Raycom Media

Raycom Media, Inc. Was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama.  It is owned by its employees.

History 
Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications, which eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations.

In 1994, Ellis bought Raycom Sports, a 15-year-old sports marketing firm.  Two years later, Ellis sold Raycom to a media group funded by Retirement Systems of Alabama, who had bought Aflac's broadcast division and Federal Broadcasting's TV Group a few months earlier. The three groups merged to form Raycom Media. In 1998, Raycom merged with Malrite Communications, owner of five stations in the South and Midwest.

In August 2005 it acquired The Liberty Corporation and in the process sold a dozen of its stations to Barrington Broadcasting. The merger closed at the start of 2006.

On November 12, 2007, Raycom announced its intention to acquire the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln National Corporation's Lincoln Financial Media—three television stations (see table below), plus Lincoln Financial Sports—for $583 million.  As of January 1, 2008, Lincoln Financial Sports was officially merged into Raycom Sports.

On November 20, 2013, Raycom and WVUE announced that a Shared Services Agreement would take effect, allowing Raycom to manage the operations of the New Orleans Fox network affiliate, which is owned by Tom Benson's Louisiana Media Company.

On August 10, 2015, Raycom announced that it would purchase stations owned by Drewry Communications for $160 million. The sale was completed on December 1.

Operations 

Raycom currently owns and/or operates nearly 60 television stations, Raycom Sports in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sacramento, California and Mobile, Alabama, Broadview Media, Raycom Post Production in Los Angeles, California and CableVantage in Columbia, South Carolina.

Raycom owns a 20% stake in Frankly, a San Francisco-based social media company that owns Raycom's digital provider WorldNow.

Raycom Sports

Stations 
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

Notes:
 (**) – built and signed-on by Raycom Media.
 (§§) – owned by Aflac and Ellis Communications prior to the formation of Raycom Media in 1996.
 (≈≈) – owned by Federal Communications prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 1997.
 (¤¤) – owned by Malrite Communications prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 1998.
 (##) – owned by Waitt Media prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 2003.
 (++) – owned by The Liberty Corporation prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 2006.
 (~~) – owned by Lincoln Financial Media prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 2008.
 (∆) - owned by Drewry Communications Group prior to its acquisition by Raycom Media in 2015.

Current owned television stations 

Other Notes:
1 Owned by Sander Media, LLC. Raycom operates by KMSB through a shared service agreement.
2 Owned by Tucker Operating Co., LLC. Raycom operates by KTTU through a shared service agreement.
3 While KNIN-TV and WFLX are owned by Raycom, it are operated through a shared services agreement by the E.W. Scripps Company.
4 Owned by American Spirit Media, Raycom operates the stations through a Local Marketing Agreement. 
5 Owned by MCG Capital Corporation, Raycom operates KFVE and its satellites through a shared services agreement.
6 Owned by Louisiana Media Company, Raycom operates WVUE through a shared services agreement.
7 Owned by Tougaloo College, Raycom operates WLOO through a shared services agreement.

Current owned radio stations

Radio stations

Former owned stations 

Raycom also owned two radio stations in Memphis, WMC-AM–FM, from 1996 to 2000.

Other Notes:

1 The company had never owned the station but operates it under a Local Marketing Agreement for Ottumwa Media Holdings.
2 The company continuously owned the two stations after Univision began operating them under a Local Marketing Agreement in 2002. Univision later bought the stations outright. Also, WORA-TV in Mayagüez which repeats 95% of WLII/WSUR's programming but operates under a separate owner. WLII & WSUR also operate locally-owned WSTE under an LMA. Like all Univision owned and operated stations, WLII and WSUR-TV opted to add/change the "-DT" suffix to their callsigns after the digital transition and eliminate the "-TV" suffix.

See also
Raycom Sports

References

External links 
Raycom Media Corporate Website

Television broadcasting companies of the United States
 
College sports television syndicators
Companies based in Montgomery, Alabama
Employee-owned companies of the United States