- Grant Broadcasting System II
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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.
Contents
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 GroupExternal links
Categories:- Television broadcasting companies of the United States
- Companies based in Roanoke, Virginia
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