David Woods is buying Neal Ardman's Birmingham, Ala., Cozi TV affiliate WIYC to go with WCOV, the market’s Fox affiliate, and low-power WALE, which airs 12 multicast networks.
DMA 124
Woods Goes For Triopoly In Montgomery, Ala.
Veteran broadcaster David Woods is tripling up in Montgomery, Ala., buying Cozi TV affiliate WIYC to go with WCOV, the market’s Fox affiliate.
The seller is Neal Ardman. Woods will pay him $1 million — $700,000 in cash and the balance in a note over time.
Woods says he plans to load the station with several diginets and possibly offer some live sports.
The station is licensed to Troy, Ala., and, according to Woods, its tower is about 22 miles southeast of Montgomery.
Woods is big on multicasting. In addition to WCOV, he owns a low-power station in Montgomery, WALE, which broadcasts 12 diginets.
The FCC earlier this month voted to relax its local ownership rules to permit common ownership of two full-power stations in small markets like Montgomery.
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However, those rules have yet to take effect. So, Woods has asked the FCC for a so-called failed station waiver, under which the duopoly is permitted if he can show that the station meets the FCC criteria for a failing station.
In the application, Woods says he believes WIYC meets the criteria, asserting the WIYC has less than a 4% audience share, has had three years of negative cash flow and that a buyer from outside the market could not be found.
Woods also owns CW affiliate KLCW, Lubbock, Tex., but it is operated by Brad Moran’s Ramar Communications, owner of the market’s Fox affiliate, KJTV.
Ardman has no other TV stations, but he has interests in radio stations in Georgia and Florida.
Comments (7)
Cheryl Thorne says:
November 27, 2017 at 4:13 pm
does he own any real stations or is this all smoke and mirrors??
harrison shih says:
November 27, 2017 at 4:33 pm
ridgeline please mind your manners and show some respect. I’ve known David for more that 20 years. He is a fine operator and a smart businessman. He represents what local television was meant to be. He has shown the financial and strategic wherewithal to survive in an environment where the cards have been stacked against him for years. Many others have bailed due to the mess Capitol Hill has put upon us but David continues to stick it out trying to serve his community and operate a local small business.
Veronica Serrano Padilla says:
November 27, 2017 at 5:18 pm
Please note that the user “ridgelinethe2nd” is not myself. I wish TVNewCheck would get their act together and stop letting users imitate others and changing their user names over and over.
Patrick Burns says:
November 27, 2017 at 5:02 pm
Well said.
He shows acumen in that he likes Tvs with lots of Diginets
Wait till MP4 and you can do 16 channels , hello new reality !!!
Matt Hortobagyi says:
November 27, 2017 at 6:52 pm
David is a great operator and local owner.
Christine Forster says:
November 27, 2017 at 7:28 pm
whats your definition of a great operator? cov has no viewership, even the news draws a 1/2 point on a good night. wale is unwatchable & has viewership lower than a test pattern, cozi is in the same boat. is that what you define as serving the community? how about putting on some decent lt night shows, instead of andy griffith or reruns of daytime shows. what a total joke. if it wasnt for retrans money, he wouldve gone out of business years ago…