Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media.
The company was founded in 1979 by husband and wife Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a joint venture with Jefferson-Pilot Communications that made them partners on the main Atlantic Coast Conference college basketball package. Raycom was acquired in 1994 by Ellis Communications. Two years later, Ellis was acquired by a group led by Retirement Systems of Alabama, which renamed the entire company Raycom Media to build upon the awareness of Raycom Sports. The company was acquired by Gray in 2019.
Raycom Sports is known for its tenures with the ACC, and also had former relationships with the SEC, Big Eight, Big Ten and Southwest conferences. In the 2010s, Raycom lost both its ACC and SEC rights to ESPN, which transferred the rights to in-house cable networks ACC Network and SEC Network. Raycom Sports continued to produce a package of syndicated ACC telecasts aired by the Bally Sports channels and other regional sports networks; this package moved to The CW in 2023, with Raycom continuing to produce the package for CW Sports.
Through Raycom Sports or its related operation Tupelo Raycom, Gray produces NFL preseason games for several teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.
History
Founding
Raycom Sports was founded in July 1979 by Rick and Dee Ray in Charlotte. Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB, which had become an independent station a year earlier after losing its ABC affiliation, produce more basketball games. Ray thought that the games would be very profitable for WCCB given North Carolina's reputation as a college basketball hotbed.The company's first event was the Great Alaska Shootout. Ken Haines was one of the first hires for Raycom Sports. In its first year, the company acquired rights to basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference, some of which were syndicated to the newly launched cable sports channel ESPN. In 1988, Raycom added Big Ten Conference games to its portfolio after acquiring Rasmussen Communications. The company also extended its contract through 1995 to gain rights to all non-network conference games. The following year, Raycom established a radio division, acquiring the rights to the University of Illinois and Purdue University radio networks.
Partnership with Jefferson-Pilot Communications
In 1980, Raycom teamed with Jefferson-Pilot Communications for production of ACC basketball games. The package began in 1957 when Greensboro businessman C. D. Chesley piped North Carolina's run to the 1957 national title to a hastily created network of five stations across North Carolina. It proved popular enough that it expanded to a full-time package of basketball games the following season. The January 14, 1973 game between NC State and Maryland was the first Super Bowl Sunday college basketball national telecast. Chelsey would again syndicate an ACC game nationally on Super Bowl Sunday the following year. The ACC title game was often syndicated outside of the ACC region in these years.The commentators that Chesley employed included Jim Thacker, Ray Scott, Billy Packer and Dick Enberg. In 1978, Chesley wanted NBC to televise some ACC conference games as part of its national package as it had done the previous few years. However, NBC wanted to feature intersectional games. Chesley sold the rights to the ACC tournament final to ABC.
Chesley retained the rights to ACC games until 1981, when the conference bought the remainder of the contract and sold the rights to Metrosports of Rockville, Maryland. Some ACC games were telecast by Raycom alone in 1980 through several television stations in North Carolina, including WCCB.
For the 1981–82 season, the two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports, that won the package after the ACC declined Metrosports' bid to renew its contract. Raycom also assisted ESPN2 by selling a 1995 Duke–North Carolina basketball game that increased the channel's credibility with cable operators. In the 1983 season, Raycom experimented with a cable-oriented ACC service known as ACC Ticket. Raycom built a large array of broadcasting rights until the 1990s, with rights for ACC, SEC, Pac-10, Metro, Big Eight, Big 12 and Southwest conferences. Raycom sublicensed ACC games to national broadcasters, regional sports networks and local stations. However, with the rise of cable and regional sports networks, Raycom began to lose many of its college rights to competitors.
In 1987, Raycom Sports created an entertainment division, Raycom Entertainment, with an hour-long special titled Elvis' Graceland, hosted by Priscilla Presley, that originally aired on Showtime. The new Raycom Entertainment division was led by Peter G. Lenz, who had previously run The Television Program Source.
