Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Through its Community Newspaper Holdings subsidiary, Raycom also owned multiple newspapers in small and medium-sized markets throughout the United States.
History
Raycom's three founding owners were Stephen Burr (a Boston lawyer), Ken Hawkins (general manager) and William Zortman (news director) with funding from Retirement Systems of Alabama. In 1996, Raycom purchased 15 television and two radio stations and Bert Ellis's Raycom Sports from Ellis Communications for over $700 million. In mid-1996, the company agreed to purchase eight stations from Federal Enterprises Inc., based in suburban Detroit, for $160 million. Raycom bought Aflac's broadcast division of five TV stations in August 1996, using, in part, a loan from the RSA. The three groups merged to form Raycom Media. John Hayes initially headed up the company until 2001.
In 1998, Raycom took a 35% stake in Worldnow, an internet publishing provider for broadcast media.:2 That same year, Raycom purchased Malrite Communications, owner of five stations: two Puerto Rico stations (counting a semi-satellite station), three Ohio stations, and one Florida station.
In 2001, Paul McTear took over as Raycom's president and CEO from Hayes.:2 In 2003, Raycom Media bought out all of the Fox-affiliated television stations from Waitt Broadcasting.
In April 2005, Raycom tested The Tube Music Network on station WFLX, a Fox affiliate, for three weeks. Raycom announced on April 25, 2005, it was the launch station group for The Tube affiliating 29 stations. Raycom launched the network in June 2005 on 30 stations. Raycom Media was an initial round investor in The Tube Music Network.
On January 31, 2006, the company acquired the Liberty Corporation. Raycom agreed to affiliate its NBC stations' subchannels with NBC Weather Plus, a joint venture between the affiliates and the NBC station group. In August, Raycom sold a dozen of its stations to Barrington Broadcasting.
On November 12, 2007, Raycom announced its intention to acquire some of the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln National Corporation's Lincoln Financial Media for $583 million. Lincoln Financial Sports was merged into Raycom Sports later that year. The purchase of the stations were completed on April 2, 2008.
Around 2010, Raycom moved into producing its own programming. In September 2011, Raycom partnered with E.W. Scripps and Cox Media to produce Right This Minute. Also in 2011, the company partnered with ITV Studios America and launched America Now, a lifestyle-oriented news magazine. The magazine lasted until September 2014. In partnership with Bellum Entertainment Group in 2014, Flip My Food and Fix It and Finish It were launched as lead in strips to Raycom early newscasts. In the third quarter of 2014, Raycom purchased RTM Productions, based in Nashville and produces PowerNation branded auto-oriented shows for the Paramount Network, NBCSN, and CBS Sports Network.:2 Raycom acquired the assets of live and studio sports programming production company Tupelo-Honey Productions in January 2012.
In 2011, Raycom was an initial investor in Bounce TV, a broadcast subchannel network. Raycom News Network Digital Hub, an online news aggregator and exchange, was started in 2011 at the company's main office in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom Media was an initial investor in Katz Broadcasting, launched in 2014 and a Bounce affiliated subchannel network group.
On November 20, 2013, Raycom entered into a shared services agreement to operate Louisiana Media Company's WVUE-TV in New Orleans.
On August 10, 2015, Raycom announced that it would purchase stations owned by Drewry Communications for $160 million. The sale was completed on December 1, 2015.
Raycom acquired Indianapolis-based sports production company WebStream Sports on September 14, 2015. WebStream was subsequently merged with existing Raycom entity Tupelo Honey to form Tupelo Raycom.
In October 2015, Raycom acquired Fox affiliate KNIN-TV for $14.5 million from E. W. Scripps Company; the FCC required that the station be divested during Scripps' acquisition of Journal Communications, but Scripps entered into shared services agreements with Raycom to continue operating KNIN.
Raycom purchased PureCars, a digital ad platform focused on automotive sales, for $125 million in November 2015.
On April 4, 2017, Raycom reached an agreement to acquire WVUE outright, and the sale was finalized on August 8.
