In North American broadcasting , a local marketing agreement ( LMA ), or local management agreement , is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time-buy .
111-582: WLLR-FM (103.7 MHz ) is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa , United States, whose format is modern country music . The station broadcasts at a power of 100 kW. WLLR is owned by iHeartMedia , with studios located in Davenport. Its transmitter site is located in Bettendorf . The Davenport allocation for 103.7 FM – representing the second FM station in the Quad Cities – dates to October 1948, when
222-513: A "local marketing agreement" may refer to the sharing or contracting of only certain functions, in particular advertising sales. This may also be referred to as a time brokerage agreement ( TBA ), local sales agreement ( LSA ), management services agreement ( MSA ), or most commonly, a joint sales agreement ( JSA ) or shared services agreement ( SSA ). JSAs are counted toward ownership caps for television and radio stations. In Canada, local marketing agreements between domestic stations require
333-530: A 47% stake in WLYK's licensee, Border International Broadcasting. In 2022, the principal owners of My Broadcasting Corporation acquired Border International Broadcasting via 1234567 Corporation, and assumed operations in February 2023. Similarly, Entravision Communications Corporation controls XHDTV-TDT , a Tijuana , Mexico-based station owned by Televisora Alco, which operated as an English-language station serving
444-465: A JSA with Citadel Communications to handle advertising sales for the station under a revenue sharing agreement, integrating it with its cluster in nearby Buffalo, New York . In an associated agreement, the station also contracted Citadel employees to produce some of its programming. Due to the structure of this JSA, and because the aforementioned programming was overseen by local producers, the CRTC deemed that
555-491: A Reindeer " 27 times back-to-back during the morning show. Station management was eventually able to pull the jockey off the air and suspended him. The disc jockey was reportedly depressed and upset that a co-worker had left employment at the station for an out-of-state job. Some of WLLR's best-known personalities include: Mike Kenneally, Ron Evans, Jack Carey, Andy Scott, Jack Daniels, Amy Jeffries, Pat Leuck, Dani Lynn Howe, Tim Carlson, JD Justice and Jim O'Hara. WLLR's stage at
666-545: A digital subchannel of WABM (although the WBMA-LD simulcast was placed on WABM's subchannel instead while MyNetworkTV programming was retained on its main channel). Similarly, in Charleston, Sinclair planned to surrender WCIV's license and move its ABC affiliation and programming to WMMP. In both cases, Sinclair believed that its own stations had superior technical facilities than those of the stations it intends to surrender. Sinclair
777-544: A joint sales agreement pertaining to CHNO-FM in Sudbury , Ontario, but community interests and the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting presented substantial evidence to the CRTC that in practice, the agreement was a de facto LMA, going significantly beyond advertising sales into program production and news-gathering. In early 2005, the CRTC ordered the agreement to cease. For a time, CKEY-FM in Fort Erie, Ontario had
888-580: A legal duopoly, Gray proposed the sale of WAGT's broadcast spectrum during the incentive auction, and for WAGT to go silent upon completion of the deal so the company would not be running more than one of the top four stations in the market. Gray also requested special temporary authority for WAGT's signal to be replaced on its existing technical facilities and UHF channel 30 by the co-owned low-power station, WRDW-CD ; low-power stations are not subject to ownership caps and restrictions on duopolies. The FCC, however, required that Gray continue to operate WAGT as
999-427: A local marketing agreement must give the company operating the station (the "senior" partner) under the agreement control over the entire facilities of the station, including the finances, personnel and programming of the station. Its original licensee (the "junior" partner) still remains legally responsible for the station and its operations, such as compliance with relevant regulations regarding content. Occasionally,
1110-555: A majority ownership in that station's network affiliation, The CW . In March 2024, the FCC fined Nexstar and Mission $ 1.2 million and $ 612,395 respectively, and ordered Mission to sell WPIX within twelve months; the FCC found that Mission's agreements with Nexstar to operate WPIX amounted to an "unauthorized transfer of control" of the station, thus exceeding the FCC's 39% market share limit for broadcasters. Nexstar must either divest other stations so it can legally own WPIX, or Mission must sell
1221-548: A more detailed treatment of this and the above frequency ranges, see Electromagnetic spectrum . Gravitational waves are also described in Hertz. Current observations are conducted in the 30–7000 Hz range by laser interferometers like LIGO , and the nanohertz (1–1000 nHz) range by pulsar timing arrays . Future space-based detectors are planned to fill in the gap, with LISA operating from 0.1–10 mHz (with some sensitivity from 10 μHz to 100 mHz), and DECIGO in
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#17328918488511332-457: A purchase option that "may counter any incentive the licensee has to increase the value of the station, since the licensee may be unlikely to realize that increased value." Under the new provisions, broadcasters must demonstrate in their transaction applications as to how such deals would serve the public interest. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) – which, along with station groups such as Sinclair Broadcast Group, have disapproved of
1443-516: A request for comment on policies to address other agreements, such as shared services agreements. The prohibition on television JSAs had been proposed as early as 2004, a year after the FCC voted to treat JSAs between radio stations as duopolies. Despite this fact, broadcasting companies criticized the ban, accusing the Commission of using it as a move to encourage participation in a spectrum incentive auction then set to occur in 2015, and stating that
1554-482: A result of the FCC's scrutiny on any new station sharing agreements, on October 23, 2014, Meredith would backtrack on this plan and instead sell KASW to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which would operate the station independently of KTVK and KPHO. Following Gannett's split into independent broadcasting and publishing companies, Tegna, Inc. —the owner of Gannett's stations following the split, bought back
