Post by MasterFX1 on Jun 19, 2006 13:00:31 GMT -5
Freedom to buy Tribune's WCWN/Channel 45
The Business Review (Albany) - 11:12 AM EDT Monday
Freedom Communications is purchasing its second television station in the Albany, N.Y., market.
The Irvine, Calif., company, which already owns Schenectady CBS affiliate WRGB/Channel 6, has agreed to buy WCWN/Channel 45 from the Tribune Co. for $17 million.
Tribune (NYSE: TRB) paid WMHT Educational Telecommunications of North Greenbush $18.5 million for Channel 45, then known as WMHX, in 1999.
Dennis FitzSimons, chairman and CEO of Tribune, said the sale is part of the Chicago company's plan to divest non-core assets as part of the stock repurchase strategy announced May 30. Tribune plans to acquire up to 75 million shares of its common stock, sell at least $500 million in assets, and reduce operating expenses by $200 million over the next two years.
WCWN, which until May 15 was known as WEWB, is the smallest of Tribune's 26 television stations, in the smallest market. It is also the only station Tribune owns in upstate New York. It has only a small studio and offices at 14 Corporate Woods Blvd. All of its programming, including local weather updates, originates at sister-station WLVI in Boston.
WCWN carries the WB Network, but this fall will become an affiliate of the new CW Network to be formed from the merger of WB and the UPN network. Ironically, local UPN affiliate WNYA/Channel 15 is housed at WRGB and shares its advertising staff. This means Freedom will control the advertising sales on three Albany area stations.
In September WNYA, which is owned by Venture Technologies Inc. of Los Angeles, will become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV, a new network from Fox Television.
The Business Review (Albany) - 11:12 AM EDT Monday
Freedom Communications is purchasing its second television station in the Albany, N.Y., market.
The Irvine, Calif., company, which already owns Schenectady CBS affiliate WRGB/Channel 6, has agreed to buy WCWN/Channel 45 from the Tribune Co. for $17 million.
Tribune (NYSE: TRB) paid WMHT Educational Telecommunications of North Greenbush $18.5 million for Channel 45, then known as WMHX, in 1999.
Dennis FitzSimons, chairman and CEO of Tribune, said the sale is part of the Chicago company's plan to divest non-core assets as part of the stock repurchase strategy announced May 30. Tribune plans to acquire up to 75 million shares of its common stock, sell at least $500 million in assets, and reduce operating expenses by $200 million over the next two years.
WCWN, which until May 15 was known as WEWB, is the smallest of Tribune's 26 television stations, in the smallest market. It is also the only station Tribune owns in upstate New York. It has only a small studio and offices at 14 Corporate Woods Blvd. All of its programming, including local weather updates, originates at sister-station WLVI in Boston.
WCWN carries the WB Network, but this fall will become an affiliate of the new CW Network to be formed from the merger of WB and the UPN network. Ironically, local UPN affiliate WNYA/Channel 15 is housed at WRGB and shares its advertising staff. This means Freedom will control the advertising sales on three Albany area stations.
In September WNYA, which is owned by Venture Technologies Inc. of Los Angeles, will become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV, a new network from Fox Television.