Allbritton Communications Company was an American media company based in
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...
. It was the leading subsidiary of Perpetual Corporation, a private holding company owned by the family of company founder and former
Riggs Bank president
Joe L. Allbritton.
Joe’s son,
Robert L. Allbritton, was the Chairman and
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
of Allbritton Communications from 2001 to 2014. He is currently the owner of
Capitol News Company
Capitol News Company, LLC is an American media company based in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is a private holding company owned by Robert L. Allbritton. Its primary publication was ''Politico'', which was acquired by Axel Springer SE, ...
, the parent company of the
political
Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
and
website
A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
''.
Allbritton was the last remaining TV station group, besides network owned-and-operated stations, to have all of its stations affiliated with ABC. It was also the last to have all its stations have an exclusive affiliation deal with one network, rather than affiliations with any of the four major broadcast networks.
Allbritton formerly owned a chain of eight television stations affiliated with
ABC, anchored by its flagship station in
Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
,
WJLA-TV
WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister ...
, and
NewsChannel 8, a regional cable television network serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In May 2013, the company put all of its stations up for sale, citing a desire to focus exclusively on ''Politico''. The stations were ultimately sold to the
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...
for $985 million.
The FCC approved the sale on July 24, 2014, following a year-long delay to address improper
duopolies in certain markets that would have resulted from the purchase.
History
The company was formed in 1975 when Joe Allbritton bought a controlling interest in ''
The Washington Star
''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday ...
'' Company, including its television and radio stations–
WMAL-AM-
FM-TV in Washington;
WLVA-AM-
WSET-TV in
Lynchburg; and
WCIV in
Charleston. As a condition of the purchase, 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 ...
required him to sell off either the newspaper or the broadcast properties in Washington. At this time, the FCC had tightened its rules on cross-media ownership and had all but banned one person from owning newspapers and broadcast properties in the same market, while grandfathering existing combinations. However, because of the way Allbritton's takeover of the Star was structured, the FCC considered it an ownership change and stripped the WMAL stations of their grandfathered protection. Allbritton chose to sell the Star Company's non-television assets. WMAL-TV and WLVA-TV changed their call letters to
WJLA-TV
WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister ...
and
WSET-TV, respectively in 1977, due to FCC rules at the time that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership, from sharing the same call letters.
In May 1994,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
ABC affiliate
WBRC was sold to
New World Communications, which signed an
affiliation agreement with eleven other stations that would become
Fox affiliates. WBRC, along with
Piedmont Triad
The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and ...
ABC affiliate
WGHP, were placed in a
blind trust in the fall of 1994, as the FCC prohibited a company from owning more than twelve television stations at the time. Both stations were sold to
Fox directly in July 1995, but Fox was forced to run WBRC as an ABC affiliate for over a year after the sale, as WBRC's affiliation contract with ABC did not expire until August 1996. Before WBRC became a Fox
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
, Allbritton purchased
WCFT-TV
WSES (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, serving the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is o ...
and
WJSU-TV, and made them full power satellites of
WBMA-LD
ABC 33/40 is a television station serving as the ABC affiliate for the Birmingham, Alabama, television market. It is broadcast by WBMA-LD (channel 58), a low-power station, in the immediate Birmingham area, as well as on subchannels of WAB ...
; this prompted Allbritton to sign a groupwide affiliation deal with ABC which caused WCIV and
Brunswick sister station WBSG-TV (now
Ion Television
Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...
O&O
WBSG) to become ABC affiliates. The latter had joined ABC as a semi-satellite of
WJXX
WJXX (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Orange Park, Florida, United States, serving the Jacksonville area as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate WTLV (channel 12) ...
, which replaced
WJKS as
Jacksonville
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
's ABC affiliate upon its 1997 sign-on).
In June 1998, ABC parent
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
entered into negotiations to purchase the eight Allbritton stations and its
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...
s involving fellow ABC affiliates WJSU-TV (now
WJSU-TV) in
Anniston and
WJXX
WJXX (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Orange Park, Florida, United States, serving the Jacksonville area as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate WTLV (channel 12) ...
in
Jacksonville
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
, for a reported offer totaling more than $1 billion. The latter two stations had been involved in an affiliation deal between Allbritton and ABC that was reached in response to the May 1994
affiliation deal between
New World Communications and
Fox that affected
WBRC in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
. Negotiations between Disney and Allbritton broke down when the former dropped out of discussions to buy the stations the following month.
Acquisition of television stations by Sinclair
In May 2013, reports surfaced that Allbritton was planning to sell its television stations; the move came as a result of the increasing success of Politico, which "continues to carry no debt, funds all investment with operating income and will still turn a profit, again, in 2013."
