Multimedia (media company)
Multimedia, Inc. was a media company that owned 10 daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers, two radio stations, five television stations, and a cable television system division. The company was headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Fate | Acquired by Gannett Co. (television counterpart sold to Universal Studios in 1996; cable TV counterpart sold to Cox Communications in 2000) Assets now existing as part of Gannett and Tegna Inc. |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Defunct | 1995 |
| Headquarters | Greenville, South Carolina |
Key people | Craig A. Dubow; Chairman, President & CEO |
| Products | Newspapers, television, and Internet media |
Number of employees | 49,675 |
History
Multimedia's origins can be traced to December 1932, when the News-Piedmont Company of Greenville, which published the Greenville News and Greenville Piedmont newspapers, acquired radio station WFBC, only weeks after the station relocated to Greenville from Knoxville, Tennessee. In November 1953 the News-Piedmont Co. acquired majority ownership of the Asheville Citizen and Asheville Times and its wholly owned radio station, WWNC. WFBC-TV, the News and Piedmont's television station, signed on from Greenville at the end of 1953.
The News-Piedmont Co. would expand its broadcast holdings with the acquisitions of WBIR-AM-FM-TV in Knoxville in 1961, and of the Southeastern Broadcasting Company, which owned WMAZ-AM-FM-TV in Macon, Georgia, in 1963. Then, in September 1967 the three commonly owned companies were merged, taking on the Multimedia, Inc. name. At the time Multimedia consisted of the Asheville and Greenville newspapers, three television stations and seven radio stations.
The company's biggest purchases came in 1976, when it purchased several properties from Cincinnati-based Avco, which was liquidating its media holdings. Multimedia first bought Avco's flagship television station, WLWT in Cincinnati, and later acquired Avco Embassy Television, the syndication division which produced and nationally distributed The Phil Donahue Show and a regionally-distributed program produced at WLWT, The Bob Braun Show. Avco Embassy would be renamed Multimedia Entertainment.
The company was involved in one of the more unusual media transactions in history. In 1983, it sold its flagship television station, WFBC-TV in Greenville (now WYFF) and WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Pulitzer, Inc. In return, Multimedia received Pulitzer's former flagship television station, KSDK in St. Louis. Multimedia used its new purchase as the testing ground for a new show hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael.
Multimedia was acquired by the Gannett Company in 1995;[1] after the sale was finalized, Gannett sold Multimedia Entertainment to MCA the following year.[2] In January 2000 the cable television division, which included systems in Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina was sold to Cox Communications. The North Carolina systems were resold to Suddenlink Communications in 2006.
The Multimedia name lives on as a holding company and licensee within what is now Tegna Inc.'s corporate structure. Productions under Multimedia Entertainment are now part of the NBCUniversal Television Distribution archives.
Former Multimedia-owned stations
Stations are listed in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
Television stations
Note: two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed on by a predecessor company of Multimedia.
| City of license / Market | Station | Channel TV (RF) |
Years owned | Current ownership status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macon, Georgia | WMAZ-TV | 13 (13) | 1963–1995 | CBS affiliate owned by Tegna |
| St. Louis | KSDK | 5 (35) | 1983–1995 | NBC affiliate owned by Tegna |
| Winston-Salem - Greensboro - High Point | WXII-TV | 12 (31) | 1972–1983 | NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television |
| Cincinnati | WLWT | 5 (35) | 1976–1995 | NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television |
| Cleveland | WKYC-TV 1 | 3 (17) | 1991–1995 | NBC affiliate owned by Tegna |
| Greenville - Spartanburg - Asheville | WFBC-TV ** | 4 (36) | 1954–1983 | NBC affiliate, WYFF, owned by Hearst Television |
| Knoxville | WBIR-TV | 10 (10) | 1960–1995 | NBC affiliate owned by Tegna |
| Nashville | WZTV | 17 (15) | 1979–1988 | Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group |
Footnotes:
- 1 Multimedia purchased only a simple majority (51 percent) stake in WKYC-TV from NBC in 1991. Gannett retained the same share until 1999, when it purchased the remaining portion (49 percent) from NBC.
Radio stations
| AM Station | FM Station |
| Market | Station | Years owned | Current ownership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Rock | KAAY-1090 | 1975–1985 | Owned by Cumulus Media |
| KEZQ-FM/KLPQ-FM-93.7 | 1976–1985 | KKPT, owned by Entercom | |
| Macon, Georgia | WMAZ-940 | 1963–1995 | WMAC, owned by Cumulus Media |
| WMAZ-FM/WAYS-99.1 | 1963–1995 | WDEN-FM, owned by Cumulus Media | |
| Louisville | WAKY-790 | 1975–1985 | WKRD, owned by iHeartMedia |
| WVEZ-106.9 | 1980–1985 | Owned by SummitMedia | |
| Shreveport | KEEL-710 | 1975–1994 | Owned by Townsquare Media |
| KMBQ-FM/KITT-FM-93.7 | 1975–1994 | KXKS-FM, owned by Townsquare Media | |
| Asheville, North Carolina | WWNC-570 | 1953–1987 | Owned by iHeartMedia |
| Greenville, South Carolina | WFBC-1330** | 1932–1995 | WYRD, owned by Entercom |
| WFBC-FM-93.7** | 1947–1995 | Owned by Entercom | |
| Spartanburg, South Carolina | WORD-910 | 1989–1994 | Owned by Entercom |
| Knoxville | WBIR-1240 | 1961–1980 | WIFA, owned by Salem Media Group |
| WBIR-FM-103.5 | 1961–1980 | WIMZ-FM, owned by Midwest Communications | |
| Wauwatosa - Milwaukee, WI | WEZW-103.7 | 1978–1994 | WXSS, owned by Entercom |
References
- "Gannett and Multimedia enter into a merger agreement by which Gannett will acquire Multimedia", Business Wire, July 24, 1995. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from HighBeam Research.
- Miller, Nick. "Gannett Sells Talk Shows", The Cincinnati Post, November 25, 1996. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from HighBeam Research.