Gray Television, Inc. Signs Definitive Purchase Agreement to Acquire KKCO-TV, NBC Channel 11, in Grand Junction, Colorado
October 21 2004 - 3:15PM
PR Newswire (US)
Gray Television, Inc. Signs Definitive Purchase Agreement to
Acquire KKCO-TV, NBC Channel 11, in Grand Junction, Colorado
ATLANTA, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gray Television, Inc.
(NYSE: GTN; GTN.A) announced today it has signed a definitive
purchase agreement to acquire certain assets and assume certain
liabilities of KKCO-TV from Eagle III Broadcasting, LLC. KKCO-TV,
Channel 11 serves the Grand Junction, Colorado television market
and is an NBC affiliate. Highlights: - KKCO-TV is the number one
rated television station in news and in overall audience. - Gray
also owns and operates KKTV-TV, its CBS affiliate in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Upon completion of the KKCO-TV acquisition, Gray
will own and operate the number one rated television stations in
two of Colorado's three television markets. - Grand Junction is
located in Mesa County; from 1990 to 2000 Mesa County's population
grew by 28.4% putting it in the top 10% of counties nationwide in
terms of population growth. - Colorado had the 3rd fastest growing
state population from 1990 to 2000. - KKCO-TV's market includes
Mesa State College, a four-year college with approximately 6,000
students and home to the annual National Junior College Baseball
World Series. - Grand Junction ranks as the 189th largest
television market in the U.S. with 64,000 television households.
Through its acquisition strategy, Gray seeks out television
stations that are number one in their markets, have strong local
news programming and are located in growing markets. KKCO-TV has
all of these characteristics. Upon completion of the KKCO-TV
acquisition, Gray will own a total of 31 stations serving 27
television markets. The stations will include 16 CBS affiliates, 8
NBC affiliates and 7 ABC affiliates. The combined station group
will have 23 stations ranked #1 in both viewing audience and local
news audience within their respective markets. The combined group
will reach over 5% of total U.S. TV households. Gray currently
plans to use a portion of its cash on hand to fully fund this
acquisition. The acquisition of KKCO-TV is currently expected to
close during the first quarter of 2005. The KKCO-TV acquisition is
subject to FCC approval. Gray Television, Inc. is a communications
company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and currently operates
16 CBS-affiliated television stations, seven NBC-affiliated
television stations, seven ABC-affiliated television stations and
five daily newspapers. DATASOURCE: Gray Television, Inc. CONTACT:
Bob Prather, President, +1-404-266-8333, or Jim Ryan, Chief
Financial Officer, +1-404-504-9828, both of Gray Television, Inc.
Web site: http://www.graytvinc.com/
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