Hubbard Broadcasting

American television and radio broadcaster

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Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.

The Hubbard Broadcasting headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the KSTP SkyMax 5 tower in the background.

Company type| Private
Industry| Television and radio broadcasting
Founded| February 13, 1925; 100 years ago (1925-02-13) in Twin Cities, Minneapolis, U.S.
Founder| Stanley E. Hubbard
Headquarters|

Saint Paul, Minnesota

United States

Area served

| United States

Key people

| Stanley S. Hubbard
Brands| KSTP radio, KSTP-FM, KTMY, KSTP-TV, and KSTC-TV
Website| hubbardbroadcasting.com

Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard.

The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Florida, and Washington, D.C. KSTP radio, KSTP-FM, KTMY, KSTP-TV, and KSTC-TV, which serve the Twin Cities region of Minnesota and western Wisconsin, are regarded as the company's legacy flagship stations.

## History

[edit]

KSTP has its origins in the Twin Cities radio station WAMD ("Where All Minneapolis Dances"), which started broadcasting live dance music from a local ballroom on February 13, 1925 with Stanley E. Hubbard as owner and station director. It was the first radio station to be completely supported by income generated by advertisements.

In 1928, WAMD merged with KFOY (Kind Friends of Yours) radio (first broadcast: March 12, 1924) in St. Paul to become KSTP, which was advertised as being operated by the National Battery Broadcasting Co. Hubbard became the merged station's general manager, and bought controlling interest in 1941. In 1938 Hubbard bought the first television camera available from RCA. Following the television blackout brought on by World War II, KSTP began television broadcasts in 1948.

KSTP is still Hubbard's flagship, although there are now three different stations that carry that name. KSTP (AM) broadcasts a sports radio format, and KSTP-FM broadcasts adult contemporary music; KSTP-TV is affiliated with ABC.

After the Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules about television station ownership, Hubbard bought a second television station in the Twin Cities. Originally affiliated with the Home Shopping Network when it started operations in 1994, KVBM was bought by Hubbard and became general-entertainment independent station KSTC-TV in 2000. It has been used as an alternate outlet for ABC network programming when KSTP-TV is broadcasting coverage of Minnesota Vikings football games or other special shows, including severe-weather coverage.

Aside from terrestrial broadcast stations, other current ventures include the film network ReelzChannel (launched in 2006), the arts network Ovation, and the Hubbard Radio Network, which is used to distribute KSTP's local talk shows to subscribing radio stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The cable channels are run through subsidiary company Hubbard Media Group.

In 1981, Hubbard Broadcasting started U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB), and later was instrumental in the development and launching of the first digital satellite system for television in 1994. The new satellite could deliver 175 channels to a (at the time) tiny, 18 inch dish. USSB's development partner, Hughes Electronics (a General Motors subsidiary), launched its own subscription satellite service called DirecTV. The two services did not compete against each other (they carried different channels), and were often marketed together to subscribers by retailers and in advertisements, until DirecTV's 1998 acquisition of USSB.

Hubbard was also instrumental in the development of mobile satellite news vehicles. In 1983, Hubbard-owned CONUS Communications and Florida-based subsidiary Hubcom built the first Satellite News Gathering (SNG) mobile vehicle, which allowed for much easier live news coverage for network and local television news operations. This ultimately resulted in CONUS—later a joint-venture with Viacom—becoming a nationwide, satellite-based newsgathering cooperative (with Hubbard charging stations to relay their footage). As an outgrowth of this, Hubbard Broadcasting also operated a 24-hour news station, the All News Channel, which relied on CONUS-sourced news footage and primarily acted as a "sustaining feed" for television stations to fill air time with; ANC was also responsible for producing news programming for third-parties. The news channel lasted from 1989 until it folded in September 2002, which the channels trademark was spun off to became a website which relaunched.

Hubbard Broadcasting also owned the now-closed Bound to be Read bookstores in St. Paul, Albuquerque, and Key Largo.

