Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of

Lincoln National Corporation Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

that owned radio stations in the United States. The division was formed in 2006 following the company's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media. The group, at the time of its closure, owned 14 radio stations in Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, Denver, Colorado, and Atlanta, Georgia. It also owned WBT, WBT-FM, and WLNK (FM) in Charlotte, North Carolina and WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte;

WCSC-TV WCSC-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located in the West Ashley section of Charleston, and its transmitter is locate ...

, the CBS affiliate in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

and WWBT, the NBC affiliate in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. All three of the aforementioned TV stations are now owned by successor company

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 ...

History

The media company began in 1945 as Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, Inc., which became Jefferson-Pilot Communications in 1968. The company was a media-centered division of the Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, which later merged with Pilot Life Insurance Company to form Jefferson-Pilot. Jefferson-Pilot owned WBT-AM- FM and WBTV, all of which are based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1962, the company conceived Jefferson Productions (later Jefferson Pilot Teleproductions, later Jefferson Pilot Sports), a production arm that produced television programs and commercials, but later chose to produce syndicated sports programming only by the 1980s. It was originally intended to produce promos and local television shows for WBTV but had since grown to produce nationally syndicated talk shows and variety shows; and mainly commercials for major companies that aired nationwide.BT Memories-Jefferson Productions
/ref> For further information, see the section "

Lincoln Financial Sports Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owned radio stations in the United States. The division was formed in 2006 following the company's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, whi ...

" at the end of this article. In April 2006, the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation merged with the

; taking the media and sports broadcasting division with it, Jefferson-Pilot Communications became Lincoln Financial Media. In June 2007, the company publicly announced it would explore a sale of this division, and hired

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

to assess its strategic options. On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced that it would acquire Lincoln Financial Media's three television stations, along with the Lincoln Financial Sports division (which was folded into

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...

, then into

) for $583 million. The acquisition was completed in April 2008. On December 8, 2014, Entercom (rebranded Audacy, Inc. as of March 30, 2021) announced its intent to acquire the remainder of Lincoln Financial Media for $110 million and working capital. To comply with ownership limits, Entercom was to divest one of its existing stations in Denver. Later, Entercom announced it would swap four of its stations in Denver to Bonneville International in exchange for KSWD in Los Angeles. The merger was completed on July 17 and Bonneville and Entercom began operating their new clusters under time-brokerage agreements that same day.

Former stations

This list also contains stations that were owned by Lincoln Financial Media's predecessor Jefferson-Pilot Communications, before its merger in 2006.

Television

Note: * (**) – ''Indicates that it was built and signed on by Lincoln Financial Media's predecessor Jefferson-Pilot''.

Radio

Lincoln Financial Sports

Lincoln Financial Sports, originally

Jefferson-Pilot Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

Teleproductions (later Jefferson Pilot Sports), produced and syndicated college sports events of the Southeastern Conference, and co-produced

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

sporting events with

. It also produced telecasts of pre-season games of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, and in the 1980s, syndicated coverage of the NASCAR Winston Cup races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial Group announced the sale of this division to Raycom Media. The group would later operate under the

banner as of January 1, 2008.

References

External links

Lincoln Financial Group site
{{NASCAR on television and radio Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct radio broadcasting companies of the United States Audacy, Inc. Gray Television NASCAR on television