TO CLOSE

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Dwight Adams, [email protected]

A deeply rooted television executive in Indianapolis buys two television stations in his hometown.

DuJuan McCoy, a graduate of Ben Davis High School and Butler University, announced Monday the purchase of WISH-TV (Channel 8) and WNDY-TV (Channel 23) from Nexstar Media Group for $ 42.5 million. dollars.

"The words can not express how delighted I am to be able to close the loop and become the owner of WISH and WNDY in my hometown of Indianapolis!" McCoy said in a statement by e-mail. "It's a dream come true for me."

A graduate of Butler University in 1989, Circle City Broadcasting is responsible for the purchase of both stations.

DuJuan McCoy (Photo: provided by Circle City Broadcasting.)

McCoy stated that he had started his broadcast career in 1989 as an account executive at WTTV-TV (Channel 4).

McCoy founded Bayou City Broadcasting in 2007, which currently owns stations in Evansville, Indiana, and Lafayette, Louisiana, according to the website of the company.

He launched Bayou City by buying seven stations in Texas, including subsidiaries of Abilene and San Angelo. According to his website, he was the first black owned company to own and operate a Fox subsidiary in the United States.

The city of Bayou sold the Texas stations to the London Broadcasting Company in 2012.

Last spring, McCoy told Butler Magazine that he had bought the bankrupt Texas stations for about $ 3 million, returned them and sold them almost seven times more.

He hopes to have the same success in Indianapolis

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"I look forward to working with the excellent WISH and WNDY staff members and strengthening their commitment to providing more local news and local programming to our community," said McCoy.

In December, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group announced plans to purchase 42 stations at Tribune Media for $ 4.1 billion, including WXIN-TV (Channel 59) and CBS (WTTV-TV (Channel 4)). )).

The sale of WISH and WNDY is aimed at satisfying federal regulars who have the power to approve or refuse the sale of Tribune, said Nexstar in a press release.

Nexstar sells 21 stations in 16 markets for a total of $ 1.36 billion. The company will use proceeds from the sale to finance its Tribune station purchase and reduce its debt, the company said.

"The proposed sale of two stations in Indianapolis marks a new milestone in the closing of the Tribune Media transaction and the final part of the transfer of Nexstar's overall regulatory compliance plan," said Monday in a statement the President and Chief Executive Officer. , Perry Sook.

"Mr. McCoy is a seasoned audiovisual professional and shares Nexstar's commitment to supporting better local programming and public service in the respective markets in which we operate."

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The acquisition of Tribune Media would allow Nexstar to be present in 18 of the 25 largest markets in the country and 37 of the top 50 markets, and expand Nexstar's "geographic diversity", Sook said in a statement. release published in December.

Call the IndyStar reporter, Vic Ryckaert, at 317-444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.

Read or share this story: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2019/04/08/indianapolis-native-dujuan-mccoy-buying-wish-tv-and-wndy-tv/3398595002/