The Delta’s four local television stations are in the process of being sold to a newly formed broadcast group owned mainly by an investment management company.
Brian Brady, president and CEO of Northwest Broadcasting of Okemos, Michigan, confirmed the sale Monday to Apollo Global Management but said no closing date has been set.
Brady’s company and Los Angeles investor Jason Wolff, operating as Cala Broadcast Partners, purchased the four Greenville-based stations — WABG (ABC), WXVT (CBS), WNBD (NBC) and WABG-DT2 (Fox) — in August 2016.
Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest investment management firms with more than $280 billion in assets under management, will acquire all 12 stations in six markets owned by Northwest for $340 million, an amount reported by Radio + Television Business Reports. Brady will also assume a minority ownership stake in the new broadcasting group, called Terrier Media.
The stations will be merged with the Cox Television stations Apollo also is in the process of purchasing, along with stations that will be spun off from the purchase of Tribune Broadcasting by Nexstar Media Group.
Besides the four Delta stations, Terrier Media will include Northwest stations in Yuma, Arizona; Eureka, California; Pocatello, Idaho; Alexandria, Louisiana; Binghamton and Syracuse, New York; Medford, Oregon; and Spokane and Yakima, Washington.
The Northwest stations will be dwarfed in the new company by the former Cox Television stations in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Memphis; Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Dayton, Ohio.
Federal Communications Commission rules currently prohibit a company from owning two full-power television stations in the same market. Because of that, Tribune and Nexstar have announced plans to spin off a number of stations in fairly large markets when those companies merge. Apollo has announced it is in the market to purchase spun-off stations.
Those stations are located in these markets: Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Des Moines, Iowa; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Davenport, Iowa; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Indianapolis; Huntsville, Alabama; Hartford, Connecticut; Memphis; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Hagerstown, Maryland; and Norfolk, Virginia.
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