1665-406: A seemingly separate newscast on the brokered station in the duopoly may ultimately consist of repackaged news content from the other station. Alternatively, the stations may consolidate their news programming under a single joint brand. Redundant staff members are often laid off as part of the consolidation process, and the sharing of news content reduces the number of unique editorial voices in
1776-449: A separate station through the end of the auction, and not enter into any joint sales agreements. Upon the closure of the sale, Gray unwound the shared services and joint sales agreements that Schurz had established with WJBF-TV and Media General , and replaced its previous news programs with simulcasts from WRDW. Gray also accused WJBF of "[refusing] to agree to a smooth transition of personnel [from WAGT]", as WAGT's employees fall under
1887-468: A shared services agreement established under Belo ownership, but Gannett would still handle advertising sales for the stations. In December 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked Gannett from using an agreement with Sander Media to operate CBS affiliate KMOV in St. Louis alongside its own NBC station KSDK , and ordered Gannett to sell KMOV. Even though Gannett planned to operate KMOV separately from KSDK,
1998-401: A single company to own more than one full-powered television station in a given market if there are at least eight distinct station owners, and also prohibits the ownership of two or more of the four highest-rated stations (based on total day viewership) in a market. An LMA or similar agreement does not affect the ownership of the station's license, meaning that they do not require the approval of
2109-458: A single company to own two television stations in the same market in August 1999, Sinclair restructured the deal to acquire KOKH outright. In 2001, the FCC issued a $ 40,000 fine against Sinclair for illegally controlling Glencairn. In 1999, the FCC modified its media ownership rules to count LMAs formed after November 5, 1996 that cover more than 15% of the broadcast day toward the ownership limits for
2220-528: A subchannel of WISE-TV due to a reverse compensation dispute, Nexstar (ironically, given its use of similar practices in other markets) filed an antitrust lawsuit against the station's managing partner, Granite Broadcasting, arguing that it had built a monopoly on local advertising sales by having effective control of the outlets for four major networks ( ABC and MyNetworkTV on WPTA , and NBC , Fox, and The CW on WISE-TV ; owned by Malara Broadcast Group and operated under agreements by Granite). The lawsuit
2331-454: A subchannel of WSBT-TV ), in exchange for WHOI's ABC and CW affiliations, which moved to subchannels of WEEK-TV . In 2018, Quincy re-purchased WISE and KDLH, under an assertion that both stations were not within the top 4 of their respective markets. In February 2016, Gray Television acquired Schurz Communications ' stations, including Augusta, Georgia 's WAGT . As Gray could not own both WAGT and its existing CBS affiliate WRDW-TV as
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#17328918488512442-416: A television station's facilities and assets, but sells the license to an affiliated third-party "shell" corporation, who then enters into agreements with the owner of the facilities to operate the station on their behalf. Activists have argued that broadcasters were using these agreements as a loophole for the FCC's ownership regulations, that they reduce the number of local media outlets in a market through
2553-691: A wave of mass consolidation in the radio industry. However, broadcasters still used local marketing agreements to help transition acquired stations to their new owners. The first local marketing agreement in North American television was formed in 1991, when the Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased Fox affiliate WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania. As Sinclair had already owned independent station WPTT (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT ) in that market, which would have violated FCC rules which at
2664-427: A way to expand their reach, and smaller broadcasters a means of obtaining a stable stream of revenue. In 1992, the FCC began allowing broadcasting companies to own multiple radio stations in a single market. Following these changes, local marketing agreements largely fell out of favor for radio, as it was now possible for broadcasters to simply buy another station outright rather than lease it – consequentially triggering
2775-499: Is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base units is s , meaning that one hertz is one per second or the reciprocal of one second . It is used only in the case of periodic events. It is named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857–1894), the first person to provide conclusive proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves . For high frequencies, the unit is commonly expressed in multiples : kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz), gigahertz (GHz), terahertz (THz). Some of
2886-473: Is the photon's energy, ν is its frequency, and h is the Planck constant . The hertz is defined as one per second for periodic events. The International Committee for Weights and Measures defined the second as "the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium -133 atom" and then adds: "It follows that
2997-462: Is to create a "virtual duopoly", where the stations operated under the agreement are consolidated into a single entity. The operations of the stations can be streamlined for cost-effectiveness through the sharing of resources, such as facilities, advertising sales, personnel and programming. Many broadcasters that engage in the practice believe that such agreements are beneficial to the survival of television stations – especially in smaller markets, where
3108-452: Is usually measured in kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz), or gigahertz (GHz). with the latter known as microwaves . Light is electromagnetic radiation that is even higher in frequency, and has frequencies in the range of tens of terahertz (THz, infrared ) to a few petahertz (PHz, ultraviolet ), with the visible spectrum being 400–790 THz. Electromagnetic radiation with frequencies in the low terahertz range (intermediate between those of
