Hedge fund owner Soo Kim is taking control of Standard Media Group, which owns TV stations in Nebraska and Rhode Island.
Applications for transfer of control filed with the FCC on New Year’s Eve indicate that Soo Kim’s Paducah Television Operations LLC exercised rights to convert a $55,803,225.17 loan into full membership interest in Standard Media Group, which owns ABC affiliates KLKN/8 (Lincoln) and WLNE/6.1 (New Bedford, MA-Providence, RI), pending FCC approval. Standard Media Group is currently owned by Deb McDermott through McDermott Communications.
Paducah Television Operations is also in the process of buying TV stations in Paducah, KY, and Cape Girardeau, MO.
Kim also has an interest in TV group owner Tegna through Standard General L.P. and was in a high-profile battle for control of Tegna’s board last spring. He also has an interest in two radio stations in New York City.
Standard Media Group purchased KLKN and WLNE from Citadel Communications for $83 million in 2019.
In late 2019, Standard Media Group had announced plans to buy nine TV stations in six markets from from Waypoint Media and Vision Communications, but the deal has not closed. Several extensions of consummation have been filed with the FCC for that deal, with the most recent filing on Nov. 2 saying that “the parties are committed to working towards a closing” but that “outstanding issues” remained. The Waypoint/Vision deal is not mentioned in the documents filed with the FCC on New Year’s Eve.