Benedek Broadcasting was a

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

company, who 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, WIBW-FM, and WIBW-TV. The company operated from 1930 to ...

. The company was based in

Hoffman Estates, Illinois Hoffman Estates is a village in Illinois, United States. The village is located primarily in Cook County, with a small section in Kane County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530. The village now serves ...

. Throughout its existence, namesake Benedek served as chairman and chief executive officer. Benedek also owned U.S. Virgin Islands station WBNB-TV starting in 1986, but was knocked off the air by Hurricane Hugo 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 in 2002, and sold off its 22 stations to different owners, many of them to

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

with the balance (all small or struggling stations) going to Chelsey Broadcasting. Barrington Broadcasting 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 Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

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

List of stations formerly owned by Benedek

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by

city of license In American, 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 b ...

. {{Gray TV, state=collapsed Defunct 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 Television