Storer Broadcasting

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Storer Broadcasting, Inc. is a former owner of television and radio stations in the United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.

[edit] History

In 1927 George B. Storer and his brother-in-law J. Harold Ryan were building service stations for Speedene brand gasoline in the Toledo, Ohio area. Speedene sales were booming, thanks to a cost-cutting device implemented by the partners. They bypassed the cost of trucking gasoline to service stations by building the stations beside railroad sidings and sold their product at two or three cents a gallon under the going retail rate by filling their tanks directly from railroad tank cars. Storer decided to buy some radio spots on WTAL in Toledo to advertise his gas stations. The spots were effective, and Storer decided to use his wealth to buy the station. Storer Broadcasting was born, and the Toledo radio station became WSPD, "Speedy AM," symbolic of the gasoline brand.

The company was primarily in the broadcast radio business. In the 1950s as television broadcasting boomed, the company entered the television market starting WSPD-TV in Toledo and purchasing several television stations in other markets. The company focused primarily on the radio and television businesses through much of its history. However, it did venture into the cable television business in the early 1960s. In addition, it also purchased Northeast Airlines. George Storer was President of the company until his death. Due to his position as a director of CBS, he was able to obtain lucrative CBS network affiliations for Storer-owned television stations, such as WXEL and WJBK which had been DuMont affiliates. By 1961 Storer was the nation's sixth-largest television broadcaster—exceeded in size only by the three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), Metropolitan Broadcasting (later Metromedia) and the Group W division of Westinghouse. George's son, Peter Storer, became President in 1973.

The company purchased its first cable television system in 1963. During the 1970s Peter Storer and the Storer Board of Directors decided to focus the company on cable television. Storer sold the radio assets and the airline. It reinvested the funds into cable television. Commencing in 1978, it embarked on an aggressive program of acquiring cable franchises. Unlike many cable operators, Storer preferred to acquire franchises and build its cable systems rather than acquire existing cable operations.

The company's name was changed to Storer Communications, Inc. in 1983. By 1984, Storer owned and operated seven television stations and held franchises to provide cable television service to over 500 communities in 18 states and employed approximately 4,800. In 1985, Storer sold its cable assets to Hauser Communications.

In 1985 the Storer television stations were sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., also known as KKR. Shortly thereafter, WTVG (the former WSPD-TV) was sold to a local ownership group, eventually becoming an ABC owned-and-operated (O&O) station in 1995 (it had been a longtime NBC affiliate prior to its sale to ABC). The remaining former Storer television stations were then sold to Gillett Communications in 1987, and then sold to SCI, then to New World Communications in 1993. Fox Television Stations purchased the stations in 1997 except WSBK and KNSD. Most of the stations switched to Fox affiliation, resulting in CBS scrambling to find affiliates in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee, and eventually landing UHF stations in those cities. WSBK which remained independent and was sold to Viacom (which at one point owned the former WJBK-FM, WDRQ) to eventually become a UPN affiliate. KNSD, which remained an NBC affiliate, was later sold directly to NBC to become an NBC owned and operated station.

[edit] Television stations owned

Note: ** indicates a station built and signed on by Storer.

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Years Owned	Current Affiliation/Owner
4.	Philadelphia	WVUE 12	1957-58	defunct (Allocation currently occupied by PBS member station WHYY-TV, licensed to Wilmington, DE)
7.	Boston	WSBK-TV 38	1966-85	Independent owned by CBS Corporation
9.	Atlanta	WAGA-TV 5**	1949-85	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
11.	Detroit	WJBK-TV 2**	1948-85	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
16.	Miami/Fort Lauderdale	WAJA-TV 23 (now WLTV)	1967-71	Univision owned-and-operated (O&O)
17.	Cleveland	WJW-TV/WJKW 8	1954-85	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
23.	Portland, Oregon	KPTV 27 (now 12)	1954-57	Fox affiliate owned by Meredith Corporation
27.	San Diego	KCST-TV 39 (now KNSD)	1974-85	NBC owned-and-operated (O&O) (co-owned with LIN Television [24%])
34.	Milwaukee	WITI 6	1958-85	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
40.	Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa, Alabama	WBRC-TV 6	1953-57	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
71.	Toledo, Ohio	WSPD-TV/WTVG 13**	1948-85	ABC owned-and-operated (O&O)

[edit] Radio stations owned

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Current Format/Owner
1.	New York City	WHN AM-1050 (now WEPN)	Sports/talk station owned by ESPN Radio
		WINS AM-1010	All-news station owned by CBS Radio
2.	Los Angeles	KGBS AM-1020 (now KTNQ)	Spanish-language news/talk station owned by Univision
		KGBS FM-97.1 (now KLSX)	Talk-radio station owned by CBS Radio
7.	Philadelphia	WIBG AM-990 (now WNTP)	News/talk station owned by Salem Communications
10.	Detroit	WJBK FM-93.1 (now WDRQ)	Variety hits station owned by ABC Radio (sale pending to Citadel Communications)
		WJBK AM-1500 (now WLQV)	Christian talk station owned by Salem Communications
12.	Miami/Fort Lauderdale	WGBS AM-710 (now WAQI)	Spanish-language news station owned by Univision
26.	Cleveland, Ohio	WJW AM-850 (now WKNR)	Sports/talk station owned by Salem Communications
		WJW FM-104.1 (now WQAL)	Hot AC station owned by CBS Radio
87.	Toledo, Ohio	WSPD AM-1370	Talk station owned by Clear Channel
154.	Wheeling, West Virginia	WWVA AM-1170	Talk station owned by Clear Channel