Young Broadcasting


Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgrowth of the ad representation firm Adam Young Inc., which was founded in 1944 by Adam Young. Previously a public company, Young Broadcasting voluntarily declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 13, 2009, to restructure its debts.
On June 24, 2010, the company emerged from bankruptcy as New Young Broadcasting Holding Co, Inc., shedding $800 million in debt and becoming one of the most financially secure broadcasting companies in the country. Deborah A. McDermott was named president and CEO of the new company, in which Standard General L.P., an American hedge fund, maintained a controlling interest. McDermott later became the CEO of Standard Media in 2018.
On November 12, 2013, privately held Young Broadcasting acquired a controlling interest in Media General through a reverse merger. Following the merger, the new company was owned 67.5 percent by Young shareholders and 32.5 percent by Media General shareholders. The newly merged company would continue to operate as Media General with headquarters in Richmond, Virginia and trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

History

Young Broadcasting entered station ownership in 1986, when it purchased stations in Lansing, Michigan and La Crosse, Wisconsin ; Young purchased KLFY-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1988 from Texoma Broadcasters, Inc., and subsequently WKRN-TV/Nashville and WTEN/Albany, New York in 1989 from Knight Ridder.
Young would expand its station roster with the 1994 purchase of three stations – WATE-TV/Knoxville, Tennessee; WRIC-TV/Richmond, Virginia and WBAY-TV/Green Bay, Wisconsin, from Nationwide Communications. Los Angeles independent KCAL-TV was purchased from The Walt Disney Company in 1996 and later sold to Viacom in 2002. Also in 1996, Young purchased KWQC-TV/Davenport, Iowa from Broad Street Television, L.P., and KELO-TV/Sioux Falls, South Dakota from Midcontinent Media, Inc.
In 2000, Young Broadcasting purchased NBC affiliate KRON-TV/San Francisco, California from Chronicle Publishing Company. Fortunes for KRON and its new owners would soon take a sharp decline when NBC chose to affiliate with San Jose-based KNTV, after an attempt by the network to impose O&O-esque operational requirements and control of the station's schedule upon Young to retain the affiliation, which Young refused. KRON became an independent station in 2002 and eventually took affiliation with MyNetworkTV in 2006.
The company voluntarily declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 13, 2009, with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The massive debt load Young incurred from its purchase and ownership of KRON was widely believed to have been a contributing factor to the company's 2009 bankruptcy declaration.
On July 22, 2009, a New York bankruptcy judge approved a plan transferring ownership of Young and its stations to the company's secured lenders for $220 million. The plan included Gray Television coming in as an outside party and advise on operations of Young-owned stations in seven markets through December 31, 2012. The agreement did not include Young's three other stations: KRON-TV/San Francisco, California, WATE-TV/Knoxville, Tennessee, and WLNS-TV/Lansing, Michigan, in which the latter two due to Gray already owning stations in those markets. WBAY and KWQC would eventually be purchased by Gray in 2017 as part of spin-off requirements to close the Media General merger with Nexstar mentioned below.
On June 24, 2010, emerging from bankruptcy, Young released a statement indicating that the company had transferred from publicly traded status to private ownership by its former senior lenders, shedding "nearly $800 million in debt and millions of dollars of burdensome contracts" during its bankruptcy.
Young invested $25 million in its stations, which led to a major overhaul of news production in 2011, allowing most of the stations to convert their news programming to full high definition. In 2013 Young introduced an editorial philosophy dubbed "One Newsroom", which uses multi-platform publishing systems to quickly distribute content across their broadcast, web, mobile, and social media assets. Master control automation for its stations and asset management operations were upgraded in 2012.
In 2011, Young hired Cox Reps to represent it for national sales and will establish a dedicated Young Broadcasting sales team based in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Adam Young Inc., Young's previous rep firm, ceased operations in February 2011 after Cox was brought on board.
In January 2012, Young signed an affiliation agreement with The Walt Disney Company's Live Well Network for eight of its stations to carry the digital multicast channel.
On August 20, 2012, Standard General filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to receive approval to increase the New York City-based hedge fund's ownership stake in Young Broadcasting from 36.34% to a controlling stake of 50.03%.
On June 6, 2013, it was announced that New Young would merge with Media General. The enlarged Media General would own 30 stations, reaching 14% of the United States. On November 8, the FCC approved the merger. The merger closed on November 12. Media General would then be absorbed to Nexstar Media Group in 2017.

Former Young-owned stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
City of license / MarketStationChannel
TV 		Years ownedCurrent ownership status
Los Angeles, CaliforniaKCAL-TV9 1996–2002Independent station owned by CBS Corporation
San Francisco, CaliforniaKRON-TV4 2000–2013MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Rockford, IllinoisWTVO17 1988–2004ABC affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
Davenport, IowaKWQC-TV6 1996–2013NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Lafayette, LouisianaKLFY-TV10 1988–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Lansing, MichiganWLNS-TV6 1986–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Lansing, MichiganWLAJ53 2013 1ABC affiliate owned by Shield Media
Lansing, MichiganWHTV18 2defunct, license cancelled in 2017.
Albany, New YorkWTEN10 1989–2013ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Albany, New YorkWXXA-TV23 2012–2013 1Fox affiliate owned by Shield Media
Adams, MassachusettsWCDC-TV
'		19 1989–2013defunct, license cancelled in 2018.
Sioux Falls, South DakotaKELO-TV11 1996–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Florence, South DakotaKDLO-TV
'		3 1996–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Reliance, South DakotaKPLO-TV
'		6 1996–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Rapid City, South DakotaKCLO-TV
'		15 1996–2013CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Knoxville, TennesseeWATE-TV6 1994–2013ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Nashville, TennesseeWKRN-TV2 1989–2013ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Richmond, VirginiaWRIC-TV8 1994–2013ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Green Bay, WisconsinWBAY-TV2 1994–2013ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
La Crosse, WisconsinWKBT-TV8 1986–2000CBS affiliate owned by Morgan Murphy Media

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