Rockford TV Station Owner Inks Deal To Buy Competing TV Station

2021 is off to a big start in many aspects, one of which including Rockford. A major deal just went down and it involves two Rockford tv stations.

With the addition of these professionals and their stations, Gray will become a stronger company with an even larger platform of high quality television stations to better serve the public interest first. (Hilton H. Howell, Jr., Gray Media Inc. CEO)

In a monstrous deal announced this morning, February 1, 2021, at 7 a.m. Central, Gray Television Inc, which owns a multitude of television stations around the country (including WIFR-TV), has agreed to Quincy Media Inc., which owns WREX-TV. The agreement is worth $925 million. The deal, reported by GlobeNewsWire, involves 15 television stations total, however, nine of them with being sold. According to the report, Gray Television Inc. will acquire WREX-TV, which is an NBC affiliate in the Rockford viewing area.

A similar, although much smaller deal, has happened in the early in Rockford TV's past when FOX-39 (WQRF-TV)'s parent company purchased WTVO (Channel 17) for $21 million.

What does this mean for local television in Rockford? At this exact moment, nothing. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must approve the agreement before the deal is official.

Watch Complete WREX News Broadcast from 1980:

Watch Complete WIFR New Broadcast from 1980:

You can read more on the Gray Media Inc./Quincy Media Inc. deal here.

JB Love is ½ of  Q98.5's Lil Zim & JB In The Morning, weekday mornings from 5:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.