Raycom Media, Inc. was an American

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

company based in Montgomery,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its

Community Newspaper Holdings CNHI, LLC (formerly Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) is an American publisher of newspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the United States. The company was formed in 1997 by Ralph Martin,

subsidiary, also owned multiple newspapers in small and medium-sized markets throughout the United States.

History

Raycom's three founding owners were Stephen Burr (a Boston lawyer), Ken Hawkins (general manager) and William Zortman (news director) with funding from

Retirement Systems of Alabama Retirement Systems of Alabama is the administrator of the pension fund for employees of the state of Alabama. It is headquartered in the state capital Montgomery, Alabama. David G. Bronner is the chief executive officer. Under Bronner's leade ...

. In 1996, Raycom purchased 15 television and two radio stations and Bert Ellis's

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture wi ...

from Ellis Communications for over $700 million. In mid-1996, the company agreed to purchase eight stations from Federal Enterprises Inc. of suburban Detroit for $160 million. Raycom bought

Aflac Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company) is an American insurance company and is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. It was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. In the U.S., it ...

's broadcast division of five TV stations in August 1996, using, in part, a loan from the RSA. The three groups merged to form Raycom Media. John Hayes initially headed up the company until 2001.^:2 In 1998, Raycom took a 35% stake in Worldnow, an internet publishing provider for broadcast media.^:2 That same year, Raycom purchased Malrite Communications, owner of five stations: two Puerto Rico stations (counting a semi-satellite station), three Ohio stations, and one Florida station. In 2001, Paul McTear took over as Raycom's president and CEO from Hayes.^:2 In 2003, Raycom Media bought out all of the

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

-affiliated television stations from Waitt Broadcasting. In April 2005, Raycom tested

The Tube Music Network The Tube Music Network, Inc., or The Tube, was an American digital multicast television network. The network was a fully owned subsidiary of The Tube Media Corp., an independent company that was founded by David Levy in 2003. The Tube focused c ...

on station

WFLX WFLX (channel 29), branded Fox 29, is a television station in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Gray Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with the E. W. Scripps Company, ...

, a Fox affiliate, for three weeks. Raycom announced on April 25, 2005, it was the launch station group for The Tube affiliating 29 stations. Raycom launched the network in June 2005 on 30 stations. Raycom Media was an initial round investor in

. On January 31, 2006, the company acquired the

Liberty Corporation The Liberty Corporation was a media corporation originally based in Greenville, South Carolina. At its peak, Liberty owned 15 network-affiliated television stations across the Midwest and Southern regions of the United States. Cable advertisin ...

. Raycom agreed to affiliate its NBC stations' subchannels with

NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital multicast television network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard definition, ...

, a joint venture between the affiliates and the NBC station group. In August, Raycom sold a dozen of its stations to

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 ...

. On November 12, 2007, Raycom announced its intention to acquire some of the television broadcasting properties of

Lincoln National Corporation Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

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 ...

for $583 million. Lincoln Financial Sports was merged into Raycom Sports later that year. The purchase of the stations were completed on April 2, 2008. Around 2010, Raycom moved into producing its own programming. In September 2011, Raycom partnered with E.W. Scripps and Cox Media to produce '' Right This Minute''. Also in 2011, the company partnered with ITV Studios America and launched '' America Now'', a lifestyle-oriented news magazine. The magazine lasted until September 2014. In partnership with Bellum Entertainment Group in 2014, ''Flip My Food'' and ''Fix It and Finish It'' were launched as lead in strips to Raycom early newscasts. In the third quarter of 2014, Raycom purchased RTM Productions, based in Nashville and produces PowerNation branded auto-oriented shows for the

Paramount Network Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel and the flagship property of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, who operates it through the MTV Entertainment Group. The network's headquarters are located a ...

NBCSN NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...

, and

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

.^:2 Raycom acquired the assets of live and studio sports programming production company Tupelo-Honey Productions in January 2012. In 2011, Raycom was an initial investor in

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. It launched on September 26, 2011, and was promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multic ...

, a broadcast subchannel network.¹ Raycom News Network Digital Hub, an online news aggregator and exchange, was started in 2011 at the company's main office in Montgomery, Alabama.^:2 Raycom Media was an initial investor in Katz Broadcasting, launched in 2014 and a Bounce affiliated subchannel network group. On November 20, 2013, Raycom entered into a shared services agreement to operate Louisiana Media Company's

WVUE-TV WVUE-DT (channel 8) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains primary studios on Howard Avenue in New Orleans, with a s ...

in New Orleans. On August 10, 2015, Raycom announced that it would purchase stations owned by

Drewry Communications The Drewry Communications Group was a media company based in Lawton, Oklahoma, wholly owned and operated by the Drewry family. The company was run by Robert Drewry (as the company's president), Bill Drewry (as its chief executive officer), and ...

for $160 million. The sale was completed on December 1, 2015. Raycom acquired Indianapolis-based sports production company WebStream Sports on September 14, 2015. WebStream was subsequently merged with existing Raycom entity Tupelo Honey to form Tupelo Raycom. In October 2015, Raycom acquired Fox affiliate KNIN-TV for $14.5 million from

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...

