Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in
Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1
low-power television station on which it operated a regional
24-hour cable news channel. The company was founded in 1982 by former
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
joint board chairman and current Broadcasters Foundation of America chairman Phil Lombardo.
Upon completion of the
Digital TV transition in
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
, Citadel's stations at that time returned their digital broadcasts to their former analog channel assignments in the
VHF spectrum. As a result of poor propagation characteristics for digital TV in the VHF bands, these stations now operate low-power digital fill-in
translators in the
UHF band to improve coverage in their
communities of license. See the digital TV section on the
WHBF-TV entry for further information on the Citadel stations' post-transition digital signals.
In February 2009, Phil Lombardo became an investing partner in LDB Media, LLC., owners of the
Suncoast News Network, a regional cable news channel in
Sarasota, Florida.
In January 2014, Lombardo and Citadel purchased a majority interest in the company.
As a result, Citadel took over broadcast operations of SNN and integrated the channel with its other stations.
On September 16, 2013, Citadel announced that it would sell
WOI-DT,
KCAU-TV, and
WHBF-TV to the
Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $88 million. Nexstar immediately took over the stations' operations through a
time brokerage agreement.
The deal followed Phil Lombardo's decision to "slow down," as well as a desire by Lynch Entertainment to divest its investments in WOI and WHBF. Citadel continued to own
KLKN,
WLNE-TV, and its Sarasota properties.
On March 5, 2014, 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 ...
approved the sale of these stations to Nexstar outright and the deal was completed on March 13.
On May 16, 2019, it was announced that
Standard Media, led by former
Young Broadcasting and
Media General executive Deb McDermott, would acquire Citadel's WLNE and KLKN for $83 million. The sale was completed on September 5.
On May 19, 2023, Citadel Communications COO Ray Cole announced that WSNN-LD would be sold to
Nexstar Media Group (owner of local
NBC affiliate
WFLA-TV and
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 ...
affiliate (now
CW O&O)
WTTA in the
Tampa Bay Area) for $1 million.
The sale was completed on July 20, completing the wind-down of its operations outside remaining SEC and IRS disclosures.
Former stations
* Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and
city of license.
References
External links
*{{official website, http://www.citadelltd.com/
SNN Website
Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
Companies based in Westchester County, New York
American companies established in 1982
American companies disestablished in 2023
1982 establishments in New York (state)
2023 disestablishments in New York (state)