In North American broadcasting , a local marketing agreement ( LMA ), or local management agreement , is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time-buy .
100-398: KFRE may refer to: KFRE-TV , a television station (channel 59 analog/36 digital) licensed to serve Sanger, California, United States KYNO 940 AM, a radio station licensed to Fresno, California, United States, which held the call sign KFRE from 1937 to 2000. In the 1950's KFRE operated with 50,000 watts of power, and also owned KRFM 93.7, with
200-461: A television station licensed to Sanger, California , United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of The CW . It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Visalia -licensed Fox affiliate KMPH-TV (channel 26). The two stations share studios on McKinley Avenue in eastern Fresno; KFRE-TV's transmitter is located on Bear Mountain (near Meadow Lakes ). The station first signed on
300-513: A "local marketing agreement" may refer to the sharing or contracting of only certain functions, in particular advertising sales. This may also be referred to as a time brokerage agreement ( TBA ), local sales agreement ( LSA ), management services agreement ( MSA ), or most commonly, a joint sales agreement ( JSA ) or shared services agreement ( SSA ). JSAs are counted toward ownership caps for television and radio stations. In Canada, local marketing agreements between domestic stations require
400-539: A 47% stake in WLYK's licensee, Border International Broadcasting. In 2022, the principal owners of My Broadcasting Corporation acquired Border International Broadcasting via 1234567 Corporation, and assumed operations in February 2023. Similarly, Entravision Communications Corporation controls XHDTV-TDT , a Tijuana , Mexico-based station owned by Televisora Alco, which operated as an English-language station serving
500-469: A JSA with Citadel Communications to handle advertising sales for the station under a revenue sharing agreement, integrating it with its cluster in nearby Buffalo, New York . In an associated agreement, the station also contracted Citadel employees to produce some of its programming. Due to the structure of this JSA, and because the aforementioned programming was overseen by local producers, the CRTC deemed that
600-499: A classical music format. KFRE was the local CBS radio affiliate. (White's Radio Log, and Fresno Bee radio logs, 1950's). KSKS 93.7 FM, a radio station licensed to Fresno, California, United States, which held the call sign KFRE-FM from 1963 to 1971 [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about radio and/or television stations with the same/similar call signs or branding. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
700-556: A digital subchannel of WABM (although the WBMA-LD simulcast was placed on WABM's subchannel instead while MyNetworkTV programming was retained on its main channel). Similarly, in Charleston, Sinclair planned to surrender WCIV's license and move its ABC affiliation and programming to WMMP. In both cases, Sinclair believed that its own stations had superior technical facilities than those of the stations it intends to surrender. Sinclair
800-469: A half-hour 11 p.m. newscast for KFRE-TV; the nightly program was anchored by Allison Ruddell on Monday through Friday nights and Derrol Nail on Saturdays and Sundays. The program was unable to compete with the longer established 11 p.m. newscasts on KFSN-TV, NBC affiliate KSEE (channel 24) and KGPE (channel 47), and was canceled on February 5, 2007, due to low ratings. Ruddell was reassigned to anchor KMPH's 11:30 a.m. newscast, before leaving
900-554: A joint sales agreement pertaining to CHNO-FM in Sudbury , Ontario, but community interests and the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting presented substantial evidence to the CRTC that in practice, the agreement was a de facto LMA, going significantly beyond advertising sales into program production and news-gathering. In early 2005, the CRTC ordered the agreement to cease. For a time, CKEY-FM in Fort Erie, Ontario had
1000-580: A legal duopoly, Gray proposed the sale of WAGT's broadcast spectrum during the incentive auction, and for WAGT to go silent upon completion of the deal so the company would not be running more than one of the top four stations in the market. Gray also requested special temporary authority for WAGT's signal to be replaced on its existing technical facilities and UHF channel 30 by the co-owned low-power station, WRDW-CD ; low-power stations are not subject to ownership caps and restrictions on duopolies. The FCC, however, required that Gray continue to operate WAGT as
1100-427: A local marketing agreement must give the company operating the station (the "senior" partner) under the agreement control over the entire facilities of the station, including the finances, personnel and programming of the station. Its original licensee (the "junior" partner) still remains legally responsible for the station and its operations, such as compliance with relevant regulations regarding content. Occasionally,
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#17327805429191200-558: A majority ownership in that station's network affiliation, The CW . In March 2024, the FCC fined Nexstar and Mission $ 1.2 million and $ 612,395 respectively, and ordered Mission to sell WPIX within twelve months; the FCC found that Mission's agreements with Nexstar to operate WPIX amounted to an "unauthorized transfer of control" of the station, thus exceeding the FCC's 39% market share limit for broadcasters. Nexstar must either divest other stations so it can legally own WPIX, or Mission must sell
