Lilly Broadcasting

Lilly Broadcasting, LLC is a privately owned American broadcasting company owned and operated by the Lilly Brothers.

Lilly Broadcasting, LLC

Company type	private limited liability company
Industry	TV broadcasting
Founded	September 1999; 25 years ago (1999-09)
Headquarters	Erie, Pennsylvania , United States
Subsidiaries	SJL Broadcasting
Website	lillybroadcasting.com

The company was founded in September 1999 with the purchase of WENY-TV (ABC) and WENY-FM & AM radio. In 2002, Kevin Lilly purchased WSEE-TV (CBS) in Erie, Pennsylvania and have since added the CBS and The CW affiliates in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and ABC in the Virgin Islands.

Brian and Kevin Lilly are the sons of George Lilly, whose SJL Broadcast Management (also previously known as the Montecito Broadcast Group) was founded in 1984 and based in Montecito, California. SJL owns WICU-TV in Erie and the two Companies purchased three TV stations from Gateway Communications in 2000, and four stations from Emmis Communications in 2005.

Lilly Broadcasting most recently with Sankaty Advisors purchased KITV (ABC) in Hawaii. Lilly sold the station to Byron Allen's Allen Media Broadcasting in 2021.

History

Lilly Broadcasting is headquartered in the studio facility of its Erie duopoly, WICU-TV/WSEE-TV.

WJRT-TV was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989.^[1] In 1991, a SJL affiliated partnership,^[2] Media Communications Partners Limited Partnership, purchased WTVG.^[3]

SJL announced the sale of WJRT-TV and WTVG to Capital Cities/ABC for $155 million in October 1994^[α][5] after CBS signed a long-term deal with Meredith Corporation, owner of Flint's NBC affiliate, WNEM-TV.^[6] NBC was rumored to be courting WJRT-TV as a possible replacement for WNEM,^[7] prompting Capital Cities/ABC to buy the stations outright.^[8] The deal resulted in WTVG converting from an NBC affiliate to ABC.^[5]

In 2000, it purchased the Gateway Communications stations for $96 million.^[β][9] In 2002, SJL sold off WOWK-TV to West Virginia Media Holdings for $40.5 million.^[γ][10] In April 2006, SJL sold off WBNG-TV to Granite Broadcasting for $45 million,^[δ][11] this was followed on July 26, 2006 by selling WTAJ-TV and the licensee assets of WLYH-TV to Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $56 million,^[ε] completely undoing the Gateway/SJL deal.^[12]

On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its remaining stations except WICU (KHON-TV, KOIN, KSNW and KSNT) to New Vision Television, ending the partnership between SJL and The Blackstone Group.^[13] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval of this sale in late-October of that year, and ownership was officially transferred on November 1.

On March 1, 2009, the last station formally owned by SJL, WICU, transferred its copyrights to Lilly Broadcasting when it merged its news operations with crosstown sister station WSEE-TV. Though SJL still technically exists (and still ostensibly owns WICU), its visible operations have now been subsumed by Lilly Broadcasting.

On November 3, 2010, Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced that SJL Broadcasting made an agreement with Disney to buy back WJRT-TV and WTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio.^[14] The sale was completed on April 1, 2011 with both stations general manager exiting their positions at change of ownership.^[15] Lilly announced on July 24, 2014, that it would sell both WJRT and WTVG to Gray Television in a $128 million transaction.^[ζ][16] In 2016, Gray announced that it would operate its bureau in Washington, DC, in cooperation with Lilly.^[17]

On May 13, 2015, Hearst Television announced that it would sell KITV in Honolulu, Hawaii, and its satellites (KHVO in Hilo and KMAU in Wailuku) to SJL; the deal marks the return of the company to Hawaii, following its prior ownership of KHON-TV.^[18] The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on July 10, 2015^[19] and completed on September 1, 2015.^[20]

Lilly Broadcasting re-entered radio in 2019 by purchasing the three-station cluster in Warren, Pennsylvania, that had previously been owned by Frank Iorio's Radio Partners; Iorio sold off his only other broadcast asset, Pittsburgh's WJAS, to another buyer in 2020.^[21] Lilly had previously owned and operated radio stations in Elmira before selling those off a few years after acquiring that cluster.^[22]

Stations

Current stations

• Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

Stations currently owned by Lilly Broadcasting

Media market	State	Station	Purchased	Notes
Tamuning	Guam	KTGM	2023	[a]
		KEQI-LD	2023	[a]
Marquette	Michigan	WZMQ	2017
Elmira	New York	WENY-TV	2000
Ithaca		W07BJ	2018	[b]
Erie	Pennsylvania	WICU-FM	2019
		WICU-TV	1996
		WSEE-TV	2002	[c]
Warren, PA		WICU	2019
		WNAE	2019
		WRRN	2019
Christiansted	U.S. Virgin Islands	WCVI-TV	2019

1. Owned by Sorensen Media Group.
2. Operated by WENY as NY Local Ithaca.^[23]
3. Operates under a shared services agreement with WICU.

