Pegasus Communications Corp. will own two Tallahassee, Fla., TV stations, even though the
market doesn't contain enough separately owned TV outlets to justify a duopoly,
the Federal Communications Commission said Monday.
Pegasus won a waiver to buy WFXU(TV) from KB Prime Media LLC under the agency's
"unbuilt station" policy, which allows an operator to add another station if the
second outlet's original licensee was unable to construct the facility.
Typically, duopolies are permitted only when eight separate TV voices would
remain postmerger, but the WFXU sale was permitted because Pegasus funded the
station's construction in 1997.
Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps opposed the waiver, arguing that
Pegasus has not demonstrated that WFXU would not have been built without the
company's help.
Pegasus already programmed WFXU under a local marketing agreement, and it also
owns WTLH(TV).
Pegasus agreed to pay $251,000 for WFXU in
September.
