Free State Communications, LLC, and PBC Broadcasting, LLC, announced Friday that they have signed a definitive agreement for PBC to acquire the assets of KTKA, the ABC television affiliate in Topeka, from Free State. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2011.

Additionally, PBC and Free State have signed a local marketing agreement, under which PBC will immediately begin brokering the commercial air time of KTKA.

Free State, an indirect subsidiary of The World Company of Lawrence, which is the publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World, acquired the station in August 2005. The World Company sold its Sunflower Broadband division in October 2010. With the sale of KTKA the company will have completed its exit from broadcasting. It will focus on publishing magazines and newspapers and on its growing internet and nationally known software operations, said Ralph Gage, director of special projects for the company.

For PBC, the acquisition continues an expansion of its broadcast footprint, with affiliated television stations currently owned in Youngstown, Ohio, and Savannah, Ga.