as nyse gtn industry broadcast television founded 1946 headquarters atlanta georgia albany georgia area served united states 50 markets in 28 states reach 9.4 % 1 key people hilton howell president products 93 terrestrial tv stations 1 revenue 744 million usd 2014 1 operating income 340 million broadcast cash flow 2014 1 number of employees 2 086 website official website gray television is a television broadcast company headquartered in atlanta georgia . established in 1946 by james harrison gray a new englander who moved to southwest georgia he formed gray communications systems now gray television which has grown since 1993 into a modern day successful television group based out of atlanta georgia through a series of acquisitions ranging from 1993 2014 . gray television owns and or operates 77 television stations in 44 television markets broadcasting 140 program streams including 76 affiliates of the big four networks abc cbs nbc and fox . gray television s owned and or operated stations include 26 channels affiliated with the cbs network 24 channels affiliated with the nbc network 16 channels affiliated with the abc network and 10 channels affiliated with the fox network . the combined station group owns and operates the number one ranked television station in 28 of those 44 markets and the number one or number two ranked television station operations in 41 of those 44 markets . the combined tv station group reaches approximately 8.1 percent of total united states television households . contents 1 history 1.1 gray communication systems 1.2 gray television 2 owned and operated television stations 2.1 former stations 3 management of young broadcasting stations 4 references 5 external links history edit james h. gray started his communication business with the purchase of the albany herald in 1946 after he returned from world war ii . gray started walb tv station in 1954 and was the second station in the state . in the 1960s additional stations were purchased in louisiana and florida . first in 1960 the florida station was wjhg tv in panama city . while in late 1960s ktve was the louisiana station . 2 in 1986 gray died leaving his 50 . % share of the stock in a trust for his children with stipulation that they run the business together sell their stock each other or sell out together . this caused difficulties as two of the three wanted to sell with the third unable to purchases . in 1991 to break the stalemate the board of directors had the company purchased 25 % of their shares . 2 gray communication systems edit fiscal year revenue millions net income loss millions 2 1994 36.5 2.8 1995 58.6 .9 1996 79.3 2.5 the company was then taken public on nasdaq s small cap market in the 2nd quarter 1992 . the price per share drop to 8 . the company put itself or any part up for sale by the end of 1992 . while the board of director received about 40 offer bull run corporation purchased the remaining shares of the gray siblings who as part of the deal resigned from the board . 2 new management were put in place at all three units . bull run corporation primarily owned by j. mack robinson decided make gray communication system a southeast regional media company . gray s first purchase were two tv stations wkyt tv and wymt from the failed and government seized kentucky central life insurance co. in september 1994 after a court challenge to the sale by kentucky central builder garvie kincaid . 2 in 1994 and 1995 gray systems purchased two newspaper group with two newspapers the rockdale citizen acquired may 31 1994 and gwinnett post tribune acquired january 1995 ; quickly renamed gwinnett daily post and seven advertising weeklies . in 1995 the company moved its stock listing to the new york stock exchange . by this time robinson directly or through bull run owned 44 % of the company s stock . gray had started to focus on its tv station segment over the newspaper holding while tv produced more income and the newspapers income were declining . just months after doubling the daily post s staff one third were laid off and a quarter of the the albany herald s staff followed in january 1996 . newspaper leaders resigned during this period from the corporate president in late 1995 to citizens editor and publisher . 2 in 1996 gray communications system added additional tv stations while entering additional communication industry segments . the company was considered in 1996 by fortune magazine as the 81st fastest growing company having a 48 % percent growth rate . wrdw tv was purchased in january 1996 . in september 1996 a basket purchase from first american media inc. gray communication got two tv stations wctv tv and wvlt tv satellite and production business services which was renamed lynqx communications and portaphone paging business . 2 in august and september 1996 gray raised additional operating funds by various means . on august 20 ktve was sold for cash and accounts receivable . the company issued and sold class b common stock through a public offering senior subordinated notes and preferred stock in september . also a new bank credit facility was arranged . this brought the company total 534.5 million in available funds with 409.5 million directly available . 2 also in september 1996 ralph gabbard the newly named president and ceo died from a heart attack at age 50 . robinson bull run chair took over as interim ceo and president with rull run ceo robert prather as interim executive vice president acquisitions . 