The story
Founded by Julian Sinclair Smith in 1971, in Baltimore.1
History
Early roots
The company's roots date back to the late 1950s, when electrical engineer Julian Sinclair Smith and his wife Carolyn B. Smith, owning 34.5% of the shares, along with a group of shareholders, formed the Commercial Radio Institute, a broadcasting trade school in Baltimore, Maryland. In March 1958, Commercial Radio Institute applied to build an FM radio station in Baltimore. In April 1959, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted the construction permit – for the estimated US$25,964 (equivalent to $286,800 in 2025) construction project. Sinclair's first station, WFMM-FM (now WPOC), signed on the air in February 1960. In 1967, Smith, as Chesapeake Engineering Placement Service, partly owned by the name-shortened Commercial Radio Inc., applied for and was granted, a construction permit for a new UHF television station in Baltimore, expected to be operating by September 1968 on channel 45, no call sign yet assigned.
Chesapeake Television Corporation
Channel 45, with the call sign WBFF, joined on April 11, 1971. By that time, Chesapeake Engineering Placement Service had changed its name to Chesapeake Television Corporation. The Commercial Radio Institute, by then a division of Chesapeake Television Corporation, founded WPTT (now WPNT) in Pittsburgh, in 1978, and WTTE in Columbus, Ohio, in 1984. All three stations originally were independents. In 1986, WBFF and WTTE became charter affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company at its launch. The Fox affiliation in Pittsburgh went to higher-rated WPGH-TV, which was purchased by Sinclair in 1990.
Chesapeake's first foray into local news came in the early 1980s when it launched a newscast on WPTT, a rarity at this time for stations not affiliated with the then-major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). This newscast was called WPTT News. In the opening segment, the letters "news" were formed from a compass indicating the four cardinal directions. This opening segment, featuring then-anchorman Kevin Evans, appeared briefly, and was audible, in the movie Flashdance during a scene where Jennifer Beals' character returns home and turns on the television.
The presentation was relatively low-budget, with the anchor simply reading copy, with no field video shots other than the weather read over a stock video shot denoting the conditions outside. It was not a factor in taking ratings away from then-market laggard WIIC-TV, now WPXI, much less solid runner-up WTAE-TV and then-locally owned Group W powerhouse KDKA-TV. As WBFF did not air newscasts until 1991 and WTTE would not air any newscasts from its 1984 sign-on until Sinclair purchased ABC affiliate WSYX in 1996, this marked the company's only foray into local news for years, a genre it became much more involved in from the mid-1990s on.
1985–2010
Smith's son David D. Smith began taking a more active role in the company in the 1980s. In 1985, the Chesapeake Television Corporation changed its name to Sinclair Broadcast Group. In 1990, David and his three brothers bought their parents' remaining stock and went on a buying spree that eventually made it one of the largest station owners in the country, through the purchases of stations and of companies that owned groups of stations.
Sinclair pioneered the concept of the local marketing agreement (LMA) in American television in 1991, when it sold WPTT to its general manager Eddie Edwards (founder of Glencairn, Ltd., the Sinclair-affiliated licensee that would eventually become Cunningham Broadcasting) in order to purchase fellow Pittsburgh station WPGH-TV to comply with FCC ownership rules of the time that prohibited duopolies, while agreeing to allow Sinclair to retain operational responsibilities for the station. However, while LMAs would become an integral part of the company's business model in subsequent years, Sinclair's plans to acquire KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City through Glencairn, which would subsequently attempt to sell five of its 11 existing LMA-operated stations to Sinclair outright in turn (with Sinclair stock included in the deal) was challenged by the Rainbow/PUSH coalition (headed by Jesse Jackson) to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1998, citing concerns over a single company controlling two broadcast licenses in the same market in violation of FCC rules. The coalition argued that Glencairn passed itself off as a minority-owned company (Edwards is African American) which, since the Smith family controlled most of the company's stock, was technically a Sinclair arm that planned to use the LMA with KOKH to gain control of the station and create an illegal duopoly with KOCB. In 2001, the FCC levied a $40,000 fine against Sinclair for illegally controlling Glencairn. Sinclair became a publicly listed company in 1995, raising $105 million in a sale of 5 million shares at its opening on NASDAQ on June 6. The Smith family retained a controlling interest.