1300-457: A purchase option that "may counter any incentive the licensee has to increase the value of the station, since the licensee may be unlikely to realize that increased value." Under the new provisions, broadcasters must demonstrate in their transaction applications as to how such deals would serve the public interest. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) – which, along with station groups such as Sinclair Broadcast Group, have disapproved of
1400-522: A request for comment on policies to address other agreements, such as shared services agreements. The prohibition on television JSAs had been proposed as early as 2004, a year after the FCC voted to treat JSAs between radio stations as duopolies. Despite this fact, broadcasting companies criticized the ban, accusing the Commission of using it as a move to encourage participation in a spectrum incentive auction then set to occur in 2015, and stating that
1500-493: A result of the FCC's scrutiny on any new station sharing agreements, on October 23, 2014, Meredith would backtrack on this plan and instead sell KASW to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which would operate the station independently of KTVK and KPHO. Following Gannett's split into independent broadcasting and publishing companies, Tegna, Inc. —the owner of Gannett's stations following the split, bought back
1600-494: A result of the bankruptcy, Pappas Telecasting Companies was given until February 15, 2009, to sell these stations to other owners. On January 16, 2009, Pappas announced that most of the stations, including KFRE, would be purchased by New World TV Group, after the sale received United States bankruptcy court approval; the stations would eventually come under the Titan TV Broadcast Group banner. Titan announced
1700-406: A seemingly separate newscast on the brokered station in the duopoly may ultimately consist of repackaged news content from the other station. Alternatively, the stations may consolidate their news programming under a single joint brand. Redundant staff members are often laid off as part of the consolidation process, and the sharing of news content reduces the number of unique editorial voices in
1800-449: A separate station through the end of the auction, and not enter into any joint sales agreements. Upon the closure of the sale, Gray unwound the shared services and joint sales agreements that Schurz had established with WJBF-TV and Media General , and replaced its previous news programs with simulcasts from WRDW. Gray also accused WJBF of "[refusing] to agree to a smooth transition of personnel [from WAGT]", as WAGT's employees fall under
1900-471: A shared services agreement established under Belo ownership, but Gannett would still handle advertising sales for the stations. In December 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked Gannett from using an agreement with Sander Media to operate CBS affiliate KMOV in St. Louis alongside its own NBC station KSDK , and ordered Gannett to sell KMOV. Even though Gannett planned to operate KMOV separately from KSDK,
2000-401: A single company to own more than one full-powered television station in a given market if there are at least eight distinct station owners, and also prohibits the ownership of two or more of the four highest-rated stations (based on total day viewership) in a market. An LMA or similar agreement does not affect the ownership of the station's license, meaning that they do not require the approval of
2100-462: A single company to own two television stations in the same market in August 1999, Sinclair restructured the deal to acquire KOKH outright. In 2001, the FCC issued a $ 40,000 fine against Sinclair for illegally controlling Glencairn. In 1999, the FCC modified its media ownership rules to count LMAs formed after November 5, 1996 that cover more than 15% of the broadcast day toward the ownership limits for
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#17327805429192200-528: A subchannel of WISE-TV due to a reverse compensation dispute, Nexstar (ironically, given its use of similar practices in other markets) filed an antitrust lawsuit against the station's managing partner, Granite Broadcasting, arguing that it had built a monopoly on local advertising sales by having effective control of the outlets for four major networks ( ABC and MyNetworkTV on WPTA , and NBC , Fox, and The CW on WISE-TV ; owned by Malara Broadcast Group and operated under agreements by Granite). The lawsuit
2300-454: A subchannel of WSBT-TV ), in exchange for WHOI's ABC and CW affiliations, which moved to subchannels of WEEK-TV . In 2018, Quincy re-purchased WISE and KDLH, under an assertion that both stations were not within the top 4 of their respective markets. In February 2016, Gray Television acquired Schurz Communications ' stations, including Augusta, Georgia 's WAGT . As Gray could not own both WAGT and its existing CBS affiliate WRDW-TV as
2400-416: A television station's facilities and assets, but sells the license to an affiliated third-party "shell" corporation, who then enters into agreements with the owner of the facilities to operate the station on their behalf. Activists have argued that broadcasters were using these agreements as a loophole for the FCC's ownership regulations, that they reduce the number of local media outlets in a market through
2500-714: A wave of mass consolidation in the radio industry. However, broadcasters still used local marketing agreements to help transition acquired stations to their new owners. The first local marketing agreement in North American television was formed in 1991, when the Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased Fox affiliate WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania. As Sinclair had already owned independent station WPTT (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT ) in that market, which would have violated FCC rules which at
