• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 14, 2010

Last month, Meredith Corp. CEO Stephen Lacy suggested the M&A market for TV stations would soon be "hot" after a fallow period during the financial downturn. On Monday, CBS Corp. gave at least some modest credence to the forecast.

CBS, which has been looking to focus its station portfolio on larger markets, announced it had a deal to sell its CW station in Norfolk, Va. to Local TV, LLC.

With the acquisition, Local TV gains a duopoly in the country's 43rd-largest market, as WGNT joins the CBS affiliate it owns.

The deal also offers some evidence that Local TV, which is controlled by private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, is committed to the station business. Local TV was formed by Oak Hill after it entered the sector during a boom time for media M&A.

Local TV has built an 18-station portfolio on the backs of the 2007 acquisition of eight New York Times Co.-owned stations. In 2008, it added nine Fox-owned affiliates.

The New York Times stations were in mid-sized markets, but the former News Corp.-owned Fox stations are in Denver, Cleveland and St. Louis -- making it an influential Fox affiliate group.