OTA Broadcasting, LLC was a broadcasting company founded in 2011 by

Michael Dell Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. As of May 2025, accordin ...

. The company was based in

Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...

History

OTA Broadcasting was founded in 2011 by

's MSD Capital. It had been rumored that Dell formed OTA Broadcasting to buy stations that could be sold in the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) spectrum auction. The company's first acquisition was announced in June 2011 when it was announced that it was acquiring KTLN-TV in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city in and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of th ...

. The purchase closed that October. OTA reached an agreement to purchase WTBL-CD in Lenoir, NC, located in the Charlotte DMA, for $500,000. On October 4, 2013,

Journal Broadcast Group Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

announced that it had entered an agreement to sell

KMIR-TV KMIR-TV (channel 36) is a television station licensed to Palm Springs, California, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Coachella Valley. It is owned by Entravision Communications (as the company's only NBC affiliate), and is sist ...

and

KPSE-LD KPSE-LD (channel 50) is a low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power television station licensed to Palm Springs, California, United States, serving the Coachella Valley as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Entravision Communications ...

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

to OTA. The acquisition closed in January 2014. KMIR became OTA's first station affiliated with one of the " Big Three" networks. On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced that OTA's WEMW-CD was a successful bidder in the spectrum auction, and would be surrendering its license in exchange for $12,394,400. OTA surrendered WEMW-CD's license to the FCC for cancellation on July 21, 2017.

Post-spectrum auction

On July 21, 2017, OTA Broadcasting announced its sale of

and

Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic community ...

for $21 million. The sale completed November 1, 2017. On August 7, 2017, it was announced that

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...

would acquire the non-spectrum operating assets of WLWC from OTA.

Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown, Chicago, Greektown neighborhood. It cur ...

, on October 25, 2017, announced it would acquire KAXT-CD, KTLN-TV, KFFV, and KVOS-TV for $23.2 million.

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

filed an application to purchase WYCN-CD on October 27, 2017. In November 2017,

HC2 Holdings Innovate Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on b ...

announced they were purchasing low-power television stations from OTA, including WKHU-CD Kittanning, PA, WMVH-CD in Charleroi, PA, WWKH-CD in

Uniontown, PA Uniontown is the largest city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 9,984 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, southeast of Pittsburgh. History southeast of ...

, WWLM-CD in Washington, PA and WJMB-CD in Butler, PA for $275,000. In a separate deals, HC2 is buying KUGB-CD in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

for $1.5 million and W21CK-D in Charlotte for $500,000. On December 5, 2017,

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

exercised an option to buy the WLWC license for $150,000; the deal was made possible by a change in FCC ownership rules that eliminated the requirement that there be at least eight owners of television stations in a market following the formation of a duopoly. Ion also entered into a shared services agreement, retroactive to October 1, to operate WLWC.

Former stations

References

{{reflist Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 2011 Mass media companies disestablished in 2019