2600-427: A way to expand their reach, and smaller broadcasters a means of obtaining a stable stream of revenue. In 1992, the FCC began allowing broadcasting companies to own multiple radio stations in a single market. Following these changes, local marketing agreements largely fell out of favor for radio, as it was now possible for broadcasters to simply buy another station outright rather than lease it – consequentially triggering
2700-400: Is instead seen on KMPH's .5 subchannel. KFRE formerly served as the local television broadcaster of Fresno State Bulldogs sporting events until 2008, when the rights moved to then- MyNetworkTV affiliate KAIL (channel 53, now a TCT O&O on channel 7). The station was also the local holder of television rights to San Francisco Giants baseball games until the 2007 season ; in 2008 ,
2800-462: Is to create a "virtual duopoly", where the stations operated under the agreement are consolidated into a single entity. The operations of the stations can be streamlined for cost-effectiveness through the sharing of resources, such as facilities, advertising sales, personnel and programming. Many broadcasters that engage in the practice believe that such agreements are beneficial to the survival of television stations – especially in smaller markets, where
2900-545: The E. W. Scripps Company , Tegna Inc. , and Circle City Broadcasting. The divested stations included Tribune's New York City flagship WPIX ; the station was sold to Scripps, but with a $ 75 million option for Nexstar to buy it back between March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Nexstar transferred this option to Mission Broadcasting, who subsequently exercised it in August 2020 (the following month, Scripps announced its intent to acquire Ion Media , including its New York station WPXN-TV ). In October 2022, Nexstar would acquire
3000-570: The "major" networks, allow the broadcaster to charge higher fees for retransmission consent to television providers for carrying the stations, which could result in smaller cable companies not being able to afford the higher fees imposed. Cable television providers advocated barring sharing agreements between television stations for this particular reason. In the United States, the FCC no longer allows broadcasters to collude with one another in negotiating retransmission consent fees. Although
3100-546: The Department ruled the agreement to be a violation of antitrust law , as it would reduce competition for advertising sales. Following the closure of the Belo purchase, Meredith Corporation announced a deal to purchase KMOV, along with KTVK and KASW. As Meredith would have a duopoly between KTVK and its Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO-TV , KASW was to be sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting and operated by Meredith under an LMA. As
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3200-494: The FCC began to increase its scrutiny regarding the use of such agreements—particularly joint sales—to evade its policies. On March 31, 2014, the commission voted to make joint sales agreements count as ownership if the senior partner sells 15% or more of advertising time for its partner, and to ban coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of the top four stations in a market. Wheeler indicated that he planned to address local marketing and shared services agreements in
3300-963: The FCC cannot manipulate its ownership rules without "[in] the previous four years, [fulfilling] its obligation to review [the] rule and determine whether it is in the public interest". On November 16, 2017, under the Trump administration , the FCC voted in favor of no longer having JSAs attributable to ownership. The increased scrutiny being imposed by the FCC regarding local marketing, shared services, and joint sales agreements have led to more drastic measures by broadcasting companies attempting to use them in acquisitions; in 2014, two broadcasting companies declared intents to shut acquired stations down entirely and consolidate their programming onto existing stations through multicasting, rather than attempting to use sidecars and sharing agreements or selling them to other parties that would assume full responsibility of their day-to-day operations. In May 2014, Sinclair informed
3400-537: The FCC that it was unable to find buyers for WABM or WMMP – the company's MyNetworkTV stations in Birmingham, Alabama, and Charleston, South Carolina, that it planned to sell in its purchase of Allbritton Communications. In Birmingham, the company proposed surrendering the licenses of WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV – the two full-powered satellites of ABC affiliate WBMA-LD, converting WABM into a full-powered satellite of WBMA-LD – and moving its existing MyNetworkTV programming to
3500-488: The FCC to establish, and the two stations are still legally considered separate operations from a licensing standpoint. Both Tribune Media and the Gannett Company were required to use shared services agreements as a similar loophole to take control of certain stations in their respective 2013 purchases of Local TV and Belo , as they did not have exemptions to the FCC's newspaper cross-ownership restrictions in
3600-472: The Giants telecasts also moved to KAIL. In 2008 , the station held the local rights to Oakland Athletics baseball telecasts, which were produced by regional sports network Comcast SportsNet Bay Area before moving exclusively to Comcast SportsNet California in 2009 . Since 2014 , KFRE has aired pre-season San Francisco 49ers football games. On January 10, 2006, sister station KMPH-TV began producing
3700-550: The LMA with KMPH was transferred to KMSG, which also resulted in the WB affiliation moving to the station from KNSO (becoming the network's third affiliate in the market; The WB's original Fresno affiliate was Clovis -based KGMC (channel 43), which was with the network from its launch in 1995 until 1997); channel 59 also changed its call letters to KFRE-TV (the KFRE calls were originally used in
