LocusPoint Networks LLC was an owner of television stations in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The company is 99% owned by

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...

. After selling off most of their in 2017 and 2018 in the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) spectrum auction and to other broadcasters, they owned one remaining station, WLEP-LD in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

, whose license they turned in to the FCC effective February 12, 2019. One of the company's acquisitions,

WMGM-TV WMGM-TV (channel 40) is a television station licensed to Wildwood, New Jersey, United States, affiliated with the True Crime Network. It is owned by TelevisaUnivision alongside Vineland, New Jersey–licensed Univision owned-and-operated statio ...

, was rumored to have been purchased only to be sold in a

spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction form ...

in 2015. When the FCC auction finally occurred LocusPoint failed to successfully win a bid to sell the station's spectrum to the FCC. On June 26, 2017, LocusPoint Networks agreed to sell WMGM-TV to

Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...

, through its Univision Local Media subsidiary, for $6 million. The deal will make WMGM-TV a sister station to

WUVP-DT WUVP-DT (channel 65) is a television station licensed to Vineland, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Univision network to the Philadelphia area. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Wildwood, Ne ...

and

WFPA-CD WFPA-CD (channel 28) is a low-power, Class A television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Vineland, New Jersey–lic ...

. On April 12, 2017, LocusPoint Networks, hired by the San Mateo Community College District to sell KCSM-TV in the spectrum auction, claimed fiscal mismanagement by school officials and administrators to fulfill their basic duties to facilitate the sale properly. The station was to be sold in the auction due to the college's $1 million annual losses. In turn, the District counter-sued LocusPoint and its partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, for failure to enter KCSM-TV into the FCC auction. In September 2017 the San Mateo Community College District reached a deal to sell KCSM-TV to the

Northern California Public Media Northern California Public Media (formerly Rural California Broadcasting Corporation) is a non-profit public media outlet based in Rohnert Park, California, United States, that serves the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization owns PBS and inde ...

owned KRCB. On October 24, 2017, LocusPoint filed an injunction to stop the sale, citing violations of provisions in the original contract governing sale rights should the auction not go forward, while the San Mateo Community College District maintained that LocusPoint's role in the failed auction voided the entirety of the contract. The lawsuits were settled in 2019, with the district receiving $5.5 million from PricewaterhouseCoopers and $4.5 million from LocusPoint, and KCSM-TV was sold to KRCB for an additional $12 million. The district did not have to pay anything to either PricewaterhouseCoopers or LocusPoint. On April 13, 2017, the

(FCC) announced that LocusPoint's WLPH-CD and WQVC-CD were successful bidders in the spectrum auction. WLPH-CD, which had already been silent since LocusPoint acquired it in 2014, would be surrendering its license in exchange for $3,994,492 and WQVC-CD would be surrendering its license in exchange for $11,196,327.FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction — Auction 1001 Winning Bids
/ref> LocusPoint surrendered the licenses for both stations to the FCC for cancellation on August 8, 2017.

Former stations

*¹Translator of TCT

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

WNYB WNYB (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Jamestown, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). Its transmitter is located on Center Road in Arkwright. ...

, Sold to HME Equity Fund II on February 19, 2016.

References

{{reflist American companies established in 2012 The Blackstone Group Companies based in Pleasanton, California Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 2012 Mass media companies disestablished in 2019