Storer Communications

Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.

History

1920s–1940s

In 1927, George B. Storer and brother-in-law J. Harold Ryan were building service stations for Speedene brand gasoline in the Toledo, Ohio area. Speedene sales were booming, thanks to a cost-cutting device implemented by the partners. They bypassed the cost of trucking gasoline to service stations by building the stations beside railroad sidings and sold their product at two or three cents a gallon under the going retail rate by filling their tanks directly from railroad tank cars. Storer decided to buy some radio spots on WTAL in Toledo to advertise his gas stations. The spots were effective, and Storer decided to use his wealth to buy the radio station. Storer Broadcasting was born, and WTAL became WSPD, "Speedy AM," symbolic of the gasoline brand.

1950s–1960s

The company was primarily in the broadcast radio business. Although the company had success in the Top 40 rock and roll format with WJBK in Detroit and WIBG "Wibbage" in Philadelphia, most of its radio stations, including WJW and WSPD, featured more conservative music formats, typically middle-of-the-road (MOR) or beautiful music.

In the 1950s as television usage began growing, Storer entered the television market starting WSPD-TV in Toledo and purchasing several television stations in other markets. The company focused primarily on the radio and television businesses through much of its history. However, it did venture into the cable television business in the early 1960s. It also purchased Northeast Airlines in 1965 and held it until 1972, when it was sold to Delta Air Lines. George Storer was company president until his 1973 retirement; he remained company chairman until his death in 1975. Due to his position as a director of CBS, he was able to obtain lucrative CBS network affiliations for Storer-owned television stations, such as WXEL and WJBK which had been DuMont affiliates. By 1961 Storer was the nation's sixth-largest television broadcaster—exceeded in size only by the three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), Metropolitan Broadcasting (later Metromedia) and the Group W division of Westinghouse. George's son, Peter Storer, became president when George retired in 1973.

The company purchased its first cable television system in 1963. It also briefly ventured into program syndication as Storer Programs Inc., during which it was the U.S. distributor of the original 1963–65 run of The Littlest Hobo, which was produced in Canada.

1970s–1980s

During the 1970s the company focused on cable television. Storer sold the radio assets and the airline, using the cash thus raised to invest in cable television. Commencing in 1978, it embarked on an aggressive program of acquiring cable franchises. Unlike many cable operators, Storer preferred to acquire franchises and build its cable systems rather than acquire existing cable operations.

The company also ventured into sports. From 1973 to 1975 Storer owned the Boston Bruins and the Boston Garden.

The company's name was changed to Storer Communications, Inc. in 1983. By 1984 it owned and operated seven television stations and held franchises to provide cable television service to over 500 communities in 18 states and had some 4,800 employees. By 1985, Storer took over Blair Entertainment, a distribution firm founded in 1982 by TV sales rep John Blair. That same year, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) took Storer Communications private in a hostile leveraged buyout after Comcast Corporation began showing interest in Storer's cable properties. It sold the television assets in 1987. WTVG (the former WSPD-TV) was sold to a local ownership group, eventually becoming an ABC owned-and-operated (O&O) station in 1995 (it had been an NBC affiliate for the quarter-century prior to its sale to ABC). The remaining former Storer television stations and Blair were sold to Gillett Communications in 1987 after an aborted 1986 attempt to sell them together with Wometco's WTVJ in Miami to Lorimar-Telepictures. (WTVJ eventually became an NBC owned-and-operated station.)

Gillett's broadcasting division was restructured into SCI Television in 1991, then sold to New World Communications in 1993, after a speculative bid from Scripps-Howard that never came to fruition, due the number of stations that would have been potentially owned at the same time. Blair was then folded into New World's distribution arm.

Fox Television Stations purchased the stations (except for WSBK and KNSD) in 1997.

Most of the stations switched to Fox affiliation, resulting in CBS scrambling to find affiliates in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee, and eventually landing UHF stations in those cities. WSBK remained independent and was sold to Viacom, and eventually became a UPN affiliate. KNSD, which remained an NBC affiliate, was later sold directly to NBC to become an NBC owned-and-operated station. The cable assets were sold to Comcast Corporation and TCI in 1988. Michael Tallent became President of Storer, succeeding Kenneth Bagwell, upon the consummation of this transaction.

Storer Communications continued to operate as a cable television company until the assets were split between Comcast and TCI in the mid 1990s. Tallent joined Comcast in 1991 and was succeeded by William Whelan, Storer's final president.

Stations formerly owned by Storer

Television stations

Stations are listed alphabetically by state and city of license.

Note: two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and/or signed-on by Storer.

Footnote:

• ¹: Storer purchased the construction permit for WMIE-TV (channel 23) in Miami and the studio facility of WFTL-TV and signed the station on under the latter call sign in 1954. Because of this, WAGA-TV, WJBK-TV and WSPD-TV are the only three television stations built from the ground up by Storer.

Radio stations

References