Granite Broadcasting Corporation

Granite Broadcasting Corporation

Type	Private
Industry	Television
Founded	1988
Headquarters	New York City USA
Key people	W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck, Founders
Website	Website

Granite Broadcasting Corporation, founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck (attorney) in 1988 [2], is a broadcasting holding company which owns or operates (via local marketing agreements) 14 television stations in the United States, largely centered in the midwest with a cluster in New York state. The company was the first African American-owned chain to be considered a "major" group to exist in the United States (though not the first minority-owned chain, a distinction held by the Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).

The company is based in New York City. The current Chairman of the board and CEO is Peter Markham. Current COO is Duane Lammers, a consultant to the company since mid 2008 and former COO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group[3].

Granite declared Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy on December 11, 2006. It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2007 under the control of private equity firm Silver Point Capital (which also took over ComCorp later that year).

Coverage

In December 2008, Granite expanded the delivery of their programming over cable in their regional market areas.

Stations Owned by Granite Broadcasting

DMA#	Market	Station	RF Channel	Display Channel	Current Affiliation	Acquired	Notes
6	San Francisco, CA	KOFY-TV	19	20	Ind.	1998
11	Detroit, MI	WMYD	21	20	MyNetworkTV	1997
52	Buffalo, NY	WKBW-TV	38	7	ABC	1995
55	Fresno, CA	KSEE	38	24	NBC	1993
83	Syracuse, NY	WTVH	47	5	CBS	1993	Operated by Barrington Broadcasting-owned WSTM through a JSA and SSA
107	Fort Wayne, IN	WISE	18	33	NBC	2004	Combined operations with WPTA MY FOX FORT WAYNE on 33.2
		WPTA	24	21	ABC	N/A	owned by Malara Broadcasting The CW on 21.2 The VIPIR Channel (Weather) on 21.3
116	Peoria, IL	WEEK-TV	25	25	NBC	1989	Controls WAOE and WHOI
		WHOI	19	19	ABC	N/A	Owned by Barrington Broadcasting The CW on 19.2
		WAOE	39	59	MyNetworkTV	N/A	Owned by Four Seasons Broadcasting
139	Superior, WI Duluth, MN	KBJR-TV	19	6	NBC	1989	Combined operations with KDLH My 9 (MyNetworkTV) on 6.2
	Duluth, MN	KDLH	33	3	CBS	N/A	owned by Malara Broadcasting Northland's CW (The CW) on 3.2
	Chisholm, MN	KRII	11	11	NBC	2000	Satellite station of KBJR
157	Binghamton, NY	WBNG	7	12	CBS	2006	The CW on 12.2 (WBNG-DT2)

1. ^a A proposed 2006 sale of KBWB and WMYD to DS Audible, LLC was cancelled after DS Audible failed to close the sale.

Former Stations

Market	Station	RF Channel	Display Channel	Affiliation(s)	Owned by Granite	Current Owner	Notes
San Jose, CA	KNTV	12	11	ABC; WB; NBC	1989–2002	NBC O&O	Was ABC for Silicon Valley and the Monterey-Salinas area until 2000, WB until end of 2001, now is NBC for the San Francisco Bay Area
Fort Wayne, IN	WPTA	24	21	ABC	1989–2004	Malara Broadcasting	Transferred to Malara upon Granite's purchase of WISE
Kalamazoo, MI	WWMT	8	3	CBS	1995-98	Freedom Communications (sale pending to Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Lansing, MI	WLAJ	51	53	ABC	1996-98	Freedom Communications (sale pending to Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Austin, TX	KEYE-TV	43	42	Fox; CBS	1992-99	Sinclair Broadcast Group	Was KBVO and Fox until 1995

External links

• Company Site
• Company Profile @ Forbes
• List of company contacts and locations
• Don Cornwell interview April 17, 2000