Carr’s FCC Hands Historic Regulatory Victory to African-American TV Station Owner

FCC: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s effort to bolster local TV stations just produced a major victory for DuJuan McCoy, an African-American TV station operator/owner in the Indianapolis market. In a decision Friday, the FCC said McCoy’s Circle City Broadcasting (CCB) could acquire the local ABC affiliate from Scripps, an $83 million deal giving CCB three stations total and one more than permissible under FCC rules. The four-page decision, handed down by Media Bureau Chief Erin Boone, concluded that waiving the two-to-a-market cap would not harm competition in a market where Nexstar and TEGNA operate stations and that forcing the sale of CCB’s WNDY-TV (a MyNetworkTV affiliate) would likely lead to less local news in Indianapolis. “We find that special circumstances warrant grant of [CCB’s] waiver request. Circle City has determined that its acquisition of ABC affiliate WRTV is essential to its continuing viability as a broadcaster in the Indianapolis DMA,” Boone said. (More after paywall)