Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH) removed WLYH-TV, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from...

Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH) removed WLYH-TV, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from its request for an FCC joint sales agreement waiver, said an ex parte filing Monday (http://bit.ly/1jTo7ea). HSH had planned to acquire the station from Nexstar as part of a multistation deal with Sinclair that’s conditional on the waiver request being granted. The portion of the deal involving WLYH has been terminated, HSH said. As the deal now stands, HSH would buy WMMP(TV) Charleston, South Carolina, and WABM(TV) Birmingham, Alabama, and operate them under sharing arrangements with Sinclair, but only if a waiver of the FCC’s new rules that would attribute ownership of the stations to Sinclair is granted, said HSH. It said granting the waiver would promote the FCC’s goals of “serving the public interest in competition, diversity and local programming, and advances the public interest, convenience and necessity."