Granite Broadcasting

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Granite Broadcasting LLC
Company type
Private
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FateMajority of station assets acquired by Quincy Media in 2015; last remaining station acquired by Deerfield Media in 2026
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Headquarters767 Third Avenue,
New York City, New York
,
United States
Key people
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OwnerSilver Point Capital
Number of employees
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Granite Broadcasting LLC was an American broadcasting holding company based in New York City. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988,[1] and was the first African-American station group in the United States to considered to be a "major" station operator (though not the first minority-owned chain, a distinction held by the now-defunct Aleut-owned Cook Inlet Broadcasting).[citation needed]

Granite's chairman/CEO was Peter Markham, with Duane Lammers serving as COO.[2]

History

W. Don Cornwell left Goldman Sachs' investment banking department in 1988. He co-founded Granite Broadcasting Corporation with Stuart Beck on February 8, 1988.[3][4] In 1993, it purchased two stations from Meredith Corporation, which included WTVH in Syracuse and KSEE in Fresno, for $38 million.[5]

In 1997, Granite purchased television station KOFY-TV for $143.8 million, becoming their largest station purchase.[6] Cornwell was CEO and chairman of Granite until resigning in 2009.[4] During his time with the company, Granite expanded to 23 channels and 11 markets.[1] In April 2006, Granite acquired WBNG-TV in Binghamton from SJL Broadcasting, which was in the process of liquidating most of its broadcasting holdings, which paid $45 million to cost.[7]

Granite declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy[8] on December 11, 2006, mainly due to the complications of the 2006 United States broadcast television realignment which nullified the sales of the group's Detroit and San Francisco The WB affiliates due to those stations being left out of The CW because of CBS Corporation-owned stations in both cities taking the affiliation by default.[9] It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2007, under the control of private equity firm Silver Point Capital (which also acquired ComCorp later that year).

In 2011, it filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Broadcasting Group for having the Fox affiliation to appear on WPTA's digital subchannel after WFFT's removal of it. The suit was settled in 2013, and WFFT reclaimed the Fox affiliation.[10]

In February 2014, Granite reached deals to sell the majority of its stations. WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York and WMYD in Detroit were sold to the E. W. Scripps Company[11] for $110 million (the latter forming a duopoly with Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV). Most of its remaining stations (mostly in small markets), along with the Malara Broadcast Group's two stations, went to Quincy Newspapers and SagamoreHill Broadcasting (which originally planned to operate the LMA-controlled stations Granite currently provides services to for Quincy).[12][13] SagamoreHill was subsequently withdrawn from the Quincy transaction.[14]

In July 2015, a reworked deal was reached to have SagamoreHill acquire WISE, the SSA between WISE and WPTA (owned by Quincy), and have all of WISE's network affiliations moved to WPTA in exchange for its The CW Plus affiliation within nine months of the closure.[15] On September 15, 2015, the FCC approved the deal,[16] which was completed on November 2.[17]

WTVH, which was the last remaining station in Granite's portfolio from 2018 until 2026, now serves only as an ATSC 1.0 beacon for the stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair's main Syracuse station WSTM has operated WTVH under a local marketing agreement since 2009; on December 1, 2025, Sinclair moved WTVH's programming to a newly licensed station under its own ownership, WKOF, which operates on the ATSC 3.0 standard, as does WSTM. The remaining video services operating on the WTVH license are two Sinclair-owned digital subchannel networks, Roar and Charge.[18] On December 17, 2025, it was announced that Granite would sell WTVH to Deerfield Media;[19] which was completed on February 13, 2026.[20]

Former stations

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

Stations formerly owned by Granite Broadcasting
Media market State Station Purchased Sold Notes
Fresno California KSEE 1993 2013
San Francisco–San Jose KNTV 1990 2002
KOFY-TV 1998 2018 [a]
Peoria Illinois WEEK-TV 1988 2015
WHOI 2009 2015 [b]
WAOE 1999 2014 [b]
Fort Wayne Indiana WPTA 1989 2005 [c]
WISE-TV 2005 2015
Detroit Michigan WMYD 1997 2014 [d]
Kalamazoo WWMT 1995 1998
Lansing WLAJ 1996 1998
Chisholm Minnesota KRII 2002 2015 [A]
Duluth KBJR-TV 1988 2015
KDLH 2005 2015 [c]
Binghamton New York WBNG-TV 2006 2015
Buffalo WKBW-TV 1995 2014
Syracuse WTVH 1993 2026 [e]
Austin Texas KEYE-TV 1994 1999 [f]

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  1. ^ Known as KBWB from 1998 through 2008.
  2. ^ a b Owned by a third party.
  3. ^ a b Owned by Malara Broadcast Group from 2005 to 2015.
  4. ^ Known as WXON prior to 1997 and as WDWB from 1997 to 2006.
  5. ^ Operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group from 2013 to 2026.
  6. ^ Known as KBVO-TV prior to 1995.

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  1. ^ Satellite of KBJR-TV.

References

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  1. ^ a b Cornwell And Deushane Stepping Down At Granite Broadcasting, Broadcasting & Cable, August 11, 2009, Retrieved October 19, 2018
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Duane A Lammers". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Father and Son Investment Bankers Describe Wall Street Regrets". BloombergQuint. August 3, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."W Don Cornwell, Granite Broadcasting Corp: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Financial Briefs". Variety. December 20, 1993. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Granite purchases KOFY". Variety. October 7, 1997. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Granite closes on Southern Tier TV station". Buffalo Business Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Granite Broadcasting Goes Bankrupt". Black Enterprise. May 1, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Granite Broadcasting Voluntarily Files Petition for Reorganization" (Press release). Granite Broadcasting Corporation. December 11, 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2006.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nexstar Settles Antitrust Suit Against Local TV Rival - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.cmarcucci (June 17, 2014). "Scripps closes on Granite deal | Radio & Television Business Report". Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  12. ^ Scripps Buying Granite TVs in Buffalo, Detroit, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved February 10, 2014
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  16. ^ Letter CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved September 15, 2015
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Naughton, Peter (November 29, 2025). "Syracuse CBS changing channel number, call letters • CNYRadio.com / CNYTVNews.com". cnyradio.com. Retrieved November 29, 2025.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Assignments". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. December 17, 2025. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Notification of Consummation". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. February 13, 2026. Retrieved February 13, 2026.

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