3219-545: The E. W. Scripps Company , Tegna Inc. , and Circle City Broadcasting. The divested stations included Tribune's New York City flagship WPIX ; the station was sold to Scripps, but with a $ 75 million option for Nexstar to buy it back between March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Nexstar transferred this option to Mission Broadcasting, who subsequently exercised it in August 2020 (the following month, Scripps announced its intent to acquire Ion Media , including its New York station WPXN-TV ). In October 2022, Nexstar would acquire
3330-563: The "major" networks, allow the broadcaster to charge higher fees for retransmission consent to television providers for carrying the stations, which could result in smaller cable companies not being able to afford the higher fees imposed. Cable television providers advocated barring sharing agreements between television stations for this particular reason. In the United States, the FCC no longer allows broadcasters to collude with one another in negotiating retransmission consent fees. Although
3441-446: The 0.1–10 Hz range. In computers, most central processing units (CPU) are labeled in terms of their clock rate expressed in megahertz ( MHz ) or gigahertz ( GHz ). This specification refers to the frequency of the CPU's master clock signal . This signal is nominally a square wave , which is an electrical voltage that switches between low and high logic levels at regular intervals. As
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3552-468: The 1970s. In some usage, the "per second" was omitted, so that "megacycles" (Mc) was used as an abbreviation of "megacycles per second" (that is, megahertz (MHz)). Sound is a traveling longitudinal wave , which is an oscillation of pressure . Humans perceive the frequency of a sound as its pitch . Each musical note corresponds to a particular frequency. An infant's ear is able to perceive frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz ;
3663-484: The CHR/ Top 40 gauntlet, KIIK104's final song, " Cool Change " by Little River Band , was abruptly cut as KIIK changed to a rock oldies station. As KUUL, the station played music from the 1950s through early 1970s; the first song under the new format was " Nobody but Me " by The Human Beinz . The format change became effective on May 1, 1989, and fans soon identified the "KUUL Red Radio" (a jumbo-sized boombox replica) with
3774-536: The Department ruled the agreement to be a violation of antitrust law , as it would reduce competition for advertising sales. Following the closure of the Belo purchase, Meredith Corporation announced a deal to purchase KMOV, along with KTVK and KASW. As Meredith would have a duopoly between KTVK and its Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO-TV , KASW was to be sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting and operated by Meredith under an LMA. As
3885-494: The FCC began to increase its scrutiny regarding the use of such agreements—particularly joint sales—to evade its policies. On March 31, 2014, the commission voted to make joint sales agreements count as ownership if the senior partner sells 15% or more of advertising time for its partner, and to ban coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of the top four stations in a market. Wheeler indicated that he planned to address local marketing and shared services agreements in
3996-959: The FCC cannot manipulate its ownership rules without "[in] the previous four years, [fulfilling] its obligation to review [the] rule and determine whether it is in the public interest". On November 16, 2017, under the Trump administration , the FCC voted in favor of no longer having JSAs attributable to ownership. The increased scrutiny being imposed by the FCC regarding local marketing, shared services, and joint sales agreements have led to more drastic measures by broadcasting companies attempting to use them in acquisitions; in 2014, two broadcasting companies declared intents to shut acquired stations down entirely and consolidate their programming onto existing stations through multicasting, rather than attempting to use sidecars and sharing agreements or selling them to other parties that would assume full responsibility of their day-to-day operations. In May 2014, Sinclair informed
4107-531: The FCC that it was unable to find buyers for WABM or WMMP – the company's MyNetworkTV stations in Birmingham, Alabama, and Charleston, South Carolina, that it planned to sell in its purchase of Allbritton Communications. In Birmingham, the company proposed surrendering the licenses of WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV – the two full-powered satellites of ABC affiliate WBMA-LD, converting WABM into a full-powered satellite of WBMA-LD – and moving its existing MyNetworkTV programming to
4218-481: The FCC to establish, and the two stations are still legally considered separate operations from a licensing standpoint. Both Tribune Media and the Gannett Company were required to use shared services agreements as a similar loophole to take control of certain stations in their respective 2013 purchases of Local TV and Belo , as they did not have exemptions to the FCC's newspaper cross-ownership restrictions in
4329-496: The HD2 and began broadcasting a classic rock format. On August 21, 2015, at 1:04 p.m., WLLR-FM HD2 switched to an alternative rock format, branded as "ALT 104.5" (also broadcast on FM translator K283BV 104.5 FM Davenport). On April 17, 2022, Radio By Grace , a religious broadcaster and owner of translator K296GZ (107.1 FM; originally licensed to Muscatine , now licensed to Davenport), announced that they had applied to upgrade
4440-482: The Media Council of Hawaii complained to the FCC about Raycom's Hawaii News Now operation, stating that it would "directly reduce the diversity of local voices in a community by replacing independent newscasts on the brokered station with those of the brokering station." In response, the FCC stated it would begin to investigate into the matter. In 2011, after temporarily losing its Fox affiliation for WFFT-TV to
4551-457: The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council – under the condition that they would operate them independently from other stations in the market, and without the use of any sharing agreements. All six of the stations were owned by companies other than Gray, but their non-license assets are either owned by Gray, or were operated by stations now owned by Gray under agreements. Gray would operate
