Granite Broadcasting

Granite Broadcasting Corporation is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988,[1] 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 now-defunct Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).

Granite Broadcasting Corporation
TypePrivate
IndustryTelevision
Founded1988
Headquarters767 Third Avenue
New York City United States
Key people
W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck, Founders
WebsiteWebsite

Granite's chairman/CEO is Peter Markham,[2][3] 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.[4] 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).[5][6] SagamoreHill was subsequently dropped from the Quincy transaction.[7]

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.[8] On September 15, 2015, the FCC approved the deal,[9] which was completed on November 2.[10]

List of stations

Current
City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)		 Owned since Current affiliation
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 Francisco – San Jose, CA KNTV 11 (12) 1989–2002 NBC owned-and-operated (O&O)
KBWB/KOFY-TV 20 (19) 1998–2018 Independent station owned by CNZ Communications, LLC
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 Quincy Media
Detroit, MI WXON/WDWB/WMYD 20 (21) 1997–2014 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by the 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 Mission Broadcasting
(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 Quincy Media
Chisholm, MN KRII 1
(Satellite of KBJR-TV)		 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 the E. W. Scripps Company
Austin, TX KBVO-TV/KEYE-TV 42 (43) 1992–1999 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

Other notes:

  • 1 Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Granite operated WHOI under an SSA prior to selling WEEK-TV to Quincy Newspapers in 2015.
  • 2 Owned by Venture Technologies Group (through Four Seasons Broadcasting), Granite operated WAOE under an SSA until its expiration the end of 2014. Venture Technologies Group now operates the station outright.
  • 3 These stations (including WPTA following its 2004 sale) were owned by Malara Broadcast Group, but operated by Granite under joint sales agreements until the sale to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting in 2015.

References
  1. Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting, Broadcasting & Cable, 11 August, 2009, Retrieved 19 October, 2018
  2. "Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting | Broadcasting & Cable". Broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  3. Lynch, Jason (2017-01-25). "Adweek – Breaking News in Advertising, Media and Technology". Mediaweek.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  4. "Granite Broadcasting Voluntarily Files Petition for Reorganization" (Press release). Granite Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  5. Scripps Buying Granite TVs in Buffalo, Detroit, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved 10 February 2014
  6. "Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  7. "Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  8. "Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  9. Letter CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 15 September 2015
  10. Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
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