TV Station News and Updates

May 2023 In a major shakeup, CBS has announced plans to drop the CW affiliation on 8 of their stations this fall. Those stations are WUPA in Atlanta, WKBD in Detroit, KMAX in Sacramento, KBCW in San Francisco, KSTW in Seattle, WTOG in Tampa, WPSG in Philadelphia, and WPCW in Pittsburgh.

June 2022 The Federal Communications Commission has completed the auction of eighteen new full-power television stations in the United States. The most prolific bidder was Weigel Broadcasting with six stations. Those six stations were located in Carlsbad, NM, two in Silver City, NM, Ely, NV, Tonopah, NV, and Wittenberg, WI. The second company with the most bids was Gray Television. They walked away with five new stations, one in each of Yuma, AZ, Flagstaff, AZ, Freeport, IL, Winnemucca, NV and Eagle River, WI. This was the first auction for new full power television stations in over a decade.

September 2020 E.W. Scripps has reached an agreement to buy Ion Media For $2.65 billion. The deal increases Scripps' reach of over the air television to nearly the entire United States. 23 stations will be sold as part of Scripps' acquisition but are said to remain part of the Ion network.

March 2020 Fox Television Stations and Nexstar have completed the transaction that sees Fox adding Fox affiliate KCPQ and MyNetworkTV affiliate KZJO in Seattle, and Fox affiliate WITI Milwaukee to their owned and operated stations while Nexstar has acquired Fox affiliate WJZY and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYT in Charlotte from Fox. Fox paid Nexstar $350 million for the three stations while Nexstar paid $45 for the two Charlotte stations.

November 2018 LBI Media/Liberman Broadcasting has filed bankruptcy under the heavy debt burden of over $500 million. A reorganization plan sees the company reducing debt by more than half but a portion of ownership being handed to creditors. The stations and Estrella TV network are expected to continue to operate post-bankruptcy.

March 2018 LBI Media/Liberman Broadcasting has completed the purchase of WGEN in the Miami market. As part of the purchase the station flipped to LBI's Estrella TV. Also included were several LPTVs.

December 2016 The Spanish language television network MundoMax has shut down. The move leaves channels scrambling for programming. In Miami, WGEN has joined Azteca America, in Fresno KGMC has joined Estrella TV, and in Las Vegas KMCC has joined the Action Channel.

September 2016 Is the end of MundoMax near? At the beginning of the month, MundoMax lost another big affiliate KFWD in Dallas, Texas. The full-power station flipped to the SonRise Christian network while leaving the crucial Dallas market without a home for MundoMax. Likewise, New York City no longer has a MundoMax affiliate, again another very important Hispanic market. At what point will the network pull the plug?

May 2016 The CW Network and Tribune have announced an extension of their affiliation agreement that will see the network continue to air on all the existing Tribune stations carrying the network with the exception of WGN in Chicago. WGN will be dropping the network and returning to its roots as an Independent station with a heavy mix of sports and news. Meanwhile, the Fox owned and operated station WPWR will be taking over the CW affiliation for the Chicago market. This marks Fox's only CW affiliated television station in the country. Details on what will happen with the My Network TV 2-hour block were not yet announced but likely the block will air after the CW prime-time lineup.

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