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ith its deal to sell two TV stations to Tribune Broadcasting, the Acme station group will virtually eliminate its debt. But it also will pretty much eliminate its cash flow, likely pushing it back into the red next year.
Tribune agreed to pay $275 million for Acme's two best stations, KPLR-TV St. Louis and KWBP(TV) Salem, Ore. (Portland).
Tribune Broadcasting CEO Pat Mullen called KPLR-TV "the WGN of St. Louis"-aVHF channel with strong prime time performance (as an affiliate of The WB), highly rated newscasts and TV home of the popular St. Louis Cardinals. (WGN-TV Chicago is Tribune's powerful flagship station.) Also, as 22.5% owner of The WB and operator of 17 of its affiliates, Tribune is always eager to add more The WB affiliates to its portfolio.
But KPLR-TV is also Acme's only substantial source of cash flow. After the sale and last weeKs $5.8 million acquisition of a The WB affiliate WBUW-TV Madison, Wis., the group is left with nine stations, all of them "developing" properties that are-or until recently wereweak-signaled UHF stations, poorly programmed in non-WB dayparts. (One station is a UPN affiliate.) Only one of the remaining stations, WIWB-TV Knoxville, Tenn., is expected to post profits for 2002.
UNMANAGEABLE DEBT
Acme had to sell its...