Forgive us being away from the keyboard for a few days, we had the audacity to actually try to take a small vacation. As has seemingly been the case for the entirety of our working lives in broadcast news, there weren’t any big stories that happened in the world while we were away, right?

Well not unless you count the continuation of a nation sharply divided over ongoing immigration policies by the federal government, leading to clashes with protestors over raids in Southern California. Then, over the objections of State and Local leaders, national guard soldiers and active marines were ordered into the area increasing tensions. Over this past weekend, an alleged political assassin killed two and wounded two others in our home state of Minnesota, leading to a tense and massive manhunt before a suspect was captured without incident in a rural area in less than 48 hours. This past Saturday also saw the dichotomy of a sparsely attended military parade in the nation’s capital, on the same day millions of citizens turned out for peaceful protests across the country against the current administration. And while all that was going on here at home, a shooting war broke out in the Middle East between Israel and Iran–over the latter’s ongoing quest to produce a nuclear weapon.

Sure, just another week in the news business in 2025. Such as that business may be at the moment.

Yesterday brought the headline that for the first time, social media and video networks have now displaced television as the first choice for how Americans get their news. At least that is the one of the key findings in a new report from the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

With all that presently as backdrop, we are going to focus here on the future.

Specifically, the future for the business of buying and selling local television stations. Because from everything we are hearing, there is about to be a flood of activity in that space after a pretty long period of there just being an occasional trickle. (Yes, we know we are leaning into this whole water analogy pretty hard, but it is our first day back at the keyboard.)

The climate for such deal making seems to grow more favorable by the day. The Senate’s approval of the nomination of Olivia Trusty to the Federal Communications Commission will give the commission a republican majority. That would appear to clear the way for a wide slate of industry reforms that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has been wanting to move forward with. That slate is expected to include a loosening of ownership regulations that could permit the industry’s big group owners to become even bigger. Thus some long anticipated transactions should be announced pretty soon. Like any day now.

Two of them are worth a closer look as indicators being watched for the overall health of the business as seen through the lens of who is selling and who is buying.

The first deal everyone is waiting to hear about is the anticipated sale of Apollo Global Management’s interest in the television properties of Cox Media Group. Since acquiring a controlling interest in Cox’s television stations in 2019 (along with newspaper and radio interests Cox had in Dayton, Ohio) it has seemed that Apollo was hoping for something more lucrative than what it got from that original transaction. In 2022, Apollo would package and spin a chunk of Cox’s smaller market television properties, including WHBQ-TV in Memphis and the duopoly of KOKI-TV and KMYT in Tulsa, to an outfit called Imagicomm. Early this year, Imagicomm would exit the local television business, selling the Memphis and Tulsa stations, along with smaller properties in Spokane and Yakima, Washington; Pendleton, Oregon and Yuma, Arizona, to the newly formed Rincon Broadcasting Group earlier this year. Rincon is headed up by Todd Parkin, who was most recently with Sinclair’s regional sports business that was known as Bally Sports Network.

But the big deal that Apollo wants to make is for the core group of Cox’s remaining ten television stations in major markets from Boston to Seattle, along with their powerful trio of ABC affiliates in the Southeast, including WSB-TV in Atlanta, WFTV in Orlando and WSOC-TV in Charlotte. That group of stations could be worth about $4 Billion and would be of interest to any number of potential owners, including industry “mega groups” like Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray, who would most likely have access to the major money needed to finance such an acquisition. Nexstar, in particular, has been mentioned frequently to us as a likely purchaser for the Cox stations, even though it would have to figure out what it would do in Charlotte, where it already owns a duopoly of Fox affiliate, WJZY and My Network affiliate WMYT, as well as in Dayton where it also has a duopoly of NBC affiliate WDTN and CW affiliate WBDT. Given the long standing strength of Cox’s WSOC and WHIO in those markets, the question would be what Nexstar would keep and what would it spin off to get FCC approval of acquiring the Cox station group.

Gray, based in Atlanta, would of course be interested in getting its hands on WSB-TV, which some observers have noted could fetch a billion dollar price tag just on its own. Gray too has some complications in realizing a deal for the Cox television stations, given that it currently owns WANF and WPCH in Atlanta. WANF, locally known as “Atlanta News First” was just in the news as it will soon be without a network affiliation. That is a result of CBS moving its network there to its owned and operated WVEU there in August. Gray also owns WBTV in Charlotte, NC, so that is also two markets to figure out what would be kept and what might be sold.

Of course, we’re assuming that even a reform-minded FCC would still keep a Nexstar or Gray from owning two “big four” network-affiliated stations in a major market such as Atlanta or Charlotte. That thinking could be outdated by the ever increasing drumbeat of lobbying that local television owners need far less restrictions to be able to compete and survive against the far less regulated digital media behemoths in the marketplace for eyeballs and advertising dollars. One thing that everyone expects to see is the consolidation of the many “sidecar” deals that have allowed groups to operate multiple stations in markets where they would be prevented from outright owning more than one television property.

On the other end of the spectrum for selling local television stations is the curious case of Allen Media Group. Byron Allen’s foray into local television ownership hasn’t likely panned out the way the successful TV producer had hoped for six years ago, when he borrowed nearly a billion dollars to assemble a portfolio of some 25 local TV stations–in smaller markets. Multiple industry observers have opined that the value of these stations has dropped significantly and that prospective buyers are finding that the financial situations at these properties is “challenging” especially in formulating any sort of offer to purchase the stations that Allen would consider to be worth accepting.

That’s not to say that there aren’t buyers out there for any and all local TV stations that are presently on the market for sale–or might be very soon. There may not be that many suitors able–or willing–to swallow an entire group like Allen or Cox in a single gulp. But there will be buyers, both established names and brand new ones, who are going through the process of doing their “due diligence” that is playing out behind the scenes even as we type these words. They are all looking to be ready to make offers on any local stations that may come onto the market in the months ahead.

In other words, as soon as we hear that one deal is being announced, don’t be surprised if that leads to a proverbial wave of dealmaking for stations–the likes of which we haven’t seen in the television business for quite some time.

The big questions to be answered? Who will be left standing on higher ground? And will anybody be left still watching those stations?

We’re almost afraid to take any more time off this summer.