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Emmis Agrees to Sell 9 Stations

Aug 22, 2005  •  Post A Comment

Emmis Communications has agreed to sell nine of its 16 TV stations to LIN TV, Journal Communications and Grey Television for a total of $681 million.

Emmis Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan said in announcing the deals Monday morning that talks continue regarding the sales of Emmis’ remaining seven stations.

Five stations are to be sold to LIN for $260 million: Fox affiliate WALA-TV and The WB affiliate WBPG-TV, both in Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla; CBS affiliate WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, Ind.; Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wis.; and CBS affiliate KRQE-TV in Albuquerque-Santa Fe, N.M.

Journal Communications has agreed to pay $235 million for ABC affiliate KGUN-TV in Tucson, Ariz.; Fox affiliate WFTX-TV in Fort Myers-Naples, Fla.; and CBS affiliate KMTV in Omaha, Neb.

Grey is paying $186 million for NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Charleston-Huntington, W.Va.

Emmis’ remaining stations include WB affiliate WKCF-TV in Orlando, Fla.; Fox affiliate WVUE-TV in New Orleans; CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland, Ore.; NBC affiliate KSNT-TV in Topeka, Kan.; NBC affiliate KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kan.; and, in Honolulu, Fox affiliate KHON-TV and CBS affiliate KGMB-TV.

Emmis said that it expects to begin finalizing the sales by year-end.