Granite Broadcasting

Granite Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988,[1] and was the first African-American station group in the United States considered to be a "major" station operator (though not the first minority-owned chain, a distinction held by the now-defunct Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).

Granite Broadcasting LLC
TypePrivate
IndustryTelevision
Founded1988
FateAcquired by Quincy Media
SuccessorQuincy Media
Gray Television
Headquarters767 Third Avenue
New York City United States
Key people
W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck, Founders
OwnerSilver Point Capital

Granite's chairman/CEO is Peter Markham, with Duane Lammers as COO.[2]

History

W. Don Cornwell left Goldman Sachs' investment banking department in 1988. He co-founded Granite Broadcasting Corporation with Stuart Beck on February 8, 1988.[3][4] In 1993, it purchased two stations from Meredith Corporation, which included WTVH in Syracuse and KSEE in Fresno for $38 million.[5]

In 1997, Granite purchased TV station KOFY-TV for $143.8 million, becoming the largest purchase ever.[6] Cornwell served as CEO and chairman of Granite until stepping down in 2009.[4] During his time with the company, Granite expanded to 23-channels and 11 markets.[1] In April 2006, Granite bought out WBNG-TV in Binghamton from SJL Broadcasting, which was in the process of liquidating its broadcasting holdings, which paid $45 million to cost.[7]

Granite declared Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy[8] on December 11, 2006, mainly due to the complications of the 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment which nullified the sales of the group's Detroit and San Francisco The WB affiliates due to those stations being left out of The CW because of CBS Corporation-owned stations in both cities taking the affiliation by default.[9] It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2007 under the control of private equity firm Silver Point Capital (which also took over ComCorp later that year).

In 2011, it filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Broadcasting Group for having the Fox affiliation to appear on WPTA's digital subchannel after dropping it from WFFT. The suit was settled in 2013, and WFFT reclaimed the Fox affiliation.[10]

In February 2014, Granite reached deals to sell the majority of its stations. WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York and WMYD in Detroit were sold to the E. W. Scripps Company[11] for $110 million (the latter forming a duopoly with Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV). Most of its remaining stations (mostly in small markets), along with the Malara Broadcast Group's two stations, went to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting (which originally planned to operate the LMA-controlled stations Granite currently provides services to for Quincy).[12][13] SagamoreHill was subsequently dropped from the Quincy transaction.[14]

In July 2015, the deal was reworked yet again to have SagamoreHill acquire WISE, the SSA between WISE and WPTA (owned by Quincy) wound down within nine months of its closure, and have all of WISE's network affiliations moved to WPTA in exchange for its The CW Plus affiliation.[15] On September 15, 2015, the FCC approved the deal,[16] which was completed on November 2.[17]

Station list

Current
City of license / Market Station
Owned since Current affiliation
Syracuse, NY WTVH[lower-alpha 1] 5 (18) 1993 CBS

Former
City of license / Market Station
Years owned Current status
Fresno, CA KSEE 24 (38) 1993–2013 NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
San Francisco–San Jose, CA KNTV 11 (12) 1990–2002 NBC owned-and-operated (O&O)
KBWB/KOFY-TV 20 (19) 1998–2018 Grit affiliate owned by CNZ Communications, LLC
Peoria, IL WEEK-TV 25 (25) 1988–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
WHOI 19 (19) [lower-alpha 2] TBD owned-and-operated (O&O)
WAOE 59 (39) [lower-alpha 3] OnTV4U affiliate owned by Venture Technologies Group
Fort Wayne, IN WPTA 21 (24) 1989–2004[lower-alpha 4] ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
WISE-TV 33 (18) 2004–2015 The CW affiliate owned by Gray Television
Detroit, MI WXON/WDWB/WMYD 20 (21) 1997–2014 Independent station owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Kalamazoo, MI WWMT 3 (8) 1995–1998 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Lansing, MI WLAJ 53 (51) 1996–1998 ABC affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting[lower-alpha 5]
Duluth, MN–Superior, WI KBJR-TV 6 (19) 1988–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
KDLH 3 (33) [lower-alpha 4] The CW affiliate owned by Gray Television
Chisholm, MN KRII[lower-alpha 6] 11 (11) 2002–2015 NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Binghamton, NY WBNG-TV 12 (7) 2006–2015 CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television
Buffalo, NY WKBW-TV 7 (38) 1995–2014 ABC affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Austin, TX KBVO-TV/KEYE-TV 42 (43) 1994–1999 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

Notes
  1. Owned by Granite, WTVH is operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group under a local marketing agreement (LMA).
  2. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Granite operated WHOI under an SSA prior to selling WEEK-TV to Quincy Newspapers in 2015.
  3. Owned by Venture Technologies Group (through Four Seasons Broadcasting), Granite operated WAOE under an SSA until its expiration the end of 2014. Venture Technologies Group now operates the station outright.
  4. These stations (including WPTA following its 2004 sale) were owned by Malara Broadcast Group, but operated by Granite under joint sales agreements until the sale to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting in 2015.
  5. Operated through an SSA by Nexstar Media Group.
  6. Satellite of KBJR-TV.

References
  1. Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting, Broadcasting & Cable, August 11, 2009, Retrieved October 19, 2018
  2. "Duane A Lammers". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  3. "Father and Son Investment Bankers Describe Wall Street Regrets". BloombergQuint. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  4. "W Don Cornwell, Granite Broadcasting Corp: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  5. "Financial Briefs". Variety. December 20, 1993. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  6. "Granite purchases KOFY". Variety. October 7, 1997. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  7. "Granite closes on Southern Tier TV station". Buffalo Business Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  8. "Granite Broadcasting Goes Bankrupt". Black Enterprise. May 1, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  9. "Granite Broadcasting Voluntarily Files Petition for Reorganization" (Press release). Granite Broadcasting Corporation. December 11, 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2006.
  10. "Nexstar Settles Antitrust Suit Against Local TV Rival - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  11. cmarcucci (June 17, 2014). "Scripps closes on Granite deal | Radio & Television Business Report". Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  12. Scripps Buying Granite TVs in Buffalo, Detroit, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved February 10, 2014
  13. "Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  14. "Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  15. "Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  16. Letter CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved September 15, 2015
  17. Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
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