Re: Paxson buys NY station

[Lance Venta <venta2@tcnj.edu>]

KEVIN VAHEY wrote:
> 
> Interesting news out of New York, as Paxson Communications has bought
> WBIS+ Channel 31 for $260 million from Dow Jones/ITT. Paxson plans to take
> over July 1st and will lay off over 200 of the 260 full time people there.
> 
> So what can they be up to? You are not spending that kind of money to run
> infomercials. Are they planning on beating Silver King to become a 6th
> network??

As of July 1, exactly one year to the day when WNYC-TV became WBIS, the
station will become WPXN (Real Creative!) and drop all of S+'s business
and locally produced programming. The station will air Paxon's
Infomercial and Religious networks during the day and continue to air
FOX Sports Net's Programming throughout the end of the year. Paxon
claims that he does hope to start a sixth network in January of
"wholesome family entertainment" with programming from the major studios
and overflow (ie. cancelled shows) from the other networks. The S+
station was going to eventually become a national superstation until ITT
was forced to sell its share to help prevent Hilton's takeover.

Lance Venta
venta2@tcnj.edu
Mid-Atlantic Radio Page: http://www.tcnj.edu/~venta2/radio.html

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