Smith Media, LLC, successor to Smith Television aka Sunrise Television, was a broadcasting group co-based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

, that formerly owned and operated several television stations across the United States. In 1986, it bought the three smaller television stations from publishing company

Times Mirror Company The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000. History It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

. In 2002, Sunrise sold six of the stations to

LIN Television LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low-powered weather station in Ind ...

. Smith Television became Smith Media, LLC in 2004 at the death of Bob Smith, head of the family run organization. The family decided to re-capitalize their stations and sold the stations to Boston Ventures, which created Smith Media. The similarities in names have created much confusion. During the early 2010s, Smith Media sold off its stations; on October 1, 2013, Smith Media reached a deal to sell its last remaining station, WKTV in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

, to Heartland Media, a company owned by former

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 ...

executive Bob Prather, pending FCC approval. The sale was completed on March 20, 2014.Consummation Notice
''CDBS Public Notice'',

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 ...

, Retrieved March 21, 2014.

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 ...

. * With the exception of KATN, KEYT, KJUD, KYUR, WFFF, & WKTV, the second incarnation of Smith Media never owned these stations. Smith Media, LLC was successor to Smith Television, Inc. who owned the following:

References

{{reflist

External links

Smith Media via Boston Ventures site

Smith Media
Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies disestablished in 2014 Companies disestablished in 2014 Companies based in St. Petersburg, Florida Companies based in Los Angeles