Granite Broadcasting

Last updated

Granite Broadcasting LLC
Company typePrivate
Industry Television
Founded1988;37 years ago (1988)
Founders
FateAcquired by Quincy Media
Successor Quincy Media
Gray Media
Headquarters767 Third Avenue,
New York City, New York
,
United States
Key people
Owner Silver Point Capital

Granite Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988, [1] and was the first African-American station group in the United States considered to be a "major" station operator (though not the first minority-owned chain, a distinction held by the now-defunct Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).[ citation needed ]

Contents

Granite's chairman/CEO is Peter Markham, with Duane Lammers as COO. [2]

History

W. Don Cornwell left Goldman Sachs' investment banking department in 1988. He co-founded Granite Broadcasting Corporation with Stuart Beck on February 8, 1988. [3] [4] In 1993, it purchased two stations from Meredith Corporation, which included WTVH in Syracuse and KSEE in Fresno for $38 million. [5]

In 1997, Granite purchased television station KOFY-TV for $143.8 million, becoming their largest station purchase. [6] Cornwell was CEO and chairman of Granite until resigning in 2009. [4] During his time with the company, Granite expanded to 23 channels and 11 markets. [1] In April 2006, Granite acquired WBNG-TV in Binghamton from SJL Broadcasting, which was in the process of liquidating most of its broadcasting holdings, which paid $45 million to cost. [7]

Granite declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy [8] on December 11, 2006, mainly due to the complications of the 2006 United States broadcast television realignment which nullified the sales of the group's Detroit and San Francisco The WB affiliates due to those stations being left out of The CW because of CBS Corporation-owned stations in both cities taking the affiliation by default. [9] It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2007, under the control of private equity firm Silver Point Capital (which also acquired ComCorp later that year).

In 2011, it filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Broadcasting Group for having the Fox affiliation to appear on WPTA's digital subchannel after WFFT's removal of it. The suit was settled in 2013, and WFFT reclaimed the Fox affiliation. [10]

In February 2014, Granite reached deals to sell the majority of its stations. WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York and WMYD in Detroit were sold to the E. W. Scripps Company [11] for $110 million (the latter forming a duopoly with Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV). Most of its remaining stations (mostly in small markets), along with the Malara Broadcast Group's two stations, went to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting (which originally planned to operate the LMA-controlled stations Granite currently provides services to for Quincy). [12] [13] SagamoreHill was subsequently withdrawn from the Quincy transaction. [14]

In July 2015, a reworked deal was reached to have SagamoreHill acquire WISE, the SSA between WISE and WPTA (owned by Quincy), and have all of WISE's network affiliations moved to WPTA in exchange for its The CW Plus affiliation within nine months of the closure. [15] On September 15, 2015, the FCC approved the deal, [16] which was completed on November 2. [17]

WTVH, Granite's last station, now serves only as an ATSC 1.0 beacon for the stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair's main Syracuse station WSTM has operated WTVH under a local marketing agreement since 2009; on December 1, 2025, Sinclair moved WTVH's programming to a newly licensed station under its own ownership, WKOF, which operates on the ATSC 3.0 standard, as does WSTM. The remaining video services operating on the WTVH license are two Sinclair-owned digital subchannel networks, Roar and Charge. [18]

Station list

Current

Media market StationChannelOwned sinceCurrent affiliation
Syracuse, NY WTVH 51993 [i] ATSC 1.0 beacon for WSTM and WKOF

Former

Stations formerly owned by Granite Broadcasting
Media marketStateStationPurchasedSoldNotes
Fresno California KSEE 19932013
San Francisco–San Jose KNTV 19902002
KOFY-TV 19982018 [a]
Peoria Illinois WEEK-TV 19882015
WHOI 20092015 [b]
WAOE 19992014 [b]
Fort Wayne Indiana WPTA 19892005 [c]
WISE-TV 20052015
Detroit Michigan WMYD 19972014 [d]
Kalamazoo WWMT 19951998
Lansing WLAJ 19961998
Chisholm Minnesota KRII20022015 [A]
Duluth KBJR-TV 19882015
KDLH 20052015 [c]
Binghamton New York WBNG-TV 20062015
Buffalo WKBW-TV 19952014
Austin Texas KEYE-TV 19941999 [e]
  1. ↑ Known as KBWB from 1998 through 2008.
  2. 1 2 Owned by a third party.
  3. 1 2 Owned by Malara Broadcast Group from 2005 to 2015.
  4. ↑ Known as WXON prior to 1997 and as WDWB from 1997 to 2006.
  5. ↑ Known as KBVO-TV prior to 1995.
  1. ↑ Satellite of KBJR-TV.

Notes

  1. ↑ Owned by Granite and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

References

  1. 1 2 Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting, Broadcasting & Cable , August 11, 2009, Retrieved October 19, 2018
  2. ↑ "Duane A Lammers". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Father and Son Investment Bankers Describe Wall Street Regrets". BloombergQuint. August 3, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "W Don Cornwell, Granite Broadcasting Corp: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Financial Briefs". Variety. December 20, 1993. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Granite purchases KOFY". Variety. October 7, 1997. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Granite closes on Southern Tier TV station". Buffalo Business Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Granite Broadcasting Goes Bankrupt". Black Enterprise. May 1, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Granite Broadcasting Voluntarily Files Petition for Reorganization" (Press release). Granite Broadcasting Corporation. December 11, 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2006.
  10. ↑ "Nexstar Settles Antitrust Suit Against Local TV Rival - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  11. ↑ cmarcucci (June 17, 2014). "Scripps closes on Granite deal | Radio & Television Business Report" . Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  12. ↑ Scripps Buying Granite TVs in Buffalo, Detroit, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved February 10, 2014
  13. ↑ "Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ Letter CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved September 15, 2015
  17. ↑ Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig . Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  18. ↑ Naughton, Peter (November 29, 2025). "Syracuse CBS changing channel number, call letters • CNYRadio.com / CNYTVNews.com". cnyradio.com. Retrieved November 29, 2025.
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