In 1994, Sinclair signed a deal with Paramount and its UPN network, bringing five affiliates WPTT-TV in Pittsburgh, WNUV-TV in Baltimore, WCGV-TV in Milwaukee, WSTR-TV in Cincinnati and KSMO-TV in Kansas City to the network. In 1996, Sinclair bought out Superior Communications for $63 million. In 1997, Sinclair reached a deal with The WB to convert many of the UPN affiliates to The WB. Following the disputes, in August 1998, Sinclair and UPN signed a new agreement. In February 1998, Sinclair bought out Sullivan Broadcasting for $1 billion. In 1998, Sinclair bought out Max Media Properties, for $252 million. In November 2004, Sinclair sold off KSMO-TV in Kansas City to Meredith Corporation for $26.8 million. In December 2004, Sinclair divested KOVR-TV in Sacramento to Viacom, now Paramount Global, for $285 million.
In 2004, as a response when LIN Media signed ABC affiliates WDTN and WAND to NBC, Sinclair Broadcast Group converted two of its NBC affiliates WICS/WICD and WKEF to ABC. In July 2009, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sinclair stated that if the company could not refinance its $1.33 billion debt, or if Cunningham Broadcasting became insolvent due to nonpayment on a loan worth $33.5 million, Sinclair may be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company seemingly recovered its financial fortunes enough, and began a major string of acquisitions involving television stations and other properties two years later.
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2011–2013
The beginning of the 2010s saw Sinclair's acquisition strategy intensify. In May 2011, Ring of Honor (ROH), a professional wrestling promotion, was purchased for an undisclosed amount. ROH's flagship program Ring of Honor Wrestling was added onto the schedules of many Sinclair-operated stations. In September 2011, Four Points Media Group was purchased for $200 million, equivalent to $286 million in 2025. Sinclair assumed managerial control of the stations from Nexstar Broadcasting Group. Four Points owner Cerberus Capital Management paid Nexstar cash compensation for the prematurely terminated time brokerage agreements. In November 2011, Sinclair purchased Freedom Communications' television stations for $385 million, equivalent to $551 million in 2025, making Sinclair the ninth-largest broadcast group in the United States.
At the same time, Sinclair purchased WWHO, a CW affiliate in the Columbus, Ohio, market, from LIN TV. Owing to Sinclair's existing Columbus duopoly of WSYX and WTTE, WWHO was resold to Manhan Media, who entered into a shared services agreement with Sinclair. In May 2012, a groupwide affiliation renewal with Fox reached, included an option for Sinclair to purchase WUTB, Baltimore's MyNetworkTV station, from Fox Television Stations before March 31, 2013. Sinclair purchased WUTB and resold it to Deerfield Media—controlled by Manhan Media owner Stephen P. Mumblow—on November 26, 2012, pairing with WBFF and WNUV. Concurrently, Fox had an option to purchase up to any combination of six different MyNetworkTV and CW stations in four different markets from Sinclair, which it declined.
On July 19, 2012, Sinclair acquired six stations from Newport Television, along with existing operational agreements for two other stations, for $412.5 million, equivalent to $578 million in 2025, as part of a larger dispersal of Newport's 22-station portfolio. That same day, Sinclair purchased Tampa station WTTA for $40 million, equivalent to $56.1 million in 2025. Two of Sinclair's existing stations in markets affected by the Newport deal, WSTR-TV and KMYS, were sold to Deerfield Media. Deerfield also acquired KBTV-TV, Beaumont, Texas's Fox affiliate, from Nexstar, with Sinclair assuming operations and merging it into CBS affiliate KFDM. The non-license assets of ABC affiliate WHAM-TV in Rochester, New York, were sold by Newport to Sinclair, with Deerfield purchasing the station's license.
