Storer Communications
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Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio 1927, and was broken up in 1986.
History
1920s–1940s
In 1927, George B. Storer and brother-in-law J. Harold Ryan founded Fort Industry Oil Company to build 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 in 1928 Storer decided to use his wealth to buy a stake in the radio station as well.[1] As part of the deal, WTAL changed its call letters to WSPD,[2] "Speedy AM," symbolic of the gasoline brand.
In 1931, Fort Industry sold its oil interests to concentrate solely on broadcasting. It bought full control of WSPD in 1937,[3] 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 in Cleveland, WAGA in Atlanta and WSPD, featured more conservative music formats, typically middle-of-the-road (MOR), country music or beautiful music.
In 1948, Fort Industry entered the television market, launching
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
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. During that time, Storer co-produced nationally syndicated programs (such as Break The Bank & the 80s revival of Divorce Court) under a joint venture with Blair Entertainment, a distribution firm founded in 1975 as the second iteration of Rhodes Productions and was renamed to the moniker it held at the time in 1983 when it was acquired by John Blair and Company.[5] Blair later shut down in 1992 and its library was bought by All American Television, a predecessor of Fremantle North America.[6]
In 1985, 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, with primary CBS affiliation from 1955-58 and primary ABC affiliation from 1958-69). The remaining former Storer television stations were sold to Gillett Communications in 1987 after an aborted 1986 attempt to sell them with Wometco's WTVJ in Miami to Lorimar-Telepictures. (WTVJ eventually became an NBC owned-and-operated station.) SCI Holdings (the holding company for Storer Communications, Inc) had placed up the cable unit, which was Storer Cable up for sale that year.[7] Storer later revoked the no sale decision for the cable business, choosing to keep the Storer Cable division instead.[8]
Gillett's broadcasting division was restructured into SCI Television in 1991, then sold to
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
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 | Years owned | Current status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Birmingham, AL | WBRC-TV | 6 | 1953–1957 | Fox affiliate owned by Gray Television[a] |
San Diego, CA | KCST-TV | 39 | 1974–1986 | O&O) KNSD
|
Wilmington, DE–Philadelphia, PA | WVUE
|
12 | 1957–1958 | Defunct[b] |
Miami–Fort Lauderdale, FL | 23 | 1954–1957 | Defunct; license permit was kept by Storer and became WAJA-TV[d] | |
WAJA-TV | 23 | 1967 | Univision owned-and-operated (O&O) WLTV-DT
| |
Atlanta, GA | WAGA-TV ** | 5 | 1949–1986 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
Boston, MA | WSBK-TV | 38 | 1966–1986 | Independent station owned by Paramount Global
|
Detroit, MI | WJBK-TV ** | 2 | 1948–1986 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
Cleveland, OH |
|
8 | 1954–1986 | Fox affiliate WJW, owned by Nexstar Media Group[a] |
Toledo, OH |
|
13 | 1948–1986 | ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television[e] |
Portland, OR | KPTV | 12 | 1954–1957 | Fox affiliate owned by Gray Television |
San Antonio, TX | KEYL | 5 | 1951–1954 | CBS affiliate KENS, owned by Tegna Inc. |
Milwaukee, WI | WITI | 6 | 1958–1986 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
- ^ a b Owned by Fox from 1997 to 2008.
- PBS member station WHYY-TV.
- ^ Storer purchased the construction permit for WMIE-TV (channel 23) in Miami and the studio facility of WFTL-TV, relaunching the station as WGBS-TV in 1954.[9]
- ^ Storer sold the non-license assets of WGBS-TV to Public Service Television for WPST-TV on April 5, 1957, including the transmitter, studios and staff.[10][11] After WPST-TV's license was revoked in 1961, Storer repurchased the transmitter for WGBS-FM in 1964.[12]
- ^ Owned by ABC from 1995 to 2011.
Radio stations
AM Station | FM Station |
Market | Station | Current status |
---|---|---|
Birmingham, AL | WBRC 960 | WERC, owned by iHeartMedia |
WBRC-FM 106.9 | WBPT, owned by SummitMedia | |
Los Angeles, CA | KGBS 1020 | KTNQ, owned by Latino Media Network |
KGBS-FM 97.1 | KNX-FM, owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
Miami–Fort Lauderdale, FL | WGBS 710 | WAQI, owned by Latino Media Network |
WGBS-FM/WJHR-FM 96.3 | Defunct, WMJX's license was revoked by the FCC in 1981 | |
Atlanta, GA | WAGA 590 | WDWD, owned by Salem Media Group |
WAGA-FM 103.3 | WVEE, owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
Detroit, MI | WJBK 1500 | WLQV, owned by Salem Media Group |
WJBK-FM 93.1 | WUFL, owned by Family Life Radio | |
New York, NY | WHN 1050 | WEPN, owned by Good Karma Brands |
Cleveland, OH | WJW 850 | WKNR, owned by Good Karma Brands |
WJW-FM 104.1 | WQAL, owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
Toledo, OH | WSPD 1370 | Owned by iHeartMedia |
WSPD-FM 101.5 | WRVF, owned by iHeartMedia | |
Philadelphia, PA | WIBG 990 | WNTP, owned by Salem Media Group |
WIBG-FM 94.1 | WIP-FM, owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
Wheeling, WV | WWVA 1170 | Owned by iHeartMedia |
WWVA-FM 98.7 | WOVK, owned by iHeartMedia |
References
- ^ "G. B. Storer Started Radio in 1928", Detroit Times, September 16, 1956, page 43.
- ^ "Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, January 31, 1928, page 5.
- ^ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, September 1, 1923, page 3.
- ^ Carrollton, Betty (June 21, 1966). "New $1 million home of WAGA-TV borrows motif from Old Williamsburg". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, GA. Retrieved May 4, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ "Where the Action Was: NATPE's Programming Panopoly" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 21, 1985. p. 50.
- ^ "Magazines, Talk Shows Among First-Run Ideas in Works by Syndicators" (PDF). Broadcasting. 1992-07-13. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
- ^ Lippman, John (1987-07-22). "Following $650-Mil Gillett Deal, SCI Holdings Puts Up 'For Sale' Sign On Storer Cable Subsidiary". Variety. pp. 51, 72.
- ^ Lippman, John (1987-12-02). "SCI Holdings' Storer Cable Assets 'No Sale' As 3-Bank Bough Breaks". Variety. p. 40.
- ^ "Storer's Seventh" (PDF). Broadcasting. Vol. 47, no. 21. November 22, 1954. p. 36. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "Storer's Miami Uhf Shuts Down; Equipment Sold to WPST-TV" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 8, 1957. p. 9. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2022 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "WGBS-TV Sells Out To NAL". The Miami Herald. Miami, Florida. April 6, 1957. p. 5-A. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Bill Bayer Invites Humphrey to Show". The Miami Herald. Miami, Florida. August 26, 1964. p. 4-B. Archived from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.