LIN TV

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LIN TV Corporation
Type	Public (NYSE: TVL)
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Providence, Rhode Island
Key people	Vincent Sadusky, CEO
Area served	United States (Nationwide)
Industry	Broadcast Television Television Production
Products	Broadcast television
Revenue	$443.5 million USD
Operating income	$247.44 million USD
Net income	$274.5 million USD
Employees	2,414 (full time)
Website	www.lintv.com

LIN TV Corporation is an American holding company that operates 31 television stations.

[edit] History

LIN TV's roots trace back to the founding of its former parent, LIN Broadcasting Corporation, in the mid 1960s. LIN Broadcasting was engaged in radio, television, direct marketing, information and learning, music publishing, and record labels. LIN takes its initials from three major cities where it originally owned radio stations: Louisville, Indianapolis and Nashville (all located on Interstate 65).

LIN Broadcasting made acquisitions in broadcasting, expanded into paging, and in the early 1980s the company entered the fledgling cellular telephone business. By 1983 the company owned seven television stations and by 1985 it owned and managed cellular telephone licenses serving Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia. LIN Broadcasting sold its paging operations and six of its radio stations in 1986 to help finance the development of its cellular business.

LIN Television's Chief Executive Officer is Vincent L. Sadusky. Sadusky had formerly been LIN's Chief Financial Officer as well as Vice President and treasurer since 2004, and previously was CFO for Telemundo, working closely on its sale to GE/NBC. Sadusky had been interim CEO since former Chairman Gary R. Chapman announced his impending retirement in June 2006, and through the company's search for a permanent replacement. He was officially installed as CEO upon Chapman's official retirement on July 10, 2006. [1]

In March 1990, McCaw Cellular Communications purchased a 52% interest in LIN Broadcasting. McCaw was acquired by AT&T in 1994, after which LIN Broadcastings television operations were spun off as a public company traded on the NASDAQ stock market and 45%-owned by AT&T. The new company, LIN Television Corporation, owned and/or operated 12 stations and its stock price increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 31% between 1994 and 1998. During this period LIN acquired WIVB-TV in Buffalo, New York and WTNH-TV in New Haven, Connecticut.

In March 1998, LIN Television was acquired by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated (HMTF), a leading private investment firm based in Dallas, Texas. At the time of the HMTF acquisition, LIN contributed its Dallas NBC affiliate to a joint venture with the network that also holds the San Diego affiliate. Under HMTFs ownership, LIN Television has grown considerably through a wide range of transactions:

In June 1999, LIN acquired WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a station to which it had been providing consulting services for a number of years.

In August, LIN helped finance the establishment of Banks Broadcasting, a minority-owned television broadcast company in which it holds a 50% interest. Today, Banks owns the CW Television Network affiliates KSCW-TV in Wichita, Kansas and KNIN-TV in Boise, Idaho.

LIN purchased WAPA-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico in October. In April 2000, LIN acquired WLFI-TV, serving Lafayette, Indiana in exchange for 66% of its station WAND-TV in Decatur, Illinois. LIN still provides management oversight for WAND.

LIN purchased WWLP-TV in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2000. In 2001, LIN acquired WJPX and two satellite facilities in Puerto Rico, and WNLO-TV in Buffalo.

The company exercised and closed on options to purchase WOTV-TV in Battle Creek, Michigan and WVBT-TV in Norfolk, Virginia, both stations that it had already managed, in January 2002.

In February, LIN agreed to acquire seven stations in six markets from STC Broadcasting. The transaction of the stations was completed in May. Also in May, LIN TV Corp. completed the issuance of 19.55 million shares of Class A Common Stock through its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

In December 2003, LIN TV announced the sale of two television stations in Abilene and San Angelo, Texas. This was followed the next month by the sale of a station in Flint, Michigan.

In late August 2005, LIN purchased several stations from Emmis Communications, the stations purchased were WALA and WBPG in Mobile, Alabama, WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, Indiana, KRQE in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and WLUK in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In July 2006, LIN announced the planned purchase a second station in New Mexico, KASA-TV, from Raycom Media.

In May, 2006, LIN TV announced the sale of Puerto Rico stations WAPA-TV and WJPX to InterMedia Partners, L.P. for $130 million.[2]

