Tribune: A comeback story hot off the press

Imagine the chance to own Time Warner's TBS before the cable network was fully distributed across the country. Or how about CBS before it had convinced cable companies to pay it several hundred million dollars a year to carry its network?

Believe it or not, investors still have a similar opportunity: Tribune. The company, which owns 42 TV stations along with newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, emerged from a four-year bankruptcy in late 2012. Since then, Tribune has been below the radar of most investors because the stock trades over the counter and the company doesn't perform normal functions like investor conference calls.

Yet Tribune is on the verge of turning some of its sleepy assets into big moneymakers.

First consider its portfolio of TV stations, which mainly includes affiliates of 21st Century Fox's Fox and The CW, a joint venture network between Time Warner and CBS. At the moment, those stations generate revenue from advertising, but they are probably earning far less than they should be.

Tribune's other big opportunity is WGN, a so-called superstation based in Chicago that reaches about 75 million homes, according to SNL Financial. WGN carries local Chicago-oriented content like Cubs and Bulls games, along with other filler material like comedy reruns.

Tribune's print business, while not likely to grow much, could also provide a surprise windfall. The company plans to spin it off into a separately listed company in 2014, just as News Corp did in 2013