Television . . .
AOL Time Warner,
New York, www.aoltimewarner.com
(2002 revenue: $41.1 billion)
News 14 Carolina is one of six local news stations the company owns nationally. AOL Time Warner’s holdings include America Online (which has 35 million subscribers), Netscape, HBO, CNN, Warner Bros. Studios and the WB television network. Its print publishing holdings include Time Warner Books (Little, Brown & Company is one of its 24 publishers) and Time Warner Inc. Magazines (Time, Life, People, Sports Illustrated, Money, Entertainment Weekly, and DC Comics — almost 40 altogether). The Time Warner Music Group owns about 50 record labels. Time Warner provides cable to more than 21 million American homes.
General Electric,
New York, www.ge.com
(2002 earnings: $15.1 billion)
General Electric’s broadcast network, NBC, owns and operates 13 local stations and has more than 200 local affiliates. General Electric also owns or partially owns several TV networks, including AMC, iFC, MuchMusic, CNBC (with Dow Jones), MSNBC (with Microsoft), A&E (with Disney and Hearst), The History Channel, Bravo, and has a one-third stake in Paxson Communications, which owns the PAX network. In late 2001, the company paid $2 billion in cash and stock for Spanish-language network Telemundo, which reaches 88 percent of the 35 million Hispanic TV viewers in the U.S. The GE subsidiary Capitol Services owns various financial services and insurance holdings, industrial services holdings, satellite communications holdings, various multimedia holdings. But General Electric is above all an industrial company that produces aircraft engines, medical systems, nuclear reactors, and plastics.
Disney,
Burbank, CA, www.disney.com,
(2002 earnings: $25.3 billion)
Disney’s network, ABC, owns and operates 10 local television stations across the country including WTVD. Disney Broadcasting also owns 49 radio stations and the syndicated ESPN radio. Cable holdings include the Disney Channel, ESPN, Lifetime, A&E (with General Electric and Hearst), and E! Entertainment (with Comcast and Liberty Media). Disney’s film holdings include Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Film Corp. It also owns dozens of magazines (including Jane and Discover) and three book publishers (Hyperion Books, Miramax Books, and Walt Disney Book Publishing Company). Disney also owns 5 recording labels, 18 online companies, 3 sports franchises, 15 amusement parks, and created a town in Florida called Celebration.
Paxson Communications,
West Palm Beach, Fla., www.pax.tv
(2001 revenues: $308.8 million)
Paxson Communications holds the largest stable of broadcast stations in the country, with 65 local TV stations under its belt. The PAX television network was launched in 1998 and by 2002 was seen on 75 affiliates and reaches 86 percent of U.S. television households.
Sinclair Broadcast Group,
Cockeysville, Md., www.sbgi.net
(2002 revenues: $670.5 million)
SBG owns and operates, programs, or provides sales to 62 television stations in 39 markets. Sinclair’s television group reaches about 24 percent of U.S. households and includes ABC, CBS, Fox, WB, and UPN affiliates. Subsidiary Sinclair Ventures invests in broadband technology, high-definition television, software development, automobile dealerships and venture capitol firms.
Capitol Broadcasting Company,
Raleigh, www.cbc-raleigh.com
(2001 revenue: $9.4 million)
Capitol Broadcasting was founded in 1939 and the grandson of the company’s founder, Jim Goodmon, has been president since 1979. CBC owns five television stations in North Carolina. The company has been a major contributor to downtown redevelopment efforts in Durham, where its Fox 50 headquarters building is located beside the new ballpark of its team, the Durham Bulls. Capitol’s sports division operates another minor league baseball team in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and manages sports marketing for N.C. State University (www.gopack.com). Capitol Network Satellite Services does programming, distribution and syndication, and Capitol’s subsidiary, Microspace Communications Corporation, is a satellite broadcasting network with over 300,000 business-related satellite downlinks in 35 countries. Another Capitol venture, WRAL Digital, is putting into place high-definition television and radio.
USA Interactive,
New York, www.usainteractive.com,
(2002 revenues: $741 million)
USA Interactive is partially owned by Vivendi Universal (owner of the USA Network) and by Liberty Media. USA Interactive is built on the Shop At Home Network, which owns HSN.com and five broadcast TV stations in the U.S., and Ticketmaster, which operates Citysearch. (Ticketmaster sold 86.7 million tickets in 2001.) Its other holdings include the online dating site Match.com and travel sites Expedia and Hotels.com.
