Milton Grant

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Based in Roanoke, Virginia, Grant Broadcasting System II (also known as "Grant Broadcasting") is an owner of various TV stations in the US, mainly Fox affiliates in the midwest.

Grant Broadcasting was founded in 1990 by Milton Grant, who, in addition to being President of Grant Broadcasting, also serves as President and General Manager for many of his stations.

History

Milton Grant was originally a radio announcer and host in the Washington, DC area, whose program in the 1950s was heard simultaneously on many of the capitol's radio stations. Later in the 1950s, he hosted a popular dance program for WTTG, The Milt Grant Show.

Grant's first foray into station ownership first came in 1966, when his new company, the Capitol Broadcasting Corporation, established WDCA. That station was sold off to the Superior Tube Company in 1969. (WDCA is currently owned by Fox, as a UPN affiliate.)

In 1980, Grant was part of an investment group who established KTXA in Dallas and KTXH in Houston, both sold off to Gulf Broadcasting in 1985. (KTXA is now owned by CBS, while Fox owns KTXH. Both are affiliated with UPN.)

In 1984, while preparing for the sale of KTXA and KTXH, Grant established the original Grant Broadcasting System, starting with WBFS in Miami, then later expanding to the acquisitions of WGBO in Chicago and WGBS in Philadelphia. However, in 1987, this first incarnation of Grant Broadcasting went bankrupt, after overpaying for syndicated programming, while its competitors took the best barter programming. It was even worse in Chicago, where all of WGBO's competitors took all the bartered shows available to them, leaving WGBO with holding the bag.

In 1989, Grant's stations were repossessed by its creditors after Grant failed to meet the bankruptcy agreements. The creditors used these stations to form "Combined Broadcasting" (no relation to the earlier "Combined Communications", which was sold in the early-1980s to Gannett). Today, CBS owns WBFS and WGBS (now WPSG) as UPN affiliates, while WGBO became a station owned and operated by and affiliated with Univision.

In 1990, Grant started to rebuild is broadcasting empire, under the name "Grant Communications", later renamed "Grant Broadcasting System II" (the "II" representing his second try to build a chain). His first station was Huntsville, Alabama's WZDX, which he acquired in March 1990.

Today, Grant owns five TV stations. He was also a former owner of Buffalo's WB affiliate, WNYO-TV, which he acquired in 1996, but sold off to Sinclair in 2001.

Grant Broadcasting stations share a logo style: even the original 3 Grant stations used this style. It consists of a colored channel number with white extensions around it mimicking the edges of the channel number.

Stations

Current DMA# Market Station Current Affiliation
68. Roanoke, Virginia WFXR-TV 27 Fox
Lynchburg, Virginia WWCW 21 Fox (satellite of WFXR-TV)
"WWCW"
(WFXR-DT2 17-2/
WWCW-DT2 20-2)
WB
(to become CW in Sept. 2006)
84. Huntsville, Alabama WZDX 54 Fox
"WAMY"
(WZDX-DT2 41-2)
MyNetworkTV
96. Davenport, Iowa KLJB-TV 18 Fox
Burlington, Iowa KGCW-TV 26 WB
(to become CW in Sept. 2006)
127. La Crosse, Wisconsin WLAX 25 Fox
Eau Claire, Wisconsin WEUX 48 Fox (satellite of WLAX)

Former Grant stations

Current DMA# Market Station Years Owned Current Affiliation
3. Chicago, Illinois WGBO-TV 66 1985-1989 Univision owned-and-operated (O&O)
4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WGBS-TV 57
(now WPSG)
1985-1989 UPN affiliate owned by CBS
(to become CW in Sept. 2006)
6. Dallas, Texas KTXA 21 1981-1984 Independent owned by CBS
8. Washington, DC WDCA 20 1966-1969 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Fox
10. Houston, Texas KTXH 20 1982-1984 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Fox
16. Miami, Florida WBFS-TV 33 1984-1989 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by CBS
49. Buffalo, New York WNYO-TV 49 1996-2001 Dual WB-MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

External links