CBS newscasts apparently moved from Yakima to Tri-Cities as ownership changes

Longtime Yakima television station KIMA is in the midst of the second ownership change in two months, with nightly broadcasts apparently moving from Yakima to the Tri-Cities.

An application to transfer control of the station from Rincon Broadcasting Yakima LLC to Community News Media LLC was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on March 24. Rincon recently took over the Yakima TV station from Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The request would change control of KIMA and sister station KEPR in the Tri-Cities from Todd Parkin, owner of Rincon Broadcasting Yakima LLC, to Community News Media LLC. The change also would cover affiliated Univision Spanish stations KORX, KVVK and KUNW.

While specific content changes and long-term plans at the stations could not be confirmed by the Yakima Herald-Republic, two things have changed for KIMA: it appears they moved nightly broadcasts from Yakima to the Tri-Cities, and the vice president/general manager of the station no longer works there.

KIMA’s 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts on Monday, March 30, were broadcast from the station’s Terrace Heights studio, with KIMA News Director John Kennedy O’Connor anchoring the broadcasts.

One night later, on Tuesday, March 31, those newscasts were labeled “KIMA KEPR Action News” and were broadcast from the KEPR studio in Pasco, with Scott Stovall anchoring.

The weather segment was expanded to include Tri-Cities and Walla Walla forecasts instead of just the Ellensburg and Yakima forecasts.

David Praga, who was the vice president and GM of both KIMA and KEPR, no longer serves in those positions for the CBS affiliates. A new general manager was not listed on either station’s website.

Phone messages left with KIMA and KEPR were not returned. Messages left with Praga also were not returned.

A long history in Yakima

According to a story posted on KIMA’s website, the Yakima station’s first TV broadcast aired on July 19, 1953. It was the first television station in Central Washington, the station reported in 2023 as it celebrated its 70th anniversary.

The TV station was founded by Yakima’s Cascade Broadcasting Co., which owned it for its first 34 years. Disney-affiliated Retlaw Broadcasting Corp. of North Hollywood bought the station in 1987 along with KEPR and KLEW of Lewiston, Idaho, for a combined $17 million.

Fisher Communications of Seattle announced in 1998 that it was buying KIMA and 10 other stations from Retlaw for $215 million, a deal that was finalized in 1999. At the time, that deal was hailed for putting KIMA back in the hands of a Northwest company.

KIMA and 19 other Fisher stations were sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group in May 2013 in a $373 million deal. At the time, the deal for Fisher’s Pacific Northwest stations, which included KOMO in Seattle, meant Sinclair owned, operated or provided sales services to 134 TV stations in 69 markets.

The Yakima station operates from a building in Terrace Heights. O’Connor, the KIMA news director, stated last month that there were roughly 25 employees working for KIMA and KUNW.

Two other Yakima stations, KAPP (an ABC affiliate) and KNDO (an NBC affiliate), no longer base their newscasts here, with local news programs broadcast from sister stations elsewhere in Eastern Washington. The stations have reporters in Yakima.

Ownership changes

Today, the Sinclair website states it owns or operates 185 stations in 85 media markets across 35 states — a tally that still includes KIMA, KEPR and other stations controlled by Rincon Broadcasting Group.

Rincon, based in Atlanta, was founded in late 2024 by Todd Parkin, and the company is considered by some to be “shell” or “sidecar” structure of Sinclair. Those descriptions were made by Frequency Forward, a public-interest organization that objected to FCC officials about the sale of five Sinclair stations in the Midwest to Rincon one year ago.

In its April 14, 2025, petition asking the FCC to deny the sale, Frequency Forward argued that Rincon is a “sidecar” company set up by Sinclair to evade federal ownership regulations that limit the number of licensed broadcast stations a company may own.

The FCC approved the transfer of broadcast licenses for the five Midwest stations, and has since approved other Rincon acquisitions of Sinclair stations, including the 2025 transfer of Fox affiliates broadcasting in the Yakima/Tri-Cities, Spokane and Pendleton markets.

An email message to Rincon was not returned.

FCC restrictions

There is no limit on the number of television stations a single entity may own nationwide as long as the station group collectively reaches no more than 39% of all U.S. TV households, according to the FCC. The Sinclair television group reached approximately 38.7% of U.S. television households, according to the KIMA and KEPR websites.

Pawel Popiel, an assistant professor in Washington State University’s Department of Journalism and Media Productions, told the Herald-Republic in an email that he was aware of Rincon’s ongoing “Sinclair buy-up campaign.”

“I know the FCC approved license transfers and even raised ownership caps when Rincon bought up stations in the Midwest — an unusual move to say the least,” Popiel stated.

“My understanding is that many of the details of these deals have not been disclosed, but I am not surprised to hear they’ve resulted in downsizing and layoffs (despite investor promises of more local coverage), as that is typical among conglomerate-owned outlets,” he added. “Generally, these mergers translate to fewer journalists at outlets covering larger regions and fewer beats, inevitably hurting local reporting.”

The latest ownership change affecting KIMA and other Rincon-controlled stations occurred last week, as Rincon owner Parkin asked the FCC to approve the sale of several of his stations to a New York City-based LLC, Community News Media.

Parkin’s request, as reported by Springfield, Ill. newspaper The Illinois Times, would sell the stations to Community News Media as part of a $116.5 million deal. The pending transaction, according to FCC documents, would include KIMA, KEPR and the three Univision stations recently transferred from Sinclair to Rincon.

The materials submitted to the FCC list Soohyung Kim as owner and Deborah A. McDermott as a corporate officer for Community News Media.

Contact Joel Donofrio at jdonofrio@yakimaherald.com.

This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 11:32 AM.