WDAF-TV put on the sale block, and this time, they mean it

After at least two false alarms in recent years, it appears News Corp. really is going to get rid of its Kansas City O&O, WDAF-TV.  Which means it won't be "myFoxKC" much longer, I'm guessing.

UPDATE: Full story follows.

  After two false alarms in six years, Kansas City's only major network-owned television station really did go on the auction block this week.

  WDAF-TV, Channel 4, was offered for sale along with eight other stations by the Fox Television Stations group, a subsidiary of News Corp. The company has retained the New York investment bank of Allen & Company to broker the sale.

  Industry observers agreed that the timing of the decision suggested that News chairman Rupert Murdoch is looking to sweeten the pot for his audacious $5 billion bid to purchase Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal. However, it may be that Fox Television simply was making a business adjustment.

   “This is News Corporation looking at its assets and just seeing where they can get more value,” said Mark Fratrik, media analyst and vice president at BIAfn, a Virginia-based investment advisor.

  The stations, which are expected to fetch about $1.5 billion, are in medium- and small-sized markets where Fox owns a single station. They include Cleveland, St. Louis, Denver, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Birmingham, Memphis and Greensboro, N.C.

  In most of its other markets, Fox has duopolies, which offer twice the promotional and sales opportunities.

  This is not the first time sale rumors have swirled around “Fox 4,” home to television's top-rated local morning news program as well as network TV's highest-rated reality show, “American Idol,” and scripted show, “House.”

  When 13 WDAF employees were suddenly laid off in early 2006, observers said that ownership was making the station leaner and more attractive to a potential buyer. But executives maintained that they were simply bringing payroll into line with other Fox-owned stations. Currently about 120 employees (estimated) work at Fox 4.

  Later in 2006, the respected industry journal Broadcasting & Cable reported that News Corp. was mulling a sale of its smaller stations, including WDAF, to Liberty Media in order to help unwind Liberty's $10 billion investment in News.

  Instead, News wound up selling its DirecTV satellite unit to Liberty.

  The other time WDAF was considered sale bait was June 2001. Then-station manager Stan Knott even held a meeting in his newsroom to announce WDAF would be sold to a New York businessman, along with other Fox stations. At the time, the Federal Communications Commission was challenging the size of Fox's television group, arguing that it exceeded the legal limit of stations owned by one entity.

  Fox management never confirmed the report. A federal appeals court ruling in 2002 effectively put an end to the FCC's enforcement of the station cap, and the sale to the businessman never happened.

  Potential buyers for the nine Fox stations include private equity firms, which have been on the prowl for media firms because of their growth potential. Earlier this year, Oak Hill Capital Partners paid $575 million to buy nine TV stations from the New York Times Co.

  But publicly-traded companies are also still keen for TV stations, and have stepped up with hefty offers. In 2006, Media General Inc. paid NBC $600 million to acquire just four stations in the Southeast U.S., Media General's breadbasket.

  “There are buyers out there,” said Fratrik. “And they're not getting fire sale prices for them, either.”