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Tucson, Ariz., TV Station Among 3 Sold By Emmis Communications in $235M Deal

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 23--Emmis Communications Corp. announced Monday that it will sell Tucson's ABC-TV affiliate, KGUN Channel 9, to Milwaukee-based Journal Communications Inc.

Journal Communications is buying KGUN and TV stations in Fort Myers, Fla., and Omaha, Neb., from Emmis for $235 million.

The company already owns four Tucson radio stations: Mix-FM, KMXZ (94.9-FM); The Point, KZPT (104.1-FM); Mega Oldies, KGMG (106.3-FM and 104.9-FM); and The Fan, KFFN (1490-AM).

Indianapolis-based Emmis, which announced in May that it was considering selling some or all of its television stations to reduce debt, will also sell five stations to Providence, R.I.-based LIN TV Corp. and one station to Atlanta-based Gray Television.

Emmis Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan said the company is also moving forward on selling its remaining seven television stations.

Journal Communications owns the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper, more than 90 community newspapers and shoppers, 38 radio stations and eight television stations, not including the latest deal.

KGUN's new owners should be an excellent fit for the station, said Ray Depa, KGUN's vice president and general manager.

"Journal has a great reputation, and I think this opens the door to a lot of synergistic opportunities," Depa said. "I'm excited about this. I'm excited for our people." Emmis received a considerable amount of interest in its television stations due to the quality of stations such as KGUN, said company spokeswoman Kate Snedeker.

"KGUN is a really great station, and I think they're going to meet with continued success under Journal," Snedeker said.

Local broadcast station broker Frank Kalil said Journal has long been known as solid.

"They're a quality company, very highly regarded, and the deal they made for these stations was a good one," said Kalil, president of Kalil and Co. "If you look into their company, everyone from the president on down seems to really like the company." Journal has long desired to grow via broadcast acquisitions, particularly in areas where it already had a media presence, such as Tucson, said San Francisco-based Peter Appert, an analyst with Goldman, Sachs & Co.

The Emmis transactions, which total $681 million for the nine stations, are subject to government approval but should close by the end the year, Snedeker said.

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EMMS, JRN, TVL, GTN,

Source: The Arizona Daily Star

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