[edit] Stations

TV stations Owned and/or Operated by LIN

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Channel (DT)	Current Affiliation	Acquired	Notes
25.	Indianapolis, Indiana	WISH-TV	8 (9)	CBS	1984	Ex-flagship
		WNDY-TV	23 (32)	MyNetworkTV	2005	Licensed to Marion, Indiana
		WIIH-CA	17	Univision	ca 2000	Simulcasted WISH's weather radar until 2003
28.	New Haven, Connecticut	WTNH	8 (10)	ABC	1994
		WCTX	59 (39)	MyNetworkTV	2001	Operated by LIN since 1995
32.	Columbus, Ohio	WWHO	53 (46)	CW	2005	Licensed to Chillicothe, Ohio Was UPN/WB until Sept. 2006
39.	Grand Rapids, Michigan	WOOD-TV	8 (7)	NBC	1999
	Kalamazoo, Michigan	WOTV	41 (20)	ABC	2001	LMA'd by LIN for several years prior
		WXSP-CA	15**	MyNetworkTV	2002	** Simulcasted on: WOBC-CA 14 Battle Creek WOLP-CA 27 Grand Rapids WOMS-CA 29 Muskegon WOHO-CA 33 Holland WOKZ-CA 50 Kalamazoo WOOD-DT 8.2 and WOTV-DT 41.2
42.	Norfolk, Virginia	WAVY-TV	10 (31)	NBC	1968	Licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia
		WVBT	43 (29)	Fox	2002	Operated by LIN since 1995; licensed to Virginia Beach
45.	Albuquerque, New Mexico	KRQE	13 (16)	CBS	2005
		KASA-TV	2 (27)	Fox	2007
	Roswell, New Mexico	KBIM	10 (41)	CBS	2005	Satellite of KRQE
	Durango, Colorado	KREZ	6 (15)	CBS	2005	Satellite of KRQE
49.	Buffalo, New York	WIVB-TV	4 (32)	CBS	1995
		WNLO	23 (39)	CW	2001	Was Independent until 2003; UPN until Sept. 2006
51.	Providence, Rhode Island	WPRI	12 (13)	CBS	2002	Flagship
		WNAC-TV	64 (54)	Fox (primary)/ MyNetworkTV (secondary)	LMA	Owned by LIN 2001-02
52.	Austin, Texas	KXAN	36 (21)	NBC	1979
		KNVA	54 (49)	CW (primary)/ MyNetworkTV (secondary)	LMA	Operated by LIN since the 1990s. Was WB until Sept. 2006
		KBVO-CA	51	TeleFutura	2001
	Llano, Texas	KXAM-TV	14 (27)	NBC	1987	Satellite of KXAN
58.	Dayton, Ohio	WDTN	2 (50)	NBC	2002	Was ABC until 2004
59.	Mobile, Alabama	WALA-TV	10 (9)	Fox	2005
		WBPG	55 (9)	CW	2006	Licensed to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Operated by LIN since 2005. Was WB until Sept. 2006 High-definition programming on WALA-DT2 (10.2).
69.	Green Bay, Wisconsin	WLUK-TV	11 (51)	Fox	2005
71.	Toledo, Ohio	WUPW	36 (46)	Fox	2002
82.	Decatur, Illinois	WAND-TV	17 (18)	NBC	***	***Owned by Block Communications in a joint venture; was the first station owned by LIN TV from 1966 to 2000 Was ABC until 2005
106.	Fort Wayne, Indiana	WANE-TV	15 (31)	CBS	1984
109.	Springfield, Massachusetts	WWLP	22 (11)	NBC	2000
151.	Terre Haute, Indiana	WTHI-TV	10 (24)	CBS	2005
188.	Lafayette, Indiana	WLFI-TV	18 (11)	CBS	2000	Obtained in exchange for WAND

LIN also owns two stations in San Juan, Puerto Rico and their satellite stations across Puerto Rico; it was announced in May 2006 that these stations would be put on the market. The more notable of the two, WAPA, also has a cable feed called WAPA America which is seen on DirecTV, RCN and several cable systems along the East Coast and in St. Croix.

Station	Channel (DT)	Affiliation	Acquired	Notes
WAPA-TV	4 (27)	Independent	1998	Satellites WTIN 14 Ponce WNJX-TV 22 Mayagüez
WJPX	24 (21)	MTV/Local	2001	Satellites WKPV 20 Ponce WJWN-TV 38 San Sebastián WIRS 42 Yauco

LIN has partial holdings in four other stations, however LIN does not control these stations:

• A 50% share in Banks Broadcasting, which owns two CW affiliates:
  • KNIN 9 Boise, Idaho (formerly UPN)
  • KSCW 33 Wichita, Kansas (formerly WB) (pending sale to Schurz Communications)
• 24% of two NBC Owned-and-Operated stations
  • KNSD 39/7 San Diego, California
    • KBOP-CA 43 San Diego, California (owned by Commercial Broadcasting Corp.; operated by the NBC / LIN joint venture)
  • KXAS 5, Fort Worth, Texas (see below table)

Former LIN Stations

Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Owned by LIN	Sold To	Current Ownership	Notes
Abilene, Texas	KRBC-TV	9	NBC	2002-04	Mission Broadcasting	Mission Broadcasting	Controlled by Nexstar-owned KTAB
Bay City-Flint-Saginaw, Michigan	WEYI-TV	25	NBC	2002-04	Barrington Broadcasting	Barrington Broadcasting
Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas	KXAS-TV	5	NBC	1975-97	NBC O&O	NBC O&O	24% retained by LIN; ex-flagship
Omaha, Nebraska	WOWT	6	NBC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Obtained in a three-way deal with KAKE where it was swapped for WWLP
San Angelo, Texas	KACB	3	NBC	2002-04	Mission Broadcasting	Mission Broadcasting	Now KSAN-TV; controlled by Nexstar-owned KLST
Wichita, Kansas	KAKE-TV	10	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Obtained in a three-way deal with WOWT where it was swapped for WWLP
Colby, Kansas	KLBY	4	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Satellite of KAKE-TV
Dodge City, Kansas	KUPK	13	ABC	1999-2000	Benedek Broadcasting	Gray Television	Satellite of KAKE-TV

[edit] External links

• Official web site
• List of LIN stations