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Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.

The Hubbard Broadcasting headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the KSTP SkyMax 5 tower in the background.
Company type	Private
Industry	Television and radio broadcasting
Founded	February 13, 1925; 100 years ago (1925-02-13) inTwin Cities,Minneapolis, U.S.
Founder	Stanley E. Hubbard
Headquarters	Saint Paul, Minnesota , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Stanley S. Hubbard
Brands	KSTP radio, KSTP-FM, KTMY, KSTP-TV, and KSTC-TV
Website	hubbardbroadcasting.com

Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radiobroadcasting corporation based inSt. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded byStanley E. Hubbard.

The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered acrossMinnesota,Wisconsin,Missouri,Illinois,Ohio,New York,Texas,New Mexico,Arizona,Washington,Florida, andWashington, D.C.KSTP radio,KSTP-FM,KTMY,KSTP-TV, andKSTC-TV, which serve theTwin Cities region of Minnesota and western Wisconsin, are regarded as the company's legacyflagship 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 withStanley 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 firsttelevision camera available fromRCA. Following the television blackout brought on byWorld 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 asports radio format, and KSTP-FM broadcastsadult contemporary music; KSTP-TV is affiliated withABC.

After theFederal Communications Commission relaxed rules about television station ownership, Hubbard bought a second television station in the Twin Cities. Originally affiliated with theHome Shopping Network when it started operations in 1994, KVBM was bought by Hubbard and became general-entertainmentindependent stationKSTC-TV in 2000. It has been used as an alternate outlet for ABC network programming when KSTP-TV is broadcasting coverage ofMinnesota Vikings football games or other special shows, including severe-weather coverage.

Aside from terrestrial broadcast stations, other current ventures include thefilm networkReelzChannel (launched in 2006), the arts networkOvation, 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 startedU.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 (aGeneral Motorssubsidiary), launched its own subscription satellite service calledDirecTV. The two services did not compete against each other (they carried different channels), and were often marketed together to subscribers by retailers and inadvertisements, until DirecTV's 1998acquisition 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 firstSatellite 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 withViacom—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, theAll 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 Readbookstores in St. Paul,Albuquerque, andKey Largo.

As of October 2007, it is engaged in a fevered battle withNABET union repping employees of WNYT inAlbany, 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 inCincinnati,Chicago,Washington, D.C., andSt. Louis fromthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidiaryBonneville International for $505 million.^[2] The sale closed on April 29, 2011.^[3]

On February 25, 2013, Hubbard announced that it would purchaseMyNetworkTV stationWNYA 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 byOmni 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 byAlpha Media in West Palm Beach Florida, for $88 million. The stations include Urban AC 102.3WMBX, Country 103.1WIRK, Adult Contemporary 107.9WEAT, Hot Adult Contemporary 97.9WRMF, News/Talk 850WFTL and Sports/Talk 640WMEN.

Hubbard Broadcasting took over production ofCountry Top 40 in January 2020 after the death of the program's founderBob 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 andcity 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.

• Ovation (purchased August 2006)
• Reelz (launched September 2006)

Hubbard also owned a partial stake in KWK-TV (later KMOX-TV, nowKMOV), channel 4, inSt. Louis during the mid-1950s.

• All News Channel (1989–2002, defunct)
• Prime Sports Upper Midwest (1989–95; joint venture withLiberty Media)

• Fulton Klinkerfues. Stanley E. Hubbard pioneered local broadcasting. Good Age Newspaper.
• Jeff Miller (editor).A Chronology of AM Broadcasting (1900-1960).
• USA Today, June 11, 2006.[1]
• Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2006.[2]

• Hubbard Broadcasting website

44°58′5″N93°12′25″W / 44.96806°N 93.20694°W /44.96806; -93.20694

• Hubbard Broadcasting
• Companies based in Saint Paul, Minnesota
• Radio in Minnesota
• Television broadcasting companies of the United States
• Television in Minnesota
• Radio broadcasting companies of the United States
• Mass media companies established in 1926
• 1926 establishments in Minnesota

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