Storer Communications

Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.

History

1920s–1940s

In 1927, George B. Storer and 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 Toledo's radio station, WTAL, to advertise his gas stations. The spots were effective, and Storer decided to use his wealth to buy the radio station as well. He changed the station's call letters to WSPD, "Speedy AM," symbolic of the gasoline brand.

Later in the decade, Storer formed Fort Industry Broadcasting for his broadcasting interests, and bought a number of other radio stations.


1950s–1960s

Although the company had success in the Top 40 rock and roll format with WJBK in Detroit and WIBG "Wibbage" in Philadelphia, most of its radio stations, including WJW and WSPD, featured more conservative music formats, typically middle-of-the-road (MOR) or beautiful music.

In 1948, Fort Industry entered the television market, launching WSPD-TV in Toledo. This was followed by WJBK-TV in Detroit later in 1948, and WAGA-TV in Atlanta in 1949. As television became more popular, Storer bought several television stations in other markets. The company changed its name to Storer Broadcasting later in the 1950s.

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. It also purchased Northeast Airlines in 1965 and held it until 1972, when it was sold to Delta Air Lines.

George Storer was company president until his 1973 retirement, succeeded by his son Peter; George remained company chairman until his death in 1975. 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 (now WJW-TV) and WJBK-TV, 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.

The company purchased its first cable television system in 1963. It also briefly ventured into program syndication as Storer Programs Inc., during which it was the U.S. distributor of the original 1963–65 run of The Littlest Hobo, which was produced in Canada.

1970s–1980s

During the 1970s the company focused on cable television. Storer sold the radio assets and the airline, using the cash thus raised to invest in 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 also ventured into sports. From 1973 to 1975 Storer owned the Boston Bruins and the Boston Garden.

The company's name was changed to Storer Communications, Inc. in 1983. By 1984 it owned and operated seven television stations and held franchises to provide cable television service to over 500 communities in 18 states and had some 4,800 employees. By 1985, Storer took over Blair Entertainment, a distribution firm founded in 1982 by TV sales rep John Blair. That same year, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) took Storer Communications private in a hostile leveraged buyout after Comcast began showing interest in Storer's cable properties. It sold the television assets in 1987. 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 an NBC affiliate for all but five years of its history prior to its sale to ABC). The remaining former Storer television stations and Blair were sold to Gillett Communications in 1987 after an aborted 1986 attempt to sell them together with Wometco's WTVJ in Miami to Lorimar-Telepictures. (WTVJ eventually became an NBC owned-and-operated station.)

Gillett's broadcasting division was restructured into SCI Television in 1991, then sold to New World Communications in 1993, after a speculative bid from Scripps-Howard that never came to fruition, due the number of stations that would have been potentially owned at the same time. Blair was then folded into New World's distribution arm.

Fox Television Stations purchased the stations (except for WSBK and KNSD) in 1997.

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 remained independent and was sold to Viacom, and eventually became a UPN affiliate. KNSD, which remained an NBC affiliate, was later sold directly to NBC to become an NBC owned-and-operated station. The cable assets were sold to Comcast Corporation and TCI in 1988. Michael Tallent became President of Storer, succeeding Kenneth Bagwell, upon the consummation of this transaction.

Storer Communications continued to operate as a cable television company until the assets were split between Comcast and TCI in the mid 1990s. Tallent joined Comcast in 1991 and was succeeded by William Whelan, Storer's final president.

Stations formerly owned by Storer

Television stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

Note: two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and/or signed-on by Storer.

City of License / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Years owned Current ownership status
Birmingham, Alabama WBRC-TV 6 (50) 1953–1957 Fox affiliate owned by Raycom Media
San Diego KCST-TV 39 (40) 1974–1985 NBC owned-and-operated (O&O), KNSD
Wilmington, DE - Philadelphia WVUE 12 (12) 1957–1958 defunct
(frequency currently occupied by PBS member station WHYY-TV)
Miami - Fort Lauderdale WFTL-TV/WGBS-TV ** 1 23 1954–1957 defunct
(see WAJA-TV/WLTV, below, for frequency's present-day occupant)
WAJA-TV 23 (23) 1967 Univision owned-and-operated (O&O), WLTV-DT
Atlanta WAGA-TV ** 5 (27) 1949–1985 Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
Boston WSBK-TV 38 (39) 1966–1985 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by CBS Corporation
Detroit WJBK-TV ** 2 (7) 1948–1985 Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
Cleveland WJW-TV/WJKW-TV 8 (8) 1954–1985 Fox affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting
Toledo, Ohio WSPD-TV/WTVG ** 13 (13) 1948–1985 ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Portland, Oregon KPTV 27 (now 12 (12)) 1954–1957 Fox affiliate owned by Meredith Corporation
San Antonio, Texas KEYL 5 (39) 1951–1954 CBS affiliate, KENS, owned by Tegna Media
Milwaukee WITI-TV 6 (33) 1958–1985 Fox affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting

Footnote:

Radio stations

AM Stations FM Stations
Market Station Current owner
Birmingham, Alabama WBRC-960
(now WERC)
iHeartMedia
WBRC-FM-106.9
(now WBPT)
SummitMedia
Los Angeles KGBS-1020
(now KTNQ)
Univision Radio
KGBS-FM-97.1
(now KAMP-FM)
CBS Radio
Miami - Fort Lauderdale WGBS-710
(now WAQI)
Univision Radio
WGBS-FM/WJHR-FM-96.3
(now WPOW)
CBS Radio
Atlanta WAGA-590
(now WDWD)
Salem Media Group
WAGA-FM-103.3
(now WVEE)
CBS Radio
Detroit WJBK-1500
(now WLQV)
Salem Media Group
WJBK-FM-93.1
(now WDRQ)
Cumulus Media
New York City WHN-1050
(now WEPN)
ESPN Radio (Disney)
Cleveland, Ohio WJW-850
(now WKNR)
Good Karma Broadcasting
WJW-FM-104.1
(now WQAL)
CBS Radio
Toledo, Ohio WSPD-1370 iHeartMedia
WSPD-FM-101.5
(now WRVF)
iHeartMedia
Philadelphia WIBG-990
(now WNTP)
Salem Media Group
WIBG-FM 94.1
(now WIP-FM)
CBS Radio
Wheeling, West Virginia WWVA-1170 iHeartMedia
WWVA-FM-98.7
(now WOVK)
iHeartMedia
Preceded by
Boston Garden-Arena Corporation
Boston Bruins principal owner
1973–1975
Succeeded by
Jeremy Jacobs

References

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