Congratulations to the Journal Broadcasting Group, the latest media company to hop across the Federal Communications Commission's not very deep limits on television duopolies. Journal has won the right to own two TV stations in the Tucson, Arizona market, and to allow one to pretty much operate the other. What's the reason for this particular waiver? The FCC has classified one of the licenses as a "failing station"—that is, a signal that has floundered for "an extended period of time both in terms of its audience share and financial performance." Whoever said that failure isn't an option was wrong, yet again.

The underperforming station in question is Tucson's KWBA, affiliated with the Warner Brothers CW Network. It will now be owned by Journal and more or less overseen by its Tucson sister, ABC affiliate KGUN, also a Journal license.

The Commission's present media ownership rules mostly prohibit a company from owing two TV stations in a Nielsen defined Designated Market Area (DMA) if their FCC measured broadcasting contour areas overlap. But the buyer in question can get around this barrier under two conditions. First: one of the licenses must rank below the area's top four most popular stations. Second: at least eight independently-owned full-power TV signals in the DMA must survive the merger.

Alas, the union of KWBA and KGUN under one corporate roof would not leave the Tucson (Sierra Vista) DMA with those requisite eight independents. And so the Journal group asked the FCC to consider classifying KWBA a "failing station."

Now, to be fair, the agency's criterion for failure are pretty rigorous. You can't just hand over a lousy report card or pull your pocket sleeves out of your trousers and frown. You've got to show some serious lack of success. Your all-day audience share has to measure below four percent. And you'd be smart to demonstrate a negative cash flow for the previous three years—a waiver being "more likely to be granted" under those circumstances, the FCC says.

Happily, KWBA meets these standards. Its all-day share of late has averaged around 1.9 percent and has never gone above three, a misfortune the station management attributes to the signal's loss of its programming contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks ball team. As for the licenses' finances, they do indeed look pretty nasty. In fact, the station "has been monetizing most of its major available assets," the FCC discloses, a business jargon way of saying that the broadcaster's owner has sold its building and "all spare equipment."

As a consequence of these set backs, KWBA certifies that it has not broadcast any news programming for over two years; not much public affairs programming either.

But there are some upside requirements as well. The merger must produce "public interest benefits," the FCC says. In addition, the buyer must demonstrate that it is the only "reasonably available candidate" able to buy and operate the station—and prove that an "out-of-market" sale, that is to say, a sale to someone beyond the DMA, would result in an "artificially depressed price."

To fulfill the public interest requirement, Journal has made many promises that the FCC has accepted at face value. Journal pledges that "using the established news capabilities of KGUN," the company will launch a 30-minute daily newscast on KWBA. Broadcast operations will also be "collocated with the digital high-tech production facilities of KGUN." The newly-acquired station will also collaborate with Journal radio station KGMG-FM on various community programs. "Journal intends to make significant community outreach efforts on the station's multicast channel to provide additional benefits to Tucson's growing Latino audience," the FCC observes. And the company "has pledged to improve KWBA's weather and emergency announcement capabilities, as well as its community outreach capabilities."

As is often the case with these decisions, the Commission establishes no time line or benchmarks by which it can be verified that all these commitments have been kept. "Allowing KWBA to be operated by a stronger station in the market will result in a definite improvement in facilities and programming," the agency predicts, "an outcome which clearly benefits the public interest."