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4662-681: The Mississippi Valley Fair was featured in the Music Video for "Don't Ya Just Wanna Rock and Roll" by Rodney Atkins . In November 2013, WLLR won the CMA award for 'Small Market Station of the Year'. Since 1989, WLLR has remained the top-rated station in the Quad Cities, maintaining audience 12+ shares between 10 and 20 for the past 20 years. On January 1, 2014, WLLR discontinued its classic country on
4773-467: The Quad Cities market's first full-time FM rock station. Adopting a Top 40/CHR format, the station's call letters changed to KIIK, and was known to fans as "KIIK 104". KIIK, which initially had a broadcast day of 5 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. before switching to 24 hours, quickly became very popular with Quad Cities-area listeners, and soon became the market's top-rated station. By the late 1980s, with new competitor station WPXR-FM ("Power 98.9") having taken over
4884-563: The Radio By Grace network via WLLR-FM HD3. WLLR and iHeartMedia are simply providing this service to Radio By Grace via a technical services agreement and all programming decisions for WLLR-FM HD3/K296GZ are made by Radio By Grace, Inc. Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz ) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle ) per second . The hertz
4995-484: The affected markets. Both companies have since spun out their publishing arms as independent companies; the Tribune Publishing Company and Gannett Company. Tegna , who holds the former Gannett's broadcasting and digital media properties, re-acquired the licenses for most of the affected stations following the split. On November 16, 2017, under the Trump administration , the FCC voted in favor of removing
5106-480: The affected stations under LMAs until the sales and consolidation are complete. Aside from one, most of the stations involved in these changes were related to Gray's acquisition of stations from Hoak Media . Three of these stations were immediately shut down the same day, while the remainder remained operated by Gray until the sales were completed. Gray announced buyers for the stations on August 27, 2014. The six stations affected by Gray's move included: Following
5217-487: The aggregation or outright consolidation of news programming, and allow station owners to have increased leverage in the negotiation of retransmission consent with local subscription television providers . Station owners have contended that these sharing agreements allow streamlined, cost-effective operations that may be beneficial to the continued operation of lower-rated and/or financially weaker stations, especially in smaller markets. In 2014 under chairman Tom Wheeler ,
5328-472: The approval of Sinclair's purchase of Allbritton, commissioner Ajit Pai further criticized the FCC's new policies and its endorsement of Sinclair's proposal to shut down stations to comply with them. Describing the three Allbritton stations as being "victims" of the "crackdown" against joint sales agreements, he stated regarding WCIV that "apparently the Commission believes that it is better for that station to go out of business than for Howard Stirk Holdings to own
5439-662: The arrangements were legal, Free Press president Craig Aaron stated that "the FCC shouldn't let Gannett break the rules. Media consolidation results in fewer journalists in the newsroom and fewer opinions on the airwaves. Concentrating media outlets in the hands of just a few companies benefits only the companies themselves." The deal would have given Gannett a virtual triopoly in Phoenix, consisting of its NBC station KPNX , independent station KTVK and CW affiliate KASW . In Tucson, Fox affiliate KMSB and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU were already operated by Raycom Media's CBS affiliate KOLD-TV under
5550-476: The average adult human can hear sounds between 20 Hz and 16 000 Hz . The range of ultrasound , infrasound and other physical vibrations such as molecular and atomic vibrations extends from a few femtohertz into the terahertz range and beyond. Electromagnetic radiation is often described by its frequency—the number of oscillations of the perpendicular electric and magnetic fields per second—expressed in hertz. Radio frequency radiation
5661-524: The ban would place them at a disadvantage during retransmission consent negotiations with pay television providers. On December 19, 2015, as a rider to the federal budget, the grace period for unwinding or modifying existing JSAs was extended to 10 years. On May 25, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck down the restrictions on joint sales agreements, ruling that
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#17328918488515772-522: The border market of San Diego . Public interest organizations have disapproved of the use of LMAs for virtual duopolies that circumvent the FCC's rules due to their effects on the broadcasting industry, particularly the results of consolidation through the irregular use of LMAs. In markets where duopolies are not legally possible, a company may elect to form one by purchasing a station's "non-license" assets (such as their physical facilities, programming rights, and other intellectual property ), and selling
5883-459: The brokered station may vary, for example: In February 2001, Clear Channel Communications subsidiary Citicasters was fined $ 25,000 for its use of time brokerage agreements and litigation for unlawfully controlling Youngstown , Ohio area radio station WBTJ (101.9 FM, now WYLR ); the company had also been the target of complaints for using KFJO (FM) to rebroadcast KSJO after it had nominally sold KFJO to minority-owned interests. In 2009,
5994-633: The brokering station's owner. Even still, the related joint sales and shared services agreement structures became increasingly common during the 2000s; these outsourcing agreements proliferated between 2011 and 2013, when station owners such as Sinclair and the Nexstar Broadcasting Group began expanding their portfolios by acquiring additional stations in an effort to drive scale as well as to gain leverage in retransmission consent negotiations with cable and satellite television providers. The most common use of an LMA in television broadcasting
