Second try to sell Portland ME de facto duopoly

0

Sold
WPXT-DT and WPME-DT have been operated in tandem by two different owners, and applications to transfer to two new licensees were filed in March 2012 but never made it to the finish line. But a new pair of buyers has come forward.


The lead station of the two is WPXT – it carries CW, and additionally provides MeTV on a digital side channel. It is being sold by John Parente’s New Age Media of Maine to David J. Joseph’s Ironwood Communications Portland LLC.

The price is $1.525M cash. However, Ironwood has a second deal in which it will sign the right to acquire certain assets, including real estate, to Admiralty Properties LLC, which clocks in at $1.3M.

The earlier sale of WPXT was to Tyche Broadcasting, and carried a price tag of $75K.
The second deal is for Lewiston ME-licensed WPME-TV, which is going from Eugene J. Brown’s MPS Media of Portland to Daniel D. Davenport’s Cottonwood Communications Portland. The price will be $75K.

The earlier attempted sale was to Triumph Broadcasting for the same price.

WPXT will be the lead in a JSA in which the advertising revenue pie will be split along the lines of what is clearly becoming an industry standard. Cottonwood will get 70% of the take, with WPXT keeping 30%.

There is also an SSA, under terms of which WPME will pay a monthly base service fee to WPXT of $30K.

Finally, WPXT’s Ironwood has the option to acquire WPME outright should that ever become a possibility for $100K,