Marshall Broadcasting Group

Marshall Broadcasting Group, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company that owned three full power television stations in Iowa, Louisiana and Texas. The company was founded on December 1, 2014 by Pluria Marshall, Jr. All three of its television stations were affiliated with Fox and were operated through shared services agreements by Nexstar Media Group.

Marshall Broadcasting Group, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryBroadcast Television
Television Production
FoundedDecember 1, 2014 (2014-12-01)
DefunctSeptember 1, 2020 (2020-09-01)
Headquarters
Houston, Texas
,
United States
Area served
Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana and Texas
Key people
Pluria Marshall, Jr.
(President/CEO)
ProductsBroadcast television
OwnerPluria Marshall, Jr.
WebsiteOfficial website

History

The company is owned by Pluria Marshall, Jr., who also owns Wave Community Newspapers, a group of African-American community newspapers in the Los Angeles region. Marshall had attempted to acquire stations in the 1990s and 2000s, but faced difficulties securing financing.[1]

In 2014, Nexstar Broadcasting Group acquired the stock of television operators Grant Broadcasting, Communications Corporation of America, and White Knight Broadcasting. Due to FCC ownership limits, Nexstar sold former Grant station KLJB in Davenport, Iowa, and former ComCorp stations KPEJ-TV in Odessa, Texas and KMSS-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana, all three of which are Fox affiliates, to Marshall Broadcasting Group. Nexstar operates all three of the television stations through a shared services agreement, providing non-programming resources to the stations such as master control, advertising sales and engineering support.[2][3]

On April 3, 2019, the company filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Media Group for breach of contract, alleging that the company used the sale of these stations to minority owners as a ploy to gain favor with the FCC for the associated transactions, but had been engaging in conduct (including withholding retransmission consent fees) intended to "undermine" the company, so that its stations could be repurchased by Nexstar for a lower cost "[with] significantly less regulatory push-back" under the current political climate.[4][1]

On December 3, 2019, Marshall Broadcasting Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[5] Mission Broadcasting, another company associated with Nexstar Media Group, agreed to purchase Marshall Broadcasting's stations for $49 million on March 30, 2020.[6] The transaction was completed on September 1, 2020.[7]

Former Marshall-owned stations
City of License / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)		 Years owned Current ownership status
Davenport, Iowa / Quad Cities KLJB 18 (30) 2014[8]−2020 Fox affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(Operated under an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
Shreveport, Louisiana KMSS-TV 33 (34) 2015[9]−2020 Fox affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(Operated under an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
Odessa / Midland, Texas KPEJ-TV 24 (23) 2015[9]−2020 Fox affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(Operated under an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)

References
  1. Maddaus, Gene (2019-04-03). "Nexstar Accused of Sabotaging Black-Owned TV Station Group". Variety. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
  2. "Nexstar Selling 3 Fox Affils For $58.5 Million". TVNewsCheck. 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
  3. Malone, Michael (2014-06-06). "Nexstar Plans Sale of Three Fox Affiliates For $58.5 Million". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2016-07-02.
  4. Butler, Anna (2019-04-03). "Marshall Broadcasting Group claims Nexstar 'undermined' prospects in new suit". Dallas Business Journal. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
  5. "The week in bankruptcies: 7 companies file for bankruptcy protection in Houston". Houston Business Journal. 2019-12-26. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  6. Aftab, Hassan (April 6, 2020). "Mission Broadcasting to buy certain assets of Marshall Broadcasting TV stations". S&P Global Market Intelligence. S&P Global. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  7. "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, 7 September 2020, Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  8. "Consummation Notice for KLJB". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
  9. "Consummation Notice for KMSS-TV/KPEJ-TV". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2015-04-22.
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