LIN TV

'LIN TV Corporation' is an American holding company that operates 31 television stations.

Contents

History

Stations

External links

History

LIN TV's roots trace back to the founding of its former parent, LIN Broadcasting Corporation, in the mid 1960s. LIN Broadcasting was engaged in radio, television, direct marketing, information and learning, music publishing, and record labels. LIN takes its initials from three major cities where it originally owned radio stations: 'L'ouisville, 'I'ndianapolis and 'N'ashville (all located on Interstate 65).
LIN Broadcasting made acquisitions in broadcasting, expanded into paging, and in the early 1980s the company entered the fledgling cellular telephone business. By 1983 the company owned seven television stations and by 1985 it owned and managed cellular telephone licenses serving Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia. LIN Broadcasting sold its paging operations and six of its radio stations in 1986 to help finance the development of its cellular business.
LIN Television's Chief Executive Officer is Vincent L. Sadusky. Sadusky had formerly been LIN's Chief Financial Officer as well as Vice President and treasurer since 2004, and previously was CFO for Telemundo, working closely on its sale to GE/NBC. Sadusky had been interim CEO since former Chairman Gary R. Chapman announced his impending retirement in June 2006, and through the company's search for a permanent replacement. He was officially installed as CEO upon Chapman's official retirement on July 10, 2006. [1]
In March 1990, McCaw Cellular Communications purchased a 52% interest in LIN Broadcasting. McCaw was acquired by AT&T in 1994, after which LIN Broadcastings television operations were spun off as a public company traded on the NASDAQ stock market and 45%-owned by AT&T. The new company, LIN Television Corporation, owned and/or operated 12 stations and its stock price increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 31% between 1994 and 1998. During this period LIN acquired WIVB-TV in Buffalo, New York and WTNH-TV in New Haven, Connecticut.
In March 1998, LIN Television was acquired by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated (HMTF), a leading private investment firm based in Dallas, Texas. At the time of the HMTF acquisition, LIN contributed its Dallas NBC affiliate to a joint venture with the network that also holds the San Diego affiliate. Under HMTFs ownership, LIN Television has grown considerably through a wide range of transactions:
In June 1999, LIN acquired WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a station to which it had been providing consulting services for a number of years.
In August, LIN helped finance the establishment of Banks Broadcasting, a minority-owned television broadcast company in which it holds a 50% interest. Today, Banks owns the CW Television Network affiliate KNIN-TV in Boise, Idaho.
LIN purchased WAPA-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico in October. In April 2000, LIN acquired WLFI-TV, serving Lafayette, Indiana in exchange for 66% of its station WAND-TV in Decatur, Illinois. LIN still provides management oversight for WAND.
LIN purchased WWLP-TV in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2000. In 2001, LIN acquired WJPX and two satellite facilities in Puerto Rico, and WNLO-TV in Buffalo.
The company exercised and closed on options to purchase WOTV-TV in Battle Creek, Michigan and WVBT-TV in Norfolk, Virginia, both stations that it had already managed, in January 2002.
In February, LIN agreed to acquire seven stations in six markets from STC Broadcasting. The transaction of the stations was completed in May. Also in May, LIN TV Corp. completed the issuance of 19.55 million shares of Class A Common Stock through its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
In December 2003, LIN TV announced the sale of two television stations in Abilene and San Angelo, Texas. This was followed the next month by the sale of a station in Flint, Michigan.
In late August 2005, LIN purchased several stations from Emmis Communications, the stations purchased were WALA and WBPG in Mobile, Alabama, WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, Indiana, KRQE in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and WLUK in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In July 2006, LIN announced the planned purchase a second station in New Mexico, KASA-TV, from Raycom Media.
In May, 2006, LIN TV announced the sale of Puerto Rico stations WAPA-TV and WJPX to InterMedia Partners, L.P. for $130 million.[2]
On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company.[3]

Stations

'TV stations Owned and/or Operated by LIN'

