Mission Broadcasting to Acquire WADL Detroit

WADL Detroit
(Image credit: Mission Broadcasting)

Mission Broadcasting has agreed to acquire WADL Detroit from Adell Broadcasting Corporation. The MyNetworkTV station is in DMA No. 14. 

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but one deal insider said the price was $75 million. Calls to confirm the price with Mission were not addressed at presstime.

“The purchase of WADL represents a rare opportunity to acquire a full-power station in a top-15 market,” said Dennis Thatcher, president of Mission Broadcasting. “We are very excited about playing a role in the continued renaissance of this great American city.”

The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the third quarter. 

Mission stations include WPIX New York, WNAC Providence and WTVW Evansville. In Michigan, Mission owns WLAJ Lansing, an ABC-CW affiliate. 

“I started this journey 34 years ago at my parents’ kitchen table, where I mortgaged their home in order to build what would later become WADL-TV,” said Kevin Adell, CEO of Adell Broadcasting. “I could not have selected a better successor of my legacy than Mission Broadcasting.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.