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overview
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overview
This page looks at LIN TV Corporation of the US.
It covers -
overview
Providence-based LIN TV Corporation operates 23 US television
stations and has investments in five other stations. It
traces its origins to the LIN Broadcasting Corporation,
a minor media conglomerate disassembled in the 1980s and
1990s.
Its corporate site is here.
LIN Broadcasting
LIN TV Corporation originated as LIN Broadcasting Corporation
in the mid 1960s. LIN Broadcasting was a minor conglomerate,
assembled on an opportunistic basis and encompassing radio
and television broadcasting, direct marketing, 'information
and learning', music publishing and record labels. The
name derived from Louisville, Indianapolis and Nashville,
the three locations of its initial radio stations.
It expanded into paging services and then in the early
1980s entered the mobile (ie cellular) phone industry.
By 1983 it owned seven television stations. In 1985 it
also owned and managed mobile phone licenses serving New
York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas and Houston. In
1986 it sold the paging operations and six of its radio
stations to fund development of the cellular business.
In 1990 McCaw Cellular Communications acquired a 52% interest
in LIN Broadcasting in a hostile takeover, following an
unsuccessful bid by BellSouth. McCaw was in turn acquired
by AT&T in 1994 for US$11.5
billion. At that time phone services accounted for 79%
of LIN's revenue; the company had never made a profit
after taxes. Founder and CEO Donald Pels reportedly earned
US$186m in 1990.
the LIN TV group
The television operations of LIN Broadcasting were then
spun off as LIN Television Corporation, a public company
on the Nasdaq stock market. It was 45% owned by AT&T
(which subsequently acquired the rest of LIN Broadcasting).
LIN TV at that time owned and/or operated 12 stations.
It acquired WIVB-TV in Buffalo.
In 1998 LIN TV was acquired by junkbond financiers Hicks,
Muse, Tate & Furst (HMTF)
for US$1.9 billion after a bid by Raycom. HMTF controlled
the Capstar radio station chain
that became AMFM Inc and was subsequently absorbed by
Clear Channel.
holdings
Wholly-owned stations include -
Indianapolis, IN
WISH-TV
WIIH-CA
Hartford-New Haven,CT
WTNH-TV
WCTX-TV
Grand Rapids Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, MI
WOOD-TV
WOTV-TV
WXSP-CA
Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, VA
WAVY-TV
WVBT-TV
Buffalo, NY
WIVB-TV
WNLO-TV
Austin, TX
KXAN-TV
KBVO-CA
Fort Wayne, IN
WANE-TV
Springfield-Holyoke, MA
WWLP-TV
Lafayette, IN
WLFI-TV
San Juan, PR
WAPA-TV
WJPX-TV
Providence/New Bedford, MA
WPRI-TV
Dayton, OH
WDTN-TV
Toledo, OH
WUPW-TV
LIN
has a 50% non-voting equity interest in minority-controlled
Banks Broadcasting, which owns and operates KWCV-TV (Wichita)
and KNIN-TV (Boise). LIN provides services under a joint
sales agreement to Paxson's WZPX-TV
(Grand Rapids) and WPXV-TV (Norfolk). It has a 20% equity
interest in a television station joint venture with NBC
for KXAS-TV (Dallas NBC affiliate) and KNSD-TV (San Diego
NBC affiliate). It has 33.3% of Block-controlled
WAND-TV (Champaign, Springfield, Decatur).
studies
There have been no major studies of LIN Broadcasting or
LIN TV.
For McCaw and AT&T see Money from Thin Air: The
Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary who Invented the Cell
Phone Industry, and His Next Billion-Dollar Idea
(New York: Crown 2000) by O Casey Corr and works cited
on the AT&T, Liberty
and Metromedia profiles elsewhere
on this site.
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