6105-680: The case of former virtual duopolies in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania between Sinclair-owned CBS affiliate WHP-TV and Nexstar-owned CW affiliate WLYH-TV (which ended in 2015 amid Sinclair's acquisition of Allbritton Communications , which saw WHTM-TV sold to Media General to avoid conflicts with WHP, and WYLH's license sold to Howard Stirk Holdings ), and Rochester, New York between Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate WROC-TV and Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WUHF (which ended in January 2014 after Deerfield Media acquired ABC affiliate WHAM-TV ). While not to
6216-464: The companies "effectively relinquished decision-making authority to Nexstar, which has served as the ringleader of a conspiracy to harm competition and violate the antitrust laws." Local marketing agreements are effectively prohibited under the regulations of the CRTC , which require that all broadcast undertakings be "operated in fact by the licensee itself". Rogers Media and Newcap Broadcasting maintained
6327-466: The consent of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), although Rogers Media has used a similar arrangement to control a U.S.-based radio station in a border market . The increased use of sharing agreements by media companies to form consolidated , "virtual" duopolies became controversial between 2009 and 2014, especially arrangements where a company buys
6438-673: The deal in March 2014, choosing to sell WHP-TV, WMMP and WABM, and terminate an SSA with the Cunningham-owned Fox affiliate WTAT in Charleston to acquire the Allbritton-owned stations in those markets ( WCIV , WHTM-TV and WBMA-LD , while also creating a new duopoly between the ABC and CW affiliates in Birmingham), as well as foregoing any operational or financial agreements with the buyers of
6549-562: The employment of Media General due to the SSA. On February 26, 2016, Media General obtained a preliminary injunction against Gray for violating the SSA and JSA, which required that Gray return control of WAGT to Media General, and forbade Gray from selling WAGT in the spectrum incentive auction. The company accused Gray of using the spectrum auction and sale of the station to exit the agreements illegitimately, as they were to last through 2020, and apply to any future owner of WAGT. Gray attempted to block
6660-440: The event being counted may be a complete cycle); 100 Hz means "one hundred periodic events occur per second", and so on. The unit may be applied to any periodic event—for example, a clock might be said to tick at 1 Hz , or a human heart might be said to beat at 1.2 Hz . The occurrence rate of aperiodic or stochastic events is expressed in reciprocal second or inverse second (1/s or s ) in general or, in
6771-432: The family of Sinclair Broadcast Group founder Julian Smith controlled 97% of Glencairn's stock assets (which remains the case under its Cunningham structure) and the company was to be paid with Sinclair stock in turn for the purchases, KOKH and Sinclair-owned WB affiliate KOCB would effectively constitute a duopoly in violation of FCC rules. The Rainbow/PUSH coalition (headed by Jesse Jackson ) filed challenges against
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#17328918488516882-452: The financial aspects of its "sidecar" operations, and warned that in the three aforementioned markets, "the proposed transactions would result in the elimination of the grandfathered status of certain local marketing agreements and thus cause the transactions to violate our local TV ownership rules." It was asserted that the deal might only be legal if the affected stations were operated under shared services agreements. Sinclair restructured
6993-525: The former company's Fox affiliate in New Orleans , Louisiana , WVUE-DT ; while Louisiana Media Company retained the station's ownership and license, other assets were assumed by Raycom, which owns stations in markets adjacent to New Orleans (including Baton Rouge , Jackson , Biloxi , Lake Charles and Shreveport ) but not within New Orleans itself. Benson had received offers from Raycom and others to buy
7104-573: The four highest-rated stations in a single market would also be barred under the proposal. Wheeler also proposed an expedited process to review joint sales agreements on a case-by-case basis, granting a waiver of the rules if a broadcaster can prove a particular joint sales agreement arrangement serves the public interest. On March 12, 2014, the FCC Media Bureau released a notice that it would further analyze television station transactions that include sharing agreements, particularly those that include
7215-434: The future. The change in stance also prompted changes to then-proposed acquisitions by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group , who, rather than use sharing agreements to control them, moved their existing programming and network affiliations to digital subchannels of existing company-owned stations in the market, or a low-power station (which are not subject to ownership caps), and then relinquished control over
7326-449: The hertz has become the primary unit of measurement accepted by the general populace to determine the performance of a CPU, many experts have criticized this approach, which they claim is an easily manipulable benchmark . Some processors use multiple clock cycles to perform a single operation, while others can perform multiple operations in a single cycle. For personal computers, CPU clock speeds have ranged from approximately 1 MHz in
7437-413: The highest normally usable radio frequencies and long-wave infrared light) is often called terahertz radiation . Even higher frequencies exist, such as that of X-rays and gamma rays , which can be measured in exahertz (EHz). For historical reasons, the frequencies of light and higher frequency electromagnetic radiation are more commonly specified in terms of their wavelengths or photon energies : for
7548-616: The hyperfine splitting in the ground state of the caesium 133 atom is exactly 9 192 631 770 hertz , ν hfs Cs = 9 192 631 770 Hz ." The dimension of the unit hertz is 1/time (T ). Expressed in base SI units, the unit is the reciprocal second (1/s). In English, "hertz" is also used as the plural form. As an SI unit, Hz can be prefixed ; commonly used multiples are kHz (kilohertz, 10 Hz ), MHz (megahertz, 10 Hz ), GHz (gigahertz, 10 Hz ) and THz (terahertz, 10 Hz ). One hertz (i.e. one per second) simply means "one periodic event occurs per second" (where
