Sinclair sells Illinois, Milwaukee TV stations
Sale includes Sinclair’s SSA agreements in Springfield and Decatur
[Editor’s note: This story was updated March 14 and again on March 15.]
In a surprise, Sinclair, Inc., the nation’s second-largest station group, announced Tuesday that it is selling five stations, including three in Illinois as first reported by The Desk.
The five are being sold to Rincon Broadcasting, a new outfit run by Todd Parkin, a former Bally Sports Net executive, noted in paperwork filed with the FCC. Parkin once worked for Sinclair as Vice-President of Ad Sales and Strategy at the former Bally Sports from February 2020 to April 2022 and was later promoted to Senior Vice President of Sports Operations. At the time, Sinclair operated the channels in a joint venture with Diamond Sports Group, but the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a bitter divorce.
Rincon is acquiring ABC affiliates WICD in Champaign and WICS in Springfield; CBS affiliate KHQA in Quincy (licensed to nearby Hannibal, Mo.); CW affiliate WVTV in Milwaukee; and KTVO in Kirksville, Mo., which airs CBS and ABC programming on separate channels. Rincon is purchasing the stations for $29.4 million.
WICD and WICS are intertwined to serve the broad Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market downstate, sharing a single feed except for commercials and station identification. WICD once had a separate news department but was folded into WICS ten years ago. Both stations were NBC affiliates until September 2005, when they swapped with then-ABC affiliate WAND. Sinclair has owned both stations since 1999, when they purchased them from Guy Gannett Broadcasting.
Sinclair is in a shared services agreement with Decatur CW affiliate WBUI and Fox affiliate WRSP in Springfield, as GOCOM Communications owns both stations; Rincon is expected to take over the agreement.
Once part of Gaylord Broadcasting, WVTV absorbed former rival WCGV in 2018 after Sinclair surrendered its license to the FCC in the spectrum auction. Both were in a duopoly for nearly 25 years, and beforehand WCGV was a Fox, UPN, and My Network TV affiliate. WVTV now runs CW and My Network TV programming on separate digital channels.
There is little known about this deal as Sinclair has yet to comment. It’s also not known if Sinclair would continue to run the stations in a shared services agreement or if programming such as the nightly news show The National Desk and weekend talk shows featuring Sheryl Atkisson and Armstrong Williams would continue to air on them. Sinclair is known for its right-leaning news programming and has been criticized for undermining local news.
The sale comes as Illinois is losing population as local stations’ ability to grab political revenue is limited since it isn’t a swing state and is solidly blue, thanks to the Democrat party’s domination of Chicago and Cook County, which accounts for forty percent of its population. Because of this, several counties in Central and Southern Illinois have voted to secede from the state, albeit non-binding. The list includes Iroquois County, which is the northernmost part of the Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market, and borders Kankakee County, which is the southernmost of the Chicago DMA. Sinclair can still reach viewers in the southwestern part of Illinois, as it owns ABC affiliate KDNL St. Louis (though with no news operation, the only network affiliate in a top fifty market without one), so they won’t be leaving the state entirely.