BURBANK, CALIF.: Liberman Broadcasting today announced the acquisition of what will become its ninth owned-and-operated TV station. Liberman bought W40BY, a translator station for Trinity Broadcasting’s WWTO-TV station in Chicago. W40BY is licensed to Palatine and serves the Chicago market on Ch. 40 from Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower. Liberman acquired the station from Trinity for an undisclosed sum.
Liberman will transition W40BY to its own Spanish-language Estrella TV network. Liberman said Chicago’s is the sixth largest Hispanic television market in the United States representing more than 490,000 Latino TV households. The transition is expected to occur in the spring, bringing Estrella’s reach to 73 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, the media company said. The transaction itself is expected to be completed during the second quarter.
Liberman recently purchased Denver’s KWHD-TV from LeSea Broadcasting for a reported $6.5 million (TVNewsCheck).
Privately owned Liberman now has Estrella stations in 26 markets, including 21 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets, the company said. LBI Media is said to produce 56 hours of weekly programming in its Burbank studios and has a library of over 5,000 hours of programming.
February 3, 2010: “KWHD Switching from Christian to Hispanic”
The format-switch comes as a result of KWHD’s sale to Liberman Broadcasting, which will change it to an affiliate of its Estrella TV network, possibly in the second quarter of this year.