7659-542: The injunction by arguing that its actions were required in order to comply with the FCC's prohibition of joint sales agreements, but was denied. Media General took back control of WAGT on March 7, 2016. On March 10, 2016, FCC Deputy General Counsel David Gossett announced that the Commission would investigate Media General's actions as possibly being in violation of Section 310(d) of the Communications Act . Gossett argued that by legally blocking Gray's participation in
7770-454: The late 1970s ( Atari , Commodore , Apple computers ) to up to 6 GHz in IBM Power microprocessors . Various computer buses , such as the front-side bus connecting the CPU and northbridge , also operate at various frequencies in the megahertz range. Higher frequencies than the International System of Units provides prefixes for are believed to occur naturally in the frequencies of
7881-429: The license itself to a third-party "sidecar" company (which is often affiliated with the purchaser), which in turn, enters into an LMA or a similar agreement with the senior partner. The FCC only recognizes ownership of television stations by the ownership of their license and facility ID , and not by the ownership of these "non-license" assets; this means that the senior partner becomes the de facto owner and operator of
7992-477: The licenses for WCIV and the full-powered repeaters of WBMA-LD (WJSU and WCFT), and moving their ABC programming to Sinclair's existing stations WMMP and WABM respectively – which would shift their existing MyNetworkTV programming to digital subchannels. After nearly a year of delays, Sinclair's deal to acquire Allbritton was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014. Nexstar Media Group acquired Tribune Media in 2019; to meet ownership limits, it divested 21 stations to
8103-648: The licenses to the Sander Media stations, placing them back under its full control. As part of its planned acquisition of Allbritton Communications , Sinclair originally planned to sell its existing stations in three markets – Charleston, South Carolina , Birmingham, Alabama and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – where Allbritton already owned stations, but continue to operate them under local marketing agreements. WABM and WTTO in Birmingham and WHP-TV in Harrisburg were to be sold to Deerfield Media , and WMMP in Charleston
8214-558: The majority of LMAs involve the outsourcing of one television station's operations to another, occasionally, a company may operate a station under an LMA, JSA or SSA even if it does not already own a station in that market. One example occurred in December 2013, when the Louisiana Media Company (owned by New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Hornets owner Tom Benson ) entered into a shared services agreement with Raycom Media to run
8325-423: The market. This in particular is one of the caveats of pushes to ban outsourcing agreements by media consolidation critics, who also suggest that LMAs result in a decreased amount of local news coverage on the brokered station. Depending on how the outsourcing agreement is structured, as well as how the brokered station is programmed, how the stations are consolidated and the amount of news programming featured on
8436-423: The network while the acquisition pended; independent station WMYD would carry the network for the remainder of the television season, before ultimately returning to WKBD. In response to criticism of the virtual duopolies and sharing agreements, the FCC began to consider potential changes to address these loopholes. In March 2013, the Commission first tabled a proposal that would make joint sales agreements count
8547-425: The new rules on joint sales agreements, believing that they would discourage the ownership of television stations by minority-owned companies . Tom Wheeler, however, proposed the restrictions in the hopes of encouraging more women and minorities to own stations, due to the ongoing consolidation in the television industry through company mergers and sharing agreements. On March 31, 2014, the FCC voted 3–2 to approve
8658-445: The original stations by selling their licenses to third-parties, such as minority-owned broadcasters. Due to the FCC's limits on station ownership at the time (which prevented the common ownership of multiple radio stations), local marketing agreements in radio, in which a smaller station would sell its entire airtime to a third-party in time-buy, were widespread between the 1970s and early 1990s. These alliances gave larger broadcasters
8769-463: The overall audience reach is considerably less than that of markets that are centered upon densely populated metropolitan areas , and the cost savings achieved through the consolidation of resources and staff may be necessary to fund a station's continued operation. Sharing agreements may also be used as a loophole to control television stations in situations where it is legally impossible to own them outright. For instance, FCC regulations only allowed
8880-450: The proposal to ban JSAs – presented a compromise proposal, in which the brokered licensee in a sharing agreement would retain control over at least 85 percent of the station's programming, maintain at least 70 percent of ad sales revenue and "maintain at least 20 percent of station value in the license itself". FCC commissioner Ajit Pai , and Gordon Smith, president of the NAB, were also opposed to
8991-449: The proposed ban on joint sales agreements and voted 5–0 to approve the proposed ban on coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of the four highest-rated stations within a given market; the JSA ban went into effect on June 19, 2014. Under the restrictions, the FCC would rule on waivers to maintain select existing JSAs within 90 days of the application's filing. The FCC also began
9102-736: The quantum-mechanical vibrations of massive particles, although these are not directly observable and must be inferred through other phenomena. By convention, these are typically not expressed in hertz, but in terms of the equivalent energy, which is proportional to the frequency by the factor of the Planck constant . The CJK Compatibility block in Unicode contains characters for common SI units for frequency. These are intended for compatibility with East Asian character encodings, and not for use in new documents (which would be expected to use Latin letters, e.g. "MHz"). Local marketing agreement Under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations,
9213-507: The requirement for a market to still have eight distinct station owners in order to allow duopolies, but the prohibition of owning two of the top four stations in a market remains. Broadcasters could also collect carriage fees for the stations they operate under sharing agreements on behalf of their owner, often bundling its carriage agreements with those of stations they own outright. This could, especially in LMAs between two stations affiliated with
