Hubbard Broadcasting


Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard.
The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Florida, and Washington, D.C. KSTP radio, KSTP-FM, KTMY, KSTP-TV, and KSTC-TV, which serve the Twin Cities region of Minnesota and western Wisconsin, are regarded as the company's legacy flagship stations.

History

KSTP has its origins in the Twin Cities radio station WAMD, which started broadcasting live dance music from a local ballroom on February 13, 1925 with Stanley E. Hubbard as owner and station director. It was the first radio station to be completely supported by income generated by advertisements.
In 1928, WAMD merged with KFOY radio in St. Paul to become KSTP, which was advertised as being operated by the National Battery Broadcasting Co. Hubbard became the merged station's general manager, and bought controlling interest in 1941. In 1938 Hubbard bought the first television camera available from RCA. Following the television blackout brought on by World War II, KSTP began television broadcasts in 1948.
KSTP is still Hubbard's flagship, although there are now three different stations that carry that name. KSTP broadcasts a sports radio format, and KSTP-FM broadcasts adult contemporary music; KSTP-TV is affiliated with ABC.
After the Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules about television station ownership, Hubbard bought a second television station in the Twin Cities. Originally affiliated with the Home Shopping Network when it started operations in 1994, KVBM was bought by Hubbard and became general-entertainment independent station KSTC-TV in 2000. It has been used as an alternate outlet for ABC network programming when KSTP-TV is broadcasting coverage of Minnesota Vikings football games or other special shows, including severe-weather coverage.
Aside from terrestrial broadcast stations, other current ventures include the film network ReelzChannel, the arts network Ovation, and the Hubbard Radio Network, which is used to distribute KSTP's local talk shows to subscribing radio stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The cable channels are run through subsidiary company Hubbard Media Group.
On January 9, 1957, owners Time Inc. and the Albuquerque Broadcasting Co., announced that it would sell KOB-AM and KOB-TV to Hubbard for $1.5 million.
In 1981, Hubbard Broadcasting started U.S. Satellite Broadcasting, and later was instrumental in the development and launching of the first digital satellite system for television in 1994. The new satellite could deliver 175 channels to a tiny, 18 inch dish. USSB's development partner, Hughes Electronics, launched its own subscription satellite service called DirecTV. The two services did not compete against each other, and were often marketed together to subscribers by retailers and in advertisements, until DirecTV's 1998 acquisition of USSB.
Hubbard was also instrumental in the development of mobile satellite news vehicles. In 1983, Hubbard-owned CONUS Communications and Florida-based subsidiary Hubcom built the first Satellite News Gathering mobile vehicle, which allowed for much easier live news coverage for network and local television news operations. This ultimately resulted in CONUS—later a joint-venture with Viacom—becoming a nationwide, satellite-based newsgathering cooperative. As an outgrowth of this, Hubbard Broadcasting also operated a 24-hour news station, the All News Channel, which relied on CONUS-sourced news footage and primarily acted as a "sustaining feed" for television stations to fill air time with; ANC was also responsible for producing news programming for third-parties. The news channel lasted from 1989 until it folded in September 2002, which the channels trademark was spun off to became a website which relaunched.
Hubbard Broadcasting also owned the now-closed Bound to be Read bookstores in St. Paul, Albuquerque, and Key Largo.
As of October 2007, it is engaged in a fevered battle with NABET union repping employees of WNYT in Albany, New York.
In June 2009, the "Society of Professional Journalists" honored Hubbard Broadcasting and KSTP-TV with its national Historical Site in Journalism award.
On January 19, 2011, Hubbard announced the purchase of 17 radio stations in Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidiary Bonneville International for $505 million. The sale closed on April 29, 2011.
On February 25, 2013, Hubbard announced that it would purchase MyNetworkTV station WNYA to form a duopoly with WNYT, pending FCC approval. No financial details were announced.
On July 16, 2013, Hubbard announced that it had agreed to purchase 10 stations from Ohio-based Sandusky Radio for $85.5 million.
Hubbard announced on November 13, 2014 that it would purchase the sixteen stations owned by Omni Broadcasting. The Omni stations are all located in central and northern Minnesota.
On September 26, 2018, Hubbard announced that it agreed to purchase six stations owned by Alpha Media in West Palm Beach Florida, for $88 million. The stations include Urban AC 102.3 WMBX, Country 103.1 WIRK, Adult Contemporary 107.9 WEAT, Hot Adult Contemporary 97.9 WRMF, News/Talk 850 WFTL and Sports/Talk 640 WMEN.
Hubbard Broadcasting took over production of Country Top 40 in January 2020 after the death of the program's founder Bob Kingsley. Fitz, a mononymous host with several syndicated country radio programs to his credit, took over as the program's host.