Radio . . .
Clear Channel,
San Antonio, www.clearchannel.com
(2002 sales: $8.4 billion)
Clear Channel is the biggest conglomerate in the radio industry–and the biggest proponent of relaxing media ownership rules. The company owns 37 television stations and 1,213 radio stations in 28 markets nationwide, plus another 250 or so radio stations overseas. Its featured syndicated commentators include Rush Limbaugh. Clear Channel’s outdoor division includes a national billboard and outdoor advertising operation (approximately 770,000 ad displays ) and entertainment venues. It is the country’s largest concert promoter. Clear Channel’s broadband venture WebHopper delivers Internet and TV signals.
Clear Channel is currently facing several lawsuits related to alleged anti-competitive business practices, and has generated much criticism for “pro-war” rallies that the company’s stations have sponsored and promoted. For more information, see Eric Boehlert’s investigative series on Salon.com
Radio One, Inc.,
Lanham, Md., www.radio-one.com
(2001 revenues: $243.8 million
Radio One was founded in 1980 and is the seventh largest radio broadcasting company in the country, and the largest one primarily targeting African-Americans. The company owns and operates 65 stations in 22 markets including Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. It also programs five channels on the XM Satellite Radio system.
Curtis Media Group,
Raleigh, www.curtismedia.com
(2001 revenue: $20.3 million)
Curtis Media Group has been locally owned and operated by the Curtis family since it began in the 1960s. The company’s other ventures include Curtis Marketing Group, Triangle Traffic Network, CMG Interactive (which includes TriangleHelpWanted.com, TriangleRadioNews.com, TriangleTrader.com, Triangle In Touch, and www.WPTF.com), and Southern Farm Network, an agricultural radio network. Curtis Media is Clear Channel’s biggest competitor here.
Entercom,
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.,www.entercom.com
(2001 sales: $332.9 million)
Entercom is one of the largest radio broadcasting companies in the U.S., with 92 stations from Boston to Kansas City to Seattle. It ranks as the fourth largest radio operator (by revenue) in all 19 of the markets where it is present. Entercom is also the exclusive radio broadcaster of the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, New Orleans Saints and numerous major college sports teams. While its North Carolina stations are in Greensboro, not the Triangle, Entercom is included here because its 500,000-watt station signals can usually be heard here, and because it is a significant presence in broadcasting statewide.
Capitol Broadcasting Company,
Raleigh, www.cbc-raleigh.com
VilCom (formerly Village Companies), Chapel Hill
Founded in 1953, VilCom once owned dozens of radio stations throughout the South, Chapel Hill’s cable company and the Village Advocate shopper, which was sold to The Chapel Hill News. In 1995, VilCom owner Jim Heavner sold the flagship station, WCHL, to Curtis Media Group, but bought the station back last November. It is now VilCom’s only broadcast property, but VilCom also owns commercial real estate holdings, The Print Shop in University Mall, and University Directories, which publishes phone books on more than 100 college campuses. WCHL runs syndicated CBS Radio News in addition to local sports and news, which is produced in partnership with the Chapel Hill Herald (see Print under Durham Herald Company).
St. Augustine’s College,
Raleigh
St. Augustine’s, a historically black college founded by the Episcopalian church, runs a commerical AM station and a cable TV station, WAUG Cable 20.
Print . . .
The McClatchy Company,
Sacramento, Calif., www.mcclatchy.com
(2002 earnings: $131.2 million)
McClatchy is a mid-sized family-owned chain that owns 24 newspapers in the U.S., as well as The Newspaper Network (a national company that does ad inserts in newspapers) and Scripps-McClatchy Western News Service (a regional wire service). The company’s oldest paper, The Sacramento Bee, was founded in 1857. The News & Observer was bought by McClatchy in 1995 and ranks third in circulation. Nando Media was created by The N&O and McClatchy acquired it when it bought the paper. Speculation has floated for years that the chain would be a lucrative purchase for Knight-Ridder or one of the larger national chains.
Advance Publications, Inc.,
New York, www.advance.net
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/
Advance Publications is the privately held Newhouse family media empire. It owns Conde Nast Magazines, The New Yorker, Parade magazine, Newhouse Newspapers, and other publishing and cable television operations. Triangle Business journal is part of American City Business Journals, Inc. (www.bizjournals.com), based in Charlotte, which publishes 70 journals nationally. Advance publishes 31 newspapers in more than 20 American cities and also has extensive interests in cable television, as well as Internet sites related to its print publications, including epicurious.com and style.com.
