FCC OKs Gray Purchase of WNDU-TV

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The FCC Friday approved the transfer of WNDU-TV South Bend, Ind., from Notre Dame University to Gray Television.

Gray had sought a waiver to buy the station even though it owns a nearby newspaper. The FCC has proposed dropping the ban on newspaper/TV station crossownership, but that ban remains in place, at least until the FCC rewrites ownership rules at the direction of a Philadelphia appeals court.

Gray has promised to spin off  the weekly The Goshen News (circulation 16,094)and the FCC has approved the sale and given it six months to complete the spinoff.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.