Sinclair Broadcast Group

"SBG" redirects here. For other uses, see SBG (disambiguation).

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: SBGI
Industry	Telecommunications Mass media
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Hunt Valley, Maryland, USA
Key people	David D. Smith, Chairman & CEO David B. Amy, CFO
Products	Broadcast television
Revenue	$765 Million USD (2011)
Net income	$75.8 Million USD (2011)
Total assets	$1.57 Billion USD (2011)
Website	www.sbgi.net

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) (NASDAQ: SBGI) is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 87 stations across the country in over 47 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be received by 27 percent of American households. SBG is also the owner of the Ring of Honor (ROH) professional wrestling promotion, which is considered to be the third most prominent national wrestling company behind WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

History

The company, founded by Julian Sinclair Smith, originated in 1971 as the Chesapeake Television Corporation with the launch of WBFF (channel 45) in Baltimore. A subsidiary of Chesapeake Television Corp., the Commercial Radio Institute, later founded WPTT (channel 22, now WPMY) in Pittsburgh, in 1978; and WTTE (channel 28) in Columbus, Ohio, in 1984. All three stations originally were independents, though WBFF and WTTE became charter affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company at its launch in 1986.

Smith's son David D. Smith began taking a more active role in the 1980s. In 1985, the Chesapeake Television Corporation changed its name to Sinclair Broadcast Group. In 1990, David Smith and his three brothers bought their parents' remaining stock and went on a buying spree that eventually made it one of the largest station owners in the country.

Though Sinclair became a public company in 1995 and is currently traded on NASDAQ under the symbol SBGI, the Smith family still retains a majority financial interest, and all four Smith brothers serve as executives or directors.

On May 21, 2011 it was announced that Sinclair Broadcasting Group had purchased the Ring of Honor professional wrestling company (ROH). It was announced that as part of the purchase, Sinclair would produce a weekly, hour-long program for ROH to air on SBG stations, with the intent to eventually syndicate the show to non-SBG stations across the country.

Four months later on September 8, 2011, Sinclair announced that it will purchase the seven stations owned by Four Points Media Group from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million. Prior to the FCC's approval of the purchase which is expected in early 2012, Sinclair will manage the stations under local marketing agreements (replacing Nexstar Broadcasting Group as Four Points' LMA partner) following antitrust approval of the sale by the Federal Trade Commission, Sinclair will also supply working capital to the stations in consideration of service fees and performance incentives through the LMAs. Sinclair then announced on November 2, 2011 that it would acquire the entire television division of Freedom Communications. It also announced that it was in talks to purchase Columbus, Ohio CW affiliate WWHO from LIN TV (Sinclair already owns ABC affiliate WSYX and manages Fox affiliate WTTE, a possible sale of WWHO to Sinclair could result in the company controlling three stations in the Columbus market, similar to the arrangement it has with WZTV, WNAB and WUXP in Nashville). However Manhan Media purchased that station in December 2011, though it immediately turned around in February 2012 and entered a shared services agreement with Sinclair, effectively giving them all but license control of WWHO.

Possible bankruptcy

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 14, 2009, Sinclair stated that if they cannot refinance its $1.33 billion debt or if Cunningham becomes insolvent due to nonpayment on a loan worth $33.5 million, then Sinclair may be forced to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Purchase of Four Points Media Group

On September 8, 2011, Sinclair entered into an agreement to purchase all of the assets of Four Points Media Group from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave its antitrust approval of the deal in late September; as a result, that October 1, Sinclair took over the management of the stations from the Nexstar Broadcasting Group through time brokerage agreements Cerberus would then pay Nexstar a portion of Sinclair's purchase price—$6.7 million—to terminate the outsourcing agreement, which was set to expire in March 2012, five months early. The group deal was officially completed on January 1, 2012 after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the group deal on December 21, 2011.

Prior to 2008, these stations were owned by CBS Television Stations.

Purchase of Freedom Communications station group

On November 2, 2011, it was announced that Sinclair would purchase all eight television stations owned by Freedom Communications in a move for Freedom to eliminate its debt; the sale is pending Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United States Department of Justice (DOJ) approval. Sinclair took over the operations of the Freedom stations on December 1, 2011 through time brokerage agreements. The deal was granted approval by the FCC on March 13, 2012 and was consummated on April 1.

