Cleveland public media group ideastream is set to take over Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio Inc. in its entirety, bringing the PBS signals of WEAO-TV in Akron, WNEO in Alliance and W44CR-D in Youngstown under the same roof as its own stations. The deal is structured as a nonprofit merger rather than a purchase of individual station assets, and no price was disclosed.
Ideastream, led by President and CEO Kevin Martin, already operates WVIZ-TV, W34FP-D and WVIZ-D3 in the Cleveland-Akron market. Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio is headed by President and CEO Natalie Pillsbury.
WEAO-TV operates on channel 24 with 191 kW from an antenna height of 952 feet. WNEO is on channel 29 with 465 kW at 830 feet. Both carry PBS on their main channels plus three digital subchannels, listed as PUB, FNX and BLK. W44CR-D, the Youngstown signal, runs 3 kW on channel 13 from 620 feet and carries PBS.
In a whole-entity merger, the licenses stay with the stations while control of the licensee changes hands. Changes in control of broadcast licenses generally require FCC consent before a deal can close, so the transaction will go through the Commission's review process.
The merger would leave ideastream with multiple PBS signals covering northeast Ohio, from Cleveland through Akron to Youngstown.