WBIN Partners With Political Interest Groups
A New Hampshire television news network owned by a former Republican candidate for Senate is working closely with conservative interest groups that are pressuring presidential candidates to take more aggressive positions on use of military force, entitlement reform, and tax cuts.
Binnie’s WBIN Goal: Hyperlocal Powerhouse
Bill Binnie’s Carlisle Media has owned the former MNT affiliate serving the Boston market from Manchester, N.H., for only four weeks. But he’s wasting no time: “We are completely rebuilding this station physically in 10 weeks. I don’t know of another station in a major market like ours where we have seen it overhauled so quickly. We’ll have a newscast by September. We’re going to HD in 60 days or 90 days. We are completely overhauling our programming grid and will have that done by the end of the year.”
Portsmouth, N.H., businessman and former U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie is paying $9,250,000 for WZMY Derry, N.H., an MNT affiliate with full coverage of the Boston market, according to the FCC filing seeking approval for the deal. That’s just one-third of the $28 million that seller Shooting Star Broadcasting (Diana Sutter) paid for the station in 2004. Binnie’s Carlisle One Media announced the deal last week without naming a price. Dick Foreman brokered the deal.
The full-power MNT affiliate in Derry, N.H. that Diane Sutter bought for $28 million in 2004 is going to former senatorial candidate Bill Binnie’s Carlisle One Media, which has also bought three New Hampshire LPTVs in recent months.
