearing the story on first news at 5 and reading the write up over at OHIO media watch, I can see that the WKBN/WYFX/WFXI purshase as being a good and bad thing. The good thing is maybe the new owners will make changes for the better since the station is in one down turn after another. The bad news is the people of the Mahoning valley may lose an OTA if they decide to shut off ch's 17/62 analog and make it a digital only like WFMJ has done with WBCB (the CW) and what WYTV has done with MY-YTV (MY network TV). I have read that they like to turn over stations very quickly and sold the last batch of stations. As for WSEE/ WICU could a bigger fish like raycom be in the hunt for a station since they at one point looking to buy WKBN/FOX 17/62?
If a media company like raycom bought out either ch 12 or 35 it could only get worse since their midas touch make WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland the mess that it is today.
I donot understand why the local Erie stations try to make some sort of effort in trying different things like a subcarrier for the cw or MNTV or full power HDTV signals. Is it they are cheap or is it more of a we donot see a market for new sources of revenue? For a small market like Erie it would make sense to invest in HDTV, and additional channels since it like Youngstown is close to 2 larger markets and it would give more choices.
I have read your blog from day one and I say you do a great job and keep it up.
seriously...WSEE has not made a "job cut" in years.
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