KCRG sold to Atlanta based Gray Television

[47of74]

KCRG was the last locally owned station here in Iowa;

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Gazette Company reached an agreement to sell KCRG-TV9, the local ABC affiliate for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo and Dubuque market, to Gray Television, effective October 1st.

Viewers should not notice many changes to the news and entertainment that now airs on KCRG-TV9, Gray’s Senior Vice President Bob Smith said.

The Atlanta-based company is paying $100 million for KCRG-TV9. It is one of several recent TV stations Gray has purchased nationwide. Smith says having more stations gives Gray more power to negotiate retransmission agreements with cable companies and affiliation agreements with networks. Smith is confident a strong TV station, like KCRG-TV9, will stay relevant well into the changing future of news media.

The Gazette Company CEO, Chuck Peters, says the money from the sale will help it solidify its finances and look to acquire other companies in the area.

[cascadiance]

1. Thanks for the note... I used to work there.

Are they selling off the KCRG radio station as well? Hoping for your sake there that Gray isn't like Sinclair when trying to negotiate cable and satellite broadcast agreements and have a nationwide blackout of its stations like Sinclair did a week ago or so on Dish Network.

[47of74]

4. Gazette sold off the KCRG radio station years ago.

They sold the station in 2006 to the people who own Cedar Rapids station KZIA. The call sign of the station changed to KGYM at that time.

Yeah I'm hoping there aren't any more pissing matches in the near future that cause blackouts of those stations. Those of us on DirecTV just came off that three month blackout back in April.

[cascadiance]

5. It looks like Dish and Gray Television settled on a "long term deal" in 2013...

as noted here...

http://deadline.com/2013/10/dish-network-reaches-long-term-retrans-agreement-with-gray-television-615042/

I'm not sure if "long term" is less than 2 years or not, but hopefully not for your sake there.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. What is with these ABC Stations

changing hands,is Disney going Yellow Rag. Elections coming and you know Disney wants a GOP Landslide.

[BuckIA]

3. I was just watching KCRG news. They said the sale price was $100,000,000. Yes $100,000,000!