London Buys Drewry Stations
London Broadcasting buys four stations in Texas, Oklahoma from Drewry Communications.
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/1/2008 11:35:00 AM
Dallas-based London Broadcasting purchased KXXV Waco, Texas; KFDA Amarillo, Texas; KSWO Lawton, Okla.; and KWES Midland-Odessa, Texas, from Lawton-based Drewry Communications. The purchase price was $115 million.
Four sister Telemundo affiliates are included in the deal.
London executive vice president and chief financial and development officer Carl Kornmeyer said the company would remain active in acquisitions as it seeks to grow its stable of Texas stations. He added that another deal was "in the works at this point," but he would not give details.
"Until the deal actually gets done, we're not going to talk about them," he said, adding that the target station(s) were not in Dallas, Houston or San Antonio.
The deal awaits Federal Communications Commission approval, which should take at least 90 days.
London Broadcasting is headed up by former Gaylord Entertainment boss Terry London. Formed last October in a partnership with SunTx Capital Partners, London’s goal is to acquire 10-15 small to midsized TV stations.
London acquired its first station -- KYTX Tyler, Texas -- in February for $25 million. The seller was Max Media.
KYTX made headlines by putting a former The Price Is Right model/SmackDown “diva” in the anchor chair for Fox’s short-lived Anchorwoman series.
In a statement, KXXV general manager Mike Lee said, "We think it means business as usual, and I'm very happy about it. Terry London is a very aggressive, very progressive broadcaster.”