'Current DMA#'	'Market'	'Station'	'Channel (DT)'	'Current Affiliation'	'Acquired'	'Notes'
26.	Indianapolis, Indiana	'WISH-TV'	8 (9)	CBS	1984	Ex-flagship
		'WNDY-TV'	23 (32)	MyNetworkTV	2005	Licensed to Marion, Indiana
		'WIIH-CA'	17	Univision	ca 2000	Simulcasted WISH's weather radar until 2003
29.	New Haven, Connecticut	'WTNH'	8 (10)	ABC	1994
		'WCTX'	59 (39)	MyNetworkTV	2001	Operated by LIN since 1995
32.	Columbus, Ohio	'WWHO'	53 (46)	CW	2005	Licensed to Chillicothe, Ohio Was UPN/WB until Sept. 2006
39.	Grand Rapids, Michigan	'WOOD-TV'	8 (7)	NBC	1999
	Kalamazoo, Michigan	'WOTV'	41 (20)	ABC	2001	LMA'd by LIN for several years prior
		'WXSP-CA'	15 ★ ★	MyNetworkTV	2002	★ ★ Simulcasted on: ★ WOBC-CA 14 Battle Creek ★ WOLP-CA 27 Grand Rapids ★ WOMS-CA 29 Muskegon ★ WOHO-CA 33 Holland ★ WOKZ-CA 50 Kalamazoo ★ WOOD-DT 8.2 and WOTV-DT 41.2
42.	Norfolk, Virginia	'WAVY-TV'	10 (31)	NBC	1968	Licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia
		'WVBT'	43 (29)	Fox	2002	Operated by LIN since 1995; licensed to Virginia Beach
44.	Albuquerque, New Mexico	'KRQE'	13 (16)	CBS	2005
		'KASA-TV'	2 (27)	Fox	2007
	Roswell, New Mexico	'KBIM'	10 (41)	CBS	2005	Satellite of KRQE
	Durango, Colorado	'KREZ'	6 (15)	CBS	2005	Satellite of KRQE
50.	Buffalo, New York	'WIVB-TV'	4 (32)	CBS	1995
		'WNLO'	23 (39)	CW	2001	Was Independent until 2003; UPN until Sept. 2006
51.	Austin, Texas	'KXAN'	36 (21)	NBC	1979
		'KNVA'	54 (49)	CW (primary)/ MyNetworkTV (secondary)	LMA	Operated by LIN since the 1990s. Was WB until Sept. 2006
		'KBVO-CA'	51	TeleFutura	2001
	Llano, Texas	'KXAM-TV'	14 (27)	NBC	1987	Satellite of KXAN
52.	Providence, Rhode Island	'WPRI'	12 (13)	CBS	2002	'Flagship'
		'WNAC-TV'	64 (54)	Fox (primary)/ MyNetworkTV (secondary)	LMA	Owned by LIN 2001-02
61.	Mobile, Alabama	'WALA-TV'	10 (9)	Fox	2005
		'WBPG'	55 (9)	CW	2006	Licensed to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Operated by LIN since 2005. Was WB until Sept. 2006 High-definition programming on 'WALA-DT2' (10.2).
62.	Dayton, Ohio	'WDTN'	2 (50)	NBC	2002	Was ABC until 2004
70.	Green Bay, Wisconsin	'WLUK-TV'	11 (51)	Fox	2005
72.	Toledo, Ohio	'WUPW'	36 (46)	Fox	2002
84.	Decatur, Illinois	'WAND-TV'	17 (18)	NBC	★ ★ ★	★ ★ ★ Owned by Block Communications in a joint venture; was the first station owned by LIN TV from 1966 to 2000 Was ABC until 2005
107.	Fort Wayne, Indiana	'WANE-TV'	15 (31)	CBS	1984
109.	Springfield, Massachusetts	'WWLP'	22 (11)	NBC	2000
151.	Terre Haute, Indiana	'WTHI-TV'	10 (24)	CBS	2005
189.	Lafayette, Indiana	'WLFI-TV'	18 (11)	CBS	2000	Obtained in exchange for WAND

LIN has partial holdings in three other stations, however LIN does not control these stations:

★ A 50% share in Banks Broadcasting, which owns one CW affiliate:

★
★ 'KNIN' 9 Boise, Idaho (formerly UPN)

★ 24% of two NBC Owned-and-Operated stations

★
★ 'KNSD' 39/7 San Diego, California

★
★
★ 'KBOP-CA' 43 San Diego, California ''(owned by Commercial Broadcasting Corp.; operated by the NBC / LIN joint venture)''

★
★ 'KXAS' 5, Fort Worth, Texas (see below table)
'Former LIN Stations'

'Market'	'Station'	'Channel'	'Affiliation'	'Owned by LIN'	'Sold To'	'Current Ownership'	'Notes'
Abilene, Texas	KRBC-TV	9	NBC	2002-04	Mission Broadcasting	Mission Broadcasting	Controlled by Nexstar-owned KTAB
Bay City-Flint-Saginaw, Michigan	WEYI-TV	25	NBC	2002-04	Barrington Broadcasting	Barrington Broadcasting
Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas	KXAS-TV	5	NBC	1975-97	NBC O&O	NBC O&O	24% retained by LIN; ex-flagship
Omaha, Nebraska	WOWT	6	NBC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Obtained in a three-way deal with KAKE where it was swapped for WWLP
San Angelo, Texas	KACB	3	NBC	2002-04	Mission Broadcasting	Mission Broadcasting	Now KSAN-TV; controlled by Nexstar-owned KLST
Wichita, Kansas	KAKE-TV	10	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Obtained in a three-way deal with WOWT where it was swapped for WWLP
Colby, Kansas	KLBY	4	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Satellite of KAKE-TV
Dodge City, Kansas	KUPK	13	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Satellite of KAKE-TV

LIN also previously owned two stations in San Juan, Puerto Rico and their satellite stations across Puerto Rico; they were sold to InterMedia Partners, L.P. in March 2007. The more notable of the two, WAPA, also has a cable feed called WAPA America which is seen on DirecTV, RCN and several cable systems along the East Coast and in St. Croix.

'Station'	'Channel (DT)'	'Affiliation'	'Owned by LIN'	'Notes'
'WAPA-TV'	4 (27)	Independent	1998-2007	Satellites ★ WTIN 14 Ponce ★ WNJX-TV 22 Mayagüez
'WJPX'	24 (21)	MTV/Local	2001-2007	Satellites ★ WKPV 20 Ponce ★ WJWN-TV 38 San Sebastián ★ WIRS 42 Yauco

External links

★ Official web site

★ List of LIN stations