Deal to buy Channel 12 ‘went quickly’ No changes expected before FCC OKs sale in early 1995 By Doug Pullen JOURNAL MEDIA WRITER One month and two meetings was just about all it took to per suade Capital Cities/ABC Inc. to buy Flint ABC affiliate Channel 12 (WJRT), according to station owner George Lilly. “It went very quickly," said an obviously elated Lilly, whose company made a $33-million profit on the deal. The $ 155-million sale, an nounced Monday, includes Chan nel 12 and its Toledo sister sta tion, NBC affiliate WTVG, both of which are owned by Lilly’s SJL Broadcast Management Corp. SJL paid $39 million for Chan nel 12 when it bought the station from Knight Ridder Inc. in 1989. No major changes are expect ed at the station, at least not until the sale is completed and ap proved by the Federal Communi cations Commission, probably in the first quarter of next year, ac cording to Patricia Matson, vice president of corporate communi cations for Capital Cities/ABC. “It’ll be hands off until the deal is done,” she said. The sale means that two net works have solidified their posi tion in the Flint-Saginaw market, ranked 60th in the country with more than 1.2 million viewers in a 14-county region. Earlier this year, Saginaw’s top-rated Channel 5 (WNEM) an nounced plans to change affili ations from NBC to CBS. The move is not expected to take place until July 1995 when Chan nel 5’s contract with NBC ex pires, though station manager Paul Virciglio said that CBS pro gramming could start airing sooner. Both Channel 5 and No. 2-rat ed Channel 12 are in the desir able VHF (very high frequency) range, with stronger, wider- reaching signals. To stay in the market, NBC will have to affiliate with a weaker UHF (ultra-high frequency) station, such as Chan nel 25 (WEYI), which was dropped by CBS for Channel 5, or Channel 66 (WNEM), the Fox af filiate. The network probably will try to work out an affiliation deal with Channel 25, although station manager Eric Land was mum on the subject. “I don’t care to- comment on what we’re doing right now,” said Land. “(But) I’m glad an agreement has been reached and that the market is not going to be subject ed to a tremendous amount of confusion in the near future,” Land said. • , • “Also I think it speaks well of the potential that exists in the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market that a company of (Capital Cit ies/ABC’s) size and caliber would recognize that the market has a terrific upside.” Local Fox affiliate Channel 66 is not out of the running for an NBC affiliation, even though it does not have a news depart ment, as does Channel 25. “I’m going to be meeting with (NBC) fairly soon,” said Jerry Robinson, president of Flint TV Inc., which owns Channel 66. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he added. “Everybody is going to examine their op tions.” Lilly confirmed NBC ap proached him about affiliating with Channel 12. “NBC very much would have liked to have done a deal,” Lilly, said Monday. The sale makes Channel 12 one of only 10 stations owned by the ABC network, and the first ac quired since Capital Cities and ABC merged in 1986, Matson said. In addition to the Toledo sta tion, the other stations owned and operated by ABC are in New York, Los Angeles, San Francis co, Philadelphia, Chicago, Hous ton, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Fresno, Calif. Matson said Capital Cities has been“very vocal” about wanting to buy affiliates since the compa nies merged in 1986. But the net work is limited by FCC regula tions that restrict ownership to no more than 12 stations with no more than 25 percent of the total viewing audience. Matson said the sale gives Capital Cities/ABC stations 24.2 percent of the viewing audience, up from 23.3 before the sale. The key to the sale, she said, was the size and profitability of the Flint and Toledo stations. “It was clear in terms of the FCC that we needed to find strong stations in middle-sized markets to keep under the cap the FCC has on us,” she said. Thomas Bryson, Channel 12’s general manager, said viewers can expect to see the prospective new owners invest more in the station’s recently expanded news operation.