Purchase of stations from Newport

On July 19, 2012, Sinclair announced it would acquire six stations from Newport Television, including WKRC-TV, WOAI-TV, WHP-TV (along with its LMA for WLYH-TV), WPMI-TV, WJTC and KSAS-TV (along with its LMA for KMTW) for $412.5 million. Concurrently, Sinclair announced that it would also acquire WTTA outright from its current owners, Bay Television (which Sinclair operated under a LMA), for $40 million.

Sinclair also sold two stations, WSTR-TV and KMYS, to Deerfield Media, a company owned by Stephen P. Mumblow (the owner of Manhan Media), in order to satisfy the FCC's restrictions on duopolies. Sinclair continues to operate these two stations under shared services agreements. Sinclair will also give Deerfield Media the option to purchase WJTC and WPMI at a later date.

Deerfield Media also acquired KBTV-TV, a Fox affiliate in Beaumont, Texas, from Nexstar. Following the acquisition, Sinclair-owned KFDM took over its operations under a shared services agreement.

The deal was granted approval by the FCC for both Sinclair and Deerfield Media with their respective stations on November 19, 2012. The sale was consummated on December 3; on that day, Sinclair also acquired the non-FCC assets of WHAM-TV, an ABC affiliate in Rochester, New York, from Newport (with the license and other FCC assets being transferred to Deerfield Media).

Purchase of stations from Cox Media Group and Barrington Broadcasting

On February 25, 2013, Cox Media Group announced that it would sell its four smallest (by market size) television stations—KFOX-TV in El Paso, Texas, WJAC-TV in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, KRXI-TV in Reno, Nevada, and WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio—to Sinclair. Cox sold these stations as part of a refocus on larger markets. Concurrently, Deerfield Media will acquire the license assets of KAME-TV in Reno, which has long been operated by KRXI, from Ellis Communications. WJAC-TV and WTOV-TV have overlapping coverage with existing Sinclair stations in Pittsburgh with WPGH-TV and WPMY, and already had a news sharing agreement with Cox-owned WPXI to air a 10 PM newscast for WPGH-TV.

Three days later, on February 28, Sinclair announced the purchase of Barrington Broadcasting's 18 stations; six other stations currently operated by Barrington will also be managed by Sinclair. Sinclair will operate the former Cox and Barrington stations through a subsidiary, Chesapeake Television, which will focus on smaller markets; this division has separate management from Sinclair's main group, which operates the company's larger-market properties. As part of the Barrington acquisition, Chesapeake Television will inherit Barrington's headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. Concurrently with the Barrington acquisition, Sinclair will transfer WSYT (and its LMA of WNYS-TV) in Syracuse, New York and WYZZ-TV in Peoria–Bloomington, Illinois to Cunningham Broadcasting, because of FCC ownership restrictions, as Barrington already owned stations in these markets.

The deal with Sinclair acquiring the four smaller-market Cox stations was granted approval by the FCC on April 29, with Deerfield Media's acquisition of KAME-TV following suit the next day. The Sinclair and Deerfield acquisitions of their respective Cox-controlled stations were consummated on May 1. The Barrington acquisition is still awaiting FCC approval as of May 2013.

Purchase of Fisher Communications

On April 11, 2013, Sinclair announced that it would merge with Fisher Communications, which owns twenty television stations in the western United States, as well as three Seattle radio stations. Sinclair reportedly beat out LIN TV in the bidding war for Fisher. As a result of the deal, Sinclair will take over the operations of an additional former Newport Television station, KMTR in Eugene, Oregon (which Fisher, owner of KVAL-TV in Eugene, had reached a deal to operate under a shared services agreement), and return to radio ownership for the first time since selling its previous radio group to Entercom and Emmis Communications in 1999 and 2000. However, the deal has been subject to financial scrutiny; the law firm Levi & Korsinsky notified Fisher shareholders with accusations that Fisher's board of directors were breaching fiduciary duties by "failing to adequately shop the Company before agreeing to enter into the transaction", and Sinclair was underpaying for Fisher's stock. Shortly after the announcement, a lawsuit was filed by a Fisher shareholder.