3800-489: The Media Council of Hawaii complained to the FCC about Raycom's Hawaii News Now operation, stating that it would "directly reduce the diversity of local voices in a community by replacing independent newscasts on the brokered station with those of the brokering station." In response, the FCC stated it would begin to investigate into the matter. In 2011, after temporarily losing its Fox affiliation for WFFT-TV to
3900-464: The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council – under the condition that they would operate them independently from other stations in the market, and without the use of any sharing agreements. All six of the stations were owned by companies other than Gray, but their non-license assets are either owned by Gray, or were operated by stations now owned by Gray under agreements. Gray would operate
4000-495: The affected markets. Both companies have since spun out their publishing arms as independent companies; the Tribune Publishing Company and Gannett Company. Tegna , who holds the former Gannett's broadcasting and digital media properties, re-acquired the licenses for most of the affected stations following the split. On November 16, 2017, under the Trump administration , the FCC voted in favor of removing
4100-480: The affected stations under LMAs until the sales and consolidation are complete. Aside from one, most of the stations involved in these changes were related to Gray's acquisition of stations from Hoak Media . Three of these stations were immediately shut down the same day, while the remainder remained operated by Gray until the sales were completed. Gray announced buyers for the stations on August 27, 2014. The six stations affected by Gray's move included: Following
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4200-487: The aggregation or outright consolidation of news programming, and allow station owners to have increased leverage in the negotiation of retransmission consent with local subscription television providers . Station owners have contended that these sharing agreements allow streamlined, cost-effective operations that may be beneficial to the continued operation of lower-rated and/or financially weaker stations, especially in smaller markets. In 2014 under chairman Tom Wheeler ,
4300-434: The air on July 17, 1985, as KMSG-TV; it originally operated as a religious independent mostly with shows like The PTL Club , The 700 Club , Richard Roberts , Jimmy Swaggart , and others as well as Home Shopping Network programming during the overnight hours. This station signed on just as KAIL (then on channel 53, now on channel 7) was evolving from religious to more of a general entertainment format. By 1987,
4400-472: The approval of Sinclair's purchase of Allbritton, commissioner Ajit Pai further criticized the FCC's new policies and its endorsement of Sinclair's proposal to shut down stations to comply with them. Describing the three Allbritton stations as being "victims" of the "crackdown" against joint sales agreements, he stated regarding WCIV that "apparently the Commission believes that it is better for that station to go out of business than for Howard Stirk Holdings to own
4500-667: The arrangements were legal, Free Press president Craig Aaron stated that "the FCC shouldn't let Gannett break the rules. Media consolidation results in fewer journalists in the newsroom and fewer opinions on the airwaves. Concentrating media outlets in the hands of just a few companies benefits only the companies themselves." The deal would have given Gannett a virtual triopoly in Phoenix, consisting of its NBC station KPNX , independent station KTVK and CW affiliate KASW . In Tucson, Fox affiliate KMSB and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU were already operated by Raycom Media's CBS affiliate KOLD-TV under
4600-540: The ban would place them at a disadvantage during retransmission consent negotiations with pay television providers. On December 19, 2015, as a rider to the federal budget, the grace period for unwinding or modifying existing JSAs was extended to 10 years. On May 25, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck down the restrictions on joint sales agreements, ruling that
4700-547: The block normally aired on Saturdays on a tape delay on Sunday mornings (this resulted in KFRE carrying children's blocks from two major networks, as it already carried The WB's Kids' WB block). The station continued to carry 4Kids TV until the block was discontinued by Fox in December 2008 due to a dispute with the block's lessee 4Kids Entertainment ; KFRE-TV now airs Fox's Saturday morning infomercial block Weekend Marketplace , in 4Kids TV's former Sunday morning timeslot on
4800-522: The border market of San Diego . Public interest organizations have disapproved of the use of LMAs for virtual duopolies that circumvent the FCC's rules due to their effects on the broadcasting industry, particularly the results of consolidation through the irregular use of LMAs. In markets where duopolies are not legally possible, a company may elect to form one by purchasing a station's "non-license" assets (such as their physical facilities, programming rights, and other intellectual property ), and selling
4900-459: The brokered station may vary, for example: In February 2001, Clear Channel Communications subsidiary Citicasters was fined $ 25,000 for its use of time brokerage agreements and litigation for unlawfully controlling Youngstown , Ohio area radio station WBTJ (101.9 FM, now WYLR ); the company had also been the target of complaints for using KFJO (FM) to rebroadcast KSJO after it had nominally sold KFJO to minority-owned interests. In 2009,
