Waypoint Media

Waypoint Media is a confederation of holding companies that own and operate radio and television stations mostly in small cities in the United States. Primary owners of the various companies include Mike Reed, William Christian, Paige Christian (William's wife), and Bettina Finn.

Waypoint Media was originally owned by Reed. The Christians had previously operated as Vision Communications and, along with Finn, Sound Communications (which operate television and radio stations respectively in Western New York and the Southern Tier) before Bill Christian partnered with Waypoint to form Star City Broadcasting to operate stations in Lafayette, Indiana. Bill Christian purchased a stake in Waypoint by 2019.[1]

Waypoint's various component companies have offices in Painted Post, New York; Glen Head, New York; Lafayette, Indiana; Meridian, Mississippi; and Little Rock, Arkansas. It purchased the assets of the former Independent News Network in June 2019 with plans to keep INN's office in Little Rock open under the name News Hub. In November 2019, Christian and Reed announced an agreement to sell all their remaining broadcast assets to Standard Media in a deal that was forecast to close following regulatory approval in early 2020.[2] Although the acquisition by Standard Media was approved in February 2020, the consummation is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in January 2021, Waypoint filed with the FCC that the sale would not move forward.[3] One month after the Standard Media deal collapsed, news emerged that the Christians would be exiting the upstate New York market and selling its radio stations in that state to Seven Mountains Media, with stations being spun off to Family Life Network to assuage antitrust concerns. The moves would leave Seven Mountains as the dominant commercial broadcaster in the Southern Tier.[4]