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Entrepreneur who purchased Channel 8 plans upgrades, hiring spree
Since his days running sprints for the Butler University track team, DuJuan McCoy has known timing is everything.
So when the broadcast veteran got a call from Nexstar Media Group Chairman and CEO Perry Sook one Saturday morning this spring, McCoy bolted into action like he was still wearing a Bulldogs running singlet.
Sook asked McCoy if he would be interested in acquiring WISH-TV Channel 8 and WNDY-TV Channel 23. The catch: Sook wanted an answer by the next morning.
After Dallas-based Nexstar acquired Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting's WXIN-TV Channel 59 and WTTV-TV Channel 4 as part of a broader national deal, the broadcast conglomerate was forced to unload some of its Indianapolis stations to comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations.
By coincidence, McCoy's Bayou City Broadcasting was divesting all five of its stations-two in Evansville and three in Lafayette, Louisiana. "I was 75% done with that deal, but no one knew it due to confidentiality agreements," McCoy said.
McCoy and his firm's chief financial officer spent the next 24 hours doing due diligence on the two Indianapolis stations before he made Sook-whom he had known from previous dealings-a counteroffer. McCoy bought the two stations for $42.5 million, and the deal closed in September.
The Indianapolis native and Ben Davis High School graduate couldn't believe his good fortune.
"To own a broadcast property in your hometown ... and you're an entrepreneur like me, there's no greater opportunity," McCoy told IBJ. "On top of that, it's one of the most powerful news stations, not only in Indianapolis but in the state of Indiana. Having the ability to affect the community in which I was raised, there's no better feeling in the world."
Don't expect McCoy to bask in that feeling for long. The slightly built 52-year-old, a self-described workout fanatic, still sprints through life like a track star.
"We have a lot to do," he says as he snags two cookies from a nearby table on a recent tour of the station. The cookies have been brought in as part of a spread for a gathering of arts and culture aficionados McCoy is scheduled to speak to in about an hour. His community outreach plan is already...