Multimedia (media company)

Multimedia, Inc.
Public
Industry Media
Fate Acquired by Gannett Co. (television counterpart sold to Universal Studios in 1996; cable TV counterpart sold to Cox Communications in 2000)
Assets now existing as part of Gannett and Tegna, Inc.
Founded 1967 (1967)
Defunct 1995 (1995)
Headquarters Greenville, South Carolina
Key people
 Craig A. Dubow; Chairman, President & CEO
Products Newspapers, television, and Internet media
Number of employees
 49,675

Multimedia, Inc. was a media company that owned 10 daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers, two radio stations, five television stations, and a cable television system division. The company was headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

History

Multimedia's origins can be traced to December 1932, when the News-Piedmont Company of Greenville, which published the Greenville News and Greenville Piedmont newspapers, acquired radio station WFBC, only weeks after the station relocated to Greenville from Knoxville, Tennessee. In November 1953 the News-Piedmont Co. acquired majority ownership of the Asheville Citizen and Asheville Times and its wholly owned radio station, WWNC. WFBC-TV, the News and Piedmont's television station, signed-on from Greenville at the end of 1953.

The News-Piedmont Co. would expand its broadcast holdings with the acquisitions of WBIR-AM-FM-TV in Knoxville in 1961, and of the Southeastern Broadcasting Company, which owned WMAZ-AM-FM-TV in Macon, Georgia, in 1963. Then, in September 1967 the three commonly owned companies were merged, taking on the Multimedia, Inc. name. At the time Multimedia consisted of the Asheville and Greenville newspapers, three television stations and seven radio stations.

The company's biggest purchases came in 1976, when it purchased several properties from Cincinnati-based Avco, which was liquidating its media holdings. Multimedia first bought Avco's flagship television station, WLWT in Cincinnati, and later acquired Avco Embassy Television, the syndication division which produced and nationally distributed The Phil Donahue Show and two regionally distributed programs produced at WLWT, The Paul Dixon Show and The Bob Braun Show. Avco Embassy would be renamed Multimedia Entertainment.

The company was involved in one of the more unusual media transactions in history. In 1983, it sold its flagship television station, WFBC-TV in Greenville (now WYFF) and WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Pulitzer, Inc. In return, Multimedia received Pulitzer's former flagship television station, KSDK in St. Louis. Multimedia used its new purchase as the testing ground for a new show hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael.

Multimedia was acquired by the Gannett Company in 1995;[1] after the sale was finalized, Gannett sold Multimedia Entertainment to MCA the following year.[2] In January 2000 the cable television division, which included systems in Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina was sold to Cox Communications. The North Carolina systems were resold to Suddenlink Communications in 2006.

The Multimedia name lives on as a holding company and licensee within what is now Tegna, Inc.'s corporate structure. Productions under Multimedia Entertainment are now part of the NBCUniversal Television Distribution archives.

Former Multimedia-owned stations

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

Television stations

Note: two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed-on by a predecessor company of Multimedia.

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)		 Years owned Current ownership status
Macon, Georgia WMAZ-TV 13 (13) 1963–1995 CBS affiliate owned by Tegna, Inc.
St. Louis KSDK 5 (35) 1983–1995 NBC affiliate owned by Tegna, Inc.
Winston-Salem - Greensboro - High Point WXII-TV 12 (31) 1972–1983 NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
Cincinnati WLWT 5 (35) 1976–1995 NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
Cleveland WKYC-TV 1 3 (17) 1991–1995 NBC affiliate owned by Tegna, Inc.
Greenville - Spartanburg - Asheville WFBC-TV ** 4 (36) 1954–1983 NBC affiliate, WYFF, owned by Hearst Television
Knoxville WBIR-TV 10 (10) 1960–1995 NBC affiliate owned by Tegna, Inc.
Nashville WZTV 17 (15) 1979–1988 Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group

Footnotes:

  • 1 Multimedia purchased only a simple majority (51 percent) stake in WKYC-TV from NBC in 1991. Gannett retained the same share until 1999, when it purchased the remaining portion (49 percent) from NBC.

Radio stations

AM Stations FM Stations
Market Station Years owned Current ownership
Little Rock KAAY-1090 1975–1985 owned by Cumulus Media
KEZQ-FM/KLPQ-FM-93.7
(now KKPT)		 1976–1985 owned by Entercom Communications
Macon, Georgia WMAZ-940
(now WMAC)		 1963–1995 owned by Cumulus Media
WMAZ-FM/WAYS-99.1
(now WDEN-FM)		 1963–1995 owned by Cumulus Media
Louisville WAKY-790
(now WKRD)		 1975–1985 owned by iHeartMedia
WVEZ-106.9 1980–1985 owned by Summit Media LLC
Shreveport KEEL-710 1975–1994 owned by Townsquare Media
KMBQ-FM/KITT-FM-93.7
(now KXKS-FM)		 1975–1994 owned by Townsquare Media
Asheville, North Carolina WWNC-570 1953–1987 owned by iHeartMedia
Greenville, South Carolina WFBC-1330**
(now WYRD)		 1932–1995 owned by Entercom Communications
WFBC-FM-93.7** 1947–1995 owned by Entercom Communications
Spartanburg, South Carolina WORD-910 1989–1994 owned by Entercom Communications
Knoxville WBIR-1240
(now WIFA)		 1961–1980 owned by Salem Media Group
WBIR-FM-103.5
(now WIMZ-FM)		 1961–1980 owned by Midwest Communications
Wauwatosa - Milwaukee, WI WEZW-103.7
(now WXSS)		 1978–1994 owned by Entercom Communications

References

  1. ↑ "Gannett and Multimedia enter into a merger agreement by which Gannett will acquire Multimedia", Business Wire, July 24, 1995. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from HighBeam Research.
  2. ↑ Miller, Nick. "Gannett Sells Talk Shows", The Cincinnati Post, November 25, 1996. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from HighBeam Research.
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