Brian Cobb has nearly 40 years of experience in the broadcast industry as an owner, manager, and broker. He has brokered more than $5 billion in radio and television properties and has been involved in the sale of more TV stations than any other individual in the industry.

Before founding CobbCorp, he was an executive vice president of the General Electric Broadcasting Company and principal and founder of Media Venture Partners. He has also served on panels for trade organizations such as NAB and the National Association of Television Program Executives. He is the past president of the National Association of Media Brokers.

CobbCorp, LLC is a full-service media brokerage firm specializing in mergers, acquisitions, merchant, and investment banking. Brian Cobb founded the company with the belief that clients want and deserve to work with senior advisors with decades of proven experience.

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]]> http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=34 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=32 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=32#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:15:29 +0000 Denis http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=32 COBBCORP ANNOUNCES CW AFFILIATE WBUW-TV CLOSING

Naples, Fla. (February 22, 2012) — The sale of CW Affiliate WBUW-TV, serving the Madison DMA, has closed. ACME Communications (Doug Gealy, CEO) sold the station to Byrne Acquisition Group (John Byrne, president).

CobbCorp represented and advised the seller, ACME Communications, in this transaction. Terms of the deal were not made public.

CobbCorp, LLC is a full-service media brokerage firm specializing in mergers, acquisitions, merchant and investment banking. CobbCorp is a leading advisor to buyers and sellers in all areas of the television, radio and newspaper industries. More information on CobbCorp may be found at www.cobbcorp.com.

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3/6/12, Six Named To Receive Broadcasters Foundation Of America’s 2012 Quaal Awards, AllAccess

3/7/12, Cobb, Dimling, Guild, Among Quaal Award Winners, TV NewsCheck

2/22/12, ACME to Byrne Madison TV deal is done, TVBR

8/2/11, Topeka TV triple play: Three stations, one news staff, TVBR

7/21/11, Topeka KS deal cleared FCC over ACA protests, TVBR

7/15/11, Cable interests battle Topeka broadcast cluster, TVBR

6/29/11, 6.00 Mil for ACME Communications, WBXX, Bloomberg Businessweek

5/27/11, ACME closes out two deals for three stations, TVBR

5/17/11, Cable organizations seek to prevent Topeka TV triple-play, TVBR

5/10/11, Done TV deal in Tennessee, TVBR

2/10/11, Parkin expanding group with Topeka TV, TVBR

2/10/11, Sale process for Providence TV station underway, TVBR

2/7/11, PBC buying Topeka ABC affiliate, TVBR

2/5/11, Is An ABC-NBC Duopoly Coming to Topeka?, TVNewsCheck

2/1/11, Lockwood expands into its fourth TV DMA, TVBR

2/1/11, ACME Announces Agreement to Sell WBXX in Knoxville,Reuters

]]> http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=30 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=29 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=29#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:25:10 +0000 Denis http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=29 COBBCORP ADVISES ACME ON WBUW SALE

MADISON, Wisc. (December 14, 2011) — ACME Communications announced Tuesday that it has entered an agreement to sell WBUW, the CW affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin, to the Byrne Acquisition Group. The sale is subject to FCC approval and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012. CobbCorp LLC represented ACME Communications.

]]> http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=29 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=28 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=28#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:02:04 +0000 Denis http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=28

8/2/11, Topeka TV triple play: Three stations, one news staff, TVBR

7/21/11, Topeka KS deal cleared FCC over ACA protests, TVBR

7/15/11, Cable interests battle Topeka broadcast cluster, TVBR

6/29/11, 6.00 Mil for ACME Communications, WBXX, Bloomberg Businessweek

5/27/11, ACME closes out two deals for three stations, TVBR

5/17/11, Cable organizations seek to prevent Topeka TV triple-play, TVBR

5/10/11, Done TV deal in Tennessee, TVBR

2/10/11, Parkin expanding group with Topeka TV, TVBR

2/10/11, Sale process for Providence TV station underway, TVBR

2/7/11, PBC buying Topeka ABC affiliate, TVBR

2/5/11, Is An ABC-NBC Duopoly Coming to Topeka?, TVNewsCheck

2/1/11, Lockwood expands into its fourth TV DMA, TVBR

2/1/11, ACME Announces Agreement to Sell WBXX in Knoxville, Reuters

]]> http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=28 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=27 http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=27#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:40:34 +0000 Denis http://www.cobbcorp.com/blog/?p=27 CobbCorp Served as Exclusive Advisor to Seller

Citadel Communications LLC, which together with its affiliates, owns and operates network-affiliated television stations in several markets – has purchased WLNE-TV, the ABC Affiliate in Providence, RI (DMA 53).

CobbCorp served as the exclusive advisor to WLNE’s receiver, Salter, McGowan, Sylvia & Leonard.

