TV-24 exec plans sale to new owner
The next big program on TV-24’s lineup could be a change in ownership.
The Federal Communications Commission has received an application from the station’s current primary owner, Tom Williams, for voluntary transfer of control to Oxford businessman Forney McMichael.
The application’s submission marks the beginning of a 30-day period in which anyone can comment on the proposed transfer.
The application, dated Nov. 14, is posted on the FCC Web site. According to the application, if the transfer goes through, McMichael would have 66.81 percent of the equity in the company.
Until whatever time the FCC approves the application and money changes hands, TV-24’s ownership will continue as it has been, with Williams as chief executive officer of Alabama Heritage Communications, LLC, the name of the business that owns the station.
McMichael is owner of Mac’s Vacs, a portable sanitation business — including portable toilets and shower trailers — that counts the NASCAR tracks in Talladega and Atlanta among its customers. Originally from Alexandria, he’s owned Mac’s Vacs about 20 years, he said.
Because, McMichael said, the FCC application process is only in its earliest stage, he declined to comment on specific points of the station’s future, including “no definite plans” on its location.
The broadcasting company owns space it has improved at McClellan. The McClellan Development Authority continues to have a deal with the station in which the latter would provide $200,000 worth of commercial air time to the MDA, said its executive director Gen. Robin Scott.
The station’s current home is the bottom floor of the communications building on the Jacksonville State University campus, for which it provides in-kind services to the university.
McMichael, who declined to discuss his specific interest in the TV station, was optimistic about the business opportunity itself, saying “We’re pretty positive about the area.”
