Communications Corporation of America

Communications Corporation of America

Former type	Private (subsidiary of Silver Point Capital)
Industry	Telecommunications
Fate	Acquired by Nexstar
Successor	Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Founded	1989
Founder	Thomas R. Galloway D. Wayne Elmore
Defunct	January 1, 2015
Headquarters	Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.
Key people	Thomas R. Galloway, CEO
Services	Television stations
Owner	Thomas R. Galloway D. Wayne Elmore
Number of employees	345
Website	www.comcorpusa.com

Communications Corporation of America (also known as ComCorp) was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana.^[1] It owned and/or operated 20 stations (counting satellite stations and those controlled via local marketing agreements).

At one point, ComCorp was also an owner of radio stations in its home market of Lafayette; it subsequently sold those stations to Regent Communications.^[2]

In June 2006, ComCorp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[3] The company emerged from bankruptcy in October 2007 under the control of Silver Point Capital, who also controlled Granite Broadcasting.^[1]

Local news on ComCorp's owned or managed stations are structured variably, with most stations not producing news in-house. As of May 2011, the only ComCorp owned-and-operated stations with in-house local newscasts are KTSM-TV and KETK-TV; two ComCorp managed stations, WVLA-TV and KDBC-TV also produce their own newscasts. Most of the remainder of the company's stations have their newscasts outsourced to other stations in the company portfolio: most of ComCorp's Fox stations in Louisiana and Texas have local newscasts produced by KETK (with the exception of WGMB in Baton Rouge, whose newscasts are produced out of area sister station WVLA); the newscasts for NBC affiliate KVEO-TV in Brownsville, Texas, though are produced by El Paso CBS affiliate KDBC-TV); the remainder of ComCorp's owned and managed stations, including CBS affiliate WEVV-TV (the only Big Three station in the group without any local news), do not carry news at all.

On January 15, 2013, Communications Corporation of America put all of its 25 owned or managed stations up for sale, with investment firm Houlihan Lokey hired to assist in the exploration of sale options.^[4][5] On April 24, ComCorp announced that its entire group would be sold to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group; KMSS-TV, KPEJ-TV and most of the ComCorp-managed stations that are owned by White Knight Broadcasting would be sold to Mission Broadcasting while WEVV-TV and White Knight Broadcasting's KSHV-TV would be sold to a female-controlled company called Rocky Creek Communications, with Nexstar assuming operational control of those stations.^[6] However, on June 6, 2014, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell KMSS & KPEJ to a new minority-owned company Marshall Broadcasting (marking the company's first television station acquisitions) for $58.5 million.^[7] Also on August 4, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell WEVV to Bayou City Broadcasting for $18.6 million.^[8] Mission & Rocky Creek would later withdraw its applications to acquire KFXK, KSHV & WVLA.^[9][10][11] The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.^[12]

It was the last remaining TV station group that didn't have an ABC affiliate.

Former ComCorp-owned stations

Footnotes:

• ¹ This station was owned by Evansville Low Power Partnership and controlled by ComCorp. At the time, ComCorp held a 49 percent stake in Evansville Low Power Partnership.
• ² Owned by White Knight Broadcasting, ComCorp operated these stations under a local marketing agreement.
• ³ ComCorp took over KADN under a local marketing agreement in 1997, but the station remained under the ownership of Charles Chatelain until ComCorp purchased it outright in 2004.
• ⁴ WNTZ had been acquired by White Knight Broadcasting in 1997, with ComCorp controlling the station; it was not transferred to ComCorp directly until 2007.
• ⁵ KDBC was operated by ComCorp under a shared services agreement.
• ⁶ ComCorp acquired the KETK license in 2004; however, it had operated the station since 1999, when it purchased the non-license assets from Sinclair Broadcast Group (which retained the KETK license until 2004).
• ⁷ This station was owned by KM Communications and controlled by ComCorp.

Radio stations

References