Background

Network	# Stations
Fox	24
MyNetworkTV (MNTV)	19 (plus 2 subchannels)
CW	16 (plus 4 subchannels)
ABC	12
CBS	11
NBC	3
Independent	1
This TV	6

Many stations are owned outright by the company, but many others are affiliated through local marketing agreements (LMA). Sinclair pioneered the LMA concept in 1991.

The stations are affiliates of various television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Sinclair also owned or managed several affiliates of the WB and UPN networks, which both launched in January 1995. In September 2006, the WB and UPN merged their operations into a new network, the CW. Eight of Sinclair's WB stations, along with independent KFBT (now KVCW) in Las Vegas, became affiliates of the new network. At the same time, Sinclair aligned 17 of its stations (ten former WB affiliates, six former UPN stations, and independent WFGX) with MyNetworkTV, a new programming service owned by Fox's parent News Corporation. Sinclair's relationship with Fox/News Corporation was also strengthened after Sinclair agreed to a six-year affiliation renewal for its 19 Fox-affiliated stations. The deal also includes flagship WBFF in Baltimore, despite Fox owning a station, MyNetworkTV affiliate WUTB, in the same market.

On December 22, 2006, WTWC-TV in Tallahassee, Florida, renewed its affiliation agreement with NBC, keeping the station affiliated with the network through the end of 2016.

On May 15, 2012, Sinclair renewed its affiliation agreement for its 19 Fox affiliates for five years through 2017. The agreement includes the option for Sinclair to purchase Baltimore MyNetworkTV affiliate WUTB from Fox Television Stations at any point between July 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013. If exercised, this would create a virtual triopoly with flagship station WBFF and CW affiliate WNUV, which Sinclair manages under a local marketing agreement with Cunningham Broadcasting; it also gave Fox Television Stations the option to buy any combination of six Sinclair-owned CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates in three of four markets: Raleigh, North Carolina (WLFL and WRDC), Las Vegas, Nevada (KVCW and KVMY), Cincinnati, Ohio (WSTR-TV) and Norfolk, Virginia (WTVZ). Of these stations, WLFL and WTVZ are both former Fox charter affiliates, having disaffiliated with the network in 1998 to become affiliates of The WB. On November 26, Sinclair exercised its option on WUTB through its recently formed LMA partner Deerfield Media (the transfer is currently awaiting FCC approval). In January 2013, Fox announced that it would not excercise its option to buy any of the Sinclair stations in those four markets mentioned. Therefore, Sinclair is required to pay Fox $25 million.

Sinclair had experimented with using a centralized news organization called News Central that provided prepackaged news segments for distribution to several of the group's stations. These segments were integrated into programming during local news broadcasts. Mark E. Hyman, a high-ranking executive at Sinclair, also created conservative editorial segments called "The Point" that were broadcast on all of the group's stations with news departments. In addition, most of the stations that aired News Central emulated the prepackaged news studio appearance for local stories. This model was ultimately unsuccessful, and on March 31, 2006, News Central ended its national news broadcasts (although the "Point" commentaries lasted until November 30, 2006). Most stations running the News Central format ended up cancelling their news coverage altogether, although some stations that did so have subsequently contracted with competing stations in their markets to produce their newscasts.

Sinclair still produces a one-minute national news briefing for its stations, entitled Washington Newsroom. Starting in 2007, Sinclair launched a new newscast on some of its stations, completely separate from local news operations, called American Crossroads. Like News Central and "The Point", the program, hosted by Jeff Barnd (a news anchor at WBFF) covers national news stories and offers a conservative editorial segment.

Relationship to Glencairn/Cunningham

Between 1994 and 1997, nine stations owned by Glencairn Ltd. entered LMAs with Sinclair-owned stations in the same cities. Glencairn was owned by Edwin Edwards, a former Sinclair executive, who also personally owned WPTT in Pittsburgh. It held itself out as a minority-owned broadcaster.

