The Home Markets

While the talk is about a Sinclair/Scripps merger which would be packed with debt. There is another interesting side-note involving the two companies’ home markets.

Sinclair is based in Baltimore and Scripps is in Cincinnati. Interesting enough, if they merge, they will have two stations in both markets, with a bit of history.

Sinclair has history with Scripps's WMAR. In the early 1990s when Scripps was buying the station, Sinclair sued to stop the transaction and have the station's channel 2 license awarded to Sinclair, which would move WBFF to channel 2 from channel 45 for "local interests" reasons. Obviously, Sinclair lost the appeal, but what a turn of events this would cause.

As for Cincinnati, Scripps flagship WCPO is a strong performer, going neck and neck with WKRC for ratings. WKRC is owned by--you guessed it--Sinclair.

Even with relaxing regulations, would Sinclair really want to keep WMAR? WMAR has long been the dog station in the market. I guess they could move the operations all over to WBFF and basically make WMAR just a side channel of WBFF, with the same newscasts running on both stations.

As for WCPO, WKRC is one of Sinclair's few larger market stations that actually has good ratings. WCPO might demand a decent price tag and help pay off some debt. Wouldn't it be something if Sinclair took over a WCPO and immediately divests Scripps flagship station?

Stay tuned…