Sinclair buys Reno NBC affiliate from Jim Rogers’ company
Jim Rogers’ Intermountain West Communications Co. is out as owner of Reno’s NBC affiliate, replaced by one of the nation’s largest television broadcasting companies.
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said Friday that it “closed on the acquisition of the nonlicense assets” of KRNV-TV, channel 4, from Intermountain West Communications for $26 million.
“The purchase price represents a 5.2x multiple of the average 2012-2013 cash flow including synergies,” Baltimore-based Sinclair said. The company said it “entered into an agreement to operate or provide sales services to the station.”
Intermountain West still owns KSNV-TV, Channel 3, in Las Vegas, and KENV-TV, Channel 10, in Elko.
Rogers, a former Las Vegas attorney from 1964 to 1988, also spent five years as chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, stepping down in 2004.
Rogers is known as a hardball lawyer and no-nonsense businessman who earned a fortune as the owner of a group of television stations in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
He is also known for his philanthropy. He made a $1.5 million donation to a law school at the University of Arizona, which renamed the school the James E. Rogers College of Law.
This is the third Sinclair-owned TV station in Reno. The company purchased KRXI-TV and KAME-TV from Cox Media Group in February as part of a $99 million, five station deal.
Sinclair owns, operates, programs or provides sales services for 164 TV stations in 77 markets nationwide.
Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @sierotyfeatures on Twitter.
