Grant Broadcasting System II

Based in Roanoke, Virginia, Grant Broadcasting System II (also referred to as Grant Communications) is an owner of various television stations in the United States.

Grant Broadcasting was founded in 1990 by Milton Grant (May 13, 1923 — April 28, 2007), who, in addition to being President of Grant Broadcasting, also served as President and General Manager for many of his stations.

History

Milton Grant began his career as a radio news director in his hometown of New York City. In the early 1950s he moved to Washington, D.C., where he became the host of several music programs, one of which (America's First Teen Radio Network) was heard simultaneously on four of the city's radio stations (WAVA, WPGC, WINX, WEEL). Grant moved to television in 1956 when he hosted a popular dance program for WTTG, The Milt Grant Show, which ran until 1961.

Grant's first foray into station ownership first came in 1966 when his new company, the Capitol Broadcasting Corporation, established WDCA-TV. That station was sold to the Superior Tube Company in 1969, but Grant remained with the station as its General Manager until WDCA was sold to Taft Broadcasting in 1979.

In 1981, Grant was part of an investment group who launched KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas (launched in 1981) and KTXH in Houston (1982). Grant both sold stations to Gulf Broadcasting in 1985.

In 1985, while preparing for the sale of KTXA and KTXH, Grant started the original Grant Broadcasting System, beginning with the sign-on of WBFS-TV in Miami in 1984, and later with the 1985 acquisitions of WGBO-TV in Joliet, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), and WGBS-TV in Philadelphia. However, in 1987, this first incarnation of Grant Broadcasting went bankrupt, after overpaying for syndicated programming, while its competitors took the best barter programming. It was even worse in Chicago, where all of WGBO's competitors took all the bartered shows available to them, leaving WGBO with a weaker program schedule.

In 1989, Grant's stations were repossessed by its creditors after Grant failed to meet the bankruptcy agreements. The creditors used these stations to form "Combined Broadcasting" (no relation to the earlier "Combined Communications", which was merged into the Gannett Company in 1979).

In 1990, Grant started to rebuild is broadcasting empire, under the name "Grant Communications", later renamed "Grant Broadcasting System II" (the "II" representing his second try to build a chain). His first station was Huntsville, Alabama's WZDX, which he acquired in March 1990.

Today, Grant owns five TV stations. He was also a former owner of Buffalo's WB affiliate, WNYO-TV (now affiliated with MyNetworkTV), which he acquired in 1996, but sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2001.

Grant Broadcasting stations used to share a logo style: even the original three Grant stations (WBFS, WGBS, and WGBO) used this style. It consists of a colored channel number with white extensions around it mimicking the edges of the channel number. However, all of Grant's current operating stations have sinced removed the extensions from their logos.

Stations

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Digital	Virtual	Current Affiliation
66.	Roanoke	WFXR	17	27	Fox
	Lynchburg, Virginia	WWCW	20	21	Fox (satellite of WFXR-TV)
		"WCW5" (WFXR-DT2 17-2/ WWCW-DT2 20-2)	17-2/20-2	27-2/21-2	The CW
79.	Huntsville, Alabama	WZDX	41	54	Fox
		"WAMY" (WZDX-DT2 41-2)	41-2	54-2	MyNetworkTV
99.	Davenport, Iowa	KLJB	49	18	Fox
	Burlington, Iowa	KGCW	41	26	The CW
128.	La Crosse, Wisconsin	WLAX	17	25	Fox
	Eau Claire, Wisconsin	WEUX	49	48	Fox (satellite of WLAX)

• NOTE: As of Fall 2010, all of Grant's Fox affiliates have news share agreements with ABC- or NBC-affiliated stations in their respective markets.

Former Grant stations

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Digital	Virtual	Years Owned	Current Affiliation
3.	Joliet - Chicago, IL	WGBO-TV	38	66	1985-1989	Univision owned-and-operated (O&O)
4.	Philadelphia	WGBS-TV (now WPSG)	32	57	1985-1989	The CW affiliate owned by CBS Corporation
5.	Fort Worth - Dallas	KTXA	18	21	1981-1984	Independent owned by CBS Corporation
9.	Washington, D.C.	WDCA	35	20	1966-1969	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Fox
10.	Houston	KTXH	19	20	1982-1984	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Fox
16.	Miami - Fort Lauderdale	WBFS-TV	32	33	1984-1989	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by CBS Corporation
51.	Buffalo, New York	WNYO-TV	49	49	1996-2001	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

External links

• KLJB — biography of Milton Grant