WRDE sale expected to go through

The planned sale of WRDE to WBOC owners Draper Media is not expected to run into roadblocks with the Federal Communications Commission.

WRDE General Manager Bob Backman said while he could not comment on the matter until it is approved by the FCC, he did not expect any problems. FCC officials have said they cannot comment on a pending matter before the commission.

If the sale is approved, Draper Media would own Delmarva’s CBS, Fox21, Telemundo and WRDE, an NBC affiliate. That raised the question of whether Draper has a monopoly on news stations on Delmarva. Kathleen Kirby, attorney with the Washington, D.C. law firm Wiley Rein, who has expertise in telecommunications law, said FCC rules allow Draper to acquire these stations.

Kirby said the FCC prohibits one owner from having two of the top four networks only if the stations are fully powered stations. By fully-powered, Kirby said these stations have protections from the FCC; cable operators are required to carry full-powered stations. WBOC is a fully-powered station, she said, but none of the other stations are considered fully powered.

Kirby said Fox21 is a digital subchannel, emanating from WBOC’s production facilities. A digital subchannel, she said, is not entitled to cable carriage and is not regulated by the FCC as a must-carry station; cable providers can elect to carry the station or not.

Meanwhile, WRDE and Telemundo are low-power stations. Kirby said low-power stations are often standalone stations with a limited service area, and the FCC does not limit the number of low-power stations one entity can own.

Kirby said Draper’s acquisition of WRDE is different from the recent case of Sinclair Broadcasting, which attempted to buy Tribune Media. In that case, Kirby said, Sinclair was seeking a waiver that would have allowed the company to own multiple full-power stations in certain markets.