5000-644: The brokering station's owner. Even still, the related joint sales and shared services agreement structures became increasingly common during the 2000s; these outsourcing agreements proliferated between 2011 and 2013, when station owners such as Sinclair and the Nexstar Broadcasting Group began expanding their portfolios by acquiring additional stations in an effort to drive scale as well as to gain leverage in retransmission consent negotiations with cable and satellite television providers. The most common use of an LMA in television broadcasting
5100-691: The case of former virtual duopolies in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania between Sinclair-owned CBS affiliate WHP-TV and Nexstar-owned CW affiliate WLYH-TV (which ended in 2015 amid Sinclair's acquisition of Allbritton Communications , which saw WHTM-TV sold to Media General to avoid conflicts with WHP, and WYLH's license sold to Howard Stirk Holdings ), and Rochester, New York between Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate WROC-TV and Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WUHF (which ended in January 2014 after Deerfield Media acquired ABC affiliate WHAM-TV ). While not to
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#17327805429195200-468: The companies "effectively relinquished decision-making authority to Nexstar, which has served as the ringleader of a conspiracy to harm competition and violate the antitrust laws." Local marketing agreements are effectively prohibited under the regulations of the CRTC , which require that all broadcast undertakings be "operated in fact by the licensee itself". Rogers Media and Newcap Broadcasting maintained
5300-477: The consent of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), although Rogers Media has used a similar arrangement to control a U.S.-based radio station in a border market . The increased use of sharing agreements by media companies to form consolidated , "virtual" duopolies became controversial between 2009 and 2014, especially arrangements where a company buys
5400-703: The deal in March 2014, choosing to sell WHP-TV, WMMP and WABM, and terminate an SSA with the Cunningham-owned Fox affiliate WTAT in Charleston to acquire the Allbritton-owned stations in those markets ( WCIV , WHTM-TV and WBMA-LD , while also creating a new duopoly between the ABC and CW affiliates in Birmingham), as well as foregoing any operational or financial agreements with the buyers of
5500-565: The employment of Media General due to the SSA. On February 26, 2016, Media General obtained a preliminary injunction against Gray for violating the SSA and JSA, which required that Gray return control of WAGT to Media General, and forbade Gray from selling WAGT in the spectrum incentive auction. The company accused Gray of using the spectrum auction and sale of the station to exit the agreements illegitimately, as they were to last through 2020, and apply to any future owner of WAGT. Gray attempted to block
5600-432: The family of Sinclair Broadcast Group founder Julian Smith controlled 97% of Glencairn's stock assets (which remains the case under its Cunningham structure) and the company was to be paid with Sinclair stock in turn for the purchases, KOKH and Sinclair-owned WB affiliate KOCB would effectively constitute a duopoly in violation of FCC rules. The Rainbow/PUSH coalition (headed by Jesse Jackson ) filed challenges against
5700-452: The financial aspects of its "sidecar" operations, and warned that in the three aforementioned markets, "the proposed transactions would result in the elimination of the grandfathered status of certain local marketing agreements and thus cause the transactions to violate our local TV ownership rules." It was asserted that the deal might only be legal if the affected stations were operated under shared services agreements. Sinclair restructured
5800-537: The former company's Fox affiliate in New Orleans , Louisiana , WVUE-DT ; while Louisiana Media Company retained the station's ownership and license, other assets were assumed by Raycom, which owns stations in markets adjacent to New Orleans (including Baton Rouge , Jackson , Biloxi , Lake Charles and Shreveport ) but not within New Orleans itself. Benson had received offers from Raycom and others to buy
5900-581: The four highest-rated stations in a single market would also be barred under the proposal. Wheeler also proposed an expedited process to review joint sales agreements on a case-by-case basis, granting a waiver of the rules if a broadcaster can prove a particular joint sales agreement arrangement serves the public interest. On March 12, 2014, the FCC Media Bureau released a notice that it would further analyze television station transactions that include sharing agreements, particularly those that include
6000-434: The future. The change in stance also prompted changes to then-proposed acquisitions by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group , who, rather than use sharing agreements to control them, moved their existing programming and network affiliations to digital subchannels of existing company-owned stations in the market, or a low-power station (which are not subject to ownership caps), and then relinquished control over
6100-550: The injunction by arguing that its actions were required in order to comply with the FCC's prohibition of joint sales agreements, but was denied. Media General took back control of WAGT on March 7, 2016. On March 10, 2016, FCC Deputy General Counsel David Gossett announced that the Commission would investigate Media General's actions as possibly being in violation of Section 310(d) of the Communications Act . Gossett argued that by legally blocking Gray's participation in