However, Carolyn Smith, wife of Sinclair founder Julian Smith and mother of current Sinclair CEO David Smith, supplied Glencairn's initial capital and controlled 70 percent of Glencairn's stock. In December 2001, after complaints from Jesse Jackson and several other media companies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Sinclair $40,000 for illegally controlling Glencairn. Sinclair tried to merge outright with Glencairn in 2001 and purchase Edwards' Pittsburgh station. However, the FCC only allowed four of the stations to come directly under the Sinclair banner. Glencairn kept the other six stations and changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting. Nearly all of Cunningham's stock (90 percent) is owned by trusts in the name of four members of the Smith family, and all six Cunningham stations have LMAs with Sinclair stations. Based on these arrangements, Glencairn/Cunningham has served merely as a shell corporation with the sole purpose of evading FCC ownership rules.

In three markets, Cunningham owns the fourth-highest rated station while Sinclair owns one of the three highest-rated stations. The FCC's duopoly rules do not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. In Cunningham's three other markets, there are too few stations or unique station owners to permit a Sinclair duopoly. The FCC requires a market to have eight unique station owners once a duopoly is formed.

Digital television

In February 2009 Sinclair announced that many stations will adhere to the original DTV transition date of February 17, 2009. Sinclair stations' analog transmitters will be turned off then. Several stations, like WMSN in Madison, Wisconsin and WSMH in Flint, Michigan ended analog transmission on June 12 instead due to the FCC denying early shut-down to some of them in order to keep one commercial analog signal on in a market until the new transition.

To date, nearly all Sinclair owned and/or operated stations (except for the post-digital transition-acquired KMYU, KTVL, WHAM, WKRC, WPEC, WRGB, WTVC, & WWMT) are broadcasting on the UHF band, as many of them found their post-transition VHF assignments unacceptable to cover their full markets. WLOS is the only Sinclair station which went through the digital transition owned by SBG to have remained on VHF (WMSN moved from VHF to UHF in late 2010 due to signal conflicts in surrounding markets).

Political views

Sinclair has shown a history of promoting conservative politics through its broadcasting operations. Its former News Central newscasts featured a conservative editorial segment by Mark Hyman known as "The Point", it began featuring headlines from the conservative news outlet Newsmax on the home pages of some of its station websites, and the company had historically made the majority of its political campaign contributions to the Republican Party." However, some of the politically-oriented programming decisions Sinclair has made on its stations have proven controversial:

Nightline incident

In April 2004, Sinclair notably forced its ABC affiliates to not air an episode of Nightline that featured a reading of the names of soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. In response, Sinclair argued that the broadcast "[appeared] to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." ABC responded, saying that the program was meant to be "an expression of respect which seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country."

Afterward, the company's political slant was further scrutinized by critics when it was publicized that nearly all of Sinclair's recent campaign contributions were to the Republican Party. In particular, the Center for Public Integrity showed concern that the Republican slant of Sinclair's news programming, along with Mark Hyman's past history of government lobbying (particularly calling on the FCC to loosen rules regarding concentration of media ownership), made its stations provide "anything but fair and balanced news programming." Hyman disputed these allegations by stating that its newscasts were "pretty balanced" and that "the reason why some on the left have characterized us as conservative is that we run stories that others in the media spike."

Stolen Honor

Later in October 2004, just two weeks prior to the 2004 presidential election, it was reported that all 62 of Sinclair's stations would preempt prime time programming to air Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, a documentary critical of U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activism. The film was produced by Carlton Sherwood, a former associate of Tom Ridge, and accuses John Kerry of prolonging the Vietnam War because of his anti-war activism. The organization Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an anti-Kerry organization whose name become well known in the 2004 election year, was cross-promoting the film as part of a $1.4 million advertising campaign. In response, the Democratic National Committee filed a legal motion with the Federal Election Commission stating that it is inappropriate for the media organization to air "partisan propaganda" in the last 10 days of an election campaign.

Following the incident, Sinclair fired its Washington bureau chief Jon Lieberman for publicly criticizing the film in The Baltimore Sun as "biased political propaganda."

