Block Communications

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Block Communications (also known as Blade Communications) is a privately held holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in New York City when Paul Block, a German immigrant who came to the United States fifteen years prior, formed an ad representation firm for newspapers. Through the 1910s and 1920s, the Block empire grew to encompass many newspapers on the east coast of the US, however with the Great Depression in the 1930s came the loss of all but three properties: the ad representation firm, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Blade of Toledo (where Block eventually settled the company upon its purchase in 1927). After Block's death in 1941, his sons took over the company and later his grandchildren (one of which, Allen Block, is company chairman).

[edit] Company Holdings

Newspapers

Television

KTRV Nampa-Boise, Idaho (Fox)
WAND Decatur, Illinois (NBC; managed by LIN TV)
WDRB Louisville, Kentucky (Fox; operated by Block property Independence Television along with WMYO)
WMYO Louisville, Kentucky (My Network TV)
WLIO Lima, Ohio (NBC)
WT05 Toledo, Ohio (The CW cable; operated by Block property Buckeye Cablevision)

Cable Systems

Buckeye Cablevision, Inc. http://www.buckeye-cablesystem.com (systems in Toledo, Ohio and Sandusky, Ohio, latter officially known as Erie County Cablevision)
Buckeye Telesystem, Inc. (phone unit of Buckeye Cablevision)

Non-Media Holdings

Corporate Protection Services (a Toledo-based home and corporate security firm)
Metro Fiber & Cable Construction Company (a Toledo-based contractor of fiber optic installation)