Used Car Dealership to Buy WGN

Used Car Dealer Buys Chicago’s Very Own WGN

The merger of Maryland based Sinclair Broadcast and Chicago-based Trib Media seems to have morphed into the plot of a television farce comedy. As the merger of the two companies still exceeds national coverage limits set by the FCC, Sinclair announced that it will sell WGN, Chicago’s very own WGN, to a Maryland based auto dealership which is privately owned but one of the owners just happens to be the majority owner of Sinclair. Oh, and the sale has an option so Sinclair can buy back the broadcast license at the price at which they sold the license to the auto dealer. Perhaps no one at the FCC, FTC or the Justice Department will notice this little ruse to avoid actually selling stations to comply with the FCC restriction.

Unfortunately for Sinclair, opponents to this merger have noticed and could prolong this affair. The first to originally object to the merger well over a year ago were small cable operators who feared that Sinclair could squeeze them out of the market. But now there is a new coalition called The Coalition to Save Local Media that is also opposing the merger and there are some deep pocket heavy hitters in this group. The Computer and Communications Industry Association has joined the Coalition and their members include Amazon, Netflix and Google among others. Their motives may not be as noble as the Coalition name would suggest either. These companies are all new program content producers and they may fear Sinclair as a program content distributor. Sinclair has been upgrading the technology of its existing stations and has said it will do the same with the Trib’s old network. To simply, this means while computers and phones can now operate like a television, this new technology will let a television operate similarly to a computer streaming content, that is with targeted advertising.

While it is more likely these new content producers and distributors are more motivated to blunt a possible new aggressive competitor than to actually save “local media,” they are doing nothing except exercising their self-interest. There is no crime or shame in fighting for your self interest. The puzzle, as usual, is a battle over a Chicago-based television company is being fought with no body involved who is actually in Chicago. More participants have entered the fray and there is no one even to argue what Chicago’s best interest should be. Will a auto dealership on the East Coast really take any interest in Chicago? Perhaps, but not likely.

For more about Chicago’s past history with the FCC, read Chicago’s Radio and Television Industry History.