| Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Television and radio broadcasting |
| Founded: | in Twin Cities, Minneapolis, U.S. |
| Founder: | Stanley E. Hubbard |
| Hq Location City: | Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Area Served: | United States |
| Key People: | Stanley S. Hubbard |
| Brands: | KSTP radio, KSTP-FM, KTMY, KSTP-TV, and KSTC-TV |
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.
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]
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.
| City of license / Market | Station | 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 | |
| St. Paul–Minneapolis, MN | KSTP-TV | 5 (35) | 1948 | ABC | |
| KSTC-TV | 5.2 (30) | 2000 | Independent | ||
| Alexandria, MN | KSAX** | 42 (42) | 1987 | ABC | |
| Redwood Falls, MN | KRWF** | 43 (27) | 1987 | ABC | |
| Albuquerque–Santa Fe, NM | KOB | 4 (26) | 1957 | NBC | |
| Farmington, NM | KOBF | 12 (12) | 1983 | NBC | |
| Las Cruces, NM–El Paso, TX | K22NM-D | 4 (22) | NBC | ||
| Roswell, NM | KOBR | 8 (8) | 1985 | NBC | |
| Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY–Pittsfield, MA | WNYT | 13 (12) | 1996 | NBC | |
| WNYA | 51 (7) | 2013 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| Rochester, NY | WHEC-TV | 10 (10) | 1996 | NBC |
| AM Station | FM Station |
|---|
| City of license / Market | Station | Owned since | Current format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix, AZ | KDUS 1060 | 2013 | Sports radio |
| KAZG 1440 | 2013 | Oldies | |
| KDKB 93.3 | 2013 | Alternative rock | |
| KUPD 97.9 | 2013 | Active rock | |
| KSLX-FM 100.7 | 2013 | Classic rock | |
| Washington, D.C. | WBQH 1050 | 2011 | Regional Mexican |
| WFED 1500 | 2011 | U.S. federal government news | |
| WSHE 820 | 2011 | Freeform | |
| WTOP-FM 103.5 | 2011 | All-news | |
| WTLP 103.9 | 2011 | All-news | |
| WWWT-FM 107.7 | 2011 | All-news | |
| West Palm Beach, FL | WMEN 640 | 2018 | Sports radio |
| WFTL 850 | 2018 | Talk radio | |
| WRMF 97.9 | 2018 | Adult Top 40 | |
| WMBX 102.3 | 2018 | Urban adult contemporary | |
| WIRK 103.1 | 2018 | Country | |
| WEAT 107.9 | 2018 | Classic hits | |
| Chicago, IL | WDRV 97.1 | 2011 | Classic rock |
| WWDV 96.9 | 2011 | Classic rock | |
| WTBC-FM 100.3 | 2011 | Adult contemporary (1990s-2000s hits) | |
| WTMX 101.9 | 2011 | Hot adult contemporary | |
| Alexandria, MN | KULO 94.3 | 2015 | Classic hits |
| KIKV-FM 100.7 | 2015 | Country | |
| Bemidji, MN | KBUN 1450 | 2015 | Sports radio |
| KKZY 95.5 | 2015 | Adult contemporary | |
| KLLZ-FM 99.1 | 2015 | Classic rock | |
| KBHP 101.1 | 2015 | Country | |
| KBUN-FM 104.5 | 2015 | Sports radio | |
| Brainerd–Baxter, MN | KVBR 1340 | 2015 | Business news/talk |
| KLIZ 1380 | 2015 | Sports radio | |
| KBLB 93.3 | 2015 | Country | |
| KUAL-FM 103.5 | 2015 | Oldies/classic hits | |
| WJJY-FM 106.7 | 2015 | Adult contemporary | |
| KLIZ-FM 107.5 | 2015 | 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 | Classic country |
| KNSP 1430 | 2015 | Sports radio | |
| KKWS 105.9 | 2015 | Country | |
| St. Louis, MO | KPNT 105.7 | 2018 | Alternative rock |
| KSHE 94.7 | 2018 | Mainstream rock | |
| WARH 106.5 | 2011 | Adult hits | |
| WIL-FM 92.3 | 2011 | Country | |
| WXOS 101.1 | 2011 | Sports radio | |
| Cincinnati, OH | WKRQ 101.9 | 2011 | Adult Top 40 |
| WREW 94.9 | 2011 | Rhythmic AC | |
| WUBE-FM 105.1 | 2011 | Country | |
| WYGY 97.3 | 2011 | Country Top 40 | |
| Seattle, WA | KIXI 880 | 2013 | Adult standards |
| KKNW 1150 | 2013 | Brokered programming | |
| KQMV 92.5 | 2013 | Contemporary hit radio | |
| KPNW-FM 98.9 | 2013 | Adult album alternative | |
| KRWM 106.9 | 2013 | Adult contemporary |
| City of license / Market | Station | 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 |
Hubbard also owned a partial stake in KWK-TV (later KMOX-TV, now KMOV), channel 4, in St. Louis during the mid-1950s.
| 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 |