Rampant rumors to the contrary, KUWB-Ch. 30 is not for sale. Which doesn't, of course, mean that the television station won't be sold sometime in the near future.
And somebody did send the station's general manager an e-mail with a gag photo of KUWB's offices with a Coldwell-Banker sign out front.
John Rossi, Ch. 30's general manager, hasn't heard anything about the station being on the block. "Not that I know of, but I'm sure that the group would be entertaining offers as well as making offers," he said.
KUWB is one of nine stations owned by St. Louis-based Acme Communications. And, while nobody is expecting Acme to buy KSL-Ch. 5 or anything like that, the Federal Communications Commission's change in media-ownership rules made that a theoretical possibility.
When the FCC loosened those rules on Monday, allowing one company to own two TV stations in most (but not all) cities across the nation, it set off an immediate round of speculation about KUWB's future. One rumor making the rounds was that Clear Channel, which owns KTVX-Ch. 4, would buy Ch. 30 and create the first duopoly in Salt Lake City. (Such duopolies already exist in some of the nation's larger markets. The theory behind them is that, by combining operations, a company that owns two stations can minimize costs and maximize profits at both.)
San Antonio-based Clear Channel had no comment on such a scenario.
Another rumor making the rounds is that MediaNews, the conglomerate that owns the Salt Lake Tribune, would buy KUWB, what with the FCC deciding to allow one company to own both a TV station and a newspaper in the same market. (Although that has been banned for decades, some existing arrangements — including the one that allowed common ownership of the Deseret News and KSL — were grandfathered in at the time that rule was imposed.)
MediaNews chief (and Tribune publisher) Dean Singleton has made no secret of his desire to own TV stations in at least some of the cities where he owns newspapers, but no immediate deal is in the offing. (At press time, nobody from the Tribune had shown up at KUWB's offices to announce they're taking over.)
The most immediate effect of the FCC's actions on local television stations is what won't happen. Both CBS (which owns KUTV-Ch. 2) and Fox (which owns KSTU-Ch. 13) were in violation of the old rule that mandated that no company could own stations that reached more than 35 percent of the nation's TV viewers. The new rules up that limit to 45 percent, and both CBS and Fox are under that number, which means that neither company will have to sell stations in order to meet FCC standards.
That, however, does not mean that either or both of those stations couldn't be sold. Or traded to another ownership group as the big companies maneuver to create as many duopolies as possible.
The fact is that television stations aren't like cars. You don't put a "For Sale" sign in the window and hope somebody buys.
Particularly when ownership groups are involved, deals get worked on a corporate level — and every local commercial station except KSL-Ch. 5 and KJZZ-Ch. 14 is part of a group based somewhere outside of Utah. A station that's not for sale today could suddenly be sold tomorrow.
But they're not very worried at the offices of KUWB-Ch. 30. It's the subject of many an interoffice joke.
"Everyone's being a bit jovial about it," Rossi said. "It's pure conjecture as to what will happen here. I don't know what to expect, and nothing would surprise me."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com