Zombie Station Goes For $10M In Los Angeles

Hero Licenseco LLC was among the broadcast companies that cashed in on the FCC incentive auction, selling the spectrum of its Spanish-language KBEH Los Angeles for $146.6 million.

And now in what may the first of many such deals to hit the FCC, Hero has asked the agency for permission to sell KBEH’s TV license with must-carry rights to Meruelo Television, owner of KWHY Los Angeles, for $10 million.

By selling the so-called zombie station (a TV license without spectrum), Hero will have upped its total take from the auction to $156.6 million.

The arrangement between Hero also includes a channel-sharing contingency in case the sale of the TV license doesn’t close. Under the contingency, Hero would pay Meruelo $3 million, entitling it to 25% of KWHY’s 19.4 mbps of digital broadcast capacity for the next 25 years.

In the FCC filing seeking approval of the deal, Meruelo asserted that its acquisition of the KBEH license would not violate either the FCC’s local TV ownership rule or local radio-TV ownership rule. In addition to KWHY, Meruelo owns two FM stations in Los Angeles.