• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 6, 2007

With its stock in freefall, mid-size station operator Nexstar has pulled itself off the block--forgoing, for now, the potential to benefit from the heightened interest among private-equity groups in the local station business.

Separately, an influential Wall Street analyst, Bear Stearns' Victor Miller, wrote Friday that another mid-size station operator--LIN TV--has also opted to hold back on its possible sale. LIN, with 29 stations, said it was considering a sale, a day after Nexstar made a similar announcement in May. A call to LIN was not immediately returned.

The 49-station Nexstar said it had hired Goldman Sachs to help it explore a potential sale, sending its stock price up. But since then, given the overall market slowdown, the price--based on midday trading Friday--has fallen by some 32% to the $9 range.

The company said, "in light of the difficult conditions in the financing markets," that it "has decided to suspend discussions with prospective acquirers." Nexstar said it would have no further comment.

LIN's stock has also been falling; it dropped some 9% Friday. The company operates stations in several top-50 markets, including a triopoly in DMA 25, Indianapolis. Nexstar--which is mainly in mid-size markets ranging from Scranton, Pa., where it has a triopoly, to the ABC affiliate in market 201, St. Joseph, Mo.--reports second-quarter results next week. In the first quarter on a like-for-like basis, revenue was down slightly to $59.5 million, while EBITA nudged upward. LIN reported a slight 3% uptick in revenues to $93.1 million; income was also up.

Last month, the Sinclair group sold the ABC affiliate in the 109th-largest market, Springfield, Mass., to another media entrepreneur for $21.2 million, not a private-equity operation.