The Outlet Company was a corporation based in

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, which owned holdings in both retail and broadcasting. The centerpieces of the group was its flagship Providence store (''The Outlet'') and

WJAR WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-ope ...

radio and television, also in Providence.

Retail

The Outlet Company was formed in 1891 when brothers Joseph and Leon Samuels opened a department store at 176 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence. Known as ''The Outlet'', it quickly became a Providence landmark to the point of occupying an entire city block and attracting shoppers from all over southern

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. For decades, the store remained strong with its sole flagship location and dominated the field of retail in not only Providence, but

as a whole. With the changing field of retail in the mid-20th Century, the company diversified with opening suburban locations as well as buying some existing stores such as

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

-based Phillipsborn and Bedya, the midwestern Hughes & Hatcher chain, and

The Edw. Malley Co. The Edw. Malley Co., often abbreviated Malley's,
at
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. However, the allure of building a broadcasting empire under the leadership of company president

Bruce Sundlun Bruce George Sundlun (January 19, 1920 – July 21, 2011) was an American businessman, politician and member of the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Party who served as List of governors of Rhode Island, 71st governor of Rhode Island ...

led Outlet to leave the retail business in November 1980. In 1981, the Outlet Company sold the original downtown retail store (and other stores) to United Department Stores and the flagship ''Outlet'' location on Weybosset Street was shuttered in 1982. The building was destroyed by fire on October 16, 1986.

Broadcasting

As with many northeastern department stores in the 1920s, Outlet entered radio as a means of promoting their products to a wide audience. In 1922, Outlet entered broadcasting with the sign on of

, which in 1926 became the first ''affiliated'' station of the

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

. In 1949, Outlet entered television broadcasting with the launch of WJAR-TV on channel 11; the station moved to channel 10 in 1953. Along with retail, Outlet saw a mass expansion into broadcasting in the 1960s and beyond. After the sale of the retail divisions, the company went into a failed merger attempt with

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

before it was sold in 1984 to members of the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothe ...

. Two years later, the company was sold again to a combination of Outlet executives and venture capitalists who renamed the company to Outlet Communications and began a complete withdrawal from radio followed by a slimming down the number of their TV stations to three. In early 1996, Outlet and its three stations (plus control of two others) were sold to NBC; the name lived on as a license name of their former stations for a while afterward. After ten years, all three stations were put up for sale by NBC on January 9, 2006, with

Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...

buying the stations on April 6, 2006 (the sale was finalized on June 26, 2006). This virtually undid the NBC-Outlet merger of a decade earlier.

Former Outlet-owned stations

Note: Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed-on by the Outlet Company.

Radio Stations

Television stations

In 1994, Outlet signed

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

s with the startup company Fant Broadcasting, which owned stations in two Outlet markets. Both of these stations were WB affiliates under Outlet control. *

WLWC WLWC (channel 28) is a television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, serving the Providence, Rhode Island area as an affiliate of Court TV. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station shares transmitter facilities ...

(channel 28),

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...

, operated by WJAR-TV *

WWHO WWHO (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Chillicothe, Ohio, United States, serving the Columbus area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Manhan Media, Inc., which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadc ...

(channel 53),

Chillicothe, Ohio Chillicothe ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Scioto River 45 miles (72 km) south of Columbus, Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio. It is the only city in Ross Count ...

, operated by WCMH-TV Following its purchase of the remaining three Outlet stations, NBC kept involvement with the Fant stations until it orchestrated a three-way deal in which Fant sold the two stations to the original Viacom's

Paramount Stations Group Paramount Stations Group (sometimes abbreviated as PSG) was a company that controlled a group of American broadcast television stations. The company existed from 1991 until 2001. History Paramount Communications, the then-parent company of Par ...

and, in return, NBC acquired Viacom/Paramount's

WVIT WVIT (channel 30) is a television station licensed to New Britain, Connecticut, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Hartford–New Haven market. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alo ...

New Britain, Connecticut New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford. According to 2020 Census, the population of the city is 74,135. Among the southernmost of the communities encompassed wit ...

in 1997. Viacom/Paramount promptly added secondary affiliations with its

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

network; however, it was forced to run WLWC and WWHO as primary WB affiliates until 2000, when UPN became the primary affiliation, relegating WB to a secondary affiliation. The two stations were separated in March 2005 when Viacom sold WWHO to

LIN TV LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the television in the United States#Major broadcast networks, six major U.S. television networks. One of the re ...

. WLWC and WWHO both became affiliates of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, the result of a merger of UPN and WB, in the Fall of 2006. As of 2013, WWHO is operated by the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

(which now also owns WJAR) through a shared services agreement with its current owner Manhan Media while WLWC (which was owned outright by Sinclair for just over a year) is now owned by

OTA Broadcasting OTA Broadcasting, LLC was a broadcasting company founded in 2011 by Michael Dell. The company is based in Fairfax, Virginia. History OTA Broadcasting was founded in 2011 by Michael Dell's MSD Capital. It had been rumored that Dell formed OT ...

(a subsidiary of Michael Dell's Dell Capital).

External links

History of the Outlet CompanyHistory of WJAR

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Outlet Company, The Companies based in Providence, Rhode Island Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct radio broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Rhode Island Retail companies established in 1891 Nexstar Media Group Mass media companies established in 1922 1891 establishments in Rhode Island Mass media companies disestablished in 1996 1996 disestablishments in Rhode Island Retail companies disestablished in 1952