As of October 2007, it is engaged in a fevered battle with NABET union repping employees of WNYT in Albany, New York.

In June 2009, the "Society of Professional Journalists" honored Hubbard Broadcasting and KSTP-TV with its national Historical Site in Journalism award.[1]

On January 19, 2011, Hubbard announced the purchase of 17 radio stations in Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidiary Bonneville International for $505 million.[2] The sale closed on April 29, 2011.[3]

On February 25, 2013, Hubbard announced that it would purchase MyNetworkTV station WNYA to form a duopoly with WNYT, pending FCC approval. No financial details were announced.[4]

On July 16, 2013, Hubbard announced that it had agreed to purchase 10 stations from Ohio-based Sandusky Radio for $85.5 million.

Hubbard announced on November 13, 2014 that it would purchase the sixteen stations owned by Omni Broadcasting. The Omni stations are all located in central and northern Minnesota.[5]

On September 26, 2018, Hubbard announced that it agreed to purchase six stations owned by Alpha Media in West Palm Beach Florida, for $88 million. The stations include Urban AC 102.3 WMBX, Country 103.1 WIRK, Adult Contemporary 107.9 WEAT, Hot Adult Contemporary 97.9 WRMF, News/Talk 850 WFTL and Sports/Talk 640 WMEN.

Hubbard Broadcasting took over production of Country Top 40 in January 2020 after the death of the program's founder Bob Kingsley. Fitz, a mononymous host with several syndicated country radio programs to his credit, took over as the program's host.[6]

## Hubbard-owned stations

[edit]

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

All of the assets are owned by the Stanley S. Hubbard Revocable Trust, and administered by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.[7]

(**) indicates a station that was built and signed-on by Hubbard.

### Television stations

[edit]

City of license / Market | Station  |

* Channel
* TV (RF)

* Owned
* since

| Affiliation

|
|
|
|

Austin–Rochester, MN–Mason City, IA | KAAL | 6 (36) | 2001 | ABC
Duluth, MN–Superior, WI | WDIO-DT | 10 (10) | 1987 | ABC
Hibbing, MN | WIRT-DT  | 13 (13) | 1987 | ABC[a]
St. Paul–Minneapolis, MN | KSTP-TV**  | 5 (35) | 1948 | ABC
KSTC-TV | 5.2 (30) | 2000 | Independent
Alexandria, MN | KSAX**  | 42 (42) | 1987 | ABC[b]
Redwood Falls, MN | KRWF**  | 43 (27) | 1987 | ABC[c]
Albuquerque–Santa Fe, NM | KOB | 4 (26) | 1957 | NBC
Farmington, NM | KOBF | 12 (12) | 1983 | NBC[d]
Las Cruces, NM–El Paso, TX | K22NM-D | 4 (22) | [e] | NBC
Roswell, NM | KOBR | 8 (8) | 1985 | NBC[d]
Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY–Pittsfield, MA | WNYT | 13 (12) | 1996[f] | NBC
WNYA | 51 (7) | 2013 | MyNetworkTV
Rochester, NY | WHEC-TV | 10 (10) | 1996[f] | NBC

### Radio stations

[edit]

