Mission Broadcasting

Last updated

Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
Company type Private
Industry Broadcasting
Founded1996;28 years ago (1996) [1]
FounderDavid S. Smith
Headquarters
Wichita Falls, Texas
,
U.S. [2]
Key people
Revenue$51.9 million[ when? ]
Number of employees
39
Website missionbroadcastinginc.com

Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 29 full-power television stations in 26 markets in the United States. The group's chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 [3] and died in 2011. All but one of Mission's stations are located in markets where Nexstar Media Group also owns a station, and all of Mission's stations (including its lone stand-alone station) are managed by Nexstar through shared services and local marketing agreements —effectively creating duopolies between the top two stations in a market or in markets with too few stations or unique station owners to legally allow duopolies. [4] The company moved its headquarters from Westlake, Ohio, to Wichita Falls, Texas, in 2018. The company's stations are based in markets as large as New York City and as small as Grand Junction, Colorado.

Contents

History

In 1996, Mission Broadcasting was started with its first stations were WUPN in Greensboro and WUXP in Nashville. Both of these were owned by ABRY shareholders, and operated through an SSA by Sullivan Broadcasting, a company affiliated with ABRY Broadcast Partners, which was absorbed into Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1998. [5] In 2001, Sinclair bought these two stations outright. [6] Another related ABRY-affiliated company Bastet Broadcasting, was absorbed into Mission Broadcasting by 2002. [7]

On December 19, 2013, Mission Broadcasting announced it was acquiring KFQX, a Fox affiliate in Grand Junction, Colorado, for $4 million. [8] The sale was approved on February 27, 2017 [9] and finalized on March 31. [10]

During 2020, Mission acquired several more television stations, starting that March with Fox affiliates KMSS-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana, KPEJ-TV in Odessa, Texas, and KLJB in Davenport, Iowa, from Marshall Broadcasting Group for $49 million. [11] The sale was completed on September 1, 2020. [12]

They were followed up on July 13 by Nexstar transferring its option to purchase WPIX in New York City, a CW affiliate from The E. W. Scripps Company to Mission Broadcasting. Mission exercised the option and announced it was acquiring WPIX for $75 million. Once the transaction closed on December 30, WPIX became Mission's first station in a market without an accompanied Nexstar station, as an outright acquisition of WPIX (which broadcasts on virtual and VHF digital channel 11, and is thus not eligible for a UHF discount) by Nexstar would have caused Nexstar to well exceed the 39 percent market reach cap. [13] [14]

Then that August alone, Mission announced the acquisition of five more stations. On August 7, Mission announced the purchases of CW affiliate KWBQ in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and its satellites and its MyNetworkTV sister KASY-TV in Albuquerque from Tamer Media LLC. [15] This was followed up by acquisitions of dual ABC and CW+ affiliate WLAJ in Lansing, Michigan, and Fox affiliate WXXA-TV in Albany, New York, from Shield Media. [16] These sales were finalized and completed in November of that year. [17] [18] [19]

Then on August 31, it was announced that Nexstar executed an option to purchase dual Fox and CW affiliate WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, for $64,000. The option had been in place since 2003 when LIN TV owned sister station, then and now CBS affiliate WPRI-TV with Nexstar assigning the WNAC license to Mission. [20] The sale was completed on June 16, 2021. [21]

On May 17, 2023, Mission announced a deal to acquire MyNetworkTV affiliate WADL in Detroit (licensed to Mount Clemens) from founder Adell Broadcasting for $75 million. [22] Mission will once again contract with Nexstar to operate the station much like Mission's other stations, [23] effectively ending 34 years of local ownership. If approved and finalized, WADL would be the 30th station in Mission's portfolio and only its second station in Michigan alongside affiliate WLAJ [24] and only the second station without a companion Nexstar station alongside WPIX.

On March 21, 2024, the FCC ruled Mission's ownership of WPIX to be an illegal circumvention of its ownership limits, due to Nexstar treating the station like its own, and ordered Nexstar to either sell it to an independent third party or sell off some of its other stations to buy WPIX outright. The decision came as local marketing agreements and similar licensing deals came under increased scrutiny by the FCC. Nexstar stated its intent to dispute the ruling, claiming that they had always complied with FCC regulations. [25]

