Gray Buying All Schurz Stations

Gray Television is buying all the TV and radio stations of Schurz Communications for $442.5 million, Gray said in a news release Monday. To facilitate regulatory approval, Gray plans to divest stations in Wichita, Kansas, and South Bend, Indiana, where it has overlaps with Schurz. “Gray's divestitures of KAKE-TV in Wichita and WSBT-TV in South Bend will take the form of cash sales, swaps involving comparable high-quality television stations, or a combination of cash and swaps,” Gray said. It's also planning to sell the spectrum of WAGT Augusta, Georgia, in the incentive auction, and fold Schurz’s KOTA-TV Rapid City, South Dakota, into an existing Gray station, the buyer said. It said the deal would expand Gray’s portfolio to 49 TV stations in 28 states, and allow it to reach about 9.3 percent of total U.S. TV households.