River City Broadcasting


River City Broadcasting L.P. was a major television and radio station operator in mid-sized markets in the United States, based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Overview

The firm was formed in 1989 as a partnership between Barry Baker and Larry Marcus, both former executives of Koplar Communications in St. Louis who had unsuccessfully tried to buy Koplar's KPLR-TV there. Through a series of acquisitions between 1989 and 1995, River City amassed eight television stations and 29 radio stations in a total of 15 medium-sized markets, but most notably, in 1994, it bought out three network-affiliated TV stations and another four radio stations that were owned by Continental Broadcasting, formerly Anchor Media, including KOVR, WLOS, and WSYX. In the summer of 1994, River City and ABC reached an agreement to renew its existing contracts in Columbus and Asheville, while agreeing to affiliate its flagship at that time, and lame duck Fox affiliate KDNL-TV in St. Louis with ABC. The acquisition of Keymarket Communications in 1995 added additional radio stations in the Buffalo, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, and Scranton–Wilkes-Barre markets.
In May 1996, River City sold its stations to the Sinclair Broadcast Group for $1.2 billion. The merger moved Sinclair into the top 25 owners of broadcast properties in the United States. Sinclair had to wait to close on some of the purchases; the Upstate South Carolina radio cluster was not acquired until 1998 because it overlapped with WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina, which serves the region.

Former stations

Media marketStateStationPurchasedSoldNotes
Los AngelesCaliforniaKBLA19951996
SacramentoCaliforniaKOVR19941997
IndianapolisIndianaWTTV19911997
IndianapolisIndianaWTTK19911997
Des MoinesIowaKDSM-TV19911997
St. LouisMissouriKDNL-TV19891997
St. LouisMissouriKPNT19911996
St. LouisMissouriWVRV19901996
New OrleansLouisianaKMEZ19951996
New OrleansLouisianaWSMB19951996
New OrleansLouisianaWLMG19951996
New OrleansLouisianaWWL19951996
AlbuquerqueNew MexicoKLSK19941996
AlbuquerqueNew MexicoKZRR19941996
AlbuquerqueNew MexicoKZSS19941996
BuffaloNew YorkWBEN19951996
BuffaloNew YorkWKSE19951996
BuffaloNew YorkWMJQ19951996
BuffaloNew YorkWWKB19951996
AshevilleNorth CarolinaWLOS19941997
ColumbusOhioWSYX19941997
Wilkes-Barre–ScrantonPennsylvaniaWGBI19951996
Wilkes-Barre–ScrantonPennsylvaniaWGGY19951996
Wilkes-Barre–ScrantonPennsylvaniaWILK19951996
Wilkes-Barre–ScrantonPennsylvaniaWKRZ19951996
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWFBC19951998
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWFBC-FM19951998
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWFBC-TV19941997
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWORD19951998
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWSPA19951998
GreenvilleSouth CarolinaWSPA-FM19951998
MemphisTennesseeWJCE19951996
MemphisTennesseeWOGY19951996
MemphisTennesseeWRVR19951996
NashvilleTennesseeWLAC19951996
NashvilleTennesseeWJCE-FM19951996
NashvilleTennesseeWLAC-FM19951996
San AntonioTexasKABB19891997