Capital Cities Communications (sometimes referred to as "CapCities") was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985. Its successor is the The Walt Disney Company, which purchased CapCities in 1996.

History

In 1957, WROW-TV moved from channel 41 to channel 10 and became WCDA. That same year, Hudson Valley Broadcasting merged with Durham Broadcasting Enterprises, the owners of WTVD television in Durham, North Carolina. The new company took the name Capital Cities Television Corporation, as both WCDA (now WTEN) and WTVD served the capital regions of their respective states. Capital Cities then began purchasing stations, starting with WPRO-AM-FM-TV in Providence, Rhode Island (another capital city) in 1959. In 1960, the company's name was changed to Capital Cities Broadcasting.

Expansion

As a result of the Goodwill Stations purchase, and to adhere to Federal Communications Commission rules limiting ownership of VHF television stations to five per company, Capital Cities spun off WJRT-TV to Poole Broadcasting, a company owned by former CapCities shareholder John B. Poole. Poole Broadcasting would later purchase two other television stations from CapCities: the second was WPRO-TV (now WPRI-TV) in 1967, coinciding with CapCities' purchase of KTRK-TV in Houston from the ''Houston Chronicle'' in June of that year.

In 1968, Capital Cities entered the publishing business by acquiring Fairchild Publications, publisher of several magazines including ''Womens Wear Daily''. It also bought it first newspaper The Oakland Press (formerly the Pontiac Press) in Pontiac Michigan. It expanded the newspaper to a 7 day operation with a circulation of over 80,000 but also had labor problems by breaking the Unions by claiming the Newspaper Carriers were employees and later found out this was improper action. Macomb Daily of Mt. Clemens and The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak owned by Register Journal now own the Oakland Press.As a former District Supervisor Jon David Wanner during the early 1980s in the Waterford and Pontiac community. The Oakland Press was a crown jewel of Capital Cities Communications and now one of the top newspaper in its current chain. Oakland County is one of the richest communities in the United States. It was the first newspaper that Capital Cities bought.

In 1970, WSAZ radio in Huntington was divested to Stoner Broadcasting (it is now WRVC). The following year, the company made another big purchase, acquiring WFIL-AM-FM-TV in Philadelphia, WNHC-AM-FM-TV in New Haven, Connecticut, and KFRE-AM-FM-TV in Fresno, California from Triangle Publications. Capital Cities would immediately sell the radio stations to new owners, and changed the television stations' calls to WPVI-TV, WTNH-TV, and KFSN-TV respectively. The company also adopted the ''Action News'' format, previously started by Triangle, and still seen today at WPVI and KFSN. The acquisition of WPVI and WTNH gave them seven VHF stations, two stations over the FCC limit, and WTEN and WSAZ-TV were respectively spun off by CapCities to Poole Broadcasting and Lee Enterprises not long after the Triangle purchase was finalized (by market size, these stations were the two smallest in the company portfolio prior to the Triangle purchase). To reflect the diversity of their holdings, the company changed its name to Capital Cities Communications in 1973. In 1974, Capital Cities bought WBAP and KSCS-FM in Fort Worth, Texas, along with its purchase of the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''.

The firm increased its newspaper and publishing holdings during the middle-1970s. In 1974, Capital Cities acquired the Oregon-based Jackson Newspapers chain, which included the ''Albany Democrat-Herald'', the ''Ashland Daily Tidings'', and several other local newspapers and magazines. The ''Kansas City'' (Missouri) ''Star'' was acquired in 1977, and the following year CapCities bought ''The Times Leader'' of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Returning to broadcasting, WBIE-FM (now WKHX-FM) in Marietta, Georgia, was bought in 1981. WROW radio in Albany, the company's first station, and its FM counterpart (which is now WYJB) were sold in 1983, and in 1984 the company made its last pre-ABC-merger purchases with independent television station WFTS in Tampa, Florida and KLAC radio in Los Angeles (concurrent with the sale of KZLA).

Purchase of ABC

The newly merged company, known as Capital Cities/ABC (or CapCities/ABC), was forced to sell off some stations due to FCC ownership rules. Between them, ABC and CapCities owned more television stations than FCC rules allowed at the time. Also, the two companies owned several radio stations in the same markets.

Of the former Capital Cities television stations, the new company opted to keep the outlets in Houston, Durham, and Fresno. WFTS and ABC's WXYZ-TV in Detroit were divested as a pair to the E.W. Scripps Company. WTNH and WKBW-TV were sold separately to minority-owned companies.

The new company originally planned to retain WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, but FCC rules could have forced a sale of that station because its signal overlapped with that of ABC's New York City flagship station. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow companies to own two television stations with common coverage areas (known commonly as the "one-to-a-market" rule). Citing CBS' ownership of television stations in New York City (WCBS-TV) and Philadelphia (at the time WCAU-TV) under grandfathered status, Capital Cities/ABC requested, and received a permanent waiver from the FCC allowing them to keep WPVI. If the request were disallowed, WXYZ-TV would have been retained instead.

WPVI and KTRK had long been ABC affiliates (in fact, two of ABC's strongest affiliates), while WTVD and KFSN, longtime CBS affiliates, respectively switched to ABC in August and September 1985.

On the radio side, new owners were found for CapCities' WPAT stations (Roy H. Park Communications was the buyer), WKBW (Price Communications, the new owner, changed its call letters to WWKB) and KLAC and KZLA-FM, and ABC's WRIF-FM in Detroit, among others.

The purchase was completed on January 3, 1986. The new company retained ABC's radio and television combinations in New York City (WABC-AM-TV and WPLJ), Los Angeles (KABC-AM-TV and KLOS), Chicago (WLS-AM-FM-TV), and San Francisco (KGO-AM-TV), along with WMAL and WRQX-FM in Washington, D.C.; CapCities' aforementioned television outlets and the Detroit, Providence, Marietta, and Fort Worth radio stations, Fairchild Publications, the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' and the ''Kansas City Star''; and other broadcasting and publishing properties.

The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC in February 1996, and changed the corporate name back to ABC.

Former Capital Cities-owned stations

Notes: ''1. Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed-on by a predecessor company of Capital Cities; ''2. This list does not include WTVG in Toledo, Ohio. That station was purchased by Capital Cities/ABC in 1995, and was completed just before Disney's acquisition of the combined group was finalized. In addition, WJRT-TV was reacquired in the same deal. However, in November 2010, Disney/ABC reached an agreement to sell the two stations back to previous owner SJL Broadcasting, which was completed on April 1, 2011.''

Television stations

Radio stations

{| | style="border: 1px solid #a3b0bf; padding: 1em; margin: auto" bgcolor="#cedff2" | AM Stations | style="border: 1px solid #afa3bf; padding: 1em; margin: auto" bgcolor="#ddcef2" | FM Stations |}

:''NOTE: All stations currently under ownership of Cumulus Media were previously owned by Citadel Broadcasting before Cumulus acquired the company on September 16, 2011. Most of these same stations were owned by the Walt Disney Company until Citadel's purchase of ABC Radio Networks and these stations on June 12, 2007 (except for WPRO-AM-FM, which were sold by Capital Cities/ABC in 1993 and acquired by Citadel in 1997).

References

Category:Companies established in 1947 Category:Broadcasting companies of the United States Category:Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Category:Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Category:American Broadcasting Company Category:Companies disestablished in 1996 Category:Companies based in New York Category:Defunct companies based in New York