Drewry Communications


The Drewry Communications Group was a media company based in Lawton, Oklahoma, wholly owned and operated by the Drewry family. The company was run by Robert Drewry, Bill Drewry, and Larry Patton. Robert and Bill are the sons of late patriarch Ransom H. Drewry.
Drewry Communications' broadcasting properties consisted of 13 radio and television stations in Oklahoma and Texas, largely concentrated in western and central Texas.

History

Ransom H. Drewry founded radio station KSWO in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1941. Six years later in 1947, Drewry started his second radio station, KRHD in Duncan. Drewry entered television broadcasting in 1953, when he and a group that included J.R. Montgomery, T.R. Warkentin, Robert P. Scott, and G.G. Downing founded KSWO-TV in Lawton as the city's ABC affiliate, which signed on the air on March 8 of that year.
Over the years, the Drewry family gradually acquired other stations in the northern half of Texas. Drewry, in partnership with Ray Herndon, acquired CBS affiliate KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas, in 1976 through their company, Amarillo Telecasters.
Sons Robert and Bill Drewry took over the company following the elder Drewry's death. The company expanded by acquiring, among other stations: KTPX-TV in Midland, Texas and Big Spring satellite KWAB-TV ; KXXV-TV in Waco ; K60EE in Odessa ; KSCM-LP in Bryan, and KEYU in Amarillo.
Drewry sold KSWO radio, as well as KRHD and KRHD-FM, to Anadarko, Oklahoma-based Monroe-Stephens Broadcasting in 1998. The company re-entered into radio in August 2002, when Drewry purchased Regional Mexican station KTXC in Lamesa, Texas. In 2014, the company purchased in KRGN in Amarillo from Family Life Radio, and relaunched it as a Spanish-language adult hits station under the call letters KEYU-FM.
On July 1, 2008, Drewry Communications announced its intention to sell its eleven television stations to Dallas-based London Broadcasting Company—a company founded by Terry E. London the previous year to acquire broadcast properties in small- to mid-sized markets within Texas —for $115 million. While the deal received approval by the Federal Communications Commission, London Broadcasting filed a notice of non-consummation to the FCC in January 2009, terminating the deal due to market uncertainties resulting from the Great Recession.
On July 31, 2009, Drewry Communications entered into a joint sales and shared services agreement with KAUZ-TV owner Hoak Media, in which KSWO-TV would provide advertising and promotional services for KAUZ. Although the two stations are jointly operated, KSWO-TV and KAUZ-TV each retained separate studio facilities and news operations at their respective facilities in Lawton and Wichita Falls.
On August 10, 2015, Raycom Media announced that it would purchase Drewry Communications for $160 million; in addition to acquiring its 11 television stations, as KTXC and KEYU-FM were included in the sale, the deal marked Raycom's re-entry into radio station ownership after it sold WMC and WMC-FM in Memphis, Tennessee to Infinity Broadcasting Corporation in 2000. As part of the deal, American Spirit Media would purchase KAUZ-TV from Hoak Media. While KSWO and KAUZ remained jointly operated, the existing joint sales agreement between KSWO and KAUZ was terminated upon the sale's closure to comply with FCC rules. The sale was completed on December 1, 2015.

Former stations

Media marketStateStationPurchasedSoldNotes
DuncanOklahomaKRHD19471998
DuncanOklahomaKRHD-FM19751998
LawtonOklahomaKSWO **19411998
LawtonOklahomaKSWO-TV **19532015
AmarilloTexasKAMT-LP20092010
AmarilloTexasKEYU20092015
AmarilloTexasKEYU-FM20142015
AmarilloTexasKFDA-TV19762015
AmarilloTexasKZBZ-CD20092015
AmarilloTexasKTMO-LP20012014
Big SpringTexasKWAB-TV19912015
BryanTexasKRHD-CD19972015
BryanTexasKSCM-LP20062015
BryanTexasKUTW-LP20092010
CanyonTexasKTXC-LP20062015
Odessa–MidlandTexasKTLE-LP20012015
Odessa–MidlandTexasKTXC20022015
Odessa–MidlandTexasKWES-TV19912015
Waco–TempleTexasKXXV19942015
Waco–TempleTexasKWKO-LP20092010
Wichita FallsTexasKAUZ-TV20092015
Wichita FallsTexasKUWF-LP20092010