Dorado Media Group

The **Dorado Media Group** is an American telecommunications company that is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company's portfolio consists of television stations across the U.S., most of whom are affiliated with the four "major" U.S. television networks located in small to medium-sized markets. It also operates all of the stations owned by an affiliated company, Central Broadcasting, under local marketing agreements. Dorado also owns the digital multicast network The ACME Television Network under a joint venture with the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner.

## History

### **1996-2010: Formation**

The Dorado Media Group was founded as **Dorado** **Broadcasting** on October 27, 1996. The first television station bought by Dorado was KPRT in Portland, Oregon. Dorado bought KPRT from locally-owned Downtown Broadcasting. The sale was completed on November 10 of that year.

In 2003, Dorado acquired Quotum Broadcasting (owner of 5 television stations).

On May 20, 2009, Dorado operated television stations that were owned by Five Star Media, through an outsourcing agreement. However, the company began taking a more active role in the company throughout the years. In early 2016, Dorado Broadcasting changed its name to the **Dorado Media Group**as the company had pursued multiple station acquisitions.

### **2016**

In May, Dorado announced the launch of the ACME Television Network service, in a joint venture between the Warner Brothers Entertainment subsidiary of Time Warner. The network was operating within the Dorado Media company. The network was created in part that it would be based off The WB, and to some extent, The Dorado Broadcasting Company (which Dorado Media launched in January of 2016, but later, their services and stations were transitioned to the newly formed Dorado Station Services group). The company announced the formation of Dorado Orignal Programming (which was later changed to 'A Dorado Original' for the Dorado Broadcasting Company). The company also announced plans for a future cable network, but the idea was later dropped.

### **2017: Acquisition of AZ Broadcasting**

On April 13, 2017, Dorado announced it that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AZBroadcasting after its former founder had stepped down from his position due to multiple monopolies they had with other companies that were also owned by them. As a result of the deal, Dorado took over the operations of an additional station in Las Vegas that was owned by AZBroadcasting, which launched a duopoly in the market as Dorado already owned a station in that market.

### **2017: Other Events**

On June 15, 2017, Tribune Broadcasting announced the launch of *Morning Dose*, a two-hour social media-focused morning show produced in partnership with Chicago-based digital content branding agency Dose, which will replace *EyeOpener* on the Tribune stations carrying the latter program on June 29. Hosted by Melissa Rycroft and Brandon London, with news segments anchored by Laila Muhammad (the only announced holdover from *EyeOpener*), the program will feature a mix of news stories selected by Dose through its social storytelling and scientific trend methodology to "[showcase] the content and advancing the stories that will drive the day’s social conversation.”

Following the announcement of the launch of *Morning Dose*, Dorado Media developed a concept for a morning news program intended for stations owned by the company that did not maintain existing news departments. The program would incorporate a local/national format (with the intent to syndicate the program to other markets) similar to that of morning news programs on the major broadcast television networks, with three-minute-long national segments conducted in a more free-form style.

On September 4, 2017, following the relaunch of EyeOpener, Dorado Media debuted Nightcap. the idea for The program was conceived by Dorado executives, who developed a concept for a news program for stations owned by the company that did not maintain existing news departments. The show would also incorporate a local/national format.

On November 20, 2017, sister-company the Dorado Station Services announced that they would turn over DBC and UDC owned-and-operated stations ranked below the top 99 television markets in the United States to Dorado Media. The company would continue to handle programming and promotional services.

## Television stations

> *Main article: List of stations owned or operated by the Dorado Media Group*
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## Other holdings

**ACME Networks**, LLC – a company created by Dorado in January 2016. The company runs:

* **The ACME Television Network** --alongside AT&T's WarnerMedia.
* **ACC** -- multicast network.

**Dorado Television**

* **Dorado Broadcasting Company**
* **United Dorado Company** -- multicast network.

## Affiliated companies

Affiliated companies in the case of the Dorado Broadcast Group are corporations formed to hold ownership of television stations, then sign Local marketing agreement to run the stations. The companies include, in addition to those mentioned in some detail below:

* Central Broadcasting