Breaking Point infomercial

In November 2010, it was reported that five Fox affiliates and one ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair broadcast an infomercial critical of President Barack Obama, Breaking Point: 25 Minutes that will Change America, which was sponsored by the National Republican Trust Political Action Group. The infomercial painted Obama as an extremist, and claimed that, during the 2008 presidential campaign, he received some campaign money from the Hamas terrorist group, and that Obama said in a speech, "You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You gonna have to kill some of those babies." The special also discusses Obama advisers Van Jones and John Holdren, as well as Obama staff Anita Dunn, Kevin Jennings, Carol Browner, and Cass Sunstein -- all in an unflattering light; in one case, the special claimed that Holdren said that trees should be permitted to sue humans in court. The infomercial aired at various times during the weekend of October 30 on WMSN-TV/Madison, Wisconsin; KBSI/Cape Girardeau, Missouri; WDKY-TV/Lexington, Kentucky; WPGH-TV/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; KDSM-TV/Des Moines, Iowa and WXLV-TV/Winston-Salem, North Carolina -- all in swing states vital to the 2010 elections.

2012 election specials

On November 5, 2012, six Sinclair stations in swing states aired a special focusing on issues surrounding the presidential election occurring the next day, such as the Libyan civil war and Health care reform. The special consisted of a series of segments that were presented by local anchors at each station.

The special was met with controversy for showing a bias against Barack Obama and focusing little on Republican candidate Mitt Romney, as opposed to showcasing both candidates equally. In particular, a writer for the political website Talking Points Memo felt that the special "sounded more like Fox News than local news." A Sinclair staff member disputed these claims, stating that "no one is disputing the facts of the stories that aired in the special", and that its decision on which markets to air the special was influenced by their "news value" and resonation with the public.

Retransmission disputes

See also: Carriage dispute

Suddenlink

In the summer of 2006, Charter Communications streamlined its operations, which included selling off portions of its cable system which were "geographically non-strategic". Charter accounts in the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia market area were purchased by Suddenlink Communications. Sinclair requested a $40 million one-time fee, and a one-dollar-per subscription per month fee from Suddenlink for retransmission rights of both WCHS-TV and WVAH-TV on the Suddenlink cable system. This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies, and Sinclair pulled the two stations off the air on cable systems covering the neighboring Beckley, West Virginia market.

After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement which allowed WCHS-TV and WVAH-TV to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public.

Mediacom

Cable TV company Mediacom filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sinclair on October 2006, claiming that Sinclair insisted on blanket carriage of 22 SBGI stations at all Mediacom cable companies where SBGI operates a TV station regardless of market differences. The District Court for the Southern District of Iowa denied Mediacom's injunction motion on October 24; Mediacom appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, but dropped the appeal on December 13.

Sinclair's retransmission agreement with Mediacom was originally set to expire on December 1, 2006, but Sinclair later extended the deadline to January 5, 2007. Despite the extension, the two sides remained at an impasse over how much money Mediacom should pay Sinclair for carriage of its stations. On January 4, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau denied Mediacom's complaint, stating that Sinclair failed to negotiate with Mediacom in good faith. After failing to respond to Mediacom's offer to take the dispute to binding arbitration before the deadline, Sinclair pulled all 22 stations from Mediacom's lineups shortly after midnight on January 6. Despite a plea from Iowa's Congressional delegation urging the two sides to submit to binding arbitration, Sinclair rejected the plea on January 11. The two sides discussed the dispute in front of Iowa lawmakers on January 23. On January 30, 2007, Senators Daniel Inouye, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and Ranking Member Ted Stevens signed a letter addressed to Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, directing him to resolve the issue. The impasse ended on February 2 when Mediacom announced that it had reached a retransmission agreement with Sinclair for undisclosed terms. All 22 stations were restored to Mediacom systems shortly after the agreement was announced. Mediacom lost 14,000 subscribers during the last quarter of 2006 and an additional 18,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2007.

In December 2009, Sinclair announced that it would pull all of its stations from Mediacom systems for the second time in three years if a deal was not reached by midnight on December 31. The impasse had threatened coverage of the January 5 Orange Bowl in Iowa, where the Hawkeyes played, and the January 7 2010 BCS National Championship Game in Alabama, where the Crimson Tide won the national championship. Mediacom and lawmakers from Iowa and Alabama asked the FCC to intervene. On December 31, Mediacom and Sinclair agreed to an eight-day extension of the retransmission agreement that permitted Sinclair's stations to remain on Mediacom until January 8. Both sides reached a one-year retransmission agreement on January 7, one day before the interim agreement was set to expire.

Time Warner Cable

Sinclair was also involved with retransmission negotiations with Time Warner Cable at the same time as the Mediacom dispute in 2006 and 2007, but the two sides reached an agreement on January 19, 2007.