AM Station  | FM Station

|

City of license / Market  | Station  | Owned since  | Current format

|
|
|

Phoenix, AZ | KDUS 1060  | 2013[g] | Sports radio
KAZG 1440  | 2013[g] | Oldies
KDKB 93.3  | 2013[g] | Alternative rock
KUPD 97.9  | 2013[g] | Active rock
KSLX-FM 100.7  | 2013[g] | Classic rock
Washington, D.C. | WBQH 1050  | 2011[h] | Regional Mexican
WFED 1500  | 2011[h] | U.S. federal government news
WSHE 820  | 2011[h] | Freeform
WTOP-FM 103.5  | 2011[h] | All-news
WTLP 103.9  | 2011[h] | All-news[i]
WWWT-FM 107.7  | 2011[h] | All-news[i]
West Palm Beach, FL | WMEN 640  | 2018[j] | Sports radio
WFTL 850  | 2018[j] | Talk radio
WRMF 97.9  | 2018[j] | Adult Top 40
WMBX 102.3  | 2018[j] | Urban adult contemporary
WIRK 103.1  | 2018[j] | Country
WEAT 107.9  | 2018[j] | Classic hits
Chicago, IL | WDRV 97.1  | 2011[h] | Classic rock
WWDV 96.9  | 2011[h] | Classic rock[k]
WTBC-FM 100.3  | 2011[h] | Adult contemporary (1990s-2000s hits)
WTMX 101.9  | 2011[h] | Hot adult contemporary
Alexandria, MN | KULO 94.3  | 2015[l] | Classic hits
KIKV-FM 100.7  | 2015[l] | Country
Bemidji, MN | KBUN 1450  | 2015[l] | Sports radio
KKZY 95.5  | 2015[l] | Adult contemporary
KLLZ-FM 99.1  | 2015[l] | Classic rock
KBHP 101.1  | 2015[l] | Country
KBUN-FM 104.5  | 2015[l] | Sports radio
Brainerd–Baxter, MN | KVBR 1340  | 2015[l] | Business news/talk
KLIZ 1380  | 2015[l] | Sports radio
KBLB 93.3  | 2015[l] | Country
KUAL-FM 103.5  | 2015[l] | Oldies/classic hits
WJJY-FM 106.7  | 2015[l] | Adult contemporary
KLIZ-FM 107.5  | 2015[l] | Classic rock
St. Paul–Minneapolis, MN | KSTP 1500**  | 1928 | Sports radio
KSTP-FM 94.5**  | 1966 | Hot adult contemporary
KTMY 107.1  | 2000 | Female-oriented talk
Wadena–Staples, MN | KWAD 920  | 2015[l] | Classic country
KNSP 1430  | 2015[l] | Sports radio
KKWS 105.9  | 2015[l] | Country
St. Louis, MO | KPNT 105.7  | 2018[m] | Alternative rock
KSHE 94.7  | 2018[m] | Mainstream rock
WARH 106.5  | 2011[h] | Adult hits
WIL-FM 92.3  | 2011[h] | Country
WXOS 101.1  | 2011[h] | Sports radio
Cincinnati, OH | WKRQ 101.9  | 2011[h] | Adult Top 40
WREW 94.9  | 2011[h] | Rhythmic AC
WUBE-FM 105.1  | 2011[h] | Country
WYGY 97.3  | 2011[h] | Country Top 40
Seattle, WA | KIXI 880  | 2013[g] | Adult standards
KKNW 1150  | 2013[g] | Brokered programming
KQMV 92.5  | 2013[g] | Contemporary hit radio
KPNW-FM 98.9  | 2013[g] | Country
KRWM 106.9  | 2013[g] | Adult contemporary

### Cable channels (through Hubbard Media Group division)

[edit]

* Ovation (purchased August 2006)
* Reelz (launched September 2006)

## Former Hubbard-owned stations

[edit]

### Former television stations

[edit]

City of license / Market  | Station  |

* Channel
* TV (RF)

* Years
* owned

| Current status

|
|
|
|

St. Petersburg–Tampa, FL | WTOG**  | 44 (44) | 1968–1996 | Independent station owned by CBS News and Stations
Silver City, NM | KOBG-TV**  | 6 (12) | 2000–2011 | Defunct, went dark in 2011[d][n]

Hubbard also owned a partial stake in KWK-TV (later KMOX-TV, now KMOV), channel 4, in St. Louis during the mid-1950s.

