Gray buying additional television, radio stations

Gray Television, which recently bought KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids for $100 million, is acquiring all of the radio and television stations owned by Schurz Communications for $442.5 million.

The purchase of Mishwaka, Ind.-based Schurz radio and TV assets will expand Atlanta-based Gray's operations to a total of 49 television markets and 28 states.

Gray, in a news release, said the acquisition will increase the total of No. 1 ranked television stations to 39 and the total of No. 1 or No. 2 ranked television station operations to 48 out of 49 television markets.

'Through the Schurz transaction, we will significantly expand the quality of our portfolio of leading television stations,” said Hilton Howell, Gray Television president and chief executive officer in a news release.

'We welcome more dedicated reporters, account executives, and technologists to our growing family. Quite simply, Gray's existing stations will make the Schurz stations stronger, while the Schurz stations will make our existing stations better.”

Todd Schurz, president and CEO of Schurz Communications, said the sale to Gray Television will ensure his company's television stations will succeed in a rapidly consolidating industry where size and scale matter.

'Gray knows how to operate top stations in small and medium-sized markets, and they have an entrepreneurial and decentralized culture,” Schurz said in the same news release.

Schurz, a privately-owned communications company, also owns daily and weekly newspapers, cable companies and a telephone directory in medium and small sized markets, which are not included in the sale.

Gray, which also owns TV stations in Wichita, Kan., and South Bend., Ind., plans to sell or trade KAKE-TV in Wichita and WSBT-TV in South Bend. The company expects to close the transactions following receipt of regulatory and other approvals in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2016.