Time to stop Sinclair in its tracks

(cross-posted at DKos)

Just before this past Christmas, I wrote that Sinclair Broadcast Group has illegal duopolies in six markets. It has LMAs with all six stations owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation. However, Cunningham is effectively owned by Sinclair since nearly all of its stock is controlled by the Smith family, founders and owners of Sinclair.

This recently piqued my interest again because Charlotte's Fox affiliate, WCCB, may be up for sale. Its longtime owner, Cy Bahakel, died in April, and his kids have made noises about putting WCCB and their family's other on the market. If that happened, it would really surprise me if Sinclair didn't make a bid. It already owns stations in the Triangle and Triad. But based on Sinclair's illegal activity, we have to head this one off at the pass.

Cunningham owns the following stations:
WNUV-TV in Baltimore (WB affiliate, soon to be CW affiliate, LMA with WBFF-TV, Fox affiliate)
WTTE-TV in Columbus, OH (Fox affiliate, LMA with WSYX-TV, ABC affiliate)
WMYA-TV in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville (WB affiliate, soon to be My Network TV affiliate LMA with WLOS-TV, ABC affiliate)
WRGT-TV in Dayton (Fox affiliate, LMA with WKEF-TV, ABC affiliate)
WVAH-TV in Charleston-Huntington, WV (Fox affiliate, LMA with WCHS-TV, ABC affiliate)
WTAT-TV in Charleston, SC (Fox affiliate, LMA with WMMP-TV, UPN affiliate)

In all six cases, Sinclair is barred by FCC rules from having duopolies in these markets. In the case of WVAH, Sinclair can't buy it outright because the FCC doesn't allow one person to own two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. In WMYA's case, there's already one duopoly in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville market, and a Sinclair purchase of WMYA would leave the market with only seven unique station owners. The FCC only allows duopolies if their formation would leave eight unique owners in the market. In the other cases, there aren't enough full-power stations in the markets in question to allow duopolies at all. Also, Sinclair owns one of the top three stations while Cunningham owns the #4 station.

While the renewal dates for these stations' licenses have passed, this situation is so outrageously illegal that something has to be done.

Write your congressman--demand an investigation. Also, sign this petition to the FCC.