OTA Broadcasting, LLC was a broadcasting company founded in 2011 by

Michael Dell Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies. He is ranked the 2 ...

. The company is based in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

History

OTA Broadcasting was founded in 2011 by

MSD Capital MSD Capital is an American private investment firm that manages the capital of Michael Dell and his family. The firm, which is based in New York and has offices in Santa Monica and West Palm Beach, was formed in 1998. In 2009, the principals of ...

. It had been rumored that Dell formed OTA Broadcasting to buy stations that could be sold in 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) spectrum auction. The company's first acquisition was announced in June 2011 when it was announced that it was acquiring

KTLN-TV KTLN-TV (channel 68) is a television station licensed to Palo Alto, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an owned-and-operated station of the classic television network Heroes & Icons. It is owned by Weigel Broadcast ...

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...

. The purchase closed that October. OTA reached an agreement to purchase

WTBL-CD WTBL-CD was a class A television station in Lenoir, North Carolina. It broadcast over-the-air on channel 49, and on cable channel 13 in the Lenoir area. It was an independent station with some programming from The Cowboy Channel. WTBL-CD was la ...

in Lenoir, NC, located in the

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

DMA, for $500,000. On October 4, 2013,

Journal Broadcast Group Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

announced that it had entered an agreement to sell

KMIR-TV KMIR-TV (channel 36) is a television station licensed to Palm Springs, California, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Coachella Valley. It is owned by Entravision Communications (as the company's only NBC affiliate), and is sist ...

and

KPSE-LD KPSE-LD (channel 50) is a low-power television station licensed to Palm Springs, California, United States, serving the Coachella Valley as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Entravision Communications (as the company's only MyNetworkTV ...

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

to OTA. The acquisition closed in January 2014. KMIR became OTA's first station affiliated with one of the " Big Three" networks. On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced that OTA's WEMW-CD was a successful bidder in the spectrum auction, and would be surrendering its license in exchange for $12,394,400. OTA surrendered WEMW-CD's license to the FCC for cancellation on July 21, 2017.

Post-spectrum auction

On July 21, 2017, OTA Broadcasting announced its sale of

and

Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community and owns television and radio stations and outdoor media, in several of ...

for $21 million. The sale completed November 1, 2017. On August 7, 2017, it was announced that

Nexstar Media 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 ...

would acquire the non-spectrum operating assets of

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 ...

from OTA.

Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...

, on October 25, 2017, announced it would acquire

KAXT-CD KAXT-CD (channel 1) is a low-power, Class A Decades owned-and-operated television station licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or per ...

KFFV KFFV (channel 44) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, airing programming from MeTV. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Weigel Broadcasting alongside Bellingham, Washington, Bellingham-lice ...

, and

KVOS-TV KVOS-TV, virtual channel 12 ( UHF digital channel 14), is a Heroes & Icons owned-and-operated television station licensed to Bellingham, Washington, United States. Owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, it is part of a duopoly with Seatt ...

for $23.2 million.

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

filed an application to purchase WYCN-CD on October 27, 2017. In November 2017,

HC2 Holdings INNOVATE Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on bei ...

announced they were purchasing low-power television stations from OTA, including WKHU-CD Kittanning, PA, WMVH-CD in Charleroi, PA, WWKH-CD in Uniontown, PA, WWLM-CD in

Washington, PA Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania. A part of the Greater Pittsburgh area in the southwestern part of the state, the city is home to Washington & Jefferson College and Pony League baseball. The popula ...

and WJMB-CD in

Butler, PA Butler is a city and the county seat of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north of Pittsburgh and is part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 13,502. History Butler was n ...

for $275,000. In a separate deals, HC2 is buying

KUGB-CD KUGB-CD, virtual and UHF digital channel 28, is a low-power, Class A Novelisima affiliated television station licensed to Houston, Texas, United States. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings. KUGB-CD's studios are located on South Main Stree ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

for $1.5 million and W21CK-D in

for $500,000. On December 5, 2017,

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

exercised an option to buy the WLWC license for $150,000; the deal was made possible by a change in FCC ownership rules that eliminated the requirement that there be at least eight owners of television stations in a market following the formation of a duopoly. Ion also entered into a shared services agreement, retroactive to October 1, to operate WLWC.

Former stations

References

{{reflist Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 2011 Mass media companies disestablished in 2019