; the FCC required that the station be divested during Scripps' acquisition of

Journal Communications Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

, but Scripps entered into shared services agreements with Raycom to continue operating KNIN. Raycom purchased PureCars, a digital ad platform focused on automotive sales, for $125 million in November 2015. On April 4, 2017, Raycom reached an agreement to acquire WVUE outright, and the sale was finalized on August 8. In May 2017, Raycom purchased

Calkins Media Calkins Media, Inc. was a media company established in 1937. It included daily newspapers and digital sites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a weekly newspaper in South Dade, and broadcast stations located in Huntsville, Tallahassee and Sarasota. ...

WWSB WWSB (channel 40) is a television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States, serving the Suncoast portion of the Tampa Bay market as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Gray Media, WWSB maintains studios on 10th Street in the Rosemary Dist ...

and

WTXL-TV WTXL-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida, and its transmitter ...

. A sale of Calkins'

WAAY-TV WAAY-TV (channel 31) is a television station in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios and transmitter are located on Monte Sano Boulevard on top of Monte Sano Mountain. ...

to Raycom affiliate American Spirit Media was blocked by the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

due to Raycom's ownership of WAFF-TV, and was instead sold to Heartland Media. The deal increased Raycom's reach to 16% of U.S. television households. On September 25, 2017, Raycom announced that it would merge with

(CNHI), which was principally owned by Retirement Systems of Alabama. CNHI would continue to operate as a subsidiary of Raycom. To comply with FCC newspaper cross-ownership restrictions, Raycom divested newspapers in the seven markets where CNHI and Raycom both owned properties. On June 14, 2018, Raycom announced the launch of ''InvestigateTV'', an OTT app that showcased longer-form content from Raycom as well as content from

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...

, News21 at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

’s Cronkite School of Journalism, and

NerdWallet NerdWallet is an American personal finance company, founded in 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson. It has a website and app that earns money by promoting financial products to its users. History NerdWallet was founded in August 2009 by Tim Chen ...

. On June 25, 2018,

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 ...

announced its intent to acquire Raycom for $3.65 billion, pending regulatory approval. The combined company would be led by Raycom's current president and CEO Pat LaPlatney, with current Gray CEO Hilton Howell acting as executive chairman and co-CEO. The acquisition, which Gray expected to close in late 2018, would give Gray 142 stations in 92 markets, making Gray the third-largest owner of television stations in the United States, with a total market share of 24%. CNHI, which was sold separately, was not included in the sale to Gray. The sale was approved by the FCC on December 20. The deal was completed on January 2, 2019."Gray Completes Acquisitions for Raycom Media and Related Transactions"
Gray Television, January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.

Operations

Prior to its merger with Gray, Raycom owned and/or operated 65 television stations and two radio stations in 44 markets located in 20 states, covering over 16% of U.S. television households. Raycom also employed more than 4,800 individuals in full- and part-time positions.

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 Raycom Media.

Other assets

In addition to television stations, Raycom also owned: *

(investment) *Broadview Media * Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. *Frankly (20%) ** WorldNow * Katz Broadcasting (investment) *Pure Cars *

*RTM Productions **'' PowerNation'' (automotive hobby programming for the

and

)

Tupelo Raycom

Tupelo Raycom is Raycom Media's production company formed from the merger of Tupelo Honey Productions and WebStream Sports. Clients of the company include

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Turner Sports TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery in the United States that is responsible for Sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max (streaming service), Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS (Americ ...

, Fox, Travel Channel,

and

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American multinational Entertainment industry, entertainment company that was founded in 2010 following the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Live Nation (events promoter), Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It ...

. Raycom acquired the assets of live and studio sports programming production company Tupelo-Honey Productions in January 2012. Tupelo Honey assets included a 50% share of MY Tupelo Entertainment, a joint venture form in 2009 as partnership between Cary Glotzer's Tupelo-Honey and Michael Yudin's MY-Entertainment Company. Yudin bought back Raycom's half of My Tupelo in March 2014. Raycom acquired Indianapolis, Indiana-based sports production company WebStream Sports on September 14, 2015. WebStream was subsequently merged with existing Raycom entity Tupelo Honey to form Tupelo Raycom in January 2016.

Notes

References

External links

InvestigateTV
{{Authority control American companies established in 1996 American companies disestablished in 2019 Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Alabama Mass media companies established in 1996 Mass media companies disestablished in 2019 College sports television syndicators Companies based in Montgomery, Alabama Employee-owned companies of the United States 1996 establishments in Alabama 2019 disestablishments in Alabama 2019 mergers and acquisitions Gray Media