Television stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

City of license / Market Station
  • Owned
  • since
Current affiliationNexstar sister station(s)
Little Rock, Arkansas KLRT-TV 16 (30)2013
KASN 38 (34)2013The CW
Grand Junction, Colorado KFQX 4 (15)2017
Rockford, Illinois WTVO 17 (16)2004 WQRF-TV
Evansville, Indiana WTVW 7 (22)2011The CW WEHT
Terre Haute, Indiana WAWV-TV 38 (18)2003ABC WTWO
Davenport, Iowa KLJB 18 (30)2020Fox
Monroe, Louisiana–El Dorado, Arkansas KTVE 10 (27)2007
 KARD
Shreveport, Louisiana KMSS-TV 33 (34)2020Fox
Lansing, Michigan WLAJ 53 (25)2020
  • ABC
  • The CW
 WLNS-TV
Joplin, Missouri–Pittsburg, Kansas KODE-TV 12 (23)2002ABC KSNF
Springfield–Branson, Missouri KOLR 10 (10)2003 CBS
Hardin–Billings, Montana KHMT 4 (22)2004Fox KSVI
Albuquerque–Santa Fe, New Mexico KWBQ 19 (29)2020The CW KRQE
KASY-TV 50 (36)2020MyNetworkTV
Roswell, New Mexico KRWB-TV [lower-alpha 1] 21 (21)2020The CW
Albany, New York WXXA-TV 23 (7)2020Fox WTEN
New York City, New York WPIX 11 (11)2020The CWNone
Utica–Rome, New York WUTR 20 (30)2004
  • ABC
  • MyNetworkTV
Erie, Pennsylvania WFXP 66 (26)1998Fox WJET-TV
Wilkes-Barre–Scranton, Pennsylvania WYOU 22 (13)1998CBS WBRE-TV
Providence, Rhode Island WNAC-TV 64 (12)2021Fox WPRI-TV
Abilene–Sweetwater, Texas KRBC-TV 9 (29)2003NBC KTAB-TV
Amarillo, Texas KCIT 14 (15)1999Fox KAMR-TV
Lubbock, Texas KAMC 28 (27)2003ABC KLBK-TV
Odessa–Midland, Texas KPEJ-TV 24 (23)2020Fox KMID
San Angelo, Texas KSAN-TV 3 (16)2003NBC KLST
Wichita Falls, Texas–Lawton, Oklahoma KJTL 18 (15)1999Fox KFDX-TV
Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York WVNY 22 (13)2013ABC WFFF-TV
  1. ↑ Satellite of KWBQ.

Former stations

City of license / Market Station
  • Years
  • owned
Current status
Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina WUPN-TV48 (28)1996–2001 MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Nashville, Tennessee WUXP-TV 30 (21)1996–2001MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Amarillo, Texas KCPN-LD 33 (33)1999–2021MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Harlingen–Brownsville, Texas KGBT-TV 4 (18)2021 MyNetworkTV/Antenna TV affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Wichita Falls, Texas KJBO-LD 35 (35)1999–2021MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Mission Broadcasting, Inc". missionbroadcastinginc.com.
  2. ↑ "Contact – Mission Broadcasting, Inc".
  3. ↑ "Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News". finance.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Virtual Duopolies Coming Under Fire". TVNewsCheck. June 9, 2010. Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  5. ↑ "FCC Report: Sullivan Broadcasting". www.sec.gov. March 26, 1997.
  6. ↑ Schneider, Michael (November 18, 1999). "Sinclair files for duopolies". Variety. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  7. ↑ "NEXSTAR BROADCASTING GROUP INC (Form: S-1/A, Received: 12/23/2002 08:05:42)". content.edgar-online.com. May 19, 1998. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  8. ↑ Television Inc, Gray (December 19, 2013). "Gray To Divest Certain Hoak Markets To Nexstar". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  9. ↑ Notice Archived February 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine . CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, February 27, 2017, Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission" . www.licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
  11. ↑ Aftab, Hassan (April 6, 2020). "Mission Broadcasting to buy certain assets of Marshall Broadcasting TV stations". S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, September 7, 2020, Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  13. ↑ Gubagaras, Mark Anthony (July 13, 2020). "Mission Broadcasting to acquire The CW affiliate WPIX". S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  14. ↑ McCarter, Rebecca (December 30, 2020). "Scripps completes sale of WPIX". Scripps. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  15. ↑ Jacobson, Adam (August 18, 2020). "Mission Accomplished: A Nexstar Shared Services Partner Shift In Albuquerque". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  16. ↑ Jacobson, Adam (August 21, 2020). "Mission Consolidation Continues With Michigan, N.Y. Moves". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, November 17, 2020, Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Consummation Notice" (WLAJ), CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, November 25, 2020, Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Consummation Notice" (WXXA) [ permanent dead link ], CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, November 25, 2020, Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  20. ↑ Jacobson, Adam (August 31, 2020). "The Mission Consolidation Train Rolls Into Rhode Island". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, June 18, 2021, Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  22. ↑ "Assignments". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. May 17, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  23. ↑ Form of Station Services Agreement
  24. ↑ TVNewsCheck Staff (May 18, 2023). "Mission Broadcasting Buying WADL Detroit". TV News Check. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  25. ↑ Hayes, Dade (March 21, 2024). "Nexstar Fined $1.2M By FCC & Could Lose Control Of CW Flagship WPIX-TV In New York; Company Vows To Fight Ruling "Vigorously"". Deadline. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
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