WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Atlanta-based Gray Media announced Friday that a deal has been reached with Allen Media Group to buy 10 news stations, including WLFI-TV, for a total of $171 million.
In June, Allen Media Group said it had retained investment bank Moelis & Co. to sell its group of 28 broadcast TV stations in 21 markets across the United States.
In the sale to Gray Media, Allen Media Group also sold off its Indiana stations in Evansville, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute.
“The transaction would bring Gray into three new markets — Columbus-Tupelo, Mississippi; Terre Haute, Indiana; and West Lafayette, Indiana — with the acquisition of the local television station in each market that had the highest all-day ratings in 2024, according to Comscore,” Gray Media said in a news release. “Gray expects the transaction to strengthen the company’s presence in the seven other markets by creating new duopolies that would allow Gray to preserve and deepen public service to their communities with expanded local news, local weather and local sports programming.”
Local WLFI viewers have watched the station gradually lose many of their on-air talent over the last several months.
Allen Media Group stations included in the sale to Gray Media are:
Gray Media said in the release it anticipates closing the transaction in the fourth quarter of this year after receipt of regulatory approval, including certain waivers of FCC local ownership rules, and other customary closing conditions.
The company says it is the nation’s largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets serving 113 television markets that collectively reach about 37 percent of U.S. television households.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Gray Media buys WLFI-TV, 9 other stations, in $171M agreement with Allen Media
Reporting by Jillian Ellison, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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