Raycom Media

Type	Private
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Montgomery, Alabama
Area served	United States (Nationwide)
Key people	Paul McTear (President & CEO) Wayne Daugherty (Executive VP & COO)
Industry	Broadcast Television Television Production
Products	Raycom Sports, Broadview Media, etc.
Employees	4,200
Website	www.raycommedia.com www.raycomsports.com

Raycom Media is a broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama.

History

Although Raycom dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations.

In 1994, Ellis bought Raycom Sports, a sports marketing firm that had revolutionized the industry in only 15 years of existence. Two years later, Ellis was sold to a media group funded by Retirement Systems of Alabama, who had bought Aflac's broadcast division a few months earlier. The two groups merged to form Raycom Media. In 1998, Raycom merged with Malrite Communications, owner of five stations in the South and Midwest.

In August 2005 it acquired The Liberty Corporation [1]and in the process sold a dozen of its stations to Barrington Broadcasting.[2] The merger closed at the start of 2006.

On November 12, 2007, Raycom announced its intention to acquire the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln National Corporation's Lincoln Financial Media -- three television stations (see table below), plus Lincoln Financial Sports -- for $583 million. [3] As of January 1, 2008, Lincoln Financial Sports was officially merged into Raycom Sports.

Operations

Raycom currently owns and/or operates nearly 40 television stations, Raycom Sports in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sacramento, California and Mobile, Alabama, Broadview Media, Raycom Post Production in Los Angeles, California and CableVantage in Columbia, SC.

Raycom Sports

Raycom Sports is an American syndicator of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

It was founded in 1979 by a husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference. (It was also once a distributor of games from the Big Ten Conference, as well as the now defunct Southwest Conference.)

Rick Ray was a program manager at WCCB in Charlotte when he proposed that WCCB produce more basketball games. Ray thought that they would be very profitable for WCCB, given North Carolina's reputation as a college basketball hotbed. However, station management turned him down. Not long after setting up shop, Ray put together an early-season basketball tournament which became the Great Alaska Shootout.

Two years later, Raycom made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games. The two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports. In 2006, the name of the partnership changed to Raycom/LF Sports, the "LF" is Lincoln Financial, the marketing name of Lincoln National Corporation, which purchased Jefferson-Pilot that year. As a result of the purchase, Jefferson-Pilot Communications was renamed Lincoln Financial Media. Starting in 2004, the same partnership took over production of syndicated ACC football games; Jefferson-Pilot had produced ACC football alone since 1984.

Unlike other sports syndicators, Raycom controlled nearly all advertising for the broadcast, but paid stations for the airtime. While this was a risky strategy at first, Raycom reaped a huge windfall since ACC games frequently garnered ratings in the 20s and 30s. By a happy coincidence, the ACC's regional territory included several fast-growing markets such as Charlotte, the Piedmont Triad, the Triangle, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

From 1983 to 1986, Raycom and JP offered a pay-per-view package called "Season Ticket."

In 1994, Raycom Sports merged with Ellis Communications, but remained autonomous, with its own headquarters in Charlotte. When the Retirement Systems of Alabama-led group bought Ellis in 1996, the Raycom name was so well respected that it chose to rename the entire broadcast group Raycom Media.

During each ACC basketball season, the Raycom/LF affiliates have exclusive rights to the game telecasts. ESPN, which buys outer market rights from R/LF, must black out the games in the same markets as the affiliates.

Some of Raycom's current and former announcers include Mike Patrick, Tim Brando, Tom Hammond, Billy Packer, Doc Walker, Tim Brant, Mike Gminski, Mike Hogewood and Bucky Waters.

Raycom has also produced specials on Elvis Presley and other non-sports subjects. It was to have produced Team Racing Auto Circuit auto racing in 2003; however, the league folded before an event could be run.

In 2007, Raycom began broadcasting the ACC men's basketball tournament in HD[4] and broadcast 4 ACC men's basketball regular season games in HD in 2008.[5]

On November 30, 2007, Raycom purchased LFS and became the syndicator of the SEC telecasts and the sole syndicator of ACC telecasts. All graphics were changed and the lfsports.com website redirected to raycomsports.com. Starting with the 2009 season, ESPN Plus will take over the SEC broadcast rights for football and men's basketball.

Raycom Sports owns and operates sporting events throughout the country including the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte¹.

Stations currently owned by Raycom Media

Stations formerly owned by Raycom Media

Footnotes

Note: Footnotes apply to both categories.

• ¹All of these stations carried the now defunct The Tube Music Network on digital subchannels.
• ²All NBC network affiliates also carry NBC Weather Plus on digital subchannels.
• ³The company had never owned the station but they did operate it under a Local Marketing Agreement.
• ⁴The company continuously owned the two stations after Univision began operating them under a Local Marketing Agreement in 2002. Univision later bought the stations outright. Also, WORA-TV in Mayagüez which repeats 95% of WLII/WSUR's programming but operates under a separate owner. WLII & WSUR also operate locally-owned WSTE under an LMA.

External links

• Raycom Media Corporate Website
• Raycom Sports Website
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Broadcast Television Ownership Information for #56653: Raycom Media