D.C. Memo: Circle City's McCoy Requests Gomez Meeting to Discuss WRTV's Growth Plan
McCoy, president and CEO of Circle City Broadcasting, initiated a round of layoffs after paying $83 million to acquire ABC affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis with an FCC waiver
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Indy: DuJuan McCoy wants a sit-down with Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez. McCoy, president and CEO of Circle City Broadcasting, just paid $83 million to buy the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis. After closing on the deal Tuesday, McCoy initiated a round of layoffs at his newly acquired station, generating a backlash on social media fueled by posts from reporters who were let go and by a McCoy-critical columnist for the Indianapolis Star (IndyStar), the city’s major newspaper. Gomez chimed in as well, saying April 1 in a snarky X post: “As history has shown, local broadcaster consolidation does not lead to more local journalism. Instead, it leads to less local news through journalist layoffs. We can expect more of this if the unlawful Nexstar-TEGNA merger is allowed to move forward.” [Gomez was reacting to an X post by journalist Matthew Keys, “a [former] web producer and network site administrator for KTXL FOX40, a Sacramento television station,” who was “sentenced [in 2016] to two years in prison for inciting, assisting, and conducting a weeks-long campaign of online attacks against FOX40 and The Los Angeles Times,” according to a Department of Justice press release.] McCoy, who wants to be known as a fighter in the sense made famous by Teddy Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech in 1910, was unhappy with Gomez’s post and wrote her to say so. McCoy told Policyband said he “vehemently disagreed with Anna Gomez’s post.” He said he “sent Gomez an invitation to a meeting to discuss her posts along with pertinent information regarding” his WRTV deal. (More after paywall)