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#17327805429196200-429: The license itself to a third-party "sidecar" company (which is often affiliated with the purchaser), which in turn, enters into an LMA or a similar agreement with the senior partner. The FCC only recognizes ownership of television stations by the ownership of their license and facility ID , and not by the ownership of these "non-license" assets; this means that the senior partner becomes the de facto owner and operator of
6300-477: The licenses for WCIV and the full-powered repeaters of WBMA-LD (WJSU and WCFT), and moving their ABC programming to Sinclair's existing stations WMMP and WABM respectively – which would shift their existing MyNetworkTV programming to digital subchannels. After nearly a year of delays, Sinclair's deal to acquire Allbritton was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014. Nexstar Media Group acquired Tribune Media in 2019; to meet ownership limits, it divested 21 stations to
6400-660: The licenses to the Sander Media stations, placing them back under its full control. As part of its planned acquisition of Allbritton Communications , Sinclair originally planned to sell its existing stations in three markets – Charleston, South Carolina , Birmingham, Alabama and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – where Allbritton already owned stations, but continue to operate them under local marketing agreements. WABM and WTTO in Birmingham and WHP-TV in Harrisburg were to be sold to Deerfield Media , and WMMP in Charleston
6500-399: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KFRE&oldid=1248884464 " Category : Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages KFRE-TV KFRE-TV (channel 59) is
6600-517: The majority of LMAs involve the outsourcing of one television station's operations to another, occasionally, a company may operate a station under an LMA, JSA or SSA even if it does not already own a station in that market. One example occurred in December 2013, when the Louisiana Media Company (owned by New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Hornets owner Tom Benson ) entered into a shared services agreement with Raycom Media to run
6700-413: The market on what is now ABC owned-and-operated station KFSN-TV (channel 30) from 1956 to 1971). With the affiliation switch, the station changed its on-air branding to "WB 59". Pappas Telecasting purchased KFRE outright in 2002, creating the first television duopoly in the market with KMPH. In 2003, KFRE acquired the rights to Fox's FoxBox (later 4Kids TV ) children's program block from KMPH, airing
6800-423: The market. This in particular is one of the caveats of pushes to ban outsourcing agreements by media consolidation critics, who also suggest that LMAs result in a decreased amount of local news coverage on the brokered station. Depending on how the outsourcing agreement is structured, as well as how the brokered station is programmed, how the stations are consolidated and the amount of news programming featured on
6900-423: The network while the acquisition pended; independent station WMYD would carry the network for the remainder of the television season, before ultimately returning to WKBD. In response to criticism of the virtual duopolies and sharing agreements, the FCC began to consider potential changes to address these loopholes. In March 2013, the Commission first tabled a proposal that would make joint sales agreements count
7000-425: The new rules on joint sales agreements, believing that they would discourage the ownership of television stations by minority-owned companies . Tom Wheeler, however, proposed the restrictions in the hopes of encouraging more women and minorities to own stations, due to the ongoing consolidation in the television industry through company mergers and sharing agreements. On March 31, 2014, the FCC voted 3–2 to approve
7100-445: The original stations by selling their licenses to third-parties, such as minority-owned broadcasters. Due to the FCC's limits on station ownership at the time (which prevented the common ownership of multiple radio stations), local marketing agreements in radio, in which a smaller station would sell its entire airtime to a third-party in time-buy, were widespread between the 1970s and early 1990s. These alliances gave larger broadcasters
7200-463: The overall audience reach is considerably less than that of markets that are centered upon densely populated metropolitan areas , and the cost savings achieved through the consolidation of resources and staff may be necessary to fund a station's continued operation. Sharing agreements may also be used as a loophole to control television stations in situations where it is legally impossible to own them outright. For instance, FCC regulations only allowed
7300-453: The proposal to ban JSAs – presented a compromise proposal, in which the brokered licensee in a sharing agreement would retain control over at least 85 percent of the station's programming, maintain at least 70 percent of ad sales revenue and "maintain at least 20 percent of station value in the license itself". FCC commissioner Ajit Pai , and Gordon Smith, president of the NAB, were also opposed to
7400-452: The proposed ban on joint sales agreements and voted 5–0 to approve the proposed ban on coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of the four highest-rated stations within a given market; the JSA ban went into effect on June 19, 2014. Under the restrictions, the FCC would rule on waivers to maintain select existing JSAs within 90 days of the application's filing. The FCC also began
7500-511: The requirement for a market to still have eight distinct station owners in order to allow duopolies, but the prohibition of owning two of the top four stations in a market remains. Broadcasters could also collect carriage fees for the stations they operate under sharing agreements on behalf of their owner, often bundling its carriage agreements with those of stations they own outright. This could, especially in LMAs between two stations affiliated with