In November 2010, Sinclair announced that it would pull 33 of its stations in 21 cities on January 1, 2011, if the two parties didn't come to an agreement. The deadline was subsequently extended to January 14, 2011. Regardless of the outcome, Time Warner Cable was obligated to carry Fox Network programming on its systems due to a deal reached with Fox earlier in 2010, but the agreement did not extend to syndicated and local programs on Sinclair's Fox affiliates.

The two companies reached an agreement on January 15, 2011, shortly after the deadline was extended another 24 hours.

Comcast

Broadcasting & Cable reported on January 5, 2007 that Sinclair might pull 30 stations from Comcast systems after its retransmission agreement was slated to expire on February 5. Comcast was granted an extension to March 1, and again to March 10. Comcast stated that it would not pay cash for retransmission rights, but was willing to barter, for example, giving free commercials for SBGI stations on Comcast cable channels.

On March 9, Comcast and Sinclair jointly announced a four-year deal for retransmission rights, expiring on March 1, 2011. The two came to a new agreement for continued carriage on March 3, 2011; this agreement was negotiated without any public statements or announcements.

Dish Network

Dish Network's retransmission agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group was slated to expire on August 13, 2012. If an agreement had not reached by that time, 74 Sinclair stations would have been blacked out, including the affiliates of three major networks. Dish Network states that Sinclair is "...seeking a massive price increase that would force Dish to pay more to carry Sinclair’s stations than it pays to any other broadcaster." Sinclair, meanwhile, has stated that it "believes significant doubt exists as to whether or not a new agreement will be reached with Dish." Dish Network has set up its own website regarding the dispute. On August 16, Dish and Sinclair came to an agreement with no signal loss.

DirecTV

DirecTV's retransmission agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group is slated to expire on February 28, 2013. If an agreement is not reached by that time, 87 Sinclair stations may be blacked out. Sinclair noted that they “...have been negotiating for quite some time in an effort to reach a new agreement, at this time it does not appear that these efforts will be successful. Although Sinclair does not believe that it is constructive to negotiate its private business relationships in public, Sinclair is informing the public in advance of the end of carriage because it is aware of the impact on a segment of the public from the end of the relationship between the Sinclair stations and DirecTV.” DirecTV states that “we will compensate Sinclair fairly, but our customers should not be forced to pay more than twice as much for the same programs that remain available completely free of charge over the air and online.” The deal was reached on February 28, hours before the deal would have expired.

Sinclair-owned stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

Note: Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station built and signed on by Sinclair.

City of license / Market	Station	Channel TV (RF)	Owned since	Primary affiliation
Birmingham - Tuscaloosa, AL	WTTO	21 (28)	1995	The CW
	WABM	68 (36)	2001	MyNetworkTV
	WDBB (satellite of WTTO)	17 (18)	1995	The CW
Fort Pierce - West Palm Beach, FL	WPEC	12 (13)	2012	CBS
	WTVX	34 (34)	2012	The CW MyNetworkTV (DT2)
	WTCN-CA	43 (34.3)	2012	MyNetworkTV
	WWHB-CA	48 (34.2)	2012	Azteca América
Pensacola, FL - Mobile, AL	WEAR-TV	3 (17)	1997	ABC
	WPMI-TV 1	15 (15)	2012	NBC
	WFGX	35 (50)	2001	MyNetworkTV
	WJTC 1	44 (45)	2012	Independent
St. Petersburg - Tampa	WTTA	38 (32)	1998	MyNetworkTV
Tallahassee, FL - Thomasville, GA	WTWC-TV	40 (40)	1998	NBC
Bloomington - Peoria, IL	WYZZ-TV 2	43 (28)	1985	Fox
Champaign - Urbana - Decatur - Springfield, IL	WICS	20 (42)	1998	ABC
	WICD (semi-satellite of WICS)	15 (41)	1998	ABC
	WRSP-TV	55 (44)	3	Fox
	WCCU (semi-satellite of WRSP)	27 (26)	3	Fox
	WBUI	22 (23)	3	The CW
Cedar Rapids - Waterloo - Dubuque - Iowa City, IA	KGAN-TV	2 (51)	1998	CBS
	KFXA	28 (27)	3	Fox
Des Moines	KDSM-TV	17 (16)	1996	Fox
Wichita, Kansas	KSAS-TV	24 (26)	2012	Fox
	KMTW	36 (35)	3	MyNetworkTV
Danville - Lexington, KY	WDKY-TV	56 (31)	2001	Fox
Paducah, KY - Cape Girardeau, MO - Harrisburg, IL	KBSI	23 (22)	1998	Fox
	WDKA	49 (49)	3	MyNetworkTV
Portland, Maine	WGME-TV	13 (38)	1998	CBS
Baltimore	WBFF **	45 (46)	1971	Fox
	WNUV 4	54 (40)	1994	The CW
	WUTB 1	24 (41)	2013	MyNetworkTV
Flint - Saginaw - Bay City, MI	WSMH	66 (16)	1996	Fox
Kalamazoo, Michigan	WWMT	3 (8)	2012	CBS The CW (DT2)
Minneapolis - St Paul	WUCW	23 (22)	1998	The CW
St. Louis	KDNL-TV	30 (31)	1996	ABC
Las Vegas	KVMY	21 (22)	1997	MyNetworkTV
	KVCW	33 (29)	2000	The CW
Reno	KRXI-TV	11 (44)	2013	Fox
	KAME-TV 2	21 (20)	2013	MyNetworkTV
Buffalo, New York	WUTV	29 (14)	1996	Fox
	WNYO-TV	49 (49)	2001	MyNetworkTV
Rochester, New York	WHAM-TV 1	13 (13)	2013	ABC The CW (DT2)
	WUHF 2	31 (28)	1995	Fox
Schenectady - Albany - Troy, N.Y.	WRGB	6 (6)	2012	CBS
	WCWN	45 (43)	2012	The CW
Syracuse, New York	WNYS-TV	43 (44)	3	MyNetworkTV
	WSYT	68 (19)	1998	Fox
Asheville - Greenville - Spartanburg	WLOS	13 (13)	1996	ABC
	WMYA-TV 4	40 (14)	1996	MyNetworkTV
Raleigh - Durham - Fayetteville	WLFL	22 (27)	1994	The CW
	WRDC	28 (28)	1995	MyNetworkTV
Winston-Salem - Greensboro - High Point	WXLV-TV	45 (29)	1996	ABC
	WMYV	48 (33)	2001	MyNetworkTV
Cincinnati	WKRC-TV	12 (12)	2012	CBS The CW (DT2)
	WSTR-TV 1	64 (33)	1995	MyNetworkTV
Columbus - Chillicothe, Ohio	WSYX	6 (48)	1996	ABC
	WTTE ** 4	28 (36)	1984	Fox
	WWHO	53 (46)	5	The CW
Dayton, Ohio	WKEF	22 (51)	1998	ABC
	WRGT-TV 4	45 (30)	2001	Fox MyNetworkTV (DT2)
Stubenville, OH-Wheeling, WV	WTOV-TV	9 (9)	2013	NBC
Oklahoma City	KOKH-TV	25 (24)	2003	Fox
	KOCB	34 (33)	1996	The CW
Medford, Oregon	KTVL	10 (10)	2012	CBS The CW (DT2)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania	WLYH-TV	15 (23)	6	CW
	WHP-TV	21 (21)	2012	CBS
Johnstown-Altoona, PA	WJAC-TV	6 (34)	2013	NBC
Pittsburgh	WPGH-TV	53 (43)	1991	Fox
	WPMY **	22 (42)	2000 (previously owned from 1978–1991)	MyNetworkTV
Charleston, South Carolina	WTAT-TV 4	24 (24)	1995	Fox
	WMMP	36 (36)	1998	MyNetworkTV
Chattanooga, Tennessee	WTVC	9 (9)	2012	ABC
Nashville	WZTV	17 (15)	1994	Fox
	WUXP	30 (21)	2000	MyNetworkTV
	WNAB	58 (23)	7	The CW
Austin, Texas	KEYE-TV	42 (43)	2012	CBS Telemundo (DT2)
Beaumont, Texas	KBTV-TV 1	4 (40)	2012	Fox
	KFDM	6 (21)	2012	CBS The CW (DT2)
El Paso, TX	KFOX-TV	14 (15)	2013	Fox
San Antonio	WOAI-TV	4 (48)	2012	NBC
	KABB	29 (30)	1996	Fox
	KMYS 1	35 (32)	2001	The CW
Salt Lake City	KUTV	2 (34)	2012	CBS
St. George, Utah	KMYU	12 (9)	2012	MyNetworkTV
Norfolk - Portsmouth - Newport News	WTVZ-TV	33 (33)	1996	MyNetworkTV
Richmond, Virginia	WRLH-TV	35 (26)	1998	Fox MyNetworkTV (DT2)
Charleston - Huntington, WV	WCHS-TV	8 (41)	1997	ABC
	WVAH-TV 4	11 (19)	1994	Fox
Madison, Wisconsin	WMSN-TV	47 (49)	2002	Fox
Milwaukee	WVTV	18 (18)	2000	The CW
	WCGV-TV	24 (25)	1995	MyNetworkTV

Notes:

• ¹ These stations are nominally owned by Deerfield Media and operated by Sinclair under local marketing agreements.
• ² These stations are owned by Sinclair, but operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group under local marketing agreements.
• ³ Via local marketing agreements, Sinclair operates these stations, which are owned by local independent or private companies.
• ⁴ These stations are nominally owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under local marketing agreements. However, Cunningham Broadcasting's stock is almost completely controlled by trusts in the names of members of Sinclair's founding Smith family.
• ⁵ WWHO is owned by Manhan Media and managed by Sinclair under a shared services agreement.
• ⁶ WLYH is owned by Nexstar, but operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement.
• ⁷ WNAB is owned by Tennessee Broadcasting, LP, an affiliate company of Beverly Hills-based Lambert Broadcasting, but its operations are managed by Sinclair under an outsourcing agreement. Sinclair filed an application to acquire the station outright under an FCC "failing station" waiver in July 2005 but the FCC has not acted on the application as of 2013—and will likely either reject the application or continue to not act on it unless Sinclair sells off either WZTV or WUXP due to current rules prohibiting one company from directly owning more than two full-power television stations in the same market.

Former Sinclair-owned stations

City of license/Market	Station	Channel TV (DT)	Years owned	Current affiliation
Stockton - Sacramento, CA	KOVR	13 (25)	1996–2005	CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
Bloomington - Indianapolis, IN	WTTV	4 (48)	1996–2002	The CW affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting
Kokomo, Indiana	WTTK (satellite of WTTV)	29 (29)	1996–2002	The CW affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting
Bloomington, Indiana	WIIB (now WIPX-TV)	36 (27)	1988–1997	ION owned-and-operated (O&O)
New Bedford, MA - Providence, R.I.	WLWC	28 (22)	2012–2013	The CW affiliate owned by OTA Broadcasting, LLC
Lansing, Michigan	WLAJ	53 (51)	2012–2013	ABC affiliate owned by Shield Media, LLC (operated via LMA by Young Broadcasting)
Kansas City, Missouri	KSMO-TV	62 (47)	1994–2005	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Meredith Corporation
Greenville, Tennessee (Tri-Cities, TN-VA)	WEMT	39 (38)	2000–2006	Fox affiliate owned by Esteem Broadcasting, LLC (operated via LMA by Bonten Media Group)
Plattsburgh, N.Y. - Burlington, VT	WPTZ	5 (14)	1997–1998	NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
Hartford, VT - Hanover, N.H.	WNNE (semi-satellite of WPTZ)	31 (25)	1997–1998	NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
Tallahassee, FL - Thomasville, GA	WTXL-TV	27 (27)	2001–20061	ABC affiliate owned by Calkins Media
Jacksonville - Tyler - Longview, TX	KETK-TV	56 (22)	1998–2004	NBC affiliate owned by Communications Corporation of America
Springfield - Holyoke, MA	WGGB-TV	40 (40)	1998–2007	ABC affiliate owned by Gormally Broadcasting, LLC

• ¹Operated by WTWC-TV under a shared services agreement (license was held by a third party)

External links

• SBGI.net - Official SBGI Website
• ROHWrestling.com - Official Ring of Honor Website
• CJR Who Owns What: Sinclair Broadcast Group