Love Media

**Love Media** is an American telecommunications company that is owned by the family of company founder Elsie Love. Its base of operation is the Love Media Building in Liberty City. The company is the largest television station operator in the real-life United States DMAs by total coverage; owning and/or operating a total of 154 stations across the country (165 after all currently proposed sales are approved) in nearly 80 markets (covering 30% of American households), many of which are located in the South and Midwest. Love also owns or operates 900 radio stations. Among other non-broadcast properties, Love also owns the Champions' Ring professional wrestling promotion. Other acquisitions and interests include pet food and health insurance. They also own Bitch'n' Dog Food.

Though Love became a public company in 1995 and is currently traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol LVME, the Love family still retains a majority financial interest, and all four sons of Elsie Love serve as executives or directors – with Rickey J. Love currently heading the company as its Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

## History

### Bedford Television Corporation

The company, founded by Elsie Love, originated in 1971 as the **Bedford Television Corporation**. Its founding television station properties were WELV in Liberty City and WUHB in Baltimore, Maryland, both of which signed on the air on April 11 of that year. Bedford later founded WPIT (now WMNP) in Pittsburgh, in 1978; and WCMB in Columbus, Ohio, in 1984. All four stations originally were independents, though WUHB and WCMB became charter affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company at its launch in 1986.

### Love Media

Love's son Donald Love began taking a more active role in the company in the 1980s. In 1985, the Bedford Television Corporation changed its name to **Love Media**. In 1990, Donald Love and his four brothers bought their parents' remaining stock and went on a buying spree that eventually made it one of the largest station owners in the country.

Love pioneered the concept of the local marketing agreement (LMA) in American television in 1991, when it sold WPIT to its general manager Andre Perkins (founder of WPIT National Telecasting, the Love-affiliated licensee that would eventually become Donald Broadcasting) in order to purchase fellow Pittsburgh station WPBR-TV to comply with FCC ownership rules of the time that prohibited duopolies, while agreeing to allow Love to retain operational responsibilities for the station. However, while LMAs would become an integral part of the company's business model in subsequent years, Love's plans to acquire KLHM-TV in Oklahoma City through WPIT National, which would subsequently attempt to sell five of its 11 existing LMA-operated stations to Love outright in turn (with Love stock included in the deal) was challenged by the Rainbow/PUSH coalition (headed by Jesse Jackson) to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1998, citing concerns over a single company controlling two broadcast licenses in the same market in violation of FCC rules. The coalition argued that WPIT National passed itself off as a minority-owned company (Perkins is African American) which, since the Love family controlled most of the company's stock, was technically a Love arm that planned to use the LMA with KLHM to gain control of the station and create an illegal duopoly with KTOC. In 2001, the FCC levied a $40,000 fine against Love for illegally controlling WPIT National. Love became a publicly listed company in 1995, while the Love family retained a controlling interest. Donald Love later disappeared and was found dead in upstate Liberty in late 2001, and control was continued on by the three surviving Love brothers.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 14, 2009, Love stated that if the company could not refinance its $1.33 billion debt or if Donald Broadcasting became insolvent due to nonpayment on a loan worth $33.5 million, Love may be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the company's seemingly recovered its financial fortunes enough, as it would begin a major string of acquisitions involving television stations and other properties two years later.

On May 21, 2011, it was announced that Love had purchased the professional wrestling promotion Champions' Ring. As part of the purchase, Love would produce a weekly, hour-long program for Champions' Ring to air on the group's stations, with the intent to eventually syndicate the show to non-Love stations across the country.

It also announced that the company was in talks to purchase Columbus, Ohio CW affiliate WCOH (Love already owns ABC affiliate WFOR and manages Fox affiliate WCMB). However it lost out on the purchase in December 2011, but the new owners immediately turned around in February 2012 and entered a shared services agreement with Love, effectively giving them all but license control of WCOH and resulting in the company controlling three stations in the Columbus market.

On May 15, 2012, Love renewed its affiliation agreement for its 19 Fox affiliates for five years through 2017. The agreement included the option for Love to purchase Baltimore MyNetworkTV affiliate WBLT from Fox Television Stations at any point between July 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013. If exercised, this would create a virtual triopoly with real-world America flagship station WUHB and CW affiliate , which Love manages under a local marketing agreement with Donald Broadcasting; it also gave Fox Television Stations the option to buy any combination of six Love-owned CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates in three of four markets: Raleigh, North Carolina, Las Vegas, Nevada, Cincinnati, Ohio and Norfolk, Virginia.

On November 26, 2012, Love exercised its option on WBLT through its recently formed LMA partner Elsie Media (the transfer was formally consummated on June 1, 2013). In January 2013, Fox announced that it would not exercise its option from the 2012 renewal deal to buy any of the Love stations in the four markets. Therefore, Love is required to pay Fox $25 million.

On February 28, 2013, Love announced the purchase of Great Lakes Broadcasting's 18 stations; six other stations operated by Great Lakes also came under the management of Love. Love operates the former Great Lakes stations through a subsidiary, Bedford Television, which focuses on smaller markets; this unit has separate management from Love's main group, which operates the company's larger-market properties. As part of the Great Lakes acquisition, Bedford Television inherited Great Lakes' headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Great Lakes acquisition had to wait until November 18 to be granted FCC approval, with formal consummation taking place on November 25.

Unable to find buyers for stations that it tried to sell in the two markets, on May 29, Love announced a proposal to relinquish the licenses of three ABC affiliates to the FCC, and move ABC programming to the company's existing MyNetworkTV-affiliated stations in those markets in order to expedite approval of the deal.

Love signed an agreement in June 2014 to carry the classic film subchannel network GetTV in 33 markets by the end of September. In July of that year, Love announced the launch of the Love Sports Network (LSN) service, operating within its Love Media Networks company. This service, which produces and distributes college sports broadcasts, is primarily carried on Love stations. LSN was created as part of the company's foray into original, non-news content creation beyond Champions' Ring and school sports. Subsequently, on August 21, 2014, the company announced the formation of Love Media Originals, a new division concentrating on entertainment and commercial content. The company also announced plans for a future cable news network.