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With controversial new media ownership rules on the horizon, Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is moving toward acquiring a long-coveted second television station on its home turf.
The entity that holds the license for Baltimore's WNUV-TV, Channel 54, applied to the Federal Communications Commission Nov. 7 to transfer control of the station from current owner Cunningham Broadcasting Corp. to a Sinclair subsidiary, Sinclair Acquisition XIV Inc.
Broadcasting giant Sinclair Broadcast Group (www.sbgi.net) has long wanted to buy WNUV. Sinclair controls programming for WNUV through a local marketing agreement, which allows Sinclair to program a second station in a market where it owns a station. Baltimore's WBFF-TV, Fox 45, is Sinclair's flagship station.
An FCC rule has long blocked Sinclair from buying WNUV - a WB network affiliate - outright. The rule bans a company from owning more than one station in a market where there are fewer than seven other independently owned stations.
The FCC (www.fcc.gov) approved sweeping new media ownership rules this summer, including a provision that companies could own two television stations in most markets as long as both are not...