TUPELO — The Spain family is selling Tupelo’s WTVA-TV to Heartland Media and MSouth Equity Partners.
No price was disclosed for the sale, announced Tuesday.
WTVA was founded 57 years ago by the late Frank Spain. Jane Spain, who had a 51 percent stake in the company that her late husband, said Heartland “is particularly well-suited to build on the service that WTVA has provided viewers in Northeast Mississippi and northwest Alabama for over five decades.”
Jane Spain told WTVA she will remain in Tupelo and continue working with the Tupelo Automobile Museum.
The Federal Communications Commission must approve the sale of WTVA, an NBC affiliate which broadcasts ABC on a subchannel. Approval is expected in early 2015, with current owners running the station until then.
The sale doesn’t include WLOV, a separately owned Fox affiliate. WTVA’s new owners will continue managing WLOV through a shared-services agreement.
Atlanta-based Heartland bought stations in Eugene, Medford and Klamath Falls, Oregon earlier this year for $29 million. Last year, he bought a station in Utica, New York, for $16 million.
Heartland Media’s CEO is Bob Prather. He was president and chief operating officer of Gray Television, a 41-station group that he and a business partner purchased in 1994, retiring briefly before founding Heartland and buying WKTV.
“I’m a big believer in buying stations in mid-sized towns and No. 1 stations in the market, ideally,” he told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “And I like stations that have a good reputation for local news and community service. . This station fit all my expectations.”
Prather said WTVA would be managed locally.
“I believe in buying good local stations with good reputations and letting local management run them,” he said. “I think the general managers in these kind of markets, the good ones really know what they’re doing and the best thing I can do is stay out of their way.”
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