Additionally, PBC and Free State have signed a Local Marketing Agreement, whereby PBC will immediately begin brokering the commercial air time of KTKA.

Free State, an indirect subsidiary of The World Company of Lawrence, which is the publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World, acquired the station in August, 2005. The World Company sold its Sunflower Broadband division in October of 2010. With the sale of KTKA the company will have completed its exit from broadcasting. It will focus on publishing magazines and newspapers and on its growing internet and nationally known software operations, said Ralph Gage, director of special projects for the company.

For PBC, the acquisition continues an expansion of its broadcast footprint, with affiliated television stations currently owned in Youngstown, Ohio, and Savannah, Ga.

CobbCorp LLC. represented Free State Communications.

SANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2011 – ACME Communications, Inc. (Pink Sheets: ACME) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell WBXX in Knoxville to the Lockwood Broadcast Group for $5.6 million. The all-cash transaction is subject to the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (”FCC”) and is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2011. WBXX is currently affiliated with the CW Network.

Doug Gealy, ACME’s President and CEO, commented, “The strategic monetization of this station reflects our focus on maximizing our assets to the benefit of our shareholders. Lockwood Broadcast Group acquires a station with a loyal audience base and a solid local management team. We thank all of our employees at WBXX for their hard work and dedication over the years.”

In September 2010, the Company announced the sale of WBDT, its Dayton CW affiliated station to WBDT Television, LLC and WIWB, its Green Bay-Appleton CW affiliated station, to Lin Television Corporation (d/b/a LIN Media) for an aggregate purchase price of $11.5 million. Those transactions are still being reviewed by the FCC and the Company expects that they will be approved by the FCC and completed by June 2011. The Company expects that the majority of the cash components of the net proceeds from those sales along with the net proceeds from the WBXX sale will be distributed to shareholders shortly after the transactions are completed.

CLG LLC and Cobb Corp served as the exclusive advisor to ACME in connection with all three transactions.

About ACME Communications, Inc.

ACME Communications, Inc. owns and operates six television stations serving markets reaching 2.2% of the nation’s television households. The Company’s stations are: KWBQ-TV and KASY-TV, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, NM; WBXX-TV, Knoxville, TN; WBDT-TV, Dayton, OH; WIWB-TV, Green Bay-Appleton, WI and WBUW-TV, Madison, WI. The Company also produces The Daily Buzz, a nationally syndicated morning news and lifestyle program which airs on more than 150 television stations across the country. The Company’s shares are traded over-the-counter under the symbol: (Pink Sheets:ACME).

Forward-Looking Statements:

The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements. In addition, when used in this press release, the words “will”, “expects” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, but not limited to, the transaction not closing (due to the buyer not completing the transaction, the transfer not being approved by the Federal Communications Commission, or for any other reason). The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances.

Our observation in part stated, “Why would broadcasters want to dilute the pool even further by cannibalizing their own audience?” Investment media broker Denis LeClair adds his viewpoint to the issue.

I would like to respond to the recent TVBR observation regarding broadcasters cannibalizing their own audience by diluting (multicasting) on their station’s digital tier “Why would broadcasters want to dilute the pool even further by cannibalizing their own audience?”.  

In your comment, you fail to take into consideration that these second tier digital stations can be viewed over-the-air for free by the 15.5 million households (or 14% of TV HHs) that don’t subscribe to cable or satellite.*   Typically a full power DTV station can add six extra channels to simulcast, but by adding just two to three channels, there is no visual degradation of the high definition signal.

The cable industry grew its business off the backs of local broadcasters.  Through this parasitic relationship the cable industry got bigger and was able to offer more and more channels -which in turn, fragmented the audience available to broadcast television.  Broadcasters understand their local market better than any cable company can.  They live it every day. They are well-suited to recognize and fill program voids like:  Hispanic broadcasting, news, 24-hour local weather, family and kid friendly programming, religious programming, local and high school sports, etc. 

One example of a local broadcaster giving the public what they want occurred last year on WBAY-TV in Green Bay.  The station interrupted its normal 24-hour weather sub-channel DTV2-2 to air live gavel-to-gavel coverage of a sensational local murder trial that had the community on the edge of its seat.  This was very appealing to the local residents as evidenced by the amount of local press you can find on the Internet.
Broadcasters have made a considerable investment in their mandated digital future with no guaranteed return on their investment.  Multicasting is a way for them to get back some of the money that they have spent.  This is a pivotal time for the future of television and multicasting is just one of the spokes that will turn the wheel of progress.

(Source: *http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-278454A1.pdf)

Denis LeClair, VP/CobbCorp LLC

 

Read at TVBR.com: http://www.rbr.com/features/viewpoints/8063.html

Brian Cobb is the only broker ever to have been featured on the cover of a broadcasting industry publication.