In May 2017, Raycom purchased Calkins Media's WWSB and WTXL-TV. A sale of Calkins' WAAY-TV to Raycom affiliate American Spirit Media was blocked by the Department of Justice due to Raycom's ownership of WAFF-TV, and was instead sold to Heartland Media. The deal increased Raycom's reach to 16% of U.S. television households.
On September 25, 2017, Raycom announced that it would merge with Community Newspaper Holdings (CNHI), which was principally owned by Retirement Systems of Alabama. CNHI would continue to operate as a subsidiary of Raycom. To comply with FCC newspaper cross-ownership restrictions, Raycom divested newspapers in the seven markets where CNHI and Raycom both owned properties.
On June 14, 2018, Raycom announced the launch of InvestigateTV, an OTT app that showcased longer-form content from Raycom as well as content from ProPublica, News21 at Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism, and NerdWallet.
On June 25, 2018, Gray Television announced its intent to acquire Raycom for $3.65 billion, pending regulatory approval. The combined company would be led by Raycom's current president and CEO Pat LaPlatney, with current Gray CEO Hilton Howell acting as executive chairman and co-CEO. The acquisition, which Gray expected to close in late 2018, would give Gray 142 stations in 92 markets, making Gray the third-largest owner of television stations in the United States, with a total market share of 24%. CNHI, which was sold separately, was not included in the sale to Gray. The sale was approved by the FCC on December 20.Memorandum Opinion and Order, Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018. The deal was completed on January 2, 2019."Gray Receives Regulatory Approvals for Raycom Media and Divestiture Transactions" , Gray Television, December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018."Gray Completes Acquisitions for Raycom Media and Related Transactions" , Gray Television, January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.
Operations Prior to its merger with Gray, Raycom owned and/or operated 65 television stations and two radio stations in 44 markets located in 20 states, covering over 16% of U.S. television households. Raycom also employed more than 4,800 individuals in full- and part-time positions.
Former stations Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license. Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station built and signed on by Raycom Media.
+ Stations owned by Raycom Media Media market State/Territory Station Purchased Sold Notes Birmingham Alabama WBRC 2009 2019 Dothan WDFX-TV 2003 2019 Huntsville WAFF 1996 2019 Montgomery WSFA 2006 2019 Jonesboro Arkansas KAIT 2006 2019 Tucson Arizona KOLD-TV 1996 2019 KMSB 2011 2019 KTTU 2011 2019 Colorado Springs Colorado KXRM-TV 2000 2006 KXTU-LD 1999 2006 Panama City Florida WPGX 2003 2019 Sarasota WWSB 2017 2019 Tallahassee WTXL-TV 2017 2019 West Palm Beach WFLX 1998 2019 Albany Georgia WFXL 2004 2006 WALB 2006 2019 Augusta WFXG 2003 2019 Columbus WTVM 1996 2019 WXTX 2003 2019 Savannah WSAV-TV 1997 1997 WTOC-TV 1996 2019 Honolulu Hawaii KFVE 1999 2019 KGMB 2009 2019 KHNL 1999 2019 Hilo KGMD-TV 1999 2019 KHBC-TV 1999 2019 Wailuku–Maui KGMV 1999 2019 KOGG 1999 2019 Boise Idaho KNIN-TV 2015 2019 Evansville Indiana