Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to sell the non-license assets of WTAT Charleston to Cunningham Communications for $14 million. Cunningham owns the license assets of the station, a Fox affiliate. It is closely aligned with Sinclair, with Sinclair typically providing services to stations where Cunningham holds the license.
Sinclair also agreed to sell WHTM Harrisburg to Media General for $83.4 million.
The broadcaster is eager to close on its acquisition of Allbritton. Stations in Harrisburg, Charleston and Birmingham had been holding up approval, as Sinclair owns existing stations there. Sinclair acknowledged the two deals were made “in order to comply with regulatory rules in an effort to obtain approval of the Allbritton transaction by July 27, 2014.”
Sinclair anticipates it will be able to close on the Allbritton transaction in the third quarter of 2014, pending customary approvals and a waiver from the FCC.
