WJHG-TV is doing heavy lifting for Gray Television in the Panama City FL DMA, and now Gray is moving to bring it some low power assistance, as it has done recently in two other DMAs. This time it’s picking up the CP for W18DR-D.
In this deal, Gray is actually picking up an option to acquire the station from current licensee MIK LLC, headed by Michael Dagen. The option belongs to DTV America Corporation, headed by John Kyle.
Gray is led by Hilton Howell and Robert Prather.
Under terms of the deal, Gray will make a $4K advance payment to DTV American and then pay another $32K at closing. MIK will receive $4K and will turn the CP over to DTV America, and it will then be passed over to Gray.
WJHG, known as News Channel 7 (its virtual channel; its digital home is actually Channel 8), is primarily an NBC outlet. It uses multicasting to bring three other streams to the market, CW, MNT and a weather channel.
Gray has recently announced similar deals to acquire low power outlets in the Parkersburg WV DMA, where it is getting a pair in nearly Marietta OH; and in Harrisonburg VA, where it is picking up one licensed to Staunton-Waynesboro VA. In both cases, Gray owns and operates full power stations in the market that use multicasting to provide a variety of program options; and in each of those cases, the value of the deal is $66K.
