Sinclair Broadcast Group

Stock in Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the owner-operator of Baltimore's Channel 45 (WBFF) and five other broadcast stations around the country, jumped by about 15 percent yesterday in the first day of trading after a successful initial public offering.Shares in the Baltimore-based company closed at $24.125, up $3.125 from Tuesday's offering price, as Sinclair benefited from a bullish market for broadcast stocks.The company raised $105 million, about $15 million more than it predicted, when underwriters placed 5 million shares at $21 each.

A coalition of liberal public interest groups today will announce a campaign against Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group for what it terms "continued misuse of the public airwaves." The group will urge major Sinclair advertisers - Kraft, Staples, Target, Geico, McDonald's and Sprint - to join the effort "to encourage Sinclair to balance the content" of its news programming. "The campaign aims to spur action against Sinclair Broadcast Group's use of the 62 television stations it owns or operates to systematically promote partisan political interests," the group, led by Media Matters of America, says in a posting at www.sinclairaction.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Thursday that it has reached a retransmission agreement in principle with the Dish Network and that it has extended the existing pact by two weeks to allow the negotiation of a final contract. The agreement had been set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Retransmission contracts set the fees that cable and satellite TV providers pay broadcast stations to include their signals in channel lineups. The agreement allows Dish, which has about 14 million customers nationwide, to carry 70 television stations that Sinclair provides service to or owns.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire WNYO-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., for $51.5 million in cash - making it the fifth station that Sinclair either owns or programs in that state. Cockeysville-based Sinclair programs another Buffalo station, WUTV-TV, and has an application pending before the Federal Communications Commission to acquire that station. WNYO-TV is owned by Grant Television Inc. "By adding a second station in Buffalo, we will be armed with a stronger local sales force to further build on and expand customer relationships," said Barry Drake, chief executive officer of the Television Division of Sinclair.

A weekly briefing on the economic calendar Monday Construction spending for March Institute for Supply Management index for April Earnings: Avon Products Inc., DirecTV Group Inc., Humana Inc., Sysco Corp., Tyson Foods Inc., Principal Financial Group Inc. Tuesday Auto and truck sales for April Factory orders for March Earnings: Caremark Rx Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Loews Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., Safeway Inc., St. Paul Travelers Cos., Tyco International Ltd., Aon Corp.

Television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. on Monday revised its outlook for fourth-quarter net broadcast revenue to a better-than-expected $153.8 million, or 6.5 percent lower than the fourth quarter of 2008. The Hunt Valley-based broadcaster had previously anticipated net broadcast revenue, from advertising on its stations, of $143.3 million to $146.3 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, or a drop of 11 percent to 12.8 percent. Sinclair, which owns, operates or programs 58 U.S. stations, including Fox 45 in Baltimore, said it has seen advertising revenue improve in the automobile sector because of increased spending on ads by dealers and domestic manufacturers.

NEW YORK - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and 84 other House Democrats have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Sinclair Broadcast Group's plans to air Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, a documentary in which former Vietnam POWs criticize Sen. John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities. Sinclair, which owns or operates 62 TV stations nationwide, plans to air a one-hour broadcast that incorporates the film, which the House Democrats called "anti-Kerry propaganda," next week, just days before the election.

NEW YORK -- Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. agreed yesterday to buy about 32 percent of Acrodyne Communications Inc., maker of TV transmitters, for $7.1 million.Sinclair, the Baltimore-based owner of radio and television stations in mostly midsize U.S. markets, will pay $4.3 million for 1.4 million shares of newly issued Acrodyne common stock and warrants to buy up to 8.7 million shares over seven years at prices ranging from $3 to $6 a share.In addition, Sinclair will acquire about 800,000 shares currently held by Scorpion/Newlight investment group for about $2.8 million.

Maryland has denied unemployment benefits to Sinclair Broadcast Group whistleblower Jon Leiberman, fired last fall for criticizing plans to air an anti-John Kerry documentary shortly before the 2004 presidential election, www.broadcasting cable.com reported last night. Leiberman, a Westminster native, was fired by Hunt Valley-based Sinclair after he told The Sun the documentary Stolen Honor was "propaganda." The Reed Business Information-operated Web site reported that a state Department of Labor report labeled Leiberman's actions "gross misconduct" and a "wanton disregard" of his obligations to Sinclair.

Shareholders of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. approved the company's executive pay package in a "say on pay" nonbinding vote Thursday. Besides weighing in on compensation during Sinclair's annual meeting, shareholders also re-elected the broadcaster's eight directors, including Chairman David D. Smith, Sinclair's chief executive officer and president. Smith's total compensation last year was $3.6 million, including $1 million base salary, $1 million cash bonus and $1.6 million in option awards, up from a total compensation of $1 million in salary with no bonuses or option awards in 2009.