Freedom Communications Buys Palm Beach TV Station : Media: Acquisition boosts the chain’s efforts to diversify its operations and expand its territory.

Freedom Communications Inc., in a major step to expand its media holdings, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy the CBS television affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla., for an undisclosed price.

The all-cash deal for privately held WPEC-TV is Freedom’s first acquisition of a television station in a decade and gives the Irvine media chain a boost in its recent efforts to diversify its operations and its territory.

Freedom beat out a number of rivals, including the New York Times broadcasting division, to buy the No. 2 station in the five-county Palm Beach market, the nation’s 45th largest.

WPEC will become Freedom’s sixth television station once federal regulators approve the deal. It will also become the company’s largest station in terms of contributions to earnings, said Alan Bell, president of Freedom’s broadcasting division.

During much of the 1980s, Freedom was embroiled in internal conflict as heirs to founder Raymond C. Hoiles fought for control, and the company accomplished little, Bell said. “This deal puts all that behind us,” he said. “This is a spectacular deal; this is a prize for us.”

The company publishes the Orange County Register, 24 other daily newspapers and 34 weeklies. It owns ABC-TV affiliates in Providence, R.I., and Chattanooga, Tenn., and CBS affiliates in Albany, N.Y., Beaumont, Tex., and Medford, Ore. It launched the 24-hour-cable news service Orange County NewsChannel in 1990.

WPEC is the only TV station owned by Photo Electronics Corp., said Bill Peterson, the company’s president and station general manager. Majority owner Alex Dreyfoos decided that operating a single station in a large market was too difficult, Peterson said, and the company didn’t want to take on a partner or go public to raise money for acquisitions. Instead, it hired a Wall Street investment banking firm to sell the station.