Waypoint Media

Waypoint Media is a moribund confederation of holding companies that own and operate radio and television stations mostly in small cities in the United States. Primary owners of the various companies include Mike Reed, William Christian, Paige Christian (William's wife), and Bettina Finn.

Waypoint Media was originally owned by Reed. The Christians had previously operated as Vision Communications and, along with Finn, Sound Communications (which operate television and radio stations respectively in Western New York and the Southern Tier) before Bill Christian partnered with Waypoint to form Star City Broadcasting to operate stations in Lafayette, Indiana. Bill Christian purchased a stake in Waypoint by 2019.[1]

Waypoint's various component companies have offices in Painted Post, New York; Glen Head, New York; Lafayette, Indiana; Meridian, Mississippi; and Little Rock, Arkansas. It purchased the assets of the former Independent News Network in June 2019 with plans to keep INN's office in Little Rock open under the name News Hub. In November 2019, Christian and Reed announced an agreement to sell all their remaining broadcast assets to Standard Media in a deal that is forecast to close following regulatory approval in early 2020.[2]

Television stations

Vision Communications

Star City Broadcasting

Waypoint Media

Radio stations

Cattaraugus County market
  • WGGO, Salamanca, New York (license only)
  • WQRS, Salamanca, New York
  • WOEN, Olean, New York
  • WMXO, Olean, New York

Allegany County

Elmira-Corning market

Lafayette, Indiana
  • WBPE, Lafayette, Indiana
  • WSHY, Lafayette, Indiana
  • WYCM, Lafayette, Indiana
  • WAZY-FM, Lafayette, Indiana

Partial purchase of Pembrook Pines

In February 2014, the station announced the acquisition of the remains of Pembrook Pines Media Group, which includes the Cattaraugus County-based cluster of WMXO/WOEN in Olean and WQRS/WGGO in Salamanca. A sister company, Great Radio LLC, was to own Pembrook Pines' remaining assets in order to comply with ownership caps (such an arrangement would have left the Christians with control of most of Elmira's radio stations).[3] Days before the sale was to close, Vision Communications and Great Radio withdrew their bid for Pembrook Pines, after a previous bidder (Randy Reid's Titan Radio) and Vision's primary competitor in both markets (Community Broadcasters, LLC) raised objections to the Christians' concentration of media ownership in the Elmira market.[4] A revised plan submitted in August 2014 will see the Christians follow through with their purchase of the Cattaraugus County cluster while Gordy Ichikawa, who specializes in the ownership of radio broadcast towers, buys the disputed Elmira-Corning assets.[5] The sale closed September 10, 2014. The company then bought another former Pembrook Pines station, WZKZ in Alfred, in February 2015.

References
  1. "TV news firm bought by Waypoint". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. June 4, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  2. Lafayette, Jon (November 25, 2019). "Standard Media Group Buys Waypoint, Vision Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  3. "Milwaukee, Riverside Translators, Two Fort Wayne Clusters Sold". All Access.
  4. http://www.fybush.com/nerw-20140602/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. http://www.fybush.com/nerw-20140825/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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