The Durham Herald Company,
Durham, www.heraldsun.com
(The Chapel Hill Herald is the Orange County edition of the Herald-Sun, not a separate editorial operation.) Independently owned by the E.T. Rollins family since 1889, The Herald-Sun is the only serious daily competitor to The New & Observer. Like The N&O, the Herald-Sun has fielded speculation for decades about a possible buy-out by a larger chain.
Carolina Independent Publications,
Durham
Founded by Steve Schewel in 1983, Carolina Independent Publications is a private for-profit company that publishes the Independent as a free alternative weekly serving the Triangle area. In 2002, the company acquired The Spectator from the Creative Loafing company, a small chain of alternative weeklies based in Atlanta. The Independent is part of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (www.aan.org).
Que Pasa,
Winston Salem, www.quepasanc.com
The Spanish weekly Que Pasa distributes 35,000 copies in and around the Triangle, and 20,000 to the Triad area, reaching an estimated 115,000 Hispanic readers each week. The company also owns two more AM radio stations in the Triad.
Womack Publishing
Chatham, Va.
Womack owns 14 weekly newspapers, eight in North Carolina and the rest in Virginia. The News of Orange is a weekly with a circulation of 4,700. Social event coverage and calendars make up much of its content. The Woodcroft Gazette is a monthly magazine for the Woodcroft community in Durham.
The Carolinian,
Raleigh
An African American newspaper founded in 1940 by P.R. Jervay, Sr.,The Carolinian is the only African American newspaper published twice weekly in the state. It remains family-owned and operated and is currently run by co-publishers Paul R. and Evelyn H. Jervay.
Consolidated Media Group, Winston-Salem
This weekly newspaper serves the African American community. Consolidated Media Group is a small three-paper chain owned by Gerald Johnson, publisher of the Charlotte Post, and Ernie Pitt, publisher of the Winston Salem Chronicle.
Billboard Advertising
Morris Communications
Augusta, Ga., www.morris.com
Fairway owns billboards and other outdoor advertising property in 33 North Carolina counties and in five other states. It sells most of the billboards and outdoor advertising in the Triangle. The privately held company also owns 27 radio stations and 3 radio networks, 30 small newspapers, 32 tourism publications, 23 specialty magazines, The Globe Pequot Press, and is the sole distributor for eight book publishers.
Viacom, New York, www.viacom.com
(2002 sales: $24.6 billion)
This major media corporation has no broadcast outlets here in the Triangle, but its Infinity Radio division owns 180 stations across the country. It also owns MTV and BET Networks, Paramount Parks, Paramount Pictures, and is a partial owner of the UPN Network, Showtime Networks, Comedy Central, Blockbuster Video, Viacom Plus, Viacom Outdoor, and Simon & Schuster book publishing.
Noncommerical broadcasters
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
WUNC is the state’s major NPR affiliate, with three mirror stations in other North Carolina cities. UNC-TV is North Carolina’s PBS outlet, with seven broadcast channels across the state. WXYC is a college music station licensed to the UNC student union, and is DJ’ed exclusively by UNC students. It plays all genres of music and runs some public affairs programming, such as the weekly Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) program, “Counter Spin.”
Duke University,
Durham
A college music station licensed to the Duke University Student Union, WXDU plays all genres and opens its DJ slots to members of the community as well as students.
North Carolina Central University,
Durham
WNCU is licensed to the historically black university. The station plays mostly jazz music but also airs public affairs programming such as NPR’s “The Tavis Smiley Show” and Pacifica News Network’s “Free Speech Radio.”
WCPE,
Wake Forest
This all-classical station is an independent nonprofit that takes no corporate, university, state, National Public Radio or Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding. It is 100 percent listener supported.
Shaw University
Raleigh
This college radio station licensed to the historically black Shaw University plays a mix of jazz, blues and gospel music, with other diverse world music programming mixed in.
North Carolina State University
Raleigh
This college radio station is licensed to NCSU and is entirely student-run. It has a policy of playing no pop or country music, and its primary formats are “loud rock,” alternative, electronica, and hip hop.
