Bob Prather Back in the Game With Upstate NY Acquisition

By
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published

Bob Prather, former president at Gray Television, has agreed to acquire WKTV Utica from Smith Media.

The sale price is $16 million, and the deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Prather departed Gray Television in June. "I plan to buy more," he told B&C. "I've got a couple other offers out there."

He
would not comment on a plan to acquire WKTV for his Heartland Media
outfit earlier this month, noting that nothing was definite until the
FCC, and the federal government, got back to work.

WKTV is an NBC affiliate.

Utica
is DMA No. 171. WKTV is the market leader by a mile, according to
BIA/Kelsey, which estimates it corrals around 62% of the revenue in the
market.

Michael Malone
Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.