Non-broadcast

• WNY News Now—Jamestown, NY, via a joint operations agreement with The WNY Media Company^[24]
• One Caribbean Television

Former stations

Stations formerly owned by Lilly Broadcasting

Media market	State	Station	Purchased	Sold	Notes
San Luis Obispo	California	KSBY	1996	2002
Hilo	Hawaii	KHAW-TV	2006	2007	[A]
		KHVO	2015	2021	[B]
Honolulu		KHON-TV	2006	2007
		KITV	2015	2021
Kauai		K55DZ	2006	2007	[A]
Maui–Wailuku		KAII-TV	2006	2007	[A]
		KMAU	2015	2021	[B]
Garden City–Dodge City	Kansas	KSNG	1988	1995	[C]
			2006	2007
Great Bend–Hays–Salina		KSNC	1988	1995	[C]
			2006	2007
Topeka		KSNT	1988	1995
			2006	2007
Wichita–Hutchinson		KSNW	1988	1995
			2006	2007
McCook	Nebraska	KSNK	1988	1995	[C]
			2006	2007
Flint	Michigan	WJRT-TV	1989	1995
			2011	2014
Joplin	Missouri	KOAM-TV	1991	1995
Billings	Montana	KTVQ	1984	1994
Butte		KXLF-TV	1984	1986
Great Falls		KRTV	1984	1986
Missoula		KPAX-TV	1984	1986
Binghamton	New York	WBNG-TV	2000	2006
Buffalo		WGRZ-TV	1986	1988
Syracuse		WSTM-TV	1986	1992
Toledo	Ohio	WTVG	1991	1995
			2011	2014
Portland	Oregon	KOIN	2006	2007
Altoona	Pennsylvania	WTAJ-TV	2000	2006
Harrisburg		WLYH-TV	2000	2006	[a]
Huntington–Charleston	West Virginia	WOWK-TV	2000	2002

1. Satellite of KHON-TV.
2. Satellite of KITV.
3. Satellite of KSNW.

1. Owned by SJL, but operated by Clear Channel Communications.

Notes

1. equivalent to $318,630,445 in 2023^[4]
2. equivalent to $169,850,435 in 2023^[4]
3. equivalent to $68,606,475 in 2023^[4]
4. equivalent to $68,012,545 in 2023^[4]
5. equivalent to $84,637,834 in 2023^[4]
6. equivalent to $164,741,074 in 2023^[4]

References

1. "WJRT". Station Listings. Michiguide.com. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
2. Report No. MM 95-60
3. WTVG TV Channel 13 Toledo, OH. Michigan Television Dial Guide. Michiguide.com. Retrieved on July 17, 2013.
4. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
5. "Capital Cities-ABC Completes Buy of Two TV Stations". Associated Press News. August 30, 1995. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
6. Mattern, Hal (June 30, 1994). "Eye say! Channel 5 called up to majors: Homeless CBS picks longtime independent". The Arizona Republic. pp. A1, A7. Archived from the original on June 30, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Pullen, Doug (September 2, 1994). "Channel 5 Adds Weathercaster; Channel 25 Focuses On Health". Flint Journal. Flint, Michigan. pp. C16, C25. Archived from the original on April 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via GenealogyBank.
8. "Notes: Scramble for affiliates". The Journal Times Spectrum Sunday. Racine, Wisconsin. October 16, 1994. p. 2. Archived from the original on April 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
9. Holmes, Alisa; A. Rathburn, Elizabeth (September 18, 2000). "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
10. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 4, 2002. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
11. "Granite closes on Southern Tier TV station". Buffalo Business First. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
12. "Nexstar completes station purchase". Dallas Business Journal. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
13. New Vision Buys Montecito Stations Archived 2008-08-04 at the Wayback Machine Broadcasting & Cable July 24, 2007
14. Grego, Melissa (November 3, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: Disney to Sell Two Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
15. Exclusive: New GMs For Former ABC O&Os in Flint, Toledo Broadcasting & Cable. March 31, 2011.
16. "Gray Buys Stations in Flint, Toledo for $128M," from TVNewsCheck, 7/24/2014
17. McAdams, Deborah D. (February 2, 2015). "Gray Opens Washington, D.C. News Bureau". TV Technology. NewBay Media. Archived from the original on September 23, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
18. Engle, Erika (May 13, 2015). "Local TV station sold". Hawaii Star-Advertiser. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
19. "Assignment of License". Federal Communications Commission. July 10, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
20. "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. September 10, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
21. "WJAS/Pittsburgh Sold; Price for WFUN-F/St. Louis Spin-Off $8 Million".
22. Venta, Lance (April 12, 2019). "LILLY BROADCASTING ACQUIRES NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA TRIO". RadioInsight.com. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
23. "New local television station opens in Downtown Ithaca". November 17, 2018.
24. "Erie News Now & WNY News Now Partner, Strengthening Regional Coverage". July 12, 2021.

External links

• Lilly Broadcasting Corporate Website