On the eastern side of the Connecticut River separating Vermont from New Hampshire is the small municipality of Charlestown, a ninety-minute drive from Springfield, Mass., and from Manchester, N.H.
It’s the home of a low-power TV station simulcasting a Manchester-based LPTV branded as “YCN,” and featuring programming from the Heroes & Icons digital multicast network.
This could change in weeks. The LPTV has just been acquired by one of the nation’s biggest broadcast television companies.
An asset purchase agreement filed with the Commission on Oct. 14 and posted by the FCC on Thursday (10/17) confirms that Cross Hill Communications is selling WYCU-LD in Charlestown, N.H.
The buyer is Gray Television, the giant that merged with Raycom Media and is now one of the biggest TV station owners in the nation.
Gray is grabbing the LPTV for $75,000; a $50,000 deposit is being held by escrow agent Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.
The remainder is to be paid in cash at closing.
Cross Hill is a New Hampshire-based locally focused broadcaster led by Greg Uhrin.
Gray, on the other hand, is an Atlanta-based publicly traded company that presently owns and/or operates television stations and leading digital properties in 93 television markets.
Among these markets is Burlington, Vt., where Gray Television owns CBS affiliate WCAX-3, a station long viewed in such Quebec cities as Montréal and Sherbrooke, in addition to Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Gray paid $29 million for WCAX in May 2017, acquiring it from the Martin family’s Mt. Mansfield Television.
Now, despite its distance from Burlington, Gray appears to be establishing WCAX as Vermont’s CBS station, although Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned WRGB-6 historically has been the default affiliate serving southwestern Vermont and such towns as Bennington and Manchester.
In Charlestown, Xfinity service via Comcast is the main MVPD aside from DirecTV and DISH Network. Because of its locale, WCAX-3 and CBS O&O WBZ-4 in Boston are offered.
Over the air, WCAX-3 is the main CBS station.
This likely explains why Gray is grabbing the LPTV, which would give an over-the-air signal to small towns such as Rockingham and Springfield to an in-state station.
And, it could also give Gray more leverage in negotiating retransmission fee agreements for WCAX with not only Comcast but also the two DBS providers.