7600-620: The sale of KFRE-TV, KMPH-TV and most of the company's other stations to the Sinclair Broadcast Group on June 3, 2013. The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale on September 19, and the sale was finalized on October 3. KFRE-TV has been digital-only since June 12, 2009. KFRE-TV began airing programming from the American Sports Network syndication package of sports on August 30, 2014, but does not carry its successor channel, Stadium ; it
7700-425: The sale with the FCC, citing concerns over a single company holding two broadcast licenses in a single market and argued that Glencairn was masquerading as a separate minority-owned company (Edwards, who served as Glencairn's president, is African American ) when it was really an arm of Sinclair that the company used to gain control of the stations through LMAs. After the FCC updated its media ownership rules to allow
7800-414: The same as ownership. In January 2014 town hall meeting, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler disclosed that he planned to place more scrutiny on the use of LMA-style agreements and shell companies, stating that "there were a couple of references in a couple of recent decisions in which we've said that we're going to do things differently going forward on what were called these shell corporations." Later that month, it
7900-526: The same market, creating a legal duopoly). Sinclair's use of local marketing agreements would lead to legal issues in 1999, when Glencairn, Ltd. (since restructured as Cunningham Broadcasting ) announced that it would acquire Fox affiliate KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma from Sullivan Broadcasting; Glencairn subsequently announced plans to sell five of its 11 existing stations that were operated by Sinclair under LMAs to that company outright. As
8000-479: The same, wide extent as Sinclair and Nexstar, some broadcasters have similar business relationships with specific sidecar companies as partners for these agreements: The stations partnered through a sharing agreement may also consolidate their programming operations: local newscasts on the junior partner in the LMA, if it operated a separate news department before the LMA's formation, may be rescheduled or scaled back to prevent direct competition with newscasts airing on
8100-429: The senior partner sells 15% or more of advertising time of a competing junior partner station in the JSA; the ban applies to both existing sharing agreements under such a structure as well as pending station transactions that include a JSA. Station owners would be given a two-year grace period to unwind or modify joint sales agreements in violation of the policy; coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of
8200-585: The spectrum auction, Media General had "[sought] injunctive relief that interferes with a licensee's ultimate control of a station". He also stated that the FCC could consider a license revocation hearing against Media General under Section 312 of the Communications Act. On March 23, 2016, the Supreme Court of Georgia struck down the injunction without addressing the litigation, and Gray took back control of WAGT. On July 13, 2016, Media General
8300-404: The station acting as the senior partner (the latter aspect is less common with LMAs involving only stations affiliated with one of the four largest broadcast television networks ). The stations may share news-gathering resources, but maintain separate news telecasts that are differentiated by their on-air presentation, anchors, and overall format, with varying degrees of autonomy; in these cases,
8400-516: The station and participate in a joint sales agreement with Sinclair. I strongly disagree. And so too, I'll bet, would consumers in Charleston." In September 2014, Sinclair backtracked on its original plans, and reached deals to sell WCIV, WCFT and WJSU's license assets to Howard Stirk Holdings for $ 50,000 each and lease them studio space, pending FCC approval. Unlike Howard Stirk Holdings' other stations, they are operated and programmed independently, and Sinclair did not enter into any agreements to operate
8500-514: The station evolved into a Spanish-language format during the afternoon and evening hours, and English-language religious programs for about eight hours a day each morning. The station's Spanish programming was sourced from NetSpan, the second Spanish-language television network to launch in the United States (after the Spanish International Network, now Univision ); NetSpan was relaunched as Telemundo in 1987. By 1989,
8600-465: The station gradually dropped its inventory of English-language religious programs, and exclusively affiliated with Telemundo. In 2000, KNSO (channel 51, then an affiliate of The WB ) signed a deal to become the Fresno market 's new Telemundo affiliate; as a result, Pappas Telecasting terminated a local marketing agreement (LMA) between KNSO and Fox affiliate KMPH (channel 26). On January 1 , 2001,
8700-513: The station in July 2007; Nail, meanwhile, left channel 26 in January 2008. The station currently airs a rebroadcast of KMPH's prime time newscast, the Ten O'Clock News , each weeknight at 1:30 a.m. The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of other Fresno television stations: Local marketing agreement Under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations,
8800-513: The station to a third-party. Mission Broadcasting also scrapped its planned acquisition of Detroit's MyNetworkTV station WADL (which briefly became Detroit's new CW affiliate in September 2023 after CBS News and Stations dropped long-time affiliate WKBD ) after the FCC imposed conditions on Nexstar's involvement in the station. WADL had dropped The CW in late-October following demands that it be compensated for its "transitional" carriage of
