River City Broadcasting L.P. was a major television and radio station operator in mid-sized markets in the United States, based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Overview The firm was formed in 1989 as a partnership between Barry Baker and Larry Marcus, both former executives of Koplar Communications in St. Louis who had unsuccessfully tried to buy Koplar's KPLR-TV there. Through a series of acquisitions between 1989 and 1995, River City amassed eight television stations and 29 radio stations in a total of 15 medium-sized markets, but most notably, in 1994, it bought out three network-affiliated TV stations and another four radio stations that were owned by Continental Broadcasting, formerly Anchor Media, including KOVR, WLOS, and WSYX. In the summer of 1994, River City and ABC reached an agreement to renew its existing contracts in Columbus and Asheville, while agreeing to affiliate its flagship at that time, and lame duck Fox affiliate KDNL-TV in St. Louis with ABC. The acquisition of Keymarket Communications in 1995 added additional radio stations in the Buffalo, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, and Scranton–Wilkes-Barre markets.

In May 1996, River City sold its stations to the Sinclair Broadcast Group for $1.2 billion. The merger moved Sinclair into the top 25 owners of broadcast properties in the United States. Sinclair had to wait to close on some of the purchases; the Upstate South Carolina radio cluster was not acquired until 1998 because it overlapped with WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina, which serves the region.

Former stations Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

+ Stations owned by River City Broadcasting Media market State Station Purchased Sold Notes Los Angeles California KBLA 1995 1996 Sacramento KOVR 1994 1997 Indianapolis Indiana WTTV 1991 1997 WTTK 1991 1997 Des Moines Iowa KDSM-TV 1991 1997 St. Louis Missouri KDNL-TV 1989 1997 KPNT 1991 1996 WVRV 1990 1996 New Orleans Louisiana KMEZ 1995 1996 WSMB 1995 1996 WLMG 1995 1996 WWL 1995 1996 Albuquerque New Mexico KLSK 1994 1996 KZRR 1994 1996 KZSS 1994 1996 Buffalo New York WBEN 1995 1996 WKSE 1995 1996 WMJQ 1995 1996 WWKB 1995 1996 Asheville North Carolina WLOS 1994 1997 Columbus Ohio WSYX 1994 1997 Wilkes-Barre–Scranton Pennsylvania WGBI 1995 1996 WGGY 1995 1996 WILK 1995 1996 WKRZ 1995 1996 Greenville South Carolina WFBC 1995 1998 WFBC-FM 1995 1998 WFBC-TV 1994 1997 WORD 1995 1998 WSPA 1995 1998 WSPA-FM 1995 1998 Memphis Tennessee WJCE 1995 1996 WOGY 1995 1996 WRVR 1995 1996 Nashville WLAC 1995 1996 WJCE-FM 1995 1996 WLAC-FM 1995 1996 San Antonio Texas KABB 1989 1997

See also Sinclair Broadcast Group WLOS

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