Lincoln Financial Media


Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owned radio stations in the United States. The division was formed in 2006 following the company's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media.
The group, at the time of its closure, owned 14 radio stations in Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, Denver, Colorado, and Atlanta, Georgia. It also owned WBT, WBT-FM, and WLNK in Charlotte, NC and WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte; WCSC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina and WWBT, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia.

History

The media company began in 1945 as Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, Inc., which became Jefferson-Pilot Communications in 1968. The company was a media-centered division of the Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, which later merged with Pilot Life Insurance Company to form Jefferson-Pilot. Jefferson-Pilot owned WBT-AM-FM and WBTV, all of which are based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1962, the company conceived Jefferson Productions, a production arm that produced television programs and commercials, but later chose to produce syndicated sports programming only by the 1980s. It was originally intended to produce promos and local television shows for WBTV, but had since grown to producing nationally syndicated talk shows and variety shows; and mainly commercials for major companies that aired nationwide. For further information, see the section "Lincoln Financial Sports" at the end of this article.
In April 2006, the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation merged with the Lincoln National Corporation; taking the media and sports broadcasting division with it, Jefferson-Pilot Communications became Lincoln Financial Media.
In June 2007, the company publicly announced it would explore a sale of this division, and hired Merrill Lynch to assess its strategic options. On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced that it would acquire Lincoln Financial Media's three television stations, along with the Lincoln Financial Sports division for $583 million. The acquisition was completed in April 2008.
On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced its intent to acquire the remainder of Lincoln Financial Media for $110 million and working capital. To comply with ownership limits, Entercom was to divest one of its existing stations in Denver. Later, Entercom announced it would swap four of its stations in Denver to Bonneville International in exchange for KSWD in Los Angeles. The merger was completed on July 17 and Bonneville and Entercom began operating their new clusters under time-brokerage agreements that same day.

Former stations

This list also contains stations that were owned by Lincoln Financial Media's predecessor Jefferson-Pilot Communications, prior to its merger in 2006.

Television

Note:
City of license/MarketStationChannel
TV 		Years ownedCurrent ownership status
Charlotte, North CarolinaWBTV **3 1949–2008CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television
Charleston, South CarolinaWCSC-TV5 1994–2008CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television
Florence, South CarolinaWBTW13 1954–1968CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Richmond, VirginiaWWBT12 1968–2008NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television

Radio

MarketStationCurrent ownership status
San DiegoKNSN 1240Owned by Crawford Broadcasting
San DiegoKBZT 94.9Owned by Entercom
San DiegoKIFM 98.1KXSN, owned by Entercom
San DiegoKSON 97.3KWFN, owned by Entercom
San DiegoKSOQ-FM 92.1KYDQ, owned by Educational Media Foundation
DenverKRWZ 950KKSE, owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
DenverKEPN 1600Owned by Bonneville International
DenverKKFN 104.3Owned by Bonneville International
DenverKYGO-FM 98.5Owned by Bonneville International
DenverKQKS 107.5Owned by Entercom
MiamiWAXY 790Owned by Entercom
MiamiWAXY-FM 104.3WSFS, owned by Entercom
MiamiWLYF 101.5Owned by Entercom
MiamiWMXJ 102.7Owned by Entercom
AtlantaWQXI 790Owned by Entercom
AtlantaWSTR 94.1Owned by Entercom
CharlotteWBT 1110Owned by Entercom
CharlotteWBT-FM 99.3Owned by Entercom
CharlotteWLNK 107.9Owned by Entercom
GreensboroWBIG 1470WWBG, owned by TBLC Holdings
GreensboroWBIG-FM 102.1WJMH, owned by Entercom

Lincoln Financial Sports

Lincoln Financial Sports, originally Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions, produced and syndicated college sports events of the Southeastern Conference, and co-produced Atlantic Coast Conference sporting events with Raycom Sports. It also produced telecasts of pre-season games of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, and in the 1980s, syndicated coverage of the NASCAR Winston Cup races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial Group announced the sale of this division to Raycom Media. The group would later operate under the Raycom Sports banner as of January 1, 2008.