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Gray
Television, Inc. | | Exhibit 99 |
NEWS RELEASE
GRAY TELEVISION, INC.
SIGNS DEFINITIVE PURCHASE AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE
KKCO-TV, NBC CHANNEL 11, IN GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO
Atlanta, Georgia – October 21, 2004 . . . Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE: GTN and GTN.A)announced today it has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire certain assets and assume certain liabilities of KKCO-TV from Eagle III Broadcasting, LLC. KKCO-TV, Channel 11 serves the Grand Junction, Colorado television market and is an NBC affiliate.
Highlights:
| | • | | KKCO-TV is the number one rated television station in news and in overall audience. |
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| | • | | Gray also owns and operates KKTV-TV, its CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Upon completion of the KKCO-TV acquisition, Gray will own and operate the number one rated television stations in two of Colorado’s three television markets. |
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| | • | | Grand Junction is located in Mesa County; from 1990 to 2000 Mesa County’s population grew by 28.4% putting it in the top 10% of counties nationwide in terms of population growth. |
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| | • | | Colorado had the 3rd fastest growing state population from 1990 to 2000. |
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| | • | | KKCO-TV’s market includes Mesa State College, a four-year college with approximately 6,000 students and home to the annual National Junior College Baseball World Series. |
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| | • | | Grand Junction ranks as the 189th largest television market in the U.S. with 64,000 television households. |
Through its acquisition strategy, Gray seeks out television stations that are number one in their markets, have strong local news programming and are located in growing markets. KKCO-TV has all of these characteristics.
Upon completion of the KKCO-TV acquisition, Gray will own a total of 31 stations serving 27 television markets. The stations will include 16 CBS affiliates, 8 NBC affiliates and 7 ABC affiliates. The combined station group will have 23 stations ranked #1 in both viewing audience and local news audience within their respective markets. The combined group will reach over 5% of total U.S. TV households.
Gray currently plans to use a portion of its cash on hand to fully fund this acquisition. The acquisition of KKCO-TV is currently expected to close during the first quarter of 2005. The KKCO-TV acquisition is subject to FCC approval.
Gray Television, Inc. is a communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and currently operates 16 CBS-affiliated television stations, seven NBC-affiliated television stations, seven ABC-affiliated television stations and five daily newspapers.
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For information contact: | | |
Bob Prather, President | | Jim Ryan, Chief Financial Officer |
(404) 266-8333 | | (404) 504-9828 |
4370 Peachtree Road, NE * Atlanta, GA 30319
(404) 504-9828 * Fax (404) 261-9607
