NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
July 24, 2014 Matthew Berry (202) 418-2005
Email: Matthew.Berry@fcc.gov
STATEMENT OF FCC COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
ON THREE TV STATIONS GOING DARK FOLLOWING THE
FCC’S REVIEW OF THE SINCLAIR/ALLBRITTON TRANSACTION 
Today, the FCC’s crackdown on joint sales agreements claims three more victims: two 
television stations in the Birmingham, Alabama market (WCFT and WJSU) and one television 
station in Charleston, South Carolina (WCIV). This time, the hammer falls as part of the 
agency’s review of the Sinclair/Allbritton transaction.  Under the parties’ original proposal and 
the rules that were in effect when the transaction was presented to the Commission, these three 
stations would have continued providing local service to their communities. But because of the 
Commission’s new rules, the Media Bureau’s order requires them to go dark within sixty days.
How does this outcome serve the cause of diversity?  And how does this outcome serve 
the cause of competition? In Charleston, South Carolina, for example, WCIV would have been 
owned and operated by Howard Stirk Holdings, Inc., an African-American owned broadcast 
company. But apparently the Commission believes that it is better for that station to go out of 
business than for Howard Stirk Holdings to own the station and participate in a joint sales 
agreement with Sinclair. I strongly disagree. And so too, I’ll bet, would consumers in 
Charleston.