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Station Merger Gets Go-Ahead — With Strings Attached

Feb 12, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A media acquisition that was approved by the Justice Department in December has cleared another hurdle, with the FCC giving its OK today. The proposed deal has Gray Television acquiring Schurz Communications’ TV and radio stations for $442.5 million, TVNewsCheck reports.

“In an 11-page letter released today, the FCC told Gray that it granted the applications to purchase the TV stations, granting some waivers of local ownership rules in five markets, but denying it a waiver to continue a JSA in Wichita-Hutchinson, Kan.,” the story reports.

In the Wichita-Hutchinson market, Schurz owns KWCH, KSCW and three satellite stations. The report notes that the agency “granted Gray’s request for a ‘failing station waiver’ so that it could acquire KSCW and approved the takeover the satellites. However, it did not grant Gray’s request for a waiver of the JSA between KWCH and Entravision-owned KDCU.”

The panel gave Gray one year to terminate the KDCU-DT JSA or find another way to come into compliance with FCC rules.

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