Binnie Media Sells TV Station to FCC

CONCORD, NH — WBIN-TV will stop broadcasting later this year after the company sold its broadcasting rights for a report $68.1 million at auction, according a post on the company’s website. The sale will allow the FCC to create 5G wireless internet in the spectrum band that once broadcast Channel 35’s UHF television signal, the report noted.

WBIN-TV also entered into a channel-sharing sale of its remaining television license rights to a major television group for an additional $10 million to 30 million.

The proceeds from the sale, according to the report, will be used by the company to acquire other media assets in the digital, outdoor, and radio areas, as well as continuing to invest in the company’s radio stations and its digital news web business NH1.com, according to the report.

“I am incredibly proud of the people in our television, radio and digital media businesses,” company president Bill Binnie noted in the report. “Many of our employees at WBIN-TV and NH1 News will be transferred to our new division. The sale of our television business makes strategic and financial sense. As a result of this sale, we will be making major new investments in our radio and digital businesses. We have the fastest growing news web site in the state NH1.com with millions of page views per month and we will invest heavily in this area.”

The report noted that the company had also purchased 98.7 FM The Bay and WTSN 98.1 FM/1270 AM, three Seacoast radio stations. Those stations will be added to its 19 other radio properties that were purchased by Binnie Media back in 2012, creating one of the largest, privately held radio and television media companies in the region, at the time. Binnie launched WBIN-TV in late 2011 and the next year, built a state-of-the-art television studio in the historic Walker Elementary School building in Concord’s North End.

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported this morning that that the “majority of the staff” were let go in a meeting, likening it to “Black Friday,” stating there was no warning before employee’s final broadcast last night.

The Union Leader noted that the station was struggling for ratings while NHPR reported in late 2015, that NH1 was unable to capitalize on the hundreds of millions that flowed into the state via advertising for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary, while WMUR-TV and Boston-based stations captured 92 percent of the television advertising dollars.

Read the report on NH1.com and UnionLeader.com.

Caption: In this file photo, Bill Binnie, far left, looks on as Attorney Richard Uchida explains to the Concord Zoning Board of Appeal, some of the proposed changes made to the historic Walker Elementary School.