In February 2013, Cox Media Group sold five television stations, their smallest by media market rankings, to Sinclair, with Deerfield Media assuming ownership of Cox-operated KAME-TV in Reno. Sinclair purchased Schaumburg, Illinois–based Barrington Broadcasting on February 28, 2013, including six other stations operated by Barrington. The former Cox and Barrington stations are operated through subsidiary Chesapeake Television, focusing on smaller markets and with management separate from Sinclair proper. Two Barrington stations, along with the lease for a third, were initially set to be transferred to Cunningham Broadcasting, but were ultimately sold to an affiliate of Northwest Broadcasting owner Brian Brady.
Prevailing in a bidding war with LIN Media, Sinclair purchased Fisher Communications in April 2013, for $373.3 million, equivalent to $516 million in 2025, including 20 television stations in the western United States, operational control of one station, and three radio stations in Seattle. This deal returned Sinclair to radio ownership, since the divestment of their radio portfolio between 1999 and 2000. The deal was initially met with financial scrutiny. The law firm Levi & Korsinsky notified Fisher shareholders with accusations that Fisher's board of directors were breaching fiduciary duties by "failing to adequately shop the Company before agreeing to enter into the transaction", and Sinclair was underpaying for Fisher's stock. Shortly after the announcement, a lawsuit was filed by a Fisher shareholder. The suit was settled in July 2013 and the merger approved shortly thereafter.
On June 3, 2013, Titan TV Broadcast Group sold four stations, along with operating agreements for two stations, to Sinclair. Prior to the deal, a seventh station, KDBC-TV in El Paso, Texas, to Cunningham, fueling speculation KDBC-TV would be consolidated with Sinclair-owned KFOX-TV. Sinclair exercised its option to purchase KDBC-TV outright citing KDBC-TV's fourth-place ranking in the El Paso market while KFOX ranked sixth, making it permissible under FCC duopoly regulations. Dielectric Communications, a key supplier of television broadcasting antennas, was purchased from SPX on June 18, 2013. SPX had intended to close down all of Dielectric's operations by the end of July, in turn threatening a FCC-proposed incentive auction and subsequent repacking of television broadcast spectrum.
In July 2013, as part of a refocus on the Politico website and newspaper, Allbritton Communications sold their seven station portfolio—including Washington, D.C.'s WJLA-TV—to Sinclair, for $985 million, equivalent to $1.36 billion in 2025. This deal was complicated by multiple regulatory hurdles and a proposed barring of future joint sales agreements (JSA) by the FCC. Originally planning to divest four Sinclair-owned stations in three markets with Allbritton stations to Deerfield and Armstrong Williams-controlled Howard Stirk Holdings, and continuing to operate them under JSAs,
In March 2014, Sinclair announced intentions to divest three stations and one existing LMA to independent third parties. Unable to find a buyer, Sinclair proposed in May 2014, to return to the FCC the licenses for WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, WJSU-TV in Anniston, Alabama, and WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina, transferring the intellectual properties of those three stations to existing Sinclair-owned stations. One other Allbritton station, WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sold to Media General for $83.4 million (equivalent to $113 million in 2025). After nearly a year of delays, the deal was approved by the FCC in July 2014, and completed on August 1. WCIV, WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV were ultimately sold to Howard Stirk Holdings.
In September 2013, Sinclair purchased eight stations owned or operated by New Age Media. As part of the deal, three stations—WSWB in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, WTLH in Tallahassee, Florida, and WNBW-DT in Gainesville, Florida—would be sold by owner MPS Media to Cunningham, with Deerfield purchasing WTLF in Tallahassee. New Age Media and MPS Media terminated the deal on October 31, 2014. Sinclair purchased the non-license assets for all eight stations and began operating them through master service agreements the next day.