8900-686: The station, but the sidecar is still the legal owner. Although the FCC determines a sidecar firm to be an independent entity from the company using it to outsource station operations for licensing purposes, the Securities and Exchange Commission does not make such a designation, requiring reports on sidecars to be included in a broadcaster's financial statements. Both Sinclair and Nexstar became infamous for their frequent use of sidecars as part of their expansion and consolidation tactics, partnering with companies like Cunningham Broadcasting, Deerfield Media , Mission Broadcasting , and even each other in
9000-480: The station, but was not prepared to sell WVUE outright. On April 4, 2017, Raycom acquired the station for $ 51.8 million. LMAs can also allow companies to control foreign stations from outside of their respective country; Canadian media company Rogers Media used a joint sales agreement to operate Cape Vincent , New York radio station WLYK as a station targeting the nearby Canadian market of Kingston , Ontario , where it owns CKXC-FM and CIKR-FM . Rogers owned
9100-520: The station. On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW . KFRE became the market's CW affiliate when the network launched on September 18, 2006. On May 10, 2008, thirteen Pappas stations, including KFRE, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As
9200-580: The stations being sold to other parties. In May 2014, Sinclair disclosed in an FCC filling that it was unable to find buyers for the three affected stations, requiring changes to its transaction. In Harrisburg, Sinclair chose to retain WHP-TV, and divest WHTM to Media General. However, in Charleston and Birmingham, the company proposed to shut down stations entirely (rather than selling them to other buyers that would also handle their operational responsibilities) so it could maintain legal duopolies; surrendering
9300-455: The stations on Stirk's behalf. In Quincy Newspapers' acquisition of Granite Broadcasting's remaining stations, the acquisition was briefly re-structured to have Malara Broadcast Group —which served as a virtual duopoly partner for Granite with WISE-TV (NBC) Fort Wayne and KDLH-TV Duluth (CBS), retain the stations and their current agreements with WPTA and KBJR-TV in lieu of having them sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The acquisition
9400-491: The time had prohibited television station duopolies, Sinclair decided to sell the lower-rated WPTT to the station's manager Eddie Edwards, but continued to operate the station through an LMA (Sinclair eventually repurchased the station – then assigned the call letters WCWB – outright in 2000, after the Federal Communications Commission began permitting common ownership of two television stations in
9500-446: Was able to retain WBMA-LD in any event as the FCC does not impose any ownership limits on low-power stations. On June 13, 2014, Gray Television announced that it would shutter six stations and consolidate existing programming onto subchannels of Gray-owned stations in their respective market. Unlike Sinclair, however, Gray stated that it would sell the licenses of the shuttered stations to minority-owned broadcasters in collaboration with
9600-407: Was issued a $ 700,000 fine by the FCC. WAGT's spectrum sold for $ 40,763,036. In March 2023, DirecTV sued Nexstar Media Group, alleging that it was conspiring with the sidecar companies Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting to manipulate retransmission fees for its stations. The company, which had been in a carriage dispute with Mission and White Knight since October 2022, stated that
9700-478: Was reported that the FCC had placed all pending acquisitions involving the use of shell companies on hold, so the Commission could discuss changes to its policies. Among the deals affected by this decision included the aforementioned Sinclair/Allbritton purchase. On March 6, 2014, the FCC announced that it would hold a vote on March 31 on a proposal to ban joint sales agreements involving television stations outright, making them attributable to FCC ownership limits if
9800-568: Was restructured in July 2015 to, again, have SagamoreHill Broadcasting acquire the two stations, but have their current SSAs wound down within nine months. Following the end of the SSA, the two stations retained The CW as independently run stations, with their remaining affiliations moved to subchannels of KBJR and WPTA. Quincy similarly wound down an SSA in Peoria, Illinois with Sinclair-owned WHOI by trading its South Bend Fox affiliation (previously held by WSJV-TV ) to Sinclair (where it moved to
9900-743: Was settled in February 2013 via mutual agreement, after which the Fox affiliation was given back to WFFT. Gannett Company's 2013 acquisition of Belo was opposed by organizations such as the American Cable Association and Free Press , due to Gannett's plans to use LMAs and two shell companies owned by former Belo and Fisher Communications executives (respectively, Sander Media and Tucker Operating Co.) to dodge FCC newspaper cross-ownership restrictions in Louisville , Phoenix , Portland, Oregon and Tucson . Although Gannett contended that
10000-471: Was to be sold to Howard Stirk Holdings–a broadcasting company owned by conservative pundit Armstrong Williams . Howard Stirk Holdings was first established in 2013 with its acquisition of two conflicting stations in Sinclair's earlier acquisition of Barrington Broadcasting . In December 2013, FCC Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman sent a letter demanding information from the Sinclair Broadcast Group on
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