FCC Slaps Nexstar With Another Huge Fine

The FCC has slapped another big fine on Nexstar and is ordering Nexstar’s sidecar company Mission Broadcasting to sell WPIX within the next year.

“We find that Mission and Nexstar have committed apparent willful and repeated violations,” the FCC said. The Commission is also fining Nexstar over a million dollars.

Nexstar used Mission Broadcasting to be the owner of WPIX. The FCC is saying that Mission is basically a shell company that Nexstar uses to get around ownership laws.

The FCC claims that because Nexstar programs the stations and collects its advertising and distribution revenue, it controls the station without approval.

The FCC did not poit out that Nexstar controls WPIX so much, that Nexstar’s CEO Perry Sook, place his son Perry Sook Jr. as a Sports Reporter at WPIX, despite the fact he had little experience.

The Nexstar/Mission arrangement puts Nexstar over the 39% station ownership cap.

The FCC says that Mission has 12 months to either sell the station to an independent party or to Nexstar. If it sells to Nexstar, Nexstar must divest stations to get under the ownership cap.

Nexstar says it will dispute the ruling made by the FCC.