Unlike other sports syndicators, Raycom controlled nearly all advertising for its broadcasts, but it paid stations for airtime. While this was a risky strategy at first, Raycom reaped a huge windfall because ACC games frequently garnered high ratings. The ACC's regional territory included several fast-growing markets such as Charlotte, the Piedmont Triad, the Triangle, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Raycom Media
In 1994, Raycom Sports was sold to Ellis Communications but remained autonomous, with its own headquarters in Charlotte. Dee Ray left in 1994 while Rick Ray left in 1995. When an investment group led by Retirement Systems of Alabama bought Ellis in 1996, the new owners elected to preserve the Raycom brand, renaming the entire broadcast group Raycom Media.In 1994, Raycom first organized a preseason college basketball event known as the Great Eight, televised by ESPN, which aimed to feature two nights of doubleheaders between regional finalists from the previous season's NCAA tournament. The inaugural edition featured Boston College, Duke, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Purdue, Villanova and UConn. In 1996, the event moved to United Center under a five-year contract.
By August 1997, Raycom lost the Pac-10 and Big 12 college-football advertising sales rights to Fox Sports Networks. Several executives also left the company, including Steedman.
In 2002, Raycom founded the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte. It continues to operate the game, which later changed its name to the Meineke Car Care Bowl until 2011, when it became the Belk Bowl.
Starting in 2004, the Raycom/JP partnership took control of production of syndicated ACC football games; Jefferson-Pilot had produced ACC football alone since September 1984. In 2007, Raycom began broadcasting the ACC men's basketball tournament in high definition and broadcast four ACC men's regular-season games in HD in 2008. In 2006, in accordance with Lincoln National Corporation's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot, Jefferson-Pilot Communications was renamed Lincoln Financial Media, and the venture was renamed Raycom/LF Sports.
On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced its intention to acquire some of the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln Financial Media—including three television stations, plus Lincoln Financial Sports—for $583 million. Lincoln Financial Sports was merged into Raycom Sports later that year, giving it full control over basketball and football rights for both the ACC and SEC.
In 2008, Raycom lost its SEC rights to ESPN, who reached a 15-year deal to become its main media rightsholder alongside CBS. ESPN continued to provide a syndicated package of games in a manner similar to that of Raycom, produced via its own syndication division under the on-air branding of SEC Network until the launch of an SEC cable network under the same name in 2014.
In 2010, ESPN also acquired rights to ACC football and basketball, replacing Raycom. In a discussion between ACC commissioner John Swofford and ESPN president John Skipper, Swofford acknowledged Raycom's longstanding relationship with the conference and requested that it continue to be involved in some way. ESPN ultimately negotiated a sublicensing agreement with Raycom that would allow it to continue producing a syndicated package of ACC football and basketball broadcasts. Additionally, Raycom became responsible for the ACC's digital media operations and sponsorship sales.
In addition to the syndication component of the 2010 agreement, Raycom brokered a deal for another package of ACC football and basketball content that was dubbed the ACC on Regional Sports Networks. ACC RSN broadcasts were produced by Raycom Sports production staff as Fox College Football broadcasts from the studios of flagship Fox Sports South and distributed across the cable sports networks of Fox and others, mainly throughout the eastern United States. Wes Durham served as the lead play-by-play voice of both football and basketball RSN packages from 2013 to 2019.
In 2012, Raycom Media acquired Tupelo-Honey, a producer of sports and entertainment programming. Three years later, it also acquired WebStream Sports, an Indianapolis-based producer of sports programming. In late 2016, the companies were merged to form the subsidiary Tupelo Raycom.
Haines retired as president at the end of 2015. Hunter Nickell, a former Speed Channel executive, replaced Haines as CEO in May 2016.
In January 2018, Raycom Sports announced a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to produce a weekly television program chronicling Heroes of the Dorm—the official collegiate tournament of its video game Heroes of the Storm.