Local TV LLC 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 owned by

Oak Hill Capital Partners Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, with more than $19 billion of committed capital from entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Ro ...

which operated 20 television stations in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The group was formed in 2006 by the acquisition of nine television stations owned by

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...

, and grew further with the acquisition of eight former Fox owned-and-operated stations from

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...

, and a wide partnership with

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television station, television and radio stations thro ...

to provide management services for the stations (in turn, Local TV also operated several Tribune stations as well). On July 1, 2013, Tribune announced that it would acquire Local TV LLC for $2.7 billion, a deal which was approved by the FCC on December 20, and was completed on December 27.

History

Local TV was created in December 2006, after Oak Hill Capital entered into an agreement with

to purchase nine local network-affiliated television stations; on May 7, 2007, the sale was completed as one part of a larger sale of the New York Times Company's Broadcast Media Group "for approximately $575 million." At 12:01 a.m., Local TV assumed ownership of the nine television stations, located in "eight mid-sized markets." On December 21, 2007,

and Local TV agreed to form a "broadcast management company" to provide management services to both Tribune and Local TV's stations. Also as part of the agreement, the websites for Local TV's stations were transitioned to a platform developed and managed by Tribune Interactive. The next day, December 22, 2007, Local TV announced plans to acquire eight 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 ...

s from

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

including

WDAF-TV WDAF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hill se ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

, WJW-TV in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

WITI-TV WITI (channel 6) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, WITI maintains studios on North Green Bay Road (WIS 5 ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside KPLR-TV (channel 11), an owned-and-operated station of The CW. The two stations sh ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, KDVR in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, KSTU in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

WBRC WBRC (channel 6) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WTBM-CD (channel 24). The two stations studios atop R ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, and WGHP in High Point–

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...

–

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

, completing that sale on July 14, 2008. Local TV's partnership with Tribune expanded on September 17, 2008, as the company announced that it would take over Tribune's CW affiliates

KWGN-TV KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, serving as the local The CW, CW outlet. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox affiliate KDVR ...

and

KPLR-TV KPLR-TV (channel 11) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). The t ...

under

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, and consolidate them with KDVR and

respectively. As part of Tribune's management agreement, the Local TV stations unveiled redesigned websites operated by Tribune Interactive beginning in January 2009, with the Fox affiliates websites being migrated to the new layout from

News Corp. Digital Media Fox Sports Interactive Media, formerly known as News Corp. Digital Media and Fox Interactive Media and Fox Sports Digital Media, is a subsidiary of Fox Sports Media Group which operates Fox Sports' online properties in the United States. Histo ...

's website hosting platform; Local TV later migrated its stations' websites to those hosted by WordPress.com beginning in January 2012. In January 2009,

Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom ...

announced that it would acquire one of Local TV's former Fox O&Os, WBRC-TV in

, in exchange for its CBS affiliate WTVR-TV in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

and $85 million. Raycom was required to divest WTVR as a condition of its purchase of

Lincoln Financial Media Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owned radio stations in the United States. The division was formed in 2006 following the company's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, whi ...

's stations (which included Richmond's NBC station

WWBT WWBT (channel 12) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Ashland-licensed CW affiliate WUPV (channel 65). The two stations share studios on Midlothian Turnp ...

), as both stations ranked among 2 of the 4 highest-rated stations in the market. Raycom was previously blocked from selling WTVR to

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 ...

. The swap also benefited Raycom, as it is based in, and already has a strong media presence in the state of Alabama. On June 14, 2010,

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

announced that it would sell its CW O&O

WGNT WGNT (channel 27) is an independent television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk-licensed CBS affiliate WTKR (ch ...

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond, and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near whe ...

to Local TV, making it a sister station to its existing CBS affiliate WTKR.Local TV Acquiring CBS Owned WGNT
''Broadcasting and Cable'' June 14, 2010 In March 2013, Oak Hill Capital began notifying stations that it was planning to sell the Local TV stations. On July 1, 2013, Tribune Broadcasting announced that it would acquire the company outright for $2.7 billion. The deal was approved by the FCC on December 20, with the completion of the sale on December 27.

Officers

President and

chief executive officer 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 ...

(CEO) was Robert Lawrence, who, Local TV announced on December 20, 2007, would succeed Randy Michaels, former

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 ...

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

and Local TV's first CEO, who became

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

(COO) of

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

, on May 7, 2008.

Chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

(CFO) of Local TV was Pam Taylor.

Former stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by

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

Related audiovisual resources

"Local TV & Local Responsibility Part One: Stop Big Media"
The National Conference for Media Reform. The Oklahoma History Center,

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

. May 19, 2007. 25 mins.

Video clip Video clip may refer to: *Short videos, especially short-form content ** Video clip (online media), a short snippet of a video uploaded on the internet *A music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that ...

. '' video.google.com'' (

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

). (Part 1 of 3-part videotaped "Panel Discussion on the takeover of New York Times Corporation news stations by

and its holding company.") {{DEFAULTSORT:Local Tv American companies established in 2007 Defunct companies based in Kentucky Kenton County, Kentucky Companies disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Kentucky Mass media companies disestablished in 2013 Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States Nexstar Media Group 2013 mergers and acquisitions