Canton-licensed infomerical outlet WOAC/67 is being sold to a new owner.
TV Business Report and TVNewsday both report that WOAC is being sold by the trustee for broadcaster Arthur Liu’s Multicultural Television Broadcasting to religious operator Radiant Life Ministries. The deal hasn’t yet hit the FCC database, and no price is yet being reported by broker Kalil and Company, which represented the seller.
Quoting TVBR:
The seller is trustee Lee Shubert on behalf of MTB Cleveland Operator. MTB refers to Multicultural Television Broadcasting. Multicultural picked up the station in a deal in which it acquired several E.W. Scripps Shop at Home television stations, but ran into difficulty keeping the group in the black.
It’s no surprise that a group named Radiant Life Ministries will mount a religious format on WOAC, but what is Radiant Life Ministries?
It turns out to be an arm of mainly regional religious TV operator TCT (originally “Tri-State Christian Television”). TCT is run out of Marion IL by Garth and Tina Coonce, and their “About us” page says the operation began with a Cincinnati-based station…though we don’t know which station.
The operation enjoys nationwide clearance via both DirecTV and Dish Network.
TCT/Radiant Life owns Jamestown NY religious outlet WNYB/26, on the southern edge of the Buffalo market – just down I-86 from Erie PA. The Coonces are also on-air as hosts of their network’s “TCT Today”.
WOAC’s facilities, at this point, are all-digital…with the shutdown of analog channel 67 on February 17. (Just as an aside, Trinity Broadcasting O&O WDLI/17, the other full-power Canton-licensed station, plans to shut down analog 17 late tonight.)
Thanks to a Friend of OMW for delivering us this nugget!
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