The Ackerley Group was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

media company owned by

Barry Ackerley Barry Allan Ackerley (April 15, 1934 – March 21, 2011) was an American businessman. He was the former chairman and CEO of the Ackerley Group media company. He was also the owner of the Seattle SuperSonics basketball franchise from 1983 to 2001 ...

that owned several television stations (mainly in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, as well as one in Fairbanks) that was sold to

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

FCC approves Clear Channel (now known as iHeartMedia) purchase of Ackerley Group
/ref> in 2001. In addition to ownership of television stations across the country, the company also owned and operated several radio stations in the Seattle, WA market. The company also owned the NBA Seattle SuperSonics and WNBA

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded by Ginger Ackerl ...

professional basketball teams. At the time of the closure of the transaction, the sale price was reported to be 38 times cashflow (approximately $1.1B USD) the highest ever sale valuation for a North American publicly traded media company in the history of the NYSE. The record setting high price tag was attributed to the overwhelming market monopoly position of the Ackerley Group's Out of Home Media (billboards) marketplace in the Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts and South Florida media markets, all areas where Clear Channel was devoid of inventory. Its chairman was

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

-based businessman

. Barry Ackerley and his immediate family owned approximately 82% of the company stock at the time of the sale.

Stations list (incomplete)

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broa ...

. Notes: *¹ Divested following purchase of KION, Ackerley continued to operate station after divestiture until the merger with Clear Channel in 2002. *² Operated by Ackerley from 1994 until purchased outright by Ackerley in 2000. *³ Ackerley never owned this station directly but did operate it through a time brokerage agreement from 2000 until the merger with Clear Channel in 2002.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Defunct companies of the United States Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States IHeartMedia