2014–2016
Sinclair signed an agreement in June 2014 to carry the classic film subchannel network GetTV in 33 markets by the end of September. In July of that year, Sinclair announced the launch of the American Sports Network (ASN) service, operating within its Sinclair Networks company. This service, which produces and distributes college sports broadcasts, is primarily carried on Sinclair stations. ASN was created as part of the company's foray into original, non-news content creation beyond Ring of Honor Wrestling and school sports. Subsequently, on August 21, 2014, the company announced the formation of Sinclair Original Programming, a new division concentrating on entertainment and commercial content. The company also announced plans for a future cable news network. The Original Programming division chief operating officer was announced as Arthur Hasson, general manager of Sinclair stations in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On August 20, 2014, Sinclair announced that it would swap WTTA in Tampa and KXRM-TV and KXTU-LD in Colorado Springs to Media General in exchange for WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, WLUK-TV and WCWF in Green Bay and WTGS in Savannah, Georgia. The deal was part of Media General's merger with LIN Media, the owner of WLUK and WCWF and operator of WTGS at that time, as both Media General and LIN owned stations in the three markets, requiring both companies to sell off stations in conflicting markets due to the FCC's recent decision to scrutinize sharing agreements between stations owned by different licensees. The swap was approved by the FCC alongside the Media General-LIN merger on December 12, 2014.
On September 3, 2014, Sinclair announced the purchase of Las Vegas NBC affiliate KSNV-DT from Intermountain West Communications Company for $120 million. As Sinclair already owns a duopoly in Las Vegas (KVMY and KVCW), the company will sell the license assets (though not the programming) of one of the three stations to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, with the divested station's programming being relocated to the other stations. The purchase of KSNV's non-license assets was completed on November 1, 2014. On September 11, 2014, the license assets of WCIV were sold to Howard Stirk Holdings (pending FCC approval) and aside from sharing studio space with WMMP (which will retain the ABC affiliation and current programming of WCIV), will have no operational control from Sinclair, saving the station from being forfeited back to the FCC. Similar sales were filed with the FCC for WBMA-LD satellite stations WCFT-TV on September 24 and WJSU-TV on September 28. Sinclair continued its push into original programming. Since May 2015, three deals were made to expand American Sports Network beyond college sports. In June, subsidiary Sinclair TV Group, Inc. formed Tornante-Sinclair LLC, a TV production company, with Michael Eisner's Tornante Co. With MGM on October 31, 2015, Comet was launched as a sci-fi broadcast subchannel network. On October 12, Sinclair Original Programming and the programming department was merged into Sinclair Programming and moved into Sinclair Television Group.
On October 1, 2015, Gray Television announced that it would acquire WLUC-TV from Sinclair; in return, Sinclair would receive WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana, from Gray. The swap, part of Gray's acquisition of the broadcasting assets of Schurz Communications (owner of WSBT), was necessary as Gray already owns WNDU-TV in South Bend. The sale was completed on February 16, 2016. On January 27, 2016, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire Tennis Channel for $350 million. The channel's corporation comes with $200 million in net operating losses that SBGI can use to offset future income thus reducing taxes. Sinclair's news operations had launched six drone teams in September 2016. Initial stations getting drone teams were in Washington, Baltimore, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Columbus, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma and Little Rock, Arkansas. In the mid-2010s, Sinclair launched Refined, an online local lifestyle web magazine run in conjunction with local Sinclair stations. The third was announced for DC under WJLA-TV. In December 2016, SBG announced TBD, a new digital subchannel network aimed towards millennials, with a focus on digital content. It began broadcasting on February 13, 2017. At the NATPE conference on January 17, 2017, SBG and MGM announced a second TV network, Charge!, a new digital subchannel network focusing on action-adventure based programming. It begin broadcasting on February 28, 2017. Sinclair had two rounds of executive promotions announced in November 2016 and effective January 1, 2017, with chair and CEO David D. Smith moving up to executive chairman while CFO Christopher Ripley becoming president and CEO. In the second round, David Amy was promoted from chief operating officer to vice chairman with responsibility for corporate marketing, human resources and the networks group, while Steven Pruett move from co-COO of Sinclair Television Group to executive vice president and chief TV development officer.
