Sandy DiPasquale’s BlueStone Television, formed after Sunrise Television Corp. was aborbed into LIN TV in 2002, has bought its first stations, Lamco Communications’ 12-station group.
BlueStone bought the stock, rather than the assets, which avoids a double tax hit for Lamco. BlueStone called the purchases platforms for future expansion. The company is backed by Providence Equity Partners, a $5 billion media fund.
Because Providence has an interest in a newspaper in the Greenville market, the purchase will require the spin-off of one of the stations, WCTI(TV) Greenville, S.C., into Newport Broadcasting, a separate company controlled by DiPasquale, former president of Sunrise.
Among the outlets listed by BlueStone as stations in the group are a low power in San Angelo, Texas, and UPN and The WB digital affiliations in Bristol, Va., and Greenville, N.C.
