Rumor Mill stirs up yet again
March 25, 2026Ah… spring is here, and so is the rumor mill.
PBRTV has never liked the rumor mill for many reasons, but mainly because it makes people nervous — and many in the radio and TV business are already walking a tightrope as it is.
The latest “rumor” involves Perry Sook, Chairman and CEO of the 30‑year‑old Nexstar Media Group, which recently purchased the 70‑plus stations of Tegna, Inc. Prior to that, Nexstar acquired other major players, including Tribune Broadcasting — home of Chicago powerhouse WGN‑TV. Over the past three decades, Nexstar has also swallowed up numerous smaller broadcasting companies. The company has recently partnered with Scripps, Gray Media, and Sinclair to form EdgeBeam Wireless, LLC, whose purpose is to build out the ATSC 3.0 data transmission system.
Anyway, the rumor — originating with a site run by a former TV news director — is, in short, that Mr. Sook is supposedly a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. He’s also “not done buying stations.” Could he be coming after one of our “big three”? Supposedly he is.
I guess anything is possible, but I wouldn’t start betting my life’s savings on it.
Our three major network affiliates — WPXI (NBC), WTAE (ABC), and KDKA (CBS) — have long and stable ownership histories.
WPXI, although initially started by the Pittsburgh Post‑Gazette and Pittsburgh Radio House, has been owned by Cox, or some derivative thereof, since 1964. Currently, Cox Media Group operates under hedge fund Apollo Global Management.
WTAE’s original licensee was Television City, Inc., but Hearst had partial ownership from the beginning and eventually bought out the remaining 50 percent share.
KDKA‑TV — which began life as WDTV under DuMont — has been passed around in recent decades along with many of its sister stations nationwide. Even so, it can still trace its lineage directly back to Westinghouse Broadcasting, which purchased WDTV from the fledgling DuMont Network in 1954.
The Big Three have not just remained true to their ownership structures but also their network affiliations.
That’s not to say there weren’t other plans early on. When WIIC (now WPXI) was supposed to sign on in 1955, it was slated to be the CBS affiliate. When sign‑on was delayed by a lawsuit filed by the owners of the fledgling WENS (Channel 16) over the awarding of the Channel 11 license to the Post‑Gazette / Pittsburgh Radio House partnership, CBS approached KDKA‑TV instead. NBC ultimately landed on Channel 11 when it finally signed on in 1957, particularly as NBC was in the process of purchasing Pittsburgh Radio House’s WJAS‑AM/FM (1320/99.7) to satisfy the FCC’s much tighter mid‑to‑late‑1950s ownership regulations.
Excuse my digression into my history nerdiness.
Nexstar already owns several smaller stations surrounding the Pittsburgh market proper, including WTRF in Wheeling, WKBN‑TV in Youngstown, WJET in Erie, and WTAJ in Altoona, among others. Add to that Nexstar’s ownership of NewsNation (formerly WGN America) and a popular sub-channel network or two, so it’s fair to say Nexstar has a toe in the region.
Like I said, anything is possible, but nobody really knows what’s next for any of these companies, the stations they own, or even the networks with which they affiliate. I also suspect any such future purchases will be similar to the recent transaction in that they will be corporate group mergers and not necessarily individual stations.
For now, I think this is one rumor we can safely stomp on.
Yeah when I saw that on said site, I imagine that the individual (who used to work for WPXI, for the record) was probably looking for a story to stir up stuff. Cox is for sale so anything could happen with WPXI, but to be fair Nexstar has bigger fish to fry.