Gray Buys ‘WKRP’ In Cincinnati: The TV Station

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Forty years ago, characters named Arthur Carlson, Les Nessman and Dr. Johnny Fever became household names and wildly popular fictional versions of radio industry managers and on-air hosts through the CBS prime-time series “WKRP In Cincinnati.”


The setting was an AM radio station. Today, the “WKRP” name is used in the market, but not as call letters. Rather, it is the brand of a low-power TV station, and it is on its way to becoming the latest LPTV property to be acquired by Gray Television.

 

 

“WKRP 25” is the branding for WBQC-LD 25 in Cincinnati, which has been in the Elliott B. Block WKQC Amended and Restated Trust.

Block died on Nov. 25, 2019, the station shared in a Facebook post at the time of his passing. “Block loved his family, friends, muscle cars, and of course, television … so much so that, in 2008, he changed the call letters of his station from WBQC to WKRP,” in commemoration of the television series that spawned a 1980s spin-off and is still remembered by many in the radio broadcasting industry.

The sale price is $2.5 million, payable in full with no escrow deposit. Greg Guy from Patrick Communications served as the seller’s broker in this transaction.

The $2.5 million valuation is reflective of not only its presence in a leading mid-size TV market but the fact that WBQC is one of only two LPTVs in the Cincinnati DMA. The other is owned by Daystar and offers non-commercial religious programming. In contrast, WBQC is “chock full” of digital multicast networks, with 12 associated with the facility.

Signing off on the WBQC sale is Block Broadcasting Company President and trustee Matthew Gray. Block’s legal counsel in this transaction is Kathleen Victory of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth. For Gray, it is Joan Stewart of Wiley LLP.

When the sale to Gray is complete, WBQC will be paired with FOX affiliate WXIX-19, which came to Gray via its Raycom Media merger. Raycom brought it into its family in 1998 through a multi-station purchase with the former Malrite Communications, which owned WMMS in Cleveland and famously signed WHTZ “Z100” in New York on the air in 1983.

What will Gray likely do with WBQC? Many of the digital multicast channels will likely stay in place. At present, COZI TV is on DT1, while THIS TV is on DT2.

However, given Gray Television’s investment and commitment to serving Spanish-speaking consumers, using WBQC in some way as a Telemundo affiliate for the greater Cincinnati area could mark the latest growth opportunity in an emerging Hispanic market, with Gray in the driver’s seat in a landscape dominated by Spanish-language radio and some print media.