WFIE 2006 2019 Waterloo–Cedar Rapids Iowa KWWL 1996 2006 Louisville Kentucky WAVE 2006 2019 Baton Rouge Louisiana WAFB 1996 2019 WBXH-CD 2003 2019 Lake Charles KPLC 2006 2019 KVHP 2016 2019 New Orleans WVUE-DT 2013 2019 Shreveport KSLA 1996 2019 Marquette–Escanaba Michigan WLUC-TV 1997 2006 Sault Ste. Marie WTOM-TV 1997 2006 Traverse City WPBN-TV 1997 2006 Biloxi–Gulfport–Pascagoula Mississippi WLOX 2006 2019 Jackson WJTV 1996 1997 WLBT 2006 2019 WLOO 2012 2019 WDBD 2012 2019 Hattiesburg–Laurel WHLT 1996 1997 WDAM-TV 1997 2019 Cape Girardeau Missouri KFVS-TV 1996 2019 WQTV-LP 2002 2019 WQWQ-LP 2002 2019 Kirksville KTVO 1997 2006 KYOU-TV 2003 2019 Reno Nevada KAME-TV 1996 1997 Albuquerque–Santa Fe New Mexico KASA-TV 1999 2007 Syracuse New York WSTM-TV 1997 2006 WSTQ-LP 2003 2006 Charlotte North Carolina WBTV 2008 2019 Washington–Greenville–New Bern WITN-TV 1997 1997 Wilmington WECT 1996 2019 WSFX-TV 2004 2019 WWAY 2006 2006 Cincinnati Ohio WXIX-TV 1998 2019 Cleveland WOIO 1998 2019 WUAB 2000 2019 Toledo WNWO-TV 1998 2006 WTOL 2006 2019 WUPW 1996 1999 2012 2019 Lawton Oklahoma KSWO-TV 2015 2019 Charleston South Carolina WCSC-TV 2008 2019 Columbia WACH 1996 2006 WIS 2006 2019 Myrtle Beach–Florence WMBF-TV ** 2008 2019 Aberdeen South Dakota KABY-TV 1997 2004 Pierre KPRY-TV 1997 2004 Sioux Falls KSFY-TV 1997 2004 Knoxville Tennessee WTNZ 1996 2019 Memphis WMC 1996 2000 WMC-FM 1996 2000 WMC-TV 1996 2019 Amarillo Texas KEYU 2015 2019 KEYU-FM 2015 2018 KFDA-TV 2015 2019 KZBZ-CD 2015 2019 Harlingen–McAllen–Brownsville KGBT-TV 2006 2006 Lubbock KCBD 2006 2019 Midland–Odessa KTLE-LP 2015 2019 KTXC 2015 2018 KWAB-TV 2015 2019 KWES-TV 2015 2019 Tyler–Longview–Jacksonville KLTV 2006 2019 Lufkin–Nacogdoches KTRE 2006 2019 Waco–Temple–Bryan KRHD-CD 2015 2019 KSCM-LP 2015 2017 KXXV 2015 2019 Wichita Falls KAUZ-TV 2015 2019 Richmond Virginia WTVR-TV 1997 2009 WWBT 2008 2019 WUPV 2006 2019 Richland–Pasco–Kennewick Washington KNDU 1997 1999 Yakima KNDO 1997 1999 Ponce Puerto Rico WSUR-DT 1996 2005 San Juan WLII-DT 1996 2005
Other assets In addition to television stations, Raycom also owned: Bounce TV (investment) Broadview Media Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. Frankly (20%) WorldNow Katz Broadcasting (investment) Pure Cars Raycom Sports RTM Productions PowerNation (automotive hobby programming for the Paramount Network, CBS Sports Network and NBCSN)
Tupelo Raycom Tupelo Raycom is Raycom Media's production company formed from the merger of Tupelo Honey Productions and WebStream Sports. Clients of the company include NBC, CBS, ESPN, Turner Sports, Fox, Travel Channel, Bounce TV and Live Nation.
Raycom acquired the assets of live and studio sports programming production company Tupelo-Honey Productions in January 2012. Tupelo Honey assets included a 50% share of MY Tupelo Entertainment, a joint venture form in 2009 as partnership between Cary Glotzer's Tupelo-Honey and Michael Yudin's MY-Entertainment Company. Yudin bought back Raycom's half of My Tupelo in March 2014.
Raycom acquired Indianapolis, Indiana-based sports production company WebStream Sports on September 14, 2015. WebStream was subsequently merged with existing Raycom entity Tupelo Honey to form Tupelo Raycom in January 2016.
Notes
References
External links InvestigateTV