On July 29, 2013, the
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
-based
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...
announced that it would acquire all of Allbritton's stations for $985 million. Sinclair was particularly interested in using WJLA's NewsChannel 8 as a base to launch a national cable news channel.
The planned acquisition was impacted by conflicts between already Sinclair-owned or controlled stations in Allbritton's markets, and the FCC's recent actions involving
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...
s (LMAs) and
joint sales agreements. Sinclair would have sold its existing stations in several Allbritton markets—
WABM
WABM (channel 68) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Homewood, Alabama, Homewood-licensed The CW, CW affiliate WTTO (channel 21) and low- ...
and
CW in Birmingham, Alabama and
WHP-TV
WHP-TV (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios ...
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to
Deerfield Media
Deerfield Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company and a shell corporation owned and operated by Stephen P. Mumblow. It was established on December 1, 2012, by the acquisition of several television stations connected to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. ...
, and WMMP in Charleston, South Carolina to Howard Stirk Holdings, a company owned by conservative talk show host
Armstrong Williams. The stations would have remained operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement. In December 2013, FCC Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman sent a letter demanding information from Sinclair Broadcast Group on the financial aspects of its "sidecar" operations, and warned that in these three markets, "the proposed transactions would result in the elimination of the
grandfathered status of certain local marketing agreements and thus cause the transactions to violate our local TV ownership rules." It was asserted that the deal might be legal only if the affected stations were operated under shared services agreements.
Sinclair restructured the deal in March 2014, choosing to sell its existing stations in Harrisburg (
WHP-TV
WHP-TV (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios ...
), Charleston (
WCIV) and Birmingham (
WABM
WABM (channel 68) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Homewood, Alabama, Homewood-licensed The CW, CW affiliate WTTO (channel 21) and low- ...
) and terminate an SSA with the Cunningham-owned
Fox affiliate in Charleston to acquire Allbritton's
WCIV,
WHTM-TV, and
WBMA-LD
ABC 33/40 is a television station serving as the ABC affiliate for the Birmingham, Alabama, television market. It is broadcast by WBMA-LD (channel 58), a low-power station, in the immediate Birmingham area, as well as on subchannels of WAB ...
, while also creating a new duopoly between the
WBMA-LD
ABC 33/40 is a television station serving as the ABC affiliate for the Birmingham, Alabama, television market. It is broadcast by WBMA-LD (channel 58), a low-power station, in the immediate Birmingham area, as well as on subchannels of WAB ...
and
CW affiliates in Birmingham), as well as foregoing any operational or financial agreements with the buyers of the stations being sold to other parties. However, in May 2014, Sinclair disclosed in an FCC filling that it was unable to find buyers for the three affected stations, requiring changes to its transaction.
In Harrisburg, Sinclair chose to retain WHP-TV, and instead sell
WHTM
WHTM-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on North 6th Street i ...
to
Media General
Media General, Inc. was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-D ...
.
However, in Charleston and Birmingham, the company proposed to shut down stations entirely so it could maintain legal duopolies, surrendering the licenses for WCIV and the full-powered repeaters of WBMA-LD (WJSU and WCFT), and moving their ABC programming to Sinclair's existing stations WMMP and WABM respectively. These stations would shift their existing
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
programming to
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s and since move ABC affiliation to digital subchannel.
After nearly a year of delays, Sinclair's deal to acquire Allbritton was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014.
Sinclair completed the acquisition on August 1; WHTM would be operated under a "hold separate agreement" until the sale of that station was completed to
Media General
Media General, Inc. was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-D ...
on September 2.
Newspapers
Allbritton launched ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
'', a political news website and newspaper on 2007, the day of the
2007 State of the Union Address. It was spun out to
Capitol News Company
Capitol News Company, LLC is an American media company based in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is a private holding company owned by Robert L. Allbritton. Its primary publication was ''Politico'', which was acquired by Axel Springer SE, ...
, a company separately and still owned by Allbritton, in 2009.
Allbritton launched Washington-area local news web site
TBD in 2010. The site merged the web pages of the company's television stations, WJLA-TV (Channel 7) and its cable sibling, NewsChannel 8. Jim Brady, a former ''Washington Post'' editor, ran the site. Allbritton shut down TBD in 2012.
Allbritton owned the ''
Washington Evening Star
''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday ...
'' from 1975 to 1978 when
Time Inc. purchased the paper from Allbritton. The paper shut down in 1981 (the "Evening" part of the name was removed by the end of the 1970s).
Former stations
* Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and
city of license
In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broadcast ...
.
* Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station built and signed on by either Allbritton Communications or predecessor The ''
Washington Star
''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the ''Washington'' ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday ...
'' Company.
References
{{Authority control
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Companies based in Virginia
Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
American companies disestablished in 2014
Mass media companies disestablished in 2014
2014 mergers and acquisitions