Local TV viewers in the Cheyenne-Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and Casper, Wyoming are in for a shake up as the parent company of the two stations, Gray Television, has sold them to a rival broadcaster in an asset swap.
Gray will sell KGWN Scottsbluff, known as NBC Nebraska, and KCWY, a local station in Casper known as Wyoming News Now, to Marquee Broadcasting, in exchange for an unbuilt KCBU television station in the Salt Lake City market. The Federal Communications Commission authorized a permit to construct this building, which will transfer to Gray Television.
“Marquee is excited to acquire Gray’s leading stations in Wyoming and Western Nebraska,” said Patricia Lane, chief executive officer at Marquee. “We are looking forward to building on the legacy there.”
Neither company will pay additional cash or consideration according to the terms of the trade. The transactions are scheduled to close during the second quarter of 2024, pending receipt of regulatory and other approvals.
This isn’t the first time the companies have traded spaces. Last February, Gray Televisions sold its Fox affiliate in Boise, Idaho, KNIN to Marquee. In turn, Marquee sold WPGA, its MeTV affiliate in Macon, Georgia. This trade made Gray Television the owner of a full-power station in every television market in Georgia. The deal closed in the second quarter of 2023.
Marquee has made several station purchases in recent years. It also bought Nexstar Broadcasting Group’s KREG-TV in May of 2016, NBC’s WNKY in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2017, Sunbelt-South Communications’ WSST-TV in Cordele, Georgia, in 2018, and Grey Television’s CBS affiliate station WSWG in Albany, Georgia that same year. Marquee merged WSST and WSWG’s operations.
The network also bought the Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting Corporation WHIZ-TV and radio stations WHIZ, WHIZ-FM, and WZVL for an undisclosed amount in 2022.
Gray Television is a multimedia company located in Atlanta, Georgia, and serves 113 television markets with a collective reach of 36% of U.S. households. Marquee is a women led group founded in 2013 and focuses on smaller markets with a local-first mindset.