Act III Broadcasting
Act III Broadcasting was a company that owned several television stations that started as independents, and later became
Fox affiliates. The stations were located in medium-sized markets, and the company existed from the mid
1980s to the mid
1990s, eventually to be sold to Abry in 1994. Legendary TV producer Norman Lear had owned a stake in Act III.
Act III Broadcasting began in
1982, when
WVAH-TV channel 23 in
Charleston,
West Virginia signed on. It ran a general entertainment format of cartoons, classic sitcoms, newer sitcoms, movies, sports, and drama shows. It was the first independent station in the market -- prior to that, Huntington-Charleston was the largest market without an independent station. WVAH's sign-on was possible because the West Virginia legislature forced the state educational broadcasting authority to withdraw its application for the channel, which had tied up its assignment for over a decade.
Act III then signed on channel 45 in
Dayton in the fall of
1984 as
WRGT-TV. Before WRGT came, a religious based independent station that had been on the air for a few years had some entertainment programs, the only real source of non-network programming in Dayton. These shows would be bought by Act III, making that station religious full time, and WRGT the only independent station in Dayton.
The next year,
WTAT-TV channel 24 in
Charleston,
South Carolina signed on with a similar format to WVAH and WRGT. This is where Act III began the practice of aqcuiring other independent stations in medium markets. In
1986, when
Fox launched, Act III signed an affiliation deal with the network.
The next year, Act III acquired Fox affiliate WNRW (now
WXLV-TV) in the
Piedmont Triad from the
TVX Broadcast Group, whom which Fox had signed an affiliation deal as well. However, there was a catch to this deal: if TVX sold one of its underperforming stations, Fox could disaffiliate from that station. This was not the case in the Piedmont Triad, because WNRW's rival station WGGT (now
WUPN-TV) was in bankruptcy, but it still ran a low budget schedule. That same year, Act III acquired
WVRN channel 63 in
Richmond from Sundbrink Broadcasting, which had also filed for bankruptcy. Both this station and Gillett-owned Fox affiliate
WRLH-TV struggled in the ratings.
In
1988, Act III bought Fox affiliate
WNYB channel 49 in
Buffalo, and later that year Act III decided that Richmond, Virginia was not large enough to support two independent stations. As a result they offered to buy WRLH's programming, and move it over to WVRN. However, Gillett was not interested in just selling WRLH's programming, but rather, it was interested in selling WRLH outright. Act III agreed to the deal, then moved WVRN's programming to WRLH, and turned in the channel 63 license back to the
Federal Communications Commission, who then proceeded to delete the license. Act III then went on a buying spree, acquiring
WZTV channel 17 in
Nashville, and
WUHF channel 31 in
Rochester.
It did not stop there, as in
1990, Act III decided to make deals which led them to owning the only general entertainment stations in their markets. In Nashville, WXMT channel 30 (now
WUXP-TV), then the Fox affiliate, had been sold by TVX to Michael Thompson in 1988. Act III then took the Fox affiliation from channel 30 and moved it to WZTV in February, in an attempt to buy all of WXMT's programming from MT Communications, making WXMT all-religious and home shopping. However, Michael Thompson backed out of the deal last minute, but then made a revised deal which allowed WXMT to keep barter cartoons and low budget syndicated shows, giving WZTV the better and more expensive shows. WXMT's daily schedule now looked like this: home shopping for 15 hours, religion 3 hours, cartoons 3 hours, and low budget shows 3 hours. While WXMT was not eliminated from the draw, it was left with a much weaker schedule. In June, Act III bought
WUTV channel 29 in Buffalo from Citadel Broadcasting and sold
WNYB to
Tri-State Christian Television. WNYB's programming and Fox affiliation then moved to WUTV, whereas WNYB became an all-religious station. A year before, WVAH was permitted to move to channel 11.
Act III's next task was to ensure they had a monopoly in the Piedmont Triad: in 1991 they acquired WGGT, and combined its programming with WNRW's. WGGT then began to simulcast WNRW, creating a strong combined signal with over 60% overlap known as the "Piedmont Superstation." And so, in every market except Nashville, the Act III-owned Fox affiliate was the only general entertainment station in town.
In the 1990's, a new concept developed: the
local marketing agreement, or LMA for short. Under an LMA, a strong station would buy the competition out, but its owner would only own one of the station licenses, while the other station was on a separate license. The LMA-ing station would then program the other station with shows that the stronger station has no time to air. Act III, however, was not interested in this concept.
This became a moot point in 1994, as Act III Broadcasting would be sold to Abry, which had LMA's in some of their markets. The
Sinclair Broadcast Group then bought Abry's stations in
1996, Sinclair of course had started the LMA concept back in 1991.
Here is what would happen in the former Act III markets over the years:
*Rochester: WUHF is still one of only four full power stations because of the lack of available licenses.
*Buffalo:
Grant Broadcasting System II acquired the channel 26 license in
Jamestown, New York in 1995. Grant then swapped channel 26 to TCT, who would move WNYB over there, and in return, Grant got channel 49, which became WNYO-TV, a
WB affiliate. WNYO was sold to Sinclair in 2001.
*Dayton: WRGT was not sold to Sinclair directly, as Sinclair had already owned
WKEF channel 22 (then an
NBC affiliate, now an
ABC affiliate) there, but rather to Sullivan Broadcasters, although Sinclair would manage WRGT and eventually buy it outright in 2001. As for the religious station, it is now
WBDT channel 26, a WB affiliate owned by
ACME Communications.
*Huntington/Charleston: WVAH was sold to Glencarin, Ltd. in 1995 after Sinclair acquired ABC affiliate
WCHS-TV channel 8. The Smith family, owners of Sinclair, though, owned most of Glencarin's (now Cunningham Broadcasting) stock, making Sinclair the de facto owner of WVAH.
*Piedmont Triad: In 1995, Fox bought what was then the ABC affiliate,
WGHP channel 8. ABC then went to channels 45/48. After Sinclair took control of the stations, since WGHP was going towards a news-intensive format, Sinclair decided to sell WGGT to Glencarin, which transformed it into WUPN-TV, a
UPN affiliate. WNRW also changed its calls to WXLV-TV. Sinclair bought WUPN outright in 2001, and later changed its callsign to WMYV, in anticipation of its
My Network TV affiliation.
*Nashville: Abry began LMA'ing WXMT in 1995, giving that station a UPN affiliation, and more entertainment shows as WZTV decided to focus on news and first-run syndicated shows. WXMT eventually changed calls to WUXP-TV. Sinclair bought WUXP outright in 2001.
*Charleston SC: Sinclair, after buying UPN affiliate
WMMP channel 36, sold WTAT to Glencarin.
*Richmond: While channel 63 never returned, a religious station on channel 65 signed on in 1990. That station eventually went to general entertainment, and became a WB affiliate in 1995, switching to UPN three years later. That station is currently
WUPV.