### Radio stations

[edit]

AM Station  | FM Station

|

City of license / Market  | Station  | Years owned  | Current status

|
|
|

Albuquerque, NM | KOB 770  | 1957–1986 | KKOB (AM), owned by Cumulus Media
KOB-FM 93.3  | 1957–1986 | KOBQ, owned by Cumulus Media
Winter Haven, FL | WGTO 540  | 1964–1986 | WFLF, owned by iHeartMedia
New Richmond, WI | WIXK 1590  | 2000–2012 | owned by Hmong Radio Broadcast, LLC

### Cable channels

[edit]

* All News Channel (1989–2002, defunct)
* Prime Sports Upper Midwest (1989–95; joint venture with Liberty Media)

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Satellite of WDIO-DT.
2. ^ Satellite of KSTP-TV.
3. ^ Semi-satellite of KSTP-TV.
4. ^ a b c Satellite of KOB.
5. ^ Operated by News-Press & Gazette station KVIA-TV via a local marketing agreement.
6. ^ a b Acquired by Hubbard from Viacom in 1996.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Acquired by Hubbard from Sandusky Radio.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Acquired by Hubbard from Bonneville International.
9. ^ a b WTOP simulcast.
10. ^ a b c d e f Acquired by Hubbard from Alpha Media.
11. ^ WDRV simulcast.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Acquired by Hubbard from Omni Broadcasting.
13. ^ a b Acquired by Hubbard from Emmis Communications.
14. ^ Replaced by KOB translator K12QW-D.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "SPJ named Minnesota's Hubbard Broadcasting a National Historic Site in Journalism". SPJ. 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
2. ^ "$505M sale: Bonneville sells Chicago, D.C., St. Louis and Cincinnati to Hubbard". Radio-Info.com. January 19, 2011. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
3. ^ "Hubbard deal to purchase Bonneville stations closes". Radio Ink Magazine. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
4. ^ "WNYT Albany to Purchase MyNet WNYA". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
5. ^ "Hubbard Picks up 16 Stations From Omni". November 13, 2014. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014.`{{cite news}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Accessed July 2, 2017 (archived link)
6. ^ "fitz-named-new-host-for-bob-kingsleys-country-top-40". MusicRow.com. December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
7. ^ Ownership Report for Hubbard Broadcasting \- at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

## Further reading

[edit]

* Fulton Klinkerfues. Stanley E. Hubbard pioneered local broadcasting. Good Age Newspaper.
* Jeff Miller (editor). A Chronology of AM Broadcasting (1900-1960).
* USA Today, June 11, 2006. [1]
* Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2006. [2]

## External links

[edit]

* Hubbard Broadcasting website

* v
* t
* e

Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.

Key people|

* Stanley S. Hubbard

Radio|

* KAZG
* KBHP
* KBLB
* KBUN
* KBUN-FM
* KDKB
* KDUS
* KIKV-FM
* KIXI
* KKNW
* KKWS
* KKZY
* KLIZ
* KLIZ-FM
* KLLZ-FM
* KNSP
* KPNT
* KPNW-FM
* KQMV
* KRWM
* KSHE
* KSLX-FM
* KSTP
* KSTP-FM
* KTMY
* KUAL-FM
* KULO
* KUPD
* KVBR
* KWAD
* WARH
* WBQH
* WDRV
* WEAT
* WFED
* WFTL
* WIL-FM
* WIRK
* WJJY-FM
* WKRQ
* WMBX
* WMEN
* WREW
* WRMF
* WSHE
* WTBC-FM
* WTMX
* WTOP-FM
* WTLP
* WWWT-FM
* WUBE-FM
* WWDV
* WXOS
* WYGY

Television|

ABC
KAAL
KSTP-TV

KSAX-TV
KRWF-TV
WDIO-DT

WIRT-DT

Independent
KSTC-TV
MyNetworkTV
WNYA
NBC
KOB

KOBF
KOBR
K22NM-D
WHEC-TV
WNYT

Cable|

* Ovation
* Reelz

Acquisitions|

* Omni Broadcasting

Defunct|

* CONUS Communications
* All News Channel

44°58′5″N 93°12′25″W﻿ / ﻿44.96806°N 93.20694°W﻿ / 44.96806; -93.20694
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