Two months after his deal to sell WADL Detroit for $75 million and have it become a CW affiliate was terminated, Kevin Adell of Adell Broadcasting is getting into sports.
WADL has made a deal with Gray Television to air a live broadcast of the Harlem Globetrotters taking on the American Dream on August 18, Adell told Broadcasting+Cable.
Gray’s Raycom Sports unit is producing the telecast, which will appear on Gray stations in about 90 markets. Gray confirmed WADL would be airing the Globetrotter event.
Adell has also been talking to senior executives at the Detroit Pistons of the NBA about carrying Pistons games locally if the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group, which runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks, folds.
Adell agreed to sell WADL to Mission Broadcasting in 2023. Mission’s bid was financed in part by Nexstar Media Group, which owns The CW. Nexstar planned to run WADL under a series of management agreements and make the station into The CW affiliate in Detroit.
The deal fell through when the FCC put conditions on the deal that would have prevented Nexstar from financing the deal or managing the stations. In a previous ruling, the FCC ordered Mission to sell WPIX New York, because a similar arrangement with Nexstar gave Nexstar de facto control over WPIX.
That control would put Nexstar over the television station ownership cap, according to the FCC, which also fined Nexstar and Mission.
With the breakdown of the regional sports network business, a number of leagues and teams are putting local games on broadcast stations, looking to reach more potential fans.
Sports makes sense because “that’s where the eyeballs are” in linear TV, Adell said.
If Pistons games become available, Gray would be a good partner because Raycom could produce the games. While Gray doesn’t own a station in Detroit, it has other stations in Michigan that could provide additional carriage for Pistons games.
Since the deal with Mission fell apart, Adell has been getting ready to program the station as an independent, added the first-run The Jason Show from Fox and Access Daily from NBCUniversal, plus off-net series like Suits, Chicago P.D., and Bob Hearts Abishola.
The station could operate with or without The CW affiliation, Adell said.
“I have had conversations with The CW since the Mission deal was terminated, but nothing concrete yet,” he said. “My position is pretty clear. I have got to get paid.”
In many situations, stations pay programming fees to networks as part of their affiliation agreements. But in Detroit, there are only seven full-power stations that could air The CW’s sports portfolio in high definition.
That may give Adell leverage because the deal with The CW’s current affiliate, E.W. Scripps-owned WMYD, expires at the end of August and Nexstar has few good alternatives if it wants The CW to be on the air in Detroit, a big market and an influential one because of the presence of the auto industry.
“Everyone says content is king, but without distribution, you’re just kidding yourself,” Adell said, who built WADL after getting a construction permit from the FCC 34 years ago.
