Argyle Television Inc., the San Antonio, Texas-based company that bought KITV in February 1995 for $51 million, is being sold to New York-based Hearst Corp.

Hearst said a new company, Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., will be formed to operate and expand the 12 stations now owned by Hearst and Argyle.

"The new company is going to be managed by a combination of Hearst executives and Argyle executives," said Mike Rosenberg, KITV's general manager. "We just think it's wonderful for all of us. It gives us more bulk."

Besides KITV, the Argyle's stations to become part of the Hearst-Argyle chain are WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, WAPT-TV in Jackson, Miss., WNAC-TV in Providence, R.I., and KHBS-TV and KHOG-TV in Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Ark. The Hearst TV stations are: WCVB-TV in Boston, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo., WISN in Milwaukee, WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio, and WBAL-TV in Baltimore.

Because of Federal Communications Commission regulations, Hearst-Argyle will need to divest itself of Argyle's Providence station, which overlaps with Hearst's Boston station, and Hearst will need to divest itself of its station in Dayton, which overlaps with Argyle's Cincinnati station. Hearst said it expected to swap the stations for others.

Nine of the stations are ABC affiliates and Rosenberg said that the combination will be the biggest group of ABC stations outside of the ABC-owned group.

Hearst said it will give Argyle $159.7 million in cash and 6.1 million Hearst-Argyle shares. Hearst will own 86 percent of Hearst-Argyle, with current Argyle shareholders holding the rest.

According to Bloomberg News, Hearst also will assume more than $200 million in debt.

Argyle said in August that it was looking for a new owner or to become part of a bigger group in order to stay competitive.