Benedek Broadcasting was a

television broadcasting A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United ...

company that owned and operated 22 network-affiliated television stations throughout the United States, all affiliated with major television networks, serving mainly small and medium-size markets. The company was founded in the late 1970s by A. Richard Benedek but grew in the 1990s with buyouts of Brisette Broadcasting and

Stauffer Communications Stauffer Communications was a privately held media corporation based in Topeka, Kansas, that owned many publications and broadcast outlets, including the ''Topeka Capital-Journal'' and WIBW (AM), WIBW, WIBW-FM, and WIBW-TV. The company operated fro ...

. The company was based in

Hoffman Estates, Illinois Hoffman Estates is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 52,530. The village previously served as the headquarters for Transform Holdco L ...

. Throughout its existence, namesake Benedek served as chairman and chief executive officer. Benedek also owned

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

station WBNB-TV starting in 1986, but was knocked off the air by

Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a powerful tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. The eleventh tropical cyclone, eighth Tropical cyclone naming, named st ...

in 1989. Its facilities were so badly damaged that Benedek, with no financial resources to rebuild, essentially chose to abandon the station, and its license was deleted in 1995. Benedek Broadcasting filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

in 2002, and sold off its 22 stations to different owners, many of them to

Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...

with the balance (all small or struggling stations) going to Chelsey Broadcasting.

Barrington Broadcasting Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, was an American corporation focused on broadcast television, primarily in middle and small size media markets. Barrington was owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four ...

which began operations in 2004 with former Benedek president and COO K. James Yager as CEO, occupied what had been Benedek's headquarters and purchased two of the former Benedek stations which had been purchased by Chelsey, until it was acquired by

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 ...

in 2013. Benedek Broadcasting had also operated Benedek Interactive Media, an 'Internet newsroom' that extended web-only coverage and editorial capabilities to its stations.

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 ...

References

{{Gray TV, state=collapsed Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Illinois Companies disestablished in 2002 Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Hoffman Estates, Illinois 2002 disestablishments in Illinois Gray Media