on may 8, 2017, sinclair broadcast group—which has operated fox affiliate wolf-tv (channel 56), cw affiliate wswb (channel 38) and mynetworktv affiliate wqmy (channel 53) since october 2014—entered into an agreement to acquire tribune media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by tribune. the complicated ssa relationships that sinclair has in the scranton–wilkes–barre market with wolf, wswb and wqmy – the former two of which are currently the only legal television duopoly in the market – created an ownership entanglement, as wnep and wolf rank among the market's four highest-rated stations, and the market has too few independently owned full-power stations to permit a second legal duopoly in any event. (sinclair ceo christopher ripley cited scranton–wilkes–barre as one of three markets, out of fourteen where ownership conflicts exist between the two groups, where the proposed acquisition would likely result in divestitures). to alleviate some of the regulatory issues that the deal incurred by selling certain stations to both independent and affiliated third-party companies, on april 24, 2018, sinclair announced that it would sell the non-license assets of wolf-tv, wqmy, and wswb and the full assets of eight other stations – sinclair-operated kokh-tv in oklahoma city, wrlh-tv in richmond, kdsm-tv in des moines and wxlv-tv in greensboro/winston-salem/high point, and tribune-owned wpmt in harrisburg and wxmi in grand rapids – to standard media group (an independent broadcast holding company formed by private equity firm standard general to assume ownership of and absolve ownership conflicts involving the aforementioned stations) for $441.1 million. sinclair concurrently exercised its option to buy wolf-tv and wqmy to allow standard media group – the latter of which, for regulatory purposes, would have continued to be licensed as a satellite of wolf-tv – to acquire the stations outright; standard would concurrently acquire the wolf-tv license, which is permitted under federal communications commission (fcc) ownership regulations as wswb is not ranked as one of the top-four stations in the market.