9324-544: The rules for capitalisation of a common noun ; i.e., hertz becomes capitalised at the beginning of a sentence and in titles but is otherwise in lower case. The hertz is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), who made important scientific contributions to the study of electromagnetism . The name was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1935. It
9435-425: The sale with the FCC, citing concerns over a single company holding two broadcast licenses in a single market and argued that Glencairn was masquerading as a separate minority-owned company (Edwards, who served as Glencairn's president, is African American ) when it was really an arm of Sinclair that the company used to gain control of the stations through LMAs. After the FCC updated its media ownership rules to allow
9546-414: The same as ownership. In January 2014 town hall meeting, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler disclosed that he planned to place more scrutiny on the use of LMA-style agreements and shell companies, stating that "there were a couple of references in a couple of recent decisions in which we've said that we're going to do things differently going forward on what were called these shell corporations." Later that month, it
9657-519: The same market, creating a legal duopoly). Sinclair's use of local marketing agreements would lead to legal issues in 1999, when Glencairn, Ltd. (since restructured as Cunningham Broadcasting ) announced that it would acquire Fox affiliate KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma from Sullivan Broadcasting; Glencairn subsequently announced plans to sell five of its 11 existing stations that were operated by Sinclair under LMAs to that company outright. As
9768-525: The same, wide extent as Sinclair and Nexstar, some broadcasters have similar business relationships with specific sidecar companies as partners for these agreements: The stations partnered through a sharing agreement may also consolidate their programming operations: local newscasts on the junior partner in the LMA, if it operated a separate news department before the LMA's formation, may be rescheduled or scaled back to prevent direct competition with newscasts airing on
9879-429: The senior partner sells 15% or more of advertising time of a competing junior partner station in the JSA; the ban applies to both existing sharing agreements under such a structure as well as pending station transactions that include a JSA. Station owners would be given a two-year grace period to unwind or modify joint sales agreements in violation of the policy; coordinated retransmission consent negotiations between two of
9990-413: The specific case of radioactivity , in becquerels . Whereas 1 Hz (one per second) specifically refers to one cycle (or periodic event) per second, 1 Bq (also one per second) specifically refers to one radionuclide event per second on average. Even though frequency, angular velocity , angular frequency and radioactivity all have the dimension T , of these only frequency is expressed using
10101-570: The spectrum auction, Media General had "[sought] injunctive relief that interferes with a licensee's ultimate control of a station". He also stated that the FCC could consider a license revocation hearing against Media General under Section 312 of the Communications Act. On March 23, 2016, the Supreme Court of Georgia struck down the injunction without addressing the litigation, and Gray took back control of WAGT. On July 13, 2016, Media General
10212-404: The station acting as the senior partner (the latter aspect is less common with LMAs involving only stations affiliated with one of the four largest broadcast television networks ). The stations may share news-gathering resources, but maintain separate news telecasts that are differentiated by their on-air presentation, anchors, and overall format, with varying degrees of autonomy; in these cases,
10323-516: The station and participate in a joint sales agreement with Sinclair. I strongly disagree. And so too, I'll bet, would consumers in Charleston." In September 2014, Sinclair backtracked on its original plans, and reached deals to sell WCIV, WCFT and WJSU's license assets to Howard Stirk Holdings for $ 50,000 each and lease them studio space, pending FCC approval. Unlike Howard Stirk Holdings' other stations, they are operated and programmed independently, and Sinclair did not enter into any agreements to operate
10434-480: The station at its live remote broadcast sites. The most recent change to the station came on March 2, 1998, when KUUL and WLLR (which had aired a country format at 101.3 FM since 1983) swapped frequencies. KUUL's oldies format moved to 101.3 FM , while WLLR's country format took over 103.7 FM. In December 1985, WLLR briefly gained national attention when a disc jockey played the Christmas song " Grandma Got Run Over by
10545-524: The station signed on as WOC-FM, a companion to its AM sister station, WOC (1420 AM). The station was owned by the Palmer family, a well-known Quad Cities family that started the Palmer College of Chiropractic . As with most FM radio stations in the 1950s and 1960s, WOC-FM played mostly easy listening and classical music . The frequency's first major format change came August 28, 1972, when WOC-FM became
10656-508: The station to a third-party. Mission Broadcasting also scrapped its planned acquisition of Detroit's MyNetworkTV station WADL (which briefly became Detroit's new CW affiliate in September 2023 after CBS News and Stations dropped long-time affiliate WKBD ) after the FCC imposed conditions on Nexstar's involvement in the station. WADL had dropped The CW in late-October following demands that it be compensated for its "transitional" carriage of
10767-680: The station, but the sidecar is still the legal owner. Although the FCC determines a sidecar firm to be an independent entity from the company using it to outsource station operations for licensing purposes, the Securities and Exchange Commission does not make such a designation, requiring reports on sidecars to be included in a broadcaster's financial statements. Both Sinclair and Nexstar became infamous for their frequent use of sidecars as part of their expansion and consolidation tactics, partnering with companies like Cunningham Broadcasting, Deerfield Media , Mission Broadcasting , and even each other in
