One less voice (technically)

So as you'll read on the jump, Hearst-Argyle, the owner of the ABC affiliate in town, just got the FCC's blessing to buy the CW affiliate in town.  The two have been shacking up for 10 years anyway, and it was time to make 'er an honest woman.

Kansas City's one of the few markets in the country with three TV duopolies.  That's remarkable considering that, by FCC guidelines, only one should exist in a market this size.  Any more, and you're below the FCC's magic — but completely arbitrary — threshold of eight "independent voices" in one television market.

Now we're down to six.  But it seems silly to argue that there were seven yesterday: the CW affiliate has been operated by the ABC affiliate all these years anyway.  Indeed, that close working relationship was a big reason the FCC granted the exemption to the eight-voices rule, which had already been reduced to seven last year when KCTV-5 got the go-ahead to buy My TV KSMO.

And here we find that there are two completely different ways of getting around this particular regulatory hurdle: One is to claim the station you want to buy is "failing" and won't be around for long without you (KSMO), and the other is to claim the station you want to buy is a great success ... and it's all because of you (KCWE). Smart workarounds to a dumb rule.

Owner of KMBC can acquire KCWE, government says

Hearst-Argyle had sought to win federal permission for the Channel 29 deal.

After living together for more than a decade, two local TV stations finally received the government’s blessing to get married.

KCWE-TV, currently a UPN affiliate, can be acquired by Hearst-Argyle Television, the Federal Communications Commission ruled in an order released Tuesday. Hearst-Argyle owns market leader KMBC-TV, the ABC affiliate, and had applied for an exemption to buy KCWE.

The two stations have a history that goes back to KCWE’s embryonic days. In 1995 a former Sprint executive, Robert Liepold, held the building permit for a new TV station through his entity, T.V. 32 Inc. But he had run out of money and was rapidly running out of time. Liepold hired a broker who interviewed 50 investors, none of whom expressed interest in financing his venture.

Finally, in late 1995, Hollywood power couple Sonia and David Salzman bought a minority interest in T.V. 32, and Hearst agreed to supply equipment, financing and programs to the new station. The station and Hearst signed an agreement and KCWB, as it was then known, signed on as a WB network affiliate in 1996. FCC approval of the deal this week cited Hearst’s involvement with KCWE that “enhanced both programming diversity and competition” in Kansas City.

KCWE won’t air UPN shows much longer. That network and the WB are folding, and select programs from the two will air beginning next month on the new CW network.

Liepold sold his interest in KCWE in 1999 but remains station president. “KCWE has come up and become profitable about as quickly as any station, and Hearst gets a lot of credit,” Liepold said.