Lilly Broadcasting, LLC is a privately owned American broadcasting company owned and operated by the Lilly Brothers’ Brian Lilly and Kevin Lilly. The company was founded in September 1999 with the purchase of WENY-TV (ABC) and WENY-FM & AM radio. In 2002, Kevin Lilly purchased WSEE-TV (CBS) in Erie, Pennsylvania and have since added the CBS and The CW affiliates in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and ABC in the Virgin Islands. Brian and Kevin Lilly are the sons of George Lilly, whose SJL Broadcast Management (also previously known as the Montecito Broadcast Group) was founded in 1984 and based in Montecito, California. SJL owns WICU-TV in Erie and the two Companies purchased three TV stations from Gateway Communications in 2000, and four stations from

Emmis Communications Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which hav ...

in 2005. Lilly Broadcasting most recently with Sankety Advisors purchased

KITV KITV (channel 4) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside multicultural independent station KIKU (channel 20). The two stations ...

(

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

) in Hawaii. Lilly sold the station to Byron Allen's Allen Media Broadcasting in 2021.

History

WJRT-TV was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989. In 1991, a SJL affiliated partnership,Report No. MM 95-60
/ref> Media Communications Partners Limited Partnership, purchased

WTVG WTVG (channel 13) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Dorr Street (Ohio State Route 246, SR 246) in Toledo, and its transmitter is loc ...

. In 1994, SJL announced the sale of

WJRT-TV WJRT-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northeastern Michigan. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Lapeer Road in Flint, with of ...

and

due to the possibility of

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...

changing its affiliation to CBS as part of a large swath of television network affiliation changes occurring at the time; the deal was approved by the FCC in 1995 even though WXYZ-TV was able to renew its affiliation with ABC, which caused

three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

of its

sister stations In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

to affiliate with the network.Lilly Broadcasting: Michigan Television
Michigan Radio and TV Ownership Guide. Michiguide.com. Retrieved on July 17, 2013. In 2000, it purchased the Gateway Communications stations for $96 million. In 2002, SJL sold off

WOWK-TV WOWK-TV (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Huntington, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston–Huntington market as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Quarrier Stree ...

to West Virginia Media Holdings for $40.5 million. In April 2006, SJL sold off

WBNG-TV WBNG-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Binghamton, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS and CW+. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios on Columbia Drive in Johnson City and a transmitter on Ingraham Hil ...

Granite Broadcasting Granite Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988,

for $45 million, this was followed on July 26, 2006 by selling

WTAJ-TV WTAJ-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Johnstown–Altoona– State College market as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on 6th Ave ...

and the licensee assets of WLYH-TV to

Nexstar Broadcasting Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

for $56 million, completely undoing the Gateway/SJL deal. On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its remaining stations except WICU (

KHON-TV KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of Fox and The CW. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). Both stati ...

KOIN Koin or KOIN may refer to: * KOIN, a TV station in Portland, Oregon * Koin, Guinea Koin, Guinea (Pular: 𞤂𞤫𞤧-𞤯𞤢𞤤𞤭𞥅𞤪𞤫 𞤑𞤮𞤴𞤭𞤲) is a town and sub-prefecture in the Tougué Prefecture in the Labé Regi ...

KSNW KSNW (channel 3) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC and Telemundo. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on North Main Street in northwest Wichita (near downtown); its tran ...

and

KSNT KSNT (channel 27) is a television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power, Class A Fox affiliate KTMJ-CD (channel 43); Nexstar also provides certain services to dua ...

) to

New Vision Television New Vision Television was a broadcast company based in Santa Monica, California. Throughout its two decade plus history, the company owned or managed over 60 television stations in large and medium-sized markets. History New Vision I Formed by ...

, ending the partnership between SJL and The Blackstone Group. The

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 ...

(FCC) granted approval of this sale in late-October of that year, and ownership was officially transferred on November 1. On March 1, 2009, the last station formally owned by SJL, WICU, transferred its copyrights to Lilly Broadcasting when it merged its news operations with crosstown sister station

WSEE-TV WSEE-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. It is the flagship television property of locally based Lilly Broadcasting, and is a sister station to NBC affiliate WICU-TV ...

. Though SJL still technically exists (and still ostensibly owns WICU), its visible operations have now been subsumed by Lilly Broadcasting. On November 3, 2010, ''

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') is a weekly telecommunications industry trade magazine published by Future US. Previous names included ''Broadcasting-Telecasting'', ''Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising'', and ''Broadcast ...

'' magazine announced that SJL Broadcasting made an agreement with

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

to buy back

and

, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio. The sale was completed on April 1, 2011 with both stations general manager exiting their positions at change of ownership.Exclusive: New GMs For Former ABC O&Os in Flint, Toledo
''Broadcasting & Cable''. March 31, 2011. Lilly announced on July 24, 2014, that it would sell both WJRT and WTVG to

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 ...

in a $128 million transaction."Gray Buys Stations in Flint, Toledo for $128M,"
from TVNewsCheck, 7/24/2014 In 2016, Gray announced that it would operate its bureau in Washington, DC, in cooperation with Lilly. On May 13, 2015,

Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications. From 1998 to mid-2009, the company traded its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ...

announced that it would sell

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

and its satellites (KHVO in

Hilo Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Hawaii (island), Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 United ...

and KMAU in

Wailuku Wailuku is a census-designated place (CDP) in and county seat of Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 17,697 at the 2020 census. Wailuku is located just west of Kahului, at the mouth of the Iao Valley. In the early 20th centur ...

) to SJL; the deal marks the return of the company to Hawaii, following its prior ownership of KHON-TV. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on July 10, 2015 and completed on September 1, 2015. Lilly Broadcasting re-entered radio in 2019 by purchasing the three-station cluster in

Warren, Pennsylvania Warren is a city in Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Allegheny River. The population was 9,404 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. It is home to the headquarters of the Allegheny National Forest ...

that had previously been owned by Frank Iorio's Radio Partners; Iorio sold off his only other broadcast asset,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

WJAS WJAS (1320 AM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station has a talk radio format, and uses the slogan "The Talk of Pittsburgh". It is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint Barnabas Health System, ...

, to another buyer in 2020. Lilly had previously owned and operated radio stations in Elmira before selling those off a few years after acquiring that cluster.

Stations currently owned or operated by Lilly or SJL

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 ...

Television

*¹ First Warning Weather, a mostly locally originated loop of local weather forecasts. The WSEE First Warning Weather feed also brands as "Erie News Now Plus" in addition to the First Warning Weather brand. *² WNY News Now's

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

app carries a channel number of

716 __NOTOC__ Year 716 ( DCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 716 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

but does not broadcast over-the-air with an FCC license.

Radio

Stations formerly owned by SJL

* (‡‡) – ''Indicates a station that was owned by Gateway Communications prior to its sale to SJL Broadcasting in 2000.'' *¹ WLYH was owned by SJL, but operated by

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 ...

under a time shared agreement.

References

{{reflist

External links

Lilly Broadcasting
Corporate Website Television broadcasting companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Santa Barbara County, California Entertainment companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in California