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.
