WashingtonRincon Broadcasting, which announced a $29.4 million deal to acquire the stations in March, has been granted permission by the Federal Communications Commission to transfer the licenses for five TV stations from Sinclair.
By doing this, the FCC also granted a unique exception to its ownership regulations, which forbid station groups from owning more than one of a market’s top four stations. One could read that ruling as one another indication of the FCC’s readiness to loosen its regulations around TV station ownership. So far this year, the government has approved two additional rule waivers.
WVTV-TV in Milwaukee, KTVO-TV in Kirksville, Missouri, WICD-TV in Champaign, Illinois, KHQA-TV in Hannibal, Missouri, and WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois, are the five stations.
