Saints owner Tom Benson buys WVUE-TV
Posted on May 5, 2008 / 9:05 AM CT
From the radio-info message boards:
Emmis once owned 16 TV stations and was in the process of selling Fox affiliate WVUE-TV when Katrina devastated the market – which caused Emmis to pull back on the sale. Now Jeff Smulyan’s selling to the NFL team owner he’s already got a relationship with due to the broadcast of the Saints games on Channel 8. Tom Benson’s paying $41 million, and Emmis says the after-tax proceeds will be about $35.5 million.
A couple of note-worthy items with deal. One, don’t expect negative sports discussions about the Saints. When I was in Dallas, the Dallas Cowboys play-by-play radio went from 98.7 KLUV to Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket and 93.3 The Bone. Rumor went around that part of the deal was to get rid of Dale Hensen, whom at the time had a midday show on The Ticket. Hensen says he left on his own terms (I don’t believe it). Now he’s on 103.3 ESPN Radio.
Second everyone in New Orleans knows about his car franchises in the 80s and 90s. If he get bored with TV, will he sell it to another company?
The only reason I like this deal is because New Orleans gets a TV station that isn’t owned by a an out-of-state corporation. Hopefully, it will stay this way. Plus, when are we going to see FOX8HD on Cox Cable?
