Lilly Broadcasting


Lilly Broadcasting, LLC is a privately owned American broadcasting company owned and operated by the Lilly Brothers’ Brian Lilly and Kevin Lilly. The company was founded in September 1999 with the purchase of WENY-TV and WENY-FM & AM radio. In 2002, Kevin Lilly purchased WSEE-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania and have since added the CBS and The CW affiliates in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and ABC in the Virgin Islands.
Brian and Kevin Lilly are the sons of George Lilly, whose SJL Broadcast Management was founded in 1984 and based in Montecito, California. SJL owns WICU-TV in Erie and the two Companies purchased three TV stations from Gateway Communications in 2000, and four stations from Emmis Communications in 2005.
Lilly Broadcasting most recently with Sankety Advisors purchased KITV in Hawaii.

History

WJRT-TV was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989. In 1991, a SJL affiliated partnership, Media Communications Partners Limited Partnership, purchased WTVG.
In 1994, SJL announced the sale of WJRT-TV and WTVG to ABC due to the possibility of WXYZ-TV changing its affiliation to CBS as part of a large swath of television network affiliation changes occurring at the time; the deal was approved by the FCC in 1995 even though WXYZ-TV was able to renew its affiliation with ABC, which caused three of its sister stations to affiliate with the network.
On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its remaining stations except WICU to New Vision Television, ending the partnership between SJL and The Blackstone Group. The Federal Communications Commission granted approval of this sale in late-October of that year, and ownership was officially transferred on November 1.
On March 1, 2009, the last station formally owned by SJL, WICU, transferred its copyrights to Lilly Broadcasting when it merged its news operations with crosstown sister station WSEE-TV. Though SJL still technically exists, its visible operations have now been subsumed by Lilly Broadcasting.
On November 3, 2010, Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced that SJL Broadcasting made an agreement with Disney to buy back WJRT-TV and WTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio. The sale was completed on April 1, 2011 with both stations general manager exiting their positions at change of ownership. Lilly announced on July 24, 2014, that it would sell both WJRT and WTVG to Gray Television in a $128 million transaction. In 2016, Gray announced that it would operate its bureau in Washington, DC, in cooperation with Lilly.
On May 13, 2015, Hearst Television announced that it would sell KITV in Honolulu, Hawaii and its satellites to SJL; the deal marks the return of the company to Hawaii, following its prior ownership of KHON-TV. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on July 10, 2015 and completed on September 1, 2015.
Lilly Broadcasting re-entered radio in 2019 by purchasing the three-station cluster in Warren, Pennsylvania that had previously been owned by Frank Iorio's Radio Partners; Iorio will retain his only other broadcast asset, Pittsburgh's WJAS. Lilly had previously owned and operated radio stations in Elmira before selling those off a few years after acquiring that cluster.

Stations currently owned or operated by Lilly or SJL

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

Television

Stations formerly owned by SJL

City of license / MarketStationChannel
TV 		Years ownedCurrent ownership status
San Luis Obispo, CaliforniaKSBY6 1996–2002NBC affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Honolulu, HawaiiKHON-TV2 2006–2007Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Hilo, HawaiiKHAW-TV
'		11 2006–2007Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
MauiKAII-TV
'		7 2006–2007Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
KauaiK55DZ
'		552006–2007defunct, license cancelled in 2013
Pittsburg, Kansas - Joplin, MissouriKOAM-TV7 1991–1995CBS affiliate owned by Morgan Murphy Media
Topeka, KansasKSNT27 1988–1995
2006–2007		NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Wichita - Hutchinson, KansasKSNW3 1988–1995
2006–2007		NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Garden City - Dodge City, KansasKSNG
'		11 1988–1995
2006–2007		NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Great Bend - Hays - Salina, KansasKSNC
'		2 1988–1995
2006–2007		NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
McCook, Nebraska - Colby -
Goodland, Kansas		KSNK
'		8 1988–1995
2006–2007		NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Flint, MichiganWJRT-TV12 1989–1995
2011–2014		ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Billings, MontanaKTVQ2 1984–1994CBS affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Butte, MontanaKXLF-TV4 1984–1986CBS affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Great Falls, MontanaKRTV3 1984–1986CBS affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Missoula, MontanaKPAX-TV8 1984–1986CBS affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
Binghamton, New YorkWBNG-TV ‡‡12 2000–2006CBS affiliate owned by Quincy Media
Buffalo, New YorkWGRZ-TV2 1986–1988NBC affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
Syracuse, New YorkWSTM-TV3 1986–1992NBC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Toledo, OhioWTVG13 1991–1995
2011–2014		ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Portland, OregonKOIN6 2006–2007CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Altoona - State College -
Johnstown, Pennsylvania		WTAJ-TV ‡‡10 2000–2006CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Lebanon - Harrisburg - York -
Lebanon, Pennsylvania		WLYH-TV ‡‡15 2000–2006Comet affiliate, WXBU, owned by Howard Stirk Holdings
Huntington - Charleston, West VirginiaWOWK-TV ‡‡13 2000–2002CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group