The owner of Detroit station WADL is urging Mission Broadcasting to close its $75 million acquisition of WADL before a June 30 deadline.
In an earlier interview, Adell Broadcasting CEO Kevin Adell suggested that a local marketing agreement would enable Mission to operate WADL while appealing conditions put on the sale by the Federal Communications Commission.
But Adell now says an LMA is of the table.
The FCC approved the agreement to transfer WADL’s license to Mission, but attached significant conditions to the approval.
Most of those conditions appear designed to limit the control over the station by Nexstar Media Group, which is involved in the financing of the deal and would program and operate the station under management agreements with Mission. WADL also would have become an affiliate of The CW Network, which is controlled by Nexstar.
The conditions were imposed after the FCC ordered Mission to sell WPIX New York, because the regulator decided Nexstar had “de facto” control over WPIX and that control put it over the national ownership cap.
The conditions also make the WADL deal less attractive to Mission, which described the conditions as "problematic," and Nexstar.
On Monday Kevin Adell, CEO of Adell Broadcasting, which built WADL said he sent a letter to Dennis Thatcher, president of Mission. (Thatcher did not reply when asked to comment.)
In the letter, Adell said he will not participate in an appeal of the conditions of the sale.
“I will make sure there is no reference in the appeal that this is a joint appeal,” Adell said. “I am not sure how this order and opinion will affect your other Mission stations or the industry as a whole.”
It’s possible that if the WADL sale goes through with the conditions added by the FCC, that other stations owned by Mission and run by Nexstar under management agreements, would come under scrutiny.
Other broadcasters run similar “sidecar” stations in markets.
“I suggest that you close on the WADL acquisition with the FCC conditions placed on the license transfer before June 30, 2024, or seek alternative stations in the Detroit to fulfil you plans,” Adell said, referring to the fact The CW will be losing its current Detroit affiliate on August 31 and Nexstar was counting on WADL being the new affiliate.
“After June 30, 2024, I will be exploring all of my options,” Adell said.