2 with its additional funds gray continued purchasing in 1997 with two announcements in january and february . the company bought gulflink communications inc. a transportable satellite uplink business based in baton rouge louisiana in april 1997 to go along with lynqx . with raycom media acquiring a station from aflac broadcast group inc. forcing them to sell witn tv to the corporation which was finalized on august 1 1997 . gwinnett daily post increased circulation in 1997 through a deal with genesis cable communications to provide the paper to its metro atlanta subscribers at genesis s expense . 2 in 1998 gray communication systems started to expand beyond its southeast region . as the company agreed to purchase the busse broadcasting corporation which owned koln kgin tv and weau . gray s ownership of a newspaper and tv station in albany georgia while grandfather was examined under media cross ownership in the united states rule of fcc due to this potential purchase . 2 walb was thus was sold to liberty corp s cosmos broadcasting in august 1998 . 3 in 2002 robinson became chairman and ceo his son in law hilton howell vice chairman prather president coo and jim ryan senior vice president . they had gray communications purchase 14 benedek broadcasting station while that company was in bankruptcy . 4 gray television edit in 2006 the company spun off its five daily newspapers and wireless messaging business into the newly formed triple crown media 5 later in 2010 is renamed southern community newspapers . 6 a new strategy of purchasing station in college towns or capitals was put into place . 4 the company had overpaid for a pair of stations . the station was over leveraged like many other station groups entering the great recession . advertising revenues dropped . the twin problems caused its shares to trade at its lowest at 16 cents in 2008 thus the nyse indicate they might delist the company . loan covenants could have forced the company into default . 4 robinson stepped down with howell replacing him in 2008 . 4 on july 30 2009 gray television was awarded a contract to manage seven young broadcasting owned stations . through december 31 2012 gray would earn 2.2 million and an opportunity to earn additional specified incentive fees if certain performance targets were exceeded . 7 8 9 prather left the company in 2013 and howell took over the president title . 4 on november 4 2013 gray television announced that it would purchase yellowstone holdings for 23 million adding local stations kgns tv kgwn kcwy and kchy lp . 10 three weeks later on november 20 gray announced it would purchase hoak media and parker broadcasting for 335 million and north dakota s fox affiliate kndx kxnd for 7.5 million . as part of the deal stations kaqy khas tv and kxjb were proposed to be sold to excalibur broadcasting and operated by gray under a local marketing agreements . 11 on december 19 it was announced that stations krex tv and wmbb would be sold to nexstar broadcasting group while kfqx would be sold to mission broadcasting . 12 on march 25 2014 prime cities broadcasting owner of kndx kxnd requested that the fcc dismiss the sale of kndx kxnd to excalibur . 13 the sale was completed on june 13 2014 . however some stations were forced to go off the air and their programming was moved to a multicast stream on adjacent channels due to some stations unable to receive regulatory approval after fcc recent ruling on joint sales agreements . those silent stations would then be sold off to minority interest pending fcc approval . 14 15 on july 24 2014 sjl broadcasting announced that it would sell wjrt tv wtvg and wt05 to gray for 128 million . 16 17 the sale was completed on september 15 . 18 in september 2015 gray announced that it would acquire the television and radio stations of schurz communications for 442.5 million . 19 20 it also purchased kcrg tv in cedar rapids iowa from the locally owned gazette company who owned the station from its sign on in 1953 . 21 22 by january 20 2016 gray had set up their washington news bureau by jacqueline policastro to enable stations to get interviews with us senators and representatives serving their communities . the bureau cooperates with lilly news dc bureau previously started by policastro and is located at the nbc news capitol hill bureau 400 n capitol street . 23 owned and operated television stations edit stations arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license . notes indicates a station previously owned by benedek broadcasting . all stations except for kgwn kstf and kosa were acquired by gray in 2002 . indicates a station owned by hoak media prior to its acquisition by gray in 2014 . indicates a station owned by schurz communications prior to its acquisition by gray in 2016 . city of license market station channel tv rf owned since network affiliation dothan alabama wtvy 4 36 2002 cbs mynetworktv dt2 the cw dt3 wrgx ld 23 23 2013 nbc anchorage alaska ktuu tv 2 10 2016 nbc kyes tv 5 5 2016 mynetworktv colorado springs colorado kktv 11 49 2002 cbs mynetworktv dt2 grand junction colorado kjct lp 8 20 2013 abc the cw dt2 kkco 11 12 2005 nbc metv dt2 telemundo dt3 panama city florida wjhg tv 7 8 1960 nbc the cw dt2 wecp ld 18 18 2012 cbs mynetworktv dt2 augusta georgia wrdw tv 12 12 1996 cbs mynetworktv dt2 antenna tv dt3 wagt 26 30 2016 nbc the cw dt2 thomasville georgia tallahassee florida wctv 6 46 1996 cbs mynetworktv this tv dt2 valdosta georgia albany georgia wswg semi satellite of wctv 44 43 2005 cbs mynetworktv dt2 the cw dt3 twin falls idaho kmvt 11 11 2015 cbs the cw dt2 ksvt ld 14 14 2015 fox mynetworktv freeport rockford illinois wifr 23 41 2002 cbs antenna tv dt2 south bend indiana wndu tv 16 42 2006 nbc antenna tv dt2 cedar rapids iowa kcrg tv 9 9 2015 abc mynetworktv dt2 antenna tv dt3 topeka kansas wibw tv 13 13 2002 cbs mynetworktv metv dt2 hutchinson wichita