Smith Media, LLC, successor to Smith Television aka Sunrise Television, was a broadcasting group co-based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and St. Petersburg, Florida, that formerly owned and operated several television stations across the United States. In 1986, it bought the three smaller television stations from publishing company

Times Mirror Company The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000. History It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

. In 2002, Sunrise sold six of the stations to LIN Television. Smith Television became Smith Media, LLC in 2004 at the death of Bob Smith, head of the family run organization. The family decided to re-capitalize their stations and sold the stations to Boston Ventures, which created Smith Media. The similarities in names have created much confusion. During the early 2010s, Smith Media sold off its stations; on October 1, 2013, Smith Media reached a deal to sell its last remaining station,

WKTV WKTV (channel 2) is a television station in Utica, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Heartland Media, the station has studios on Smith Hill Road in Deerfield (with a Utica postal address), and ...

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the fo ...

, to Heartland Media, a company owned by former

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

executive Bob Prather, pending

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

approval. The sale was completed on March 20, 2014. Consummation Notice
''CDBS Public Notice'',

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

, Retrieved 21 March, 2014.

Formerly-owned Stations

Stations are 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 broa ...

. * With the exception of KATN, KEYT, KJUD, KYUR, WFFF, & WKTV, the second incarnation of Smith Media never owned these stations. Smith Media, LLC was successor to Smith Television, Inc. who owned the following: Notes: *¹ Acquired along with KSBW but divested almost immediately due to Smith's ownership of KEYT. *² Operated on channel 8 under Smith's ownership. *³ From 2000-2004, The

Ackerley Group The Ackerley Group was an American media company owned by Barry Ackerley that owned several television stations (mainly in New York, California, as well as one in Fairbanks) that was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2001. In addition to ow ...

, and later

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 ...

would operate this station through a

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 ...

(LMA). *⁴ Operated on channel 25 until 2001. *⁵ From 2001 to 2002,

United Communications United Communications Corporation (UCC) was a privately owned operator of three television stations in the U.S. states of Minnesota and New York. The company was the publisher of the ''Kenosha News'' of Kenosha, Wisconsin and two other daily new ...

operated the station under a LMA. *⁶ From 1998 to 1999, Smith operated WFFF through an LMA, until Smith bought it outright in 1999. *⁷ Owned by Lambert Broadcasting, Smith operated WVNY through an LMA.

References

{{reflist

External links

Smith Media via Boston Ventures site

Smith Media
Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies disestablished in 2014 Companies disestablished in 2014 Companies based in St. Petersburg, Florida Companies based in Los Angeles