Ion Buys Into Pittsburgh

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Mr. Jones
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Ion Buys Into Pittsburgh

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dma 23

Ion Buying WQEX Pittsburgh For $3 Million
The seller is noncommercial WQED, which has been trying to spin off the station since the mid-1990s. More than a decade ago, Ion, as Paxson Communications, had tried to acquire the station, but that deal ran into opposition from public TV advocates.

By Harry A. Jessell
TVNewsCheck, November 8, 2010 7:49 AM EST

After nearly a decade and a half of trying, it looks as if noncommercial WQED Pittsburgh may finally have a deal to spin off WQEX, its second station now airing ShopNBC.

According to an FCC filing seeking approval of the deal, the buyer is Ion Media and the price is $3 million. Pittsburgh (DMA 23) is one of only 11 top 50 markets where Ion doesn’t have a station.

Ion, in its original incarnation as Paxson Communications, had tried to acquire WQEX in the late 1990s in a complicated three-way deal involving a local religious station, but the deal fell apart amid protests by local public television advocates.

WQED eventually won FCC permission to sell WQEX to a commercial broadcaster and in 2002 it thought it had a deal to sell it for $20 million to Diane Sutter, a Pittsburgh native and former head of the Shamrock Broadcasting TV group. The deal collapsed for financial reasons.

However, Sutter went on to purchase WNDS Boston (now WZMY) for $28 million two years later.
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2010 ... -3-million
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