Nexstar Plans to Buy NBC 24/51

Griffin Holdings Co. of Muskogee, Okla., is working on a deal to sell its Fayetteville television station, NBC 24/51, KPOM/KFAA, to Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. of Irving, Texas.

“Griffin Holdings Co. and Nexstar Broadcasting have entered into a letter of understanding and are currently working on a purchase agreement,” said David Needham, general manager of the station, which also has a newsroom in Fort Smith.

Needham said he was reading a statement provided to him by John Griffin, owner of the company. Needham refused to comment further.

Representatives from Nexstar were in Fayetteville the week of July 14 to look at NBC 24/51. At that time, Needham said Griffin had decided to sell the station because Federal Communications Commission regulations approved in June would allow large corporations to own more television stations across the country.

The new rules, which have yet to go into effect, would raise the percentage of the national television audience one company could reach through its ownership of local TV stations from 35 percent to 45 percent.

But that shouldn’t affect the NBC 24/51 sale because Nexstar reaches only 3.5 percent of all U.S. television households. Nexstar has 25 network-affiliated television stations in 16 markets in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and New York.

In January, Nexstar announced that it was buying KARK-TV, the NBC affiliate in Little Rock, which was owned by Morris Multimedia.

Nexstar had revenue of $123.1 million last year, a 25 percent increase over $99.1 million in the previous year.

Since relaunching its newscast in 2000 after eight years off the air, NBC 24/51’s newscast has trailed KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29, and KFSM, Channel 5, in the area Nielsen ratings.

Griffin told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal in 2000 that he had invested $5 million to relaunch NBC 24/51’s newscast and open a newsroom on Fayetteville’s downtown square.

NBC 24/51 was the only semi-locally owned station in the area. Muskogee is 61 miles west of Fayetteville.