2017–2022
On March 1, 2017, Sinclair bought Tennis Media Company for $8 million, which includes the Tennis.com website and Tennis magazine; the deal also includes up to $6 million in earnout if certain targets are reached. Sinclair intends to integrate the properties with Tennis Channel. On April 21, 2017, following the reinstatement of the "UHF discount" (a policy that counts television stations broadcasting on UHF channels by 50% of their total audience towards the FCC's 39% market cap), Sinclair announced its intent to purchase Bonten Media Group for $240 million. The sale was approved on June 30, and the sale was completed September 1. On May 8, 2017, Sinclair announced its intent to acquire the Chicago-based Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. The sale would have given Sinclair ownership of additional stations within the top-10 markets, along with ownership of a stake in Food Network, WGN America, and other additional assets, To comply with Department of Justice antitrust and FCC ownership regulations, it was suggested that Sinclair would have to divest stations in multiple markets.
2012 pre-election special
On November 5, 2012, six Sinclair stations in swing states aired a special focusing on issues surrounding the presidential election occurring the next day, such as the Libyan civil war and health care reform; the special consisted of a series of segments which were presented by the local anchors at each station. While scheduling of the special was at the discretion of each station, Columbus, Ohio ABC affiliate WSYX pre-empted both ABC World News and Nightline to air it. The special was met with controversy for showing a bias against Obama and focusing little on Republican candidate Mitt Romney, as opposed to showcasing both candidates equally. A Sinclair staff member disputed these claims, stating that "no one is disputing the facts of the stories that aired in the special", and that its decision on which markets to air the special was influenced by their "news value" and resonation with the public.
2018 journalistic responsibility promos
In March 2018, CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter obtained an internal memorandum sent by Sinclair, which dictated that its stations must produce and broadcast an "anchor-delivered journalistic responsibility message" using a mandated script. The promos contain language decrying "biased and false news", and accusing unnamed mainstream media figures of bias. Stelter stated that the script is written to sound like the opinion of the local anchors, despite the text being in fact a mandate from corporate management. At least 66 Sinclair-owned stations produced their own version of the message, with the first being aired on March 23, 2018. Sinclair-owned WMSN-TV refused to air the message, although its news is produced by Morgan Murphy Media-owned WISC-TV.
The promos began to receive mainstream media attention after the sports blog Deadspin, as well as ThinkProgress, posted video compilations featuring all of the promos being played simultaneously. The promos have been criticized as in regard to the greater political context of "fake news" in the media for media bashing, comparing it to the rhetoric of Donald Trump in regard to these topics. Sinclair maintains that its "must-runs" are standard procedure, often covering a wide variety of issues such as news updates regarding terrorism and other public matters on which the company has an opinion while remaining "committed to reporting the facts". After the compilations went viral, Trump responded to the promos on April 2, 2018, defending the company as being "far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke".
The instructions for the mandated promos tell an/the anchor(s) to state:
I'm/We're extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that [proper news brand name of local station] produces. But I'm/We're concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people think.' This is extremely dangerous to our democracy... We understand Truth is neither politically 'left or right.' Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.
On April 2, 2018, Sinclair Broadcast Group released a statement on their website in response to what it called "unfounded media criticism". The statement cited a Monmouth University poll that found large majorities of Americans believe that traditional news media outlets report fake news. Sinclair maintains that the promos "served no political agenda". Sinclair responded by posting a video on its website that attacked CNN for "dishonesty and hypocrisy" in their coverage of the Sinclair must-run promo; Sinclair equated Stelter's warnings about "fake news" as similar to Sinclair's warnings in its must-run promo.
Several outlets called for an advertiser boycott of Sinclair-owned stations. A report in Advertising Age magazine suggested that a boycott would not be easy, since it involves users first identifying the station as a Sinclair station, and then figuring out which advertisers are putting commercials on that station, and then discouraging those advertisers. Professional wrestler David Starr has criticized the company due to Ring of Honor holding an event in Israel where Starr was involved in a match against Jay Lethal and Matt Sydal on April 21, 2019, amid a fan boycott. The video was removed due to allegations of antisemitism.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sinclair Broadcast Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6