The University of Georgia has sold its TV station to a Maryland company.
Marquee Broadcasting paid $2.5 million for the station, which has hemorrhaged money ever since UGA bought it seven years ago.
Marquee also owns WMDT, an ABC/CW/Me-TV affiliate in Salisbury, MD.
“We plan to provide quality programming for the whole family to enjoy and look forward to serving the community,” company president Patricia Lane said in a news release.
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve a transfer of the license this summer.
Under ex-Grady College dean Cully Clark, UGA purchased the station, a Toccoa CBS affiliate formerly known as WNEG, in 2008 for $1.4 million, with the intent of continuing as a commercial entity airing local news and UGA sports and events.
The economy cratered around the time of the purchase, though, and the station, renamed WUGA, quickly ran through $5.8 million set aside to get it off the ground.
In 2011, administrators shut down the professionally produced nightly news, laid off 17 people and entered into a partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting.
WUGA stopped airing any locally produced content and laid off six more staffers last April, after a study commissioned by UGA President Jere Morehead found that it lost more than $800,000 the previous year.
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