The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, 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 afternoon newspaper (which was merged into the now-defunct Cincinnati Post in 1958). The Taft family's involvement in broadcasting began in 1939.

The company is notable for having been the owner of such major media and entertainment properties as Hanna-Barbera, Worldvision Enterprises, KECO Entertainment, Ruby-Spears Productions and many television and radio stations.

It also owned 50% of CIC Video's Australian operations, CIC-Taft Home Video.

History

• 1939 - The Cincinnati Times-Star purchases WKRC radio from founding owner Kodel Radio Company.

• 1949 - WKRC-TV in Cincinnati begins broadcasting.

• 1953 - Known at the time as Radio Cincinnati, Inc., the company purchases WTVN-AM-TV in Columbus, Ohio, from Picture-Waves, Inc., controlled by Toledo attorney and broadcaster Edward Lamb.^[1]

• 1957 - Taft purchases WBRC-AM-FM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, from Storer Broadcasting.

• 1958 - Taft buys WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, from local interests.

• 1959 - Taft purchases WLWF-FM in Columbus from the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, changing its call letters to WTVN-FM (it is now WLVQ).

• 1963 - Taft purchases several stations from Transcontinent Television Corporation: WDAF-AM-FM-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, WGR-AM-FM-TV in Buffalo, New York, and WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania.^[2]

• 1967 - Taft purchases the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio from its founders, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna. Taft also sells WKYT-TV to a subsidiary of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company.

• 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.

• 1972 - Taft opens its first theme park, Kings Island, outside of Cincinnati. Taft would own five other theme parks through is KECO Entertainment division. WBRC radio and WBRC-FM in Birmingham are sold to Mooney Broadcasting.

• 1974 - Taft acquires Top 40 station KQV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from ABC Radio.

• 1975 - KQV changes to a freeform radio format programmed by Joey Reynolds (dubbed "Kay-Cue-Vee" and "The Taft!")[1], then back to Top 40 four months later. The station ultimately turned to an all-news format on October 14, which remains on the station to this day.

• 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.

• 1982 - KQV is sold to General Manager Robert W. Dickey and other investors under the "Calvary, Inc." banner.

• 1983 - Taft exchanges WGR-TV to General Cinema Corporation's Coral Television subsidiary in return for WCIX in Miami.

• 1984 - Taft purchases Gulf Broadcasting, which included KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas, KTXH in Houston, WTSP in St. Petersburg, Florida, KTSP-TV (now KSAZ-TV) in Phoenix and WGHP in High Point, North Carolina.

• 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 and WGR-FM in Buffalo to Rich Communications.

Later in 1987, Taft Broadcasting becomes Great American Broadcasting (also known as Great American Communications) following a major restructuring of its operations. Cincinnati-based billionaire Carl Lindner, Jr., 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 Group. A new company, led by former Taft Broadcasting president Dudley S. Taft Jr., retains WGHP and later purchases another Philadelphia station, WPHL-TV.

• 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

• 1991 - Taft Broadcasting sells WorldVision to Spelling Entertainment Group.

• 1992 - KECO Entertainment, Great American's theme park division, is sold to Paramount and became Paramount Parks, later to be acquired by Viacom. (These parks were sold to Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. by CBS in 2006.) Great American also reacquires WGHP from Dudley Taft.

• 1993 - Great American files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and renames itself Citicasters. Great American also sells WKRC radio to Jacor Communications and shuts down Electra, a teletext service operated as a joint venture between Zenith, Taft, and WTBS-TV (now WPCH-TV).

• 1994 - Citicasters begins breaking up its television stations unit, selling WDAF-TV and KSAZ-TV to New World Communications, and WBRC and WGHP to the News Corporation's Fox Television Stations unit, which would later acquire the New World chain.

• 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. 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. In 1997, as a condition of the Citicasters-Jacor merger, Jacor sells WKRQ and the original WDAF-FM (by then KYYS, now KCKC) to American Radio Systems (ARS), which would become acquired by Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) in 1998. Also in 1997, Jacor sells WDAF-AM (now KCSP) to Entercom Communications.

• 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).

• 1999 - Clear Channel Communications acquires Jacor Communications, Inc..

Today, although effectively defunct as a separate corporation, Citicasters continues to exist as a holding company within the complex corporate structure of Clear Channel.

Stations formerly owned by Taft/Great American/Citicasters

Television stations

• 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.

• WKRC-TV was the only television station built and signed-on by Taft.

Radio stations

(a partial listing)

References

1. ^ "TV station is purchased." The New York Times, Jan. 13, 1953, pg. 32.
2. ^ "Radio-TV concern to sell stations." The New York Times, Aug. 3, 1963, pg. 21.

External links

• Taft and Great American: Overview
• WTVN-TV History Page at the Early Television Foundation