Granite Broadcasting

Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Private
Industry Television
Founded 1988
Headquarters 767 Third Avenue
New York City United States
Key people
 W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck, Founders
Website Website

Granite Broadcasting Corporation is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns two television stations in the United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988 , and was the first African-American station group in the United States considered to be a "major" station operator (though not the first minority-owned chain, a distinction held by the Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).

Granite's chairman/CEO is Peter Markham,[1][2] with Duane Lammers as COO.

History

Granite declared Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy on December 11, 2006, mainly due to the complications of the 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment which nullified the sales of the group's Detroit and San Francisco The WB affiliates due to those stations being left out of The CW because of CBS Corporation-owned stations in both cities taking the affiliation by default.[3] It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2007 under the control of private equity firm Silver Point Capital (which also took over ComCorp later that year).

In February 2014, Granite reached deals to sell the majority of its stations. WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York and WMYD in Detroit were sold to the E.W. Scripps Company for $110 million (the latter forming a duopoly with Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV), while most of its remaining stations (mostly in small markets), along with the Malara Broadcast Group's two stations, went to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting (which originally planned to operate the LMA-controlled stations Granite currently provides services to for Quincy).[4][5] SagamoreHill was subsequently dropped from the Quincy transaction.[6]

In July 2015, the deal was reworked yet again to have SagamoreHill acquire WISE, the SSA between WISE and WPTA (owned by Quincy) wound down within nine months of its closure, and have all of WISE's network affiliations moved to WPTA in exchange for its The CW Plus affiliation.[7] On September 15, 2015, the FCC approved the deal,[8] which was completed on November 2.[9]

List of stations

Current

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)		 Owned since Current affiliation
San Francisco, CA KOFY-TV 20 (19) 1998 Independent
MeTV (DT2)
Syracuse, NY WTVH 1 5 (47) 1993 CBS

Other notes:

Former Granite-owned Stations

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)		 Years owned Current ownership status
Fresno, CA KSEE 24 (38) 1993–2013 NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
San Jose, CA KNTV 11 (12) 1989–2002 NBC owned-and-operated (O&O)
Peoria, IL WEEK-TV 25 (25) 1989–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Quincy Media
WHOI 19 (19) 1 Comet TV owned-and-operated (O&O)
WAOE 59 (39) 2 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Venture Technologies Group
Fort Wayne, IN WPTA 21 (24) 1989–2004 3 ABC affiliate owned by Quincy Media
WISE-TV 33 (18) 2004–2015 The CW affiliate owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting
Detroit, MI WMYD 20 (21) 1997–2014 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by E. W. Scripps Company
Kalamazoo, MI WWMT 3 (8) 1995–1998 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Lansing, MI WLAJ 53 (51) 1996–1998 ABC affiliate owned by Shield Media, LLC
(operated through a SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
Duluth, MN - Superior, WI KBJR-TV 6 (19) 1989–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Quincy Media
KDLH 3 (33) 3 The CW affiliate owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting
Chisholm, MN KRII 1
(Satellite of KBJR)		 11 (11) 2002–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Quincy Media
Binghamton, NY WBNG-TV 12 (7) 2006–2015 CBS affiliate owned by Quincy Media
Buffalo, NY WKBW-TV 7 (38) 1995–2014 ABC affiliate owned by E. W. Scripps Company
Austin, TX KBVO-TV/KEYE-TV 42 (43) 1992–1999 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

Other notes:

References

  1. ↑ "Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting | Broadcasting & Cable". Broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  2. ↑ Lynch, Jason (2017-01-25). "Adweek – Breaking News in Advertising, Media and Technology". Mediaweek.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  3. ↑ "Granite Broadcasting Voluntarily Files Petition for Reorganization" (Press release). Granite Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  4. ↑ Scripps Buying Granite TVs in Buffalo, Detroit, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved 10 February 2014
  5. ↑ "Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Letter CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 15 September 2015
  9. ↑ Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
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