PBC Broadcasting Buys Topeka’s KTKA, Paving the Way for ‘Virtual Duopoly’

By Andrew Gauthier 

PBC Broadcasting has finalized a deal to acquire KTKA, an ABC-affiliate in Topeka, KS.

PBC Broadcasting, which owns Fox-affiliate WTGS in Savannah, GA and ABC-affiliate WYTV in Youngstown, OH, announced on Friday that it has agreed to terms with Free State Communications to buy KTKA and immediately begin managing the station’s advertising sales.

The deal is expected to be approved by the FCC in the second quarter of this year.

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Of interest to the regulatory approval process, is PBC Broadcasting’s relationship with New Vision Television, which manages the company’s stations in  Savannah and Youngstown.  As TVNewsCheck points out, New Vision, the owner of WJCL in Savannah and WKBN in Youngstown, operates “virtual duopolies” in those cities.

New Vision also owns KSNT in Topeka, making another virtual duopoly possible.

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