Hubbard-owned stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
All of the assets are owned by the Stanley S. Hubbard Revocable Trust, and administered by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.

Television stations

Radio stations

City of license / MarketStationOwned sinceCurrent format
Phoenix, AZKDUS 10602013Sports radio
Phoenix, AZKAZG 14402013Oldies
Phoenix, AZKDKB 93.32013Alternative rock
Phoenix, AZKUPD 97.92013Active rock
Phoenix, AZKSLX-FM 100.72013Classic rock
Washington, D.C.WBQH 10502011Freeform
Washington, D.C.WFED 15002011U.S. federal government news
Washington, D.C.WSHE 8202011Freeform
Washington, D.C.WTOP-FM 103.52011All-news
Washington, D.C.WTLP 103.92011All-news
Washington, D.C.WWWT-FM 107.72011All-news
West Palm Beach, FLWMEN 6402018Sports radio
West Palm Beach, FLWFTL 8502018Talk radio
West Palm Beach, FLWRMF 97.92018Adult Top 40
West Palm Beach, FLWMBX 102.32018Urban adult contemporary
West Palm Beach, FLWIRK 103.12018Country
West Palm Beach, FLWEAT 107.92018Classic hits
Chicago, ILWDRV 97.12011Classic rock
Chicago, ILWWDV 96.92011Classic rock
Chicago, ILWTBC-FM 100.32011Rhythmic adult hits
Chicago, ILWTMX 101.92011Hot adult contemporary
Alexandria, MNKULO 94.32015Classic hits
Alexandria, MNKIKV-FM 100.72015Country
Bemidji, MNKBUN 14502015Sports radio
Bemidji, MNKKZY 95.52015Adult contemporary
Bemidji, MNKLLZ-FM 99.12015Classic rock
Bemidji, MNKBHP 101.12015Country
Bemidji, MNKBUN-FM 104.52015Sports radio
Brainerd–Baxter, MNKVBR 13402015Business news/talk
Brainerd–Baxter, MNKLIZ 13802015Sports radio
Brainerd–Baxter, MNKBLB 93.32015Country
Brainerd–Baxter, MNKUAL-FM 103.52015Oldies/classic hits
Brainerd–Baxter, MNWJJY-FM 106.72015Adult contemporary
Brainerd–Baxter, MNKLIZ-FM 107.52015Classic rock
St. Paul–Minneapolis, MNKSTP 1500**1928Sports radio
St. Paul–Minneapolis, MNKSTP-FM 94.5**1966Hot adult contemporary
St. Paul–Minneapolis, MNKTMY 107.12000Female-oriented talk
Wadena–Staples, MNKWAD 9202015Classic country
Wadena–Staples, MNKNSP 14302015Sports radio
Wadena–Staples, MNKKWS 105.92015Country
St. Louis, MOKPNT 105.72018Alternative rock
St. Louis, MOKSHE 94.72018Mainstream rock
St. Louis, MOWARH 106.52011Adult hits
St. Louis, MOWIL-FM 92.32011Country
St. Louis, MOWXOS 101.12011Sports radio
Cincinnati, OHWKRQ 101.92011Adult Top 40
Cincinnati, OHWREW 94.92011Adult contemporary
Cincinnati, OHWUBE-FM 105.12011Country
Cincinnati, OHWYGY 97.32011Country Top 40
Seattle, WAKIXI 8802013Adult standards
Seattle, WAKKNW 11502013Brokered programming
Seattle, WAKQMV 92.52013Contemporary hit radio
Seattle, WAKPNW-FM 98.92013Country
Seattle, WAKRWM 106.92013Adult contemporary