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Lincoln Financial Media
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryBroadcasting
PredecessorJefferson-Pilot Communications
FoundedApril 2006; 18 years ago (2006-04)
DefunctJuly 17, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-07-17)
FateAssets acquired by Raycom Media and Entercom
Successor
ParentLincoln National Corporation

Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owned radio stations in the United States. The division was formed in 2006 following the company's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media.

The group, at the time of its closure, owned 14 radio stations in Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, Denver, Colorado, and Atlanta, Georgia. It also owned WBT, WBT-FM, and WLNK (FM) in Charlotte, North Carolina and WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte; WCSC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina and WWBT, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia. All three of the aforementioned TV stations are now owned by a successor company Gray Media.

History

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The media company began in 1945 as Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, Inc., which became Jefferson-Pilot Communications in 1968. The company was a media-centered division of the Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, which later merged with Pilot Life Insurance Company to form Jefferson-Pilot. Jefferson-Pilot owned WBT-AM-FM and WBTV, all of which are based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1962, the company conceived Jefferson Productions (later Jefferson Pilot Teleproductions, later Jefferson Pilot Sports), a production arm that produced television programs and commercials, but later chose to produce syndicated sports programming only by the 1980s. It was originally intended to produce promos and local television shows for WBTV but had since grown to produce nationally syndicated talk shows and variety shows; and mainly commercials for major companies that aired nationwide.[1] For further information, see the section "Lincoln Financial Sports" at the end of this article.

In April 2006, the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation merged with the Lincoln National Corporation; taking the media and sports broadcasting division with it, Jefferson-Pilot Communications became Lincoln Financial Media.

In June 2007, the company publicly announced it would explore a sale of this division, and hired Merrill Lynch to assess its strategic options. On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced that it would acquire Lincoln Financial Media's three television stations, along with the Lincoln Financial Sports division (which was folded into Raycom Sports, then into Gray Television) for $583 million. The acquisition was completed in April 2008.[2] [3]

On December 8, 2014, Entercom (rebranded Audacy, Inc. as of March 30, 2021) announced its intent to acquire the remainder of Lincoln Financial Media for $110 million and working capital. To comply with ownership limits, Entercom was to divest one of its existing stations in Denver.[4] Later, Entercom announced it would swap four of its stations in Denver to Bonneville International in exchange for KSWD in Los Angeles. The merger was completed on July 17 and Bonneville and Entercom began operating their new clusters under time-brokerage agreements that same day.

Former stations

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  • Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
  • Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station built and signed on by Jefferson-Pilot or Lincoln Financial.
Stations owned by Jefferson-Pilot/Lincoln Financial
Media market State Station Purchased Sold Notes
San Diego California KBZT 1996 2014
KIFM 1996 2014
KSON 1985 2005 [a]
KSON-FM 1985 2014
KSOQ-FM 2003 2014
Denver Colorado KEPN 1992 2014 [b]
KKFN 1996 2014 [c]
KRWZ 1974 2014 [d]
KQKS 1996 2014
KYGO-FM 1974 2014 [e]
Miami Florida WAXY 1985 2014 [f]
WAXY-FM 2012 2014
WGBS 1979 1985
WLYF 1979 2014
WMXJ 1994 2014
Atlanta Georgia WQXI 1974 2014
WSTR 1974 2014 [g]
Charlotte North Carolina WBT 1945 2014
WBT-FM 1995 2014
WBTV ** 1949 2008
WLNK ** 1962 2014 [h]
Greensboro WBIG 1930 1986 [i]
Florence South Carolina WBTW ** 1954 1968
Richmond Virginia WWBT 1968 2008
  1. ^ Known as KDDZ from 1996 to 1997, and as KSON again from 1997 onward.
  2. ^ Known as KRXY prior to 1993, KWMX from 1993 to 1994, KYGO from 1994 to 1999 and as KCKK from 1999 to 2006.
  3. ^ Known as KCKK from 1997 to 2000 and as KJCD from 2000 to 2008.
  4. ^ Known as KIMN prior to 1988, KYGO from 1988 to 1994, and as KKFN from 1994 to 2008.
  5. ^ Known as KIMN-FM prior to 1979.
  6. ^ Known as WNWS prior to 1990 and as WMRZ from 1990 to 1994.
  7. ^ Known as WQXI-FM prior to 1989.
  8. ^ Known as WBT-FM prior to 1978, and again from 1989 to 1995, and as WBCY from 1978 to 1989.
  9. ^ First broadcast property of Jefