Grant Broadcasting


Grant Broadcasting System II was an owner of various television stations in the United States, Based in Roanoke, Virginia.
Grant Broadcasting was founded in 1990 by Milton Grant, who, in addition to being President of Grant Broadcasting, also served as President and General Manager for many of his stations.

History

Milton Grant began his career as a radio news director in his hometown of New York City. In the early 1950s he moved to Washington, D.C., where he became the host of several music programs, one of which was heard simultaneously on four of the city's radio stations, , WAVA, WINX, and WEEL. Grant moved to television in 1956 when he hosted a popular dance program for WTTG, The Milt Grant Show, which ran until 1961.
Grant's first foray into station ownership first came in 1966 when his new company, the Capitol Broadcasting Corporation, established WDCA-TV. That station was sold to the Superior Tube Company in 1969, but Grant remained with the station as its General Manager until WDCA was sold to Taft Broadcasting in 1979.
In 1981, Grant was part of an investment group who launched KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas and KTXH in Houston. Grant both sold stations to Gulf Broadcasting in 1985 and days later these two stations were sold in a group deal to Taft Broadcasting.
In 1985, while preparing for the sale of KTXA and KTXH, Grant started the original Grant Broadcasting System, beginning with the sign-on of WBFS-TV in Miami in 1984, and later with the 1985 acquisitions of WGBO-TV in Joliet, Illinois, and WGBS-TV in Philadelphia. However, in 1987, this first incarnation of Grant Broadcasting went bankrupt, after overpaying for syndicated programming, while its competitors took the best barter programming. It was even worse in Chicago, where all of WGBO's competitors took all the bartered shows available to them, leaving WGBO with holding the bag.
In 1989, Grant's stations were repossessed by its creditors after Grant failed to meet the bankruptcy agreements. The creditors used these stations to form "Combined Broadcasting".
In 1990, Grant started to rebuild is broadcasting empire, under the name "Grant Communications", later renamed "Grant Broadcasting System II". His first station was Huntsville, Alabama's WZDX, which he acquired in March 1990. In 1996, Grant acquired Buffalo's WB affiliate, WNYO-TV, but he later sold the station to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2001.
On November 6, 2013, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations for $87.5 million. Due to Federal Communications Commission ownership regulations, one of the stations, KLJB, was spun off to Marshall Broadcasting Group, but is operated by Nexstar through a shared services agreement. The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.
Grant Broadcasting stations used to share a distinctive logo style: even the original three Grant stations used this style. It consists of a colored channel number with white extensions around it mimicking the edges of the channel number. In later years, the extensions were removed from their logos.
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.
City of License/MarketStationChannel
TV 		Years ownedCurrent ownership status
Huntsville, AlabamaWZDX54 1990–2014Fox affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
Washington, D.C.WDCA20 1966–1969MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated
Miami - Fort Lauderdale, FloridaWBFS-TV33 1984–1989MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by ViacomCBS
Joliet - Chicago, ILWGBO-TV66 1985–1989Univision owned-and-operated
Davenport - Burlington, IowaKLJB18 1992–2014Fox affiliate owned by Marshall Broadcasting Group
Davenport - Burlington, IowaKGCW26 1995–2014The CW affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Buffalo, New YorkWNYO-TV49 1996–2001MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
PhiladelphiaWGBS-TV57 1985–1989The CW affiliate, WPSG, owned by ViacomCBS
Fort Worth - DallasKTXA21 1981–1984Independent station owned by ViacomCBS
HoustonKTXH20 1982–1984MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated
Roanoke - Lynchburg, VirginiaWFXR27 1993–2014Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Roanoke - Lynchburg, VirginiaWWCW21 1993–2014The CW affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
La Crosse - Eau Claire, WisconsinWLAX25 1996–2014Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
La Crosse - Eau Claire, WisconsinWEUX
'		48 1996–2014Fox''' affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group