Renaissance Broadcasting

Renaissance Broadcasting
Company type	Public
Industry	Broadcasting, Television
Founded	1982; 42 years ago
Defunct	1997; 27 years ago
Fate	Acquired by Tribune Broadcasting
Successor	Tribune Broadcasting; Nexstar Media Group;
Headquarters	Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
Key people	Michael Finkelstein

Renaissance Broadcasting, founded in 1982 by Michael Finkelstein, was a company that owned several UHF television stations, it was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1997. The company was headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

History

Renaissance Broadcasting began operations in February 1982 under the name Odyssey Media Partners, a partnership headed by Greenwich businessman Michael Finkelstein with the purchase of WATR-TV in

Boston

; however, a hole for a locally-based independent station in the market—the largest without such a station—existed. However, the Hartford/New Haven market still had 2 NBC affiliates.

When WATR-TV's affiliation with NBC expired in March 1982, the station filled that hole and took on the new calls of WTXX (now

Miami

, later that year. Unlike Connecticut, Miami had a more competitive TV market including an established VHF independent station and a wider variety of stations on the air. As a result, WDZL was profitable but not to the degree as WTXX had been.

The success of WTXX and WDZL led Finkelstein and partners to expand into other markets. In 1986, the group started buying existing stations, and reincorporated Odyssey Media Partners as Renaissance Broadcasting. That year, Renaissance would buy three stations: NBC affiliate WPCQ channel 36 (now WCNC-TV) in Charlotte from Group W, and independent stations WPMT channel 43 in York/Harrisburg/Lancaster from Idaho-based Mohawk Broadcasting and KTXL channel 40 in Sacramento from Camellia City Telecasters, the latter two of which became Fox affiliates in lieu of being outbid for the affiliation in Connecticut and Miami.

In 1987, after failing to acquire

Pittsburgh, which they purchased from Meredith Corporation in 1986, to Renaissance. The private equity firm Warburg Pincus became an investor at this time. Two years later, they sold WPCQ to the Providence Journal Company (which later merged with Belo Corporation

).

In 1989, the Miami market was in for a huge shakeup: NBC purchased WTVJ and pulled its affiliation from WSVN channel 7, CBS purchased WCIX (now WFOR-TV) and moved its affiliation there, and the Fox affiliation moved to WSVN. Much of WCIX's syndicated programming moved to WDZL, as WSVN opted to go towards a news-intensive format like that of many Fox affiliates today.

In 1990, Renaissance put WPGH up for sale, because it was losing money from overpaying for programming so that WPTT channel 22 (now

Home Shopping Network programming nearly 24 hours a day, but in January 1992 Sinclair began managing the station through a local marketing agreement

(or LMA), airing 10 hours of shows and movies that WPGH had no time to air, the deal became full-time by 1996, with Sinclair buying channel 22 outright in 2001

In 1993 Renaissance merged with Chase Broadcasting, which owned Fox affiliates

Indianapolis

.

The aftermath of the purchase of Chase led to the sale of several stations: WPTY to

Viacom, added UPN

programming to WTXX in 1995, as Viacom had owned part of UPN, then in 1996 the LMA became full-time.

Meanwhile, in 1995, WDZL became an affiliate of

Tribune

. Much of the programming airing on WTXX from the LMA with WVIT carried over, and WTIC bought some more shows as well.

Former television stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

City of license / Market	Station	Channel	Years owned	Current status
Sacramento, CA	KTXL	40	1987–1997	Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Hartford, CT	WTXX	20	1982–1993	The CW affiliate WCCT-TV, owned by Tegna Inc.
Hartford, CT	WTIC-TV	61	1993–1997	Fox affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
Denver, CO	KDVR	31	1993–1995	Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Miami–Fort Lauderdale, FL	WDZL	39	1982–1997	The CW affiliate WSFL-TV, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Atlanta, GA	WATL	36	1993	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
Indianapolis, IN	WXIN	59	1993–1997	Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Charlotte, NC	WPCQ	36	1986–1988	NBC affiliate WCNC-TV, owned by Tegna Inc.
Harrisburg, PA	WPMT	43	1986–1997	Fox affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA	WPGH-TV	53	1987–1991	Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Dallas–Fort Worth, TX	KDAF	33	1995–1997	The CW affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group