10878-480: The station, but was not prepared to sell WVUE outright. On April 4, 2017, Raycom acquired the station for $ 51.8 million. LMAs can also allow companies to control foreign stations from outside of their respective country; Canadian media company Rogers Media used a joint sales agreement to operate Cape Vincent , New York radio station WLYK as a station targeting the nearby Canadian market of Kingston , Ontario , where it owns CKXC-FM and CIKR-FM . Rogers owned
10989-576: The stations being sold to other parties. In May 2014, Sinclair disclosed in an FCC filling that it was unable to find buyers for the three affected stations, requiring changes to its transaction. In Harrisburg, Sinclair chose to retain WHP-TV, and divest WHTM to Media General. However, in Charleston and Birmingham, the company proposed to shut down stations entirely (rather than selling them to other buyers that would also handle their operational responsibilities) so it could maintain legal duopolies; surrendering
11100-455: The stations on Stirk's behalf. In Quincy Newspapers' acquisition of Granite Broadcasting's remaining stations, the acquisition was briefly re-structured to have Malara Broadcast Group —which served as a virtual duopoly partner for Granite with WISE-TV (NBC) Fort Wayne and KDLH-TV Duluth (CBS), retain the stations and their current agreements with WPTA and KBJR-TV in lieu of having them sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The acquisition
11211-478: The time had prohibited television station duopolies, Sinclair decided to sell the lower-rated WPTT to the station's manager Eddie Edwards, but continued to operate the station through an LMA (Sinclair eventually repurchased the station – then assigned the call letters WCWB – outright in 2000, after the Federal Communications Commission began permitting common ownership of two television stations in
11322-494: The translator's signal from 10 watts to 250 watts and to move the transmitter site from Milan, Illinois , to the southwestern portion of Davenport. The application specified that the translator would relay WLLR's HD3 subchannel. On October 31, 2022, Radio By Grace publicly announced the completion of the construction of the new 250 watt transmitter facility and that the K296GZ translator had commenced broadcasting. The translator carries
11433-480: The unit hertz. Thus a disc rotating at 60 revolutions per minute (rpm) is said to have an angular velocity of 2 π rad/s and a frequency of rotation of 1 Hz . The correspondence between a frequency f with the unit hertz and an angular velocity ω with the unit radians per second is The hertz is named after Heinrich Hertz . As with every SI unit named for a person, its symbol starts with an upper case letter (Hz), but when written in full, it follows
11544-403: The unit's most common uses are in the description of periodic waveforms and musical tones , particularly those used in radio - and audio-related applications. It is also used to describe the clock speeds at which computers and other electronics are driven. The units are sometimes also used as a representation of the energy of a photon , via the Planck relation E = hν , where E
11655-446: Was able to retain WBMA-LD in any event as the FCC does not impose any ownership limits on low-power stations. On June 13, 2014, Gray Television announced that it would shutter six stations and consolidate existing programming onto subchannels of Gray-owned stations in their respective market. Unlike Sinclair, however, Gray stated that it would sell the licenses of the shuttered stations to minority-owned broadcasters in collaboration with
11766-482: Was adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) ( Conférence générale des poids et mesures ) in 1960, replacing the previous name for the unit, "cycles per second" (cps), along with its related multiples, primarily "kilocycles per second" (kc/s) and "megacycles per second" (Mc/s), and occasionally "kilomegacycles per second" (kMc/s). The term "cycles per second" was largely replaced by "hertz" by
11877-407: Was issued a $ 700,000 fine by the FCC. WAGT's spectrum sold for $ 40,763,036. In March 2023, DirecTV sued Nexstar Media Group, alleging that it was conspiring with the sidecar companies Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting to manipulate retransmission fees for its stations. The company, which had been in a carriage dispute with Mission and White Knight since October 2022, stated that
11988-478: Was reported that the FCC had placed all pending acquisitions involving the use of shell companies on hold, so the Commission could discuss changes to its policies. Among the deals affected by this decision included the aforementioned Sinclair/Allbritton purchase. On March 6, 2014, the FCC announced that it would hold a vote on March 31 on a proposal to ban joint sales agreements involving television stations outright, making them attributable to FCC ownership limits if
12099-611: Was restructured in July 2015 to, again, have SagamoreHill Broadcasting acquire the two stations, but have their current SSAs wound down within nine months. Following the end of the SSA, the two stations retained The CW as independently run stations, with their remaining affiliations moved to subchannels of KBJR and WPTA. Quincy similarly wound down an SSA in Peoria, Illinois with Sinclair-owned WHOI by trading its South Bend Fox affiliation (previously held by WSJV-TV ) to Sinclair (where it moved to
12210-723: Was settled in February 2013 via mutual agreement, after which the Fox affiliation was given back to WFFT. Gannett Company's 2013 acquisition of Belo was opposed by organizations such as the American Cable Association and Free Press , due to Gannett's plans to use LMAs and two shell companies owned by former Belo and Fisher Communications executives (respectively, Sander Media and Tucker Operating Co.) to dodge FCC newspaper cross-ownership restrictions in Louisville , Phoenix , Portland, Oregon and Tucson . Although Gannett contended that
12321-466: Was to be sold to Howard Stirk Holdings–a broadcasting company owned by conservative pundit Armstrong Williams . Howard Stirk Holdings was first established in 2013 with its acquisition of two conflicting stations in Sinclair's earlier acquisition of Barrington Broadcasting . In December 2013, FCC Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman sent a letter demanding information from the Sinclair Broadcast Group on
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