Barrington Broadcasting

Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC

Company type	Private
Industry	Mass media
Genre	Television broadcasting
Founded	May 2003;21 years ago (2003-05)
Founders	Keith Bland Chris Cornelius Mary Flodin K. James Yager
Defunct	November 25, 2013;11 years ago (2013-11-25)
Fate	Acquired by Sinclair
Successor	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Headquarters	Schaumburg, Illinois , USA
Number of locations	Fifteen ranked television markets (U.S.)
Key people	K. James Yager, CEO Warren Spector, CFO
Services	Broadcasting
Parent	Pilot Group

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 television stations, with the potential to reach about 3.4 percent of households in the U.S. ^[1] It was owned by Pilot Group, a private equity firm.

History

Barrington Broadcasting is a media company that was established in May 2003 by a team of former executives from Benedek Broadcasting. Following Benedek's bankruptcy and subsequent divestiture of all television assets in 2002, K. James Yager, the former President, along with Senior Vice-Presidents Chris Cornelius, Keith Bland, and Mary Flodin, formed a company for medium and small market broadcasting. ^[2]

The company began operations in January 2004 with its purchases of former Benedek stations WHOI-TV (Peoria, Illinois) and KHQA-TV (Hannibal, Missouri/Quincy, Illinois) along with WEYI-TV in Vienna Township, Michigan. Barrington grew slowly at first, adding five more stations between 2004 and early 2006. A major expansion took place on March 27, 2006, when Raycom Media agreed to sell twelve of its network-affiliated TV stations to Barrington for $262 million. ^[3] The sale was completed on August 11. ^[4] In recent years, Barrington has been at the forefront of integrating social media and the internet into their on-air content. ^[2]

In late 2012, it was announced that Pilot Group had put Barrington up for sale and that both Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group were in final talks to acquire the full regiment of stations. ^[5] On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell its stations to Sinclair. ^[6] The sale was granted FCC approval on November 18. ^[7] The transaction was formally consummated on November 25. ^[8]

Former stations

• Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

Stations owned by Barrington Broadcasting

Media market	State	Station	Purchased	Sold	Notes
Colorado Springs–Pueblo	Colorado	KXRM-TV	2006	2013
		KXTU-LD	2006	2013
Albany	Georgia	WFXL	2006	2013
Peoria–Bloomington	Illinois	WHOI	2004	2013
Quincy		KHQA-TV	2004	2013
Marquette	Michigan	WLUC-TV	2006	2013
Saginaw–Bay City–Flint		WEYI-TV	2004	2013
		WBSF	2004	2013
Sault Ste. Marie, MI		WGTQ	2009	2013	[A] [a]
		WTOM-TV	2006	2013	[B]
Traverse City		WGTU	2009	2013	[a]
		WPBN-TV	2006	2013
Columbia–Jefferson City	Missouri	KRCG	2005	2013
Kirksville		KTVO	2006	2013
Clovis	New Mexico	KVIH-TV	2005	2013	[C]
Syracuse	New York	WSTM-TV	2006	2013
		WTVH	2009	2013	[a]
		WSTQ-LP	2006	2013
Toledo	Ohio	WNWO-TV	2006	2013
Columbia	South Carolina	WACH	2006	2013
Florence–Myrtle Beach		WPDE-TV	2005	2013
		WWMB	2005	2013	[a]
Amarillo	Texas	KVII-TV	2005	2013
Harlingen–McAllen–Brownsville		KGBT-TV	2006	2013

1. Owned by a third party and operated by Barrington.

1. Satellite of WGTU.
2. Satellite of WPBN.
3. Satellite of KVII.

References

1. "About Us". Barrington Broadcasting corporate website. 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
2. Malone, Michael (2011). "K. James Yager, CEO and Co-founder, Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC". Broadcasting & Cable magazine via website. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
3. Raycom and Barrington Announce Deal For Twelve Television Stations, businesswire.com, March 27, 2006, Retrieved November 6, 2018.
4. "Barrington and Raycom Announce Completion of Transaction for Twelve Television Stations". Raycom Media. August 11, 2006. Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
5. "Sinclair, Nexstar in Running for Barrington". TV News Check-Jack Messmer. November 29, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
6. Malone, Michael (February 28, 2013). "Sinclair's Chesapeake TV Acquires Barrington Stations". Broadcasting & Cable . Retrieved March 1, 2013.
7. FCC approves sales of three Syracuse TV stations cnyradio.com, Retrieved November 19, 2013
8. "Sinclair Broadcast Group Closes On Acquisition Of Barrington Stations". Sinclair Broadcast Group. November 25, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2018.