The Liberty Corporation was a media corporation originally based in Greenville, South Carolina. At its peak, Liberty owned 15 network-affiliated television stations across the Midwest and Southern regions of the United States. Cable advertising sales group CableVantage Inc., video production facility Take Ten Productions and broadcast equipment distributor Broadcast Merchandising Corporation were also some of its assets.
Liberty was founded in 1919 when W. Frank Hipp, a former top agent at Spartanburg-based Southeastern Life Insurance Company, struck out on his own. Within a decade, Liberty had grown large enough to buy his former employer. It entered broadcasting in 1930, when it bought WIS in Columbia—the start of what would become the Broadcasting Company of the South, renamed Cosmos Broadcasting in 1965. Under Francis Hipp, who succeeded his father in 1943, Liberty reorganized as a holding company, The Liberty Corporation, in 1967.Archive of company history
Liberty sold its insurance subsidiaries, Liberty Life and Pierce National Life, to Royal Bank of Canada in 2000. Cosmos was then folded directly into the Liberty banner.
After the sale of its insurance division, the company employed approximately 1,400 people. The executive officers included chairman and CEO W. Hayne Hipp (who, with his family, owned about 25% of the company before its sale to Raycom Media), president and COO James M. Keelor, CFO Howard L. Schrott.
On August 25, 2005, Liberty agreed to be bought out by Raycom Media. Raycom paid $987 million, or $47.35 per Liberty share, and assumed Liberty's debts of approximately $110 million in the buyout. The acquisition was completed on January 31, 2006. After closing the deal, Raycom sold a number of stations, including two from the Liberty portfolio. They included ABC affiliate WWAY-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina to Morris Multimedia and CBS affiliate KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas to Barrington Broadcasting. Also included with the merger was a construction permit for a new station in the Myrtle Beach–Florence, South Carolina market that Liberty applied for in 1996 and was granted by the FCC in October 2005, shortly after the merger announcement; Raycom would use the permit to build and sign-on WMBF-TV on August 7, 2008.
Liberty stations at the time of the merger are now under the ownership of Gray Media, which acquired Raycom in 2019.
Former stations Stations are arranged in order by state and city of license. (**) – Indicates station was built and signed-on by Liberty.
+ Stations owned by Liberty Corporation Media market State Station Purchased Sold Notes Montgomery–Selma Alabama WSFA-TV 1959 2006 Jonesboro Arkansas KAIT 1986 2006 Albany Georgia WALB 1998 2006 Evansville Indiana WFIE 1981 2006 Louisville Kentucky WAVE 1981 2006 Lake Charles Louisiana KPLC 1986 2006 New Orleans WDSU 1972 1989 Marquette–EscanabaMichigan WJMN-TV 1981 1984 Biloxi–Gulfport Mississippi WLOX 1995 2006 Jackson WLBT 2000 2006 Wilmington North Carolina WWAY 1999 2006 Toledo Ohio WTOL 1965 2006 Columbia South Carolina WIS ** 1953 2006 Myrtle Beach–Florence WMBF-TV – Harlingen–Brownsville Texas KGBT-TV 1998 2006 Lubbock KCBD 2000 2006 Tyler–Longview KLTV 2002 2006 Lufkin–Nacogdoches KTRE 2002 2006 Green Bay Wisconsin WFRV-TV 1981 1984
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