From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Based in Roanoke, Virginia, Grant Broadcasting System II (also referred to as Grant Communications) is an owner of various television stations in the United States.

Grant Broadcasting was founded in 1990 by Milton Grant (May 13, 1923 — April 28, 2007), who, in addition to being President of Grant Broadcasting, also served as President and General Manager for many of his stations.

Milton Grant began his career as a radio news director in his hometown of New York City. In the early 1950s he moved to Washington, D.C., where he became the host of several music programs, one of which was heard simultaneously on many of the city's radio stations. Grant moved to television in 1956 when he hosted a popular dance program for WTTG, The Milt Grant Show, which ran until 1961.

Grant's first foray into station ownership first came in 1966, when his new company, the Capitol Broadcasting Corporation, established WDCA-TV. That station was sold off to the Superior Tube Company in 1969, but Grant remained with the station as its General Manager until WDCA was sold to Taft Broadcasting in 1979.

In 1981, Grant was part of an investment group who established KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas (launched in 1981) and KTXH in Houston (1982). Grant both sold stations off to Gulf Broadcasting in 1985.

In 1985, while preparing for the sale of KTXA and KTXH, Grant established the original Grant Broadcasting System, starting with the sign-on of WBFS-TV in Miami in 1984, and later with the 1985 acquisitions of WGBO-TV in Joliet, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), and WGBS-TV in Philadelphia. However, in 1987, this first incarnation of Grant Broadcasting went bankrupt, after overpaying for syndicated programming, while its competitors took the best barter programming. It was even worse in Chicago, where all of WGBO's competitors took all the bartered shows available to them, leaving WGBO with holding the bag.

In 1989, Grant's stations were repossessed by its creditors after Grant failed to meet the bankruptcy agreements. The creditors used these stations to form "Combined Broadcasting" (no relation to the earlier "Combined Communications", which was merged into the Gannett Company in 1979).

In 1990, Grant started to rebuild is broadcasting empire, under the name "Grant Communications", later renamed "Grant Broadcasting System II" (the "II" representing his second try to build a chain). His first station was Huntsville, Alabama's WZDX, which he acquired in March 1990.

Today, Grant owns five TV stations. He was also a former owner of Buffalo's WB affiliate, WNYO-TV (now affiliated with MyNetworkTV), which he acquired in 1996, but sold off to Sinclair in 2001.

Grant Broadcasting stations share a logo style: even the original three Grant stations (WBFS, WGBS, and WGBO) used this style. It consists of a colored channel number with white extensions around it mimicking the edges of the channel number.

• KLJB — biography of Milton Grant