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Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations reaching over 15% of all U.S. households and over 32% of Hispanic households. Apart from owning and/or operating many television stations, the company formerly had two radio stations in its possession,
KTRB KTRB (860 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. The station has a talk radio format, airing programming from the Salem Radio Network, using the slogan "860 AM The Answer." KTRB is owned by Salem Media Group, through li ...
AM 860 and KMPH-AM 840—changed from KPMP in June 2006 to reflect its nearby sister/flagship television station, Fox affiliate
KMPH-TV KMPH-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Visalia, California, United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Sanger-licensed CW affiliate KFRE-TV ( ...
, both in
Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...
.


Bankruptcy

On May 10, 2008, thirteen of Pappas' stations filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Pappas cited "the extremely difficult business climate for television stations across the country" in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The company reported in court filings that it had more than $536 million in debt and $460 million in assets. Problems that led to the bankruptcy included poor performance of The CW network, its now-former involvement with
Azteca America Azteca is the Spanish word for Aztec. In English, Azteca or Aztecas may refer to: Animals * ''Azteca'' (ant), a genus of ants * Azteca horse, a breed of horse Games * Azteca, a world in the online game of '' Wizard101'' Sport * Aztecas de la U ...
, and preparations for the 2009 analog shutdown. Stations involved in the bankruptcy were
KMPH-TV KMPH-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Visalia, California, United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Sanger-licensed CW affiliate KFRE-TV ( ...
, KFRE-TV,
KPTM KPTM (channel 42) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to TBD outlet KXVO (channel 15) under a local marketing agreeme ...
,
KXVO KXVO (channel 15) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Mitts Telecasting Company LLC, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the S ...
,
WCWG WCWG (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Lexington, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Winston-Salem–licensed NBC affiliate WXII-T ...
,
KPTH KPTH (channel 44) is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with Fox and CBS. It is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Dabl affiliate KMEG (channel 14) under a shared services ...
,
KMEG KMEG (channel 14) is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Waitt Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, ...
,
KTNC-TV KTNC-TV (channel 42) is a religious television station licensed to Concord, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter, shared ...
, KAZH,
KDBC-TV KDBC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate KFOX-TV (channel 14). Both stations share studios on South Alto Mesa ...
,
KREN-TV KREN-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Reno, Nevada, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongside low-power, Class A UniMás affiliate KRNS-CD (channel 46 ...
, KAZR-CA and
KCWK KCWK (channel 9) is a defunct television station licensed to Walla Walla, Washington, United States. Owned by Pappas Telecasting, it was most recently affiliated with The CW, and had a low-power repeater (KCWK-LP, channel 27) in Yakima. The stati ...
. It was later ordered on September 10, 2008 that the affected stations must be sold off by February 15, 2009. Its other stations, and the corporation itself, were not part of the bankruptcy. On May 14 of the same year, company founder Harry J. Pappas filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the Delaware court, where a judge could order his personal assets sold to pay off creditors. 13 days later, on May 27, KCWK in Walla Walla, Washington (in the
Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The unin ...
television market) ceased operations as a result of the bankruptcy. On September 17, bankruptcy trustee E. Roger Williams put KREN and its repeaters under contract to Entravision Communications for $4 million, which would double as a minimum bid for the station as it goes up for auction in late October. New World TV Group (later renamed, Titan TV Broadcast Group; unrelated to
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
) agreed to acquire the remaining Pappas stations involved in the bankruptcy filing on December 17. The sale was approved by the
United States bankruptcy court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...
on January 16, 2009. The remaining stations that weren't involved in the initial bankruptcy filing were later placed in a liquidating trust in December 2011."Application for Consent to Assign Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License or to Transfer Control of Entity Holding Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License"
''CDBS Public Access'', Federal Communications Commission, 21 December 2011, Retrieved 9 June 2020. KMPH Radio ceased operations September 1, 2010 due to lack of revenue. Two weeks later, KTRB went into
receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
with
Comerica Bank Comerica Incorporated is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helpin ...
, under license from KTRB Trust. This marked the end of Pappas era.


Former Pappas-owned stations

Stations arranged alphabetically by state and by
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 br ...
. Notes: * 1 80% was owned by Pappas; 20% was owned by
TV Azteca TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two nationa ...
from 2001 until 2018. * 2 Owned by Waitt Broadcasting, Pappas operated KMEG under a local marketing agreement. * 3 Owned by Lincoln Broadcasting from 2006-2015, Pappas operated KFXL under a local marketing agreement. * 4 Owned by Hill Broadcasting, Pappas operated KTVG under a local marketing agreement. * 5 Owned by Colins Broadcasting, Pappas operated KSNB under a local marketing agreement. * 6 Owned by Mitts Telecasting Company, Pappas operated KXVO under a local marketing agreement.


Former Broadcast Network

* TuVisión


References

{{reflist


External links


Biography of Harry J. Pappas
Mass media companies established in 1971 Mass media companies disestablished in 2018 The CW Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008