Storer Communications


Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and was broken up in 1986.

History

1920s–1940s

In 1927, George B. Storer and brother-in-law J. Harold Ryan founded Fort Industry Oil Company to building service stations for Speedene brand gasoline in the Toledo, Ohio area. Speedene sales were booming, thanks to a cost-cutting device implemented by the partners. They bypassed the cost of trucking gasoline to service stations by building the stations beside railroad sidings and sold their product at two or three cents a gallon under the going retail rate by filling their tanks directly from railroad tank cars.
Storer decided to buy some radio spots on Toledo's radio station, WTAL, to advertise his gas stations. The spots were effective, and in 1928 Storer decided to use his wealth to buy a stake in the radio station as well. As part of the deal, WTAL changed its call letters to WSPD, "Speedy AM," symbolic of the gasoline brand.
In 1931, Fort Industry sold its oil interests to concentrate solely on broadcasting. It bought full control of WSPD in 1937, and bought a number of other radio stations.

1950s–1960s

Although the company had success in the Top 40 rock and roll format with WJBK in Detroit and WIBG "Wibbage" in Philadelphia, most of its radio stations, including WJW in Cleveland, WAGA in Atlanta and WSPD, featured more conservative music formats, typically middle-of-the-road, country music or beautiful music.
In 1948, Fort Industry entered the television market, launching WSPD-TV in Toledo. This was followed by WJBK-TV in Detroit later in 1948, and WAGA-TV in Atlanta in 1949. As television became more popular, Storer bought several television stations in other markets. The company changed its name to Storer Broadcasting later in the 1950s.
The company focused primarily on the radio and television businesses through much of its history. However, it did venture into the cable television business in the early 1960s. It also purchased Northeast Airlines in 1965 and held it until 1972, when it was sold to Delta Air Lines.
George Storer was company president until his 1973 retirement, succeeded by his son Peter; George remained company chairman until his death in 1975. Due to his position as a director of CBS, he was able to obtain lucrative CBS network affiliations for Storer-owned television stations, such as WXEL and WJBK-TV, which had been DuMont affiliates. By 1961 Storer was the nation's sixth-largest television broadcaster—exceeded in size only by the three networks, Metropolitan Broadcasting and the Group W division of Westinghouse.
The company purchased its first cable television system in 1963. It also briefly ventured into program syndication as Storer Programs Inc., during which it was the U.S. distributor of the original 1963–65 run of The Littlest Hobo, which was produced in Canada.

1970s–1980s

During the 1970s the company focused on cable television. Storer sold the radio assets and the airline, using the cash thus raised to invest in cable television. Commencing in 1978, it embarked on an aggressive program of acquiring cable franchises. Unlike many cable operators, Storer preferred to acquire franchises and build its cable systems rather than acquire existing cable operations.
The company also ventured into sports. From 1973 to 1975 Storer owned the Boston Bruins and the Boston Garden.
The company's name was changed to Storer Communications, Inc. in 1983. By 1984 it owned and operated seven television stations and held franchises to provide cable television service to over 500 communities in 18 states and had some 4,800 employees. By 1985, Storer took over Blair Entertainment, a distribution firm founded in 1982 by TV sales rep John Blair. That same year, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts took Storer Communications private in a hostile leveraged buyout after Comcast began showing interest in Storer's cable properties. It sold the television assets in 1987. WTVG was sold to a local ownership group, eventually becoming an ABC owned-and-operated station in 1995. The remaining former Storer television stations and Blair were sold to Gillett Communications in 1987 after an aborted 1986 attempt to sell them together with Wometco's WTVJ in Miami to Lorimar-Telepictures.
Gillett's broadcasting division was restructured into SCI Television in 1991, then sold to New World Communications in 1993, after a speculative bid from Scripps-Howard that never came to fruition, due the number of stations that would have been potentially owned at the same time. Blair was then folded into New World's distribution arm.
Fox Television Stations purchased the stations in 1997.
Most of the stations switched to Fox affiliation, resulting in CBS scrambling to find affiliates in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee, and eventually landing UHF stations in those cities. WSBK remained independent and was sold to Viacom, and eventually became a UPN affiliate. KNSD, which remained an NBC affiliate, was later sold directly to NBC to become an NBC owned-and-operated station. The cable assets were sold to Comcast Corporation and TCI in 1988. Michael Tallent became President of Storer, succeeding Kenneth Bagwell, upon the consummation of this transaction.
Storer Communications continued to operate as a cable television company until the assets were split between Comcast and TCI in the mid 1990s. Tallent joined Comcast in 1991 and was succeeded by William Whelan, Storer's final president.

Stations formerly owned by Storer

Television stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
Note: two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters indicate a station that was built and/or signed-on by Storer.
City of License / MarketStationChannel
TV 		Years ownedCurrent ownership status
Birmingham, AlabamaWBRC-TV6 1953–1957Fox affiliate owned by Gray Television
San DiegoKCST-TV39 1974–1986NBC owned-and-operated ', KNSD
Wilmington, DE - PhiladelphiaWVUE12 1957–1958defunct
Miami - Fort LauderdaleWFTL-TV/WGBS-TV ** 1231954–1957defunct
Miami - Fort LauderdaleWAJA-TV23 1967Univision owned-and-operated ', WLTV-DT
AtlantaWAGA-TV **5 1949–1986Fox owned-and-operated '
BostonWSBK-TV38 1966–1986MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by ViacomCBS
DetroitWJBK-TV **2 1948–1986Fox owned-and-operated '
ClevelandWJW-TV/WJKW-TV8 1954–1986Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Toledo, OhioWSPD-TV/WTVG **13 1948–1986ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Portland, OregonKPTV27 1954–1957Fox affiliate owned by Meredith Corporation
San Antonio, TexasKEYL5 1951–1954CBS affiliate, KENS, owned by Tegna Inc.
MilwaukeeWITI-TV6 1958–1986Fox owned-and-operated

Footnote:
MarketStationCurrent owner
Birmingham, AlabamaWBRC 960WERC, owned by iHeartMedia
Birmingham, AlabamaWBRC-FM 106.9WBPT, owned by SummitMedia
Los AngelesKGBS 1020KTNQ, owned by Univision Radio
Los AngelesKGBS-FM 97.1KAMP-FM, owned by Entercom
Miami - Fort LauderdaleWGBS 710WAQI, owned by Univision Radio
Miami - Fort LauderdaleWGBS-FM/WJHR-FM 96.3WPOW, owned by Entercom
AtlantaWAGA 590WDWD, owned by Salem Media Group
AtlantaWAGA-FM 103.3WVEE, owned by Entercom
DetroitWJBK 1500WLQV, owned by Salem Media Group
DetroitWJBK-FM 93.1WDRQ, owned by Cumulus Media
New York CityWHN-1050WEPN, owned by ESPN Radio
Cleveland, OhioWJW 850WKNR, owned by Good Karma Brands
Cleveland, OhioWJW-FM 104.1WQAL, owned by Entercom
Toledo, OhioWSPD 1370owned by iHeartMedia
Toledo, OhioWSPD-FM 101.5WRVF, owned by iHeartMedia
PhiladelphiaWIBG 990WNTP, owned by Salem Media Group
PhiladelphiaWIBG-FM 94.1WIP-FM, owned by Entercom
Wheeling, West VirginiaWWVA-1170owned by iHeartMedia
Wheeling, West VirginiaWWVA-FM 98.7WOVK, owned by iHeartMedia