ATLANTA—Gray Media has announced an agreement to acquire the Block Communications-owned television stations for $80 million.
The deal will strengthen Gray’s presence in the Midwest by creating a new Big Four duopoly in one market and by adding top-ranked local news stations in two more Midwestern markets that can support and benefit from our strong local stations in adjacent markets, Gray said.
The deal comes at a time when station merger and acquisition activity has been heating up as the industry continues to aggressively lobby the Federal Communications Commission to relax or eliminate ownership rules on broadcast TV stations.
Gray anticipates closing these transactions in the fourth quarter of this year following receipt of regulatory approval, including certain waivers of the FCC’s current ownership rules, and other customary closing conditions.
The transaction includes WDRB and WBKI, the Fox and The CW affiliates for the Louisville, Kentucky, market (DMA 49), where Gray owns and operates NBC affiliate WAVE-TV. The transaction also includes WAND, the NBC affiliate for the Springfield-Champaign-Decatur, Illinois, market (DMA 92), and WLIO, the NBC affiliate for the Lima, Ohio, market (DMA 190), as well as WLIO’s associated low-power television stations.
WAND and WLIO each had the highest all-day ratings among television households in their markets during 2024, according to Comscore.
Gray and Scripps recently announced plans for a station swap that would also require the FCC to change its ownership rules or grant a waiver.
