Taft Broadcasting
The
Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as
Taft Television and Radio Company, Incoporated, was a media conglomerate based in
Cincinnati, Ohio. It has its roots in the family of
William Howard Taft, the 27th
President of the United States, whose nephew, Hulbert Taft, published the
Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper and later founded
WKRC radio.
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1949 - Taft Broadcasting signs
WKRC-TV in
Cincinnati on the air.
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1950 - Taft purchases
WTVN-AM-
TV in
Columbus, Ohio, from Picture-Waves, Inc.
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1957 - Taft purchases
WBRC-TV in
Birmingham, Alabama from
Storer Broadcasting.
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1963 - Taft purchases Transcontinent Broadcasting, which included
WDAF-AM-
FM-
TV in
Kansas City, Missouri, -
TV in
Buffalo, New York, and
WNEP-TV in
Scranton, Pennsylvania, and several other radio stations.
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1967 - Taft purchases the
Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio from its founders,
Joseph Barbera and
William Hanna.
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1969 - Taft purchases WIBF-TV in
Philadelphia and changes its calls to
WTAF-TV. The FCC initially grants Taft a waiver to keep both WTAF and WNEP, but later reverses itself and forces Taft to sell WNEP-TV as a result due to FCC regulations at the time prohibiting one company from owning two television stations with overlapping coverage areas.
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1972 - Taft opens its first theme park,
Kings Island, outside of Cincinnati. Taft would own five other theme parks through is
KECO Entertainment division.
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1978 - Taft launches
WNNE-TV in
White River Junction, Vermont.
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1979 - Taft purchases
WDCA-TV in
Washington, D.C. from the Superior Tube Company. Around this same period, Taft also acquires independent distributor
Worldvision Enterprises and
QM Productions.
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1983 - Taft exchanges WGR-TV to General Cinema Corporation's Coral Television subsidiary in return for
WCIX in
Miami.
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1984 - Taft purchases Gulf Broadcasting, which included
KTXA in
Dallas-Fort Worth,
KTXH in
Houston,
WTSP in
St. Petersburg, Florida, KTSP-TV (now
KSAZ-TV) in
Phoenix and
WGHP in
High Point, North Carolina.
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1987 - Taft sells its
independent stations (WDCA-TV, KTXA, and KTXH) and
Fox affiliates (WCIX and WTAF-TV) to the
TVX Broadcast Group. Taft also sells WGR radio to Rich Communications.
Later in 1987, Taft Broadcasting becomes
Great American Broadcasting following a major restructuring of its operations.
Carl Lindner, Jr., a Cincinnati-based investor, becomes Taft's majority stockholder and renames the company after his
Great American Insurance Company. Great American spins-off WTVN-TV to Anchor Media, a new firm comprised of former Taft Broadcasting board members. Worldvision Enterprises is sold to
Spelling Entertainment. A new company, led by former Taft Broadcasting president Dudley S. Taft Jr., retains WGHP and WNNE (until WNNE is sold to Heritage Media, then owner of
WPTZ in
Plattsburgh, New York in 1990), and later purchases another Philadelphia station,
WPHL-TV.
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1990 - Hanna-Barbera, along with much of the original Ruby-Spears library, is acquired by
Turner Broadcasting, which becomes part of
Time Warner in 1996 and is now
Cartoon Network Studios.
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1992 - KECO Entertainment, Great American's theme park division, is sold to Paramount and became
Paramount Parks, later to be acquired by Viacom. Great American also reacquires WGHP from Dudley Taft.
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1993 - Great American files for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy and renames itself
Citicasters. Great American also sells WKRC radio to
Jacor Communications.
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1994 through
1996 - Citicasters begins breaking up its television stations unit, selling WKRC-TV and WTSP to Jacor Communications, WDAF-TV and KSAZ-TV to
New World Communications, and WBRC and WGHP to the
News Corporation's
Fox Television Stations Group, which would later acquire the New World chain.
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1996 - Citicasters, by then the owner of WKRC-TV and WTSP and several radio stations, including
WKRQ (the former WKRC-FM) in Cincinnati and WDAF in Kansas City, merges with Jacor (now part of
Clear Channel Communications). Three months after the merger is completed, Jacor exchanges WTSP to Gannett in return for Gannett's radio stations in
Los Angeles,
San Diego and Tampa. A few months later, as a condition of the Citicasters-Jacor merger, Jacor sells WKRQ to American Radio Systems (ARS), which would become acquired by Infinity Broadcasting (now
CBS Radio) in
1998. Then in
1997, Jacor sells WDAF radio to Entercom.
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1997 - The Worldvision properties that had previously been under Taft and Great American (with the exception of the Hanna-Barbera and most of the Ruby-Spears material) are incorporated into
Republic Pictures (today part of
Paramount Pictures).
Today, although effectively defunct as a separate corporation, Citicasters continues to exist as a holding company within the complex corporate structure of Clear Channel.
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Does not include ownership by the second Taft Broadcasting, a company formed in the wake of the Great American takeover of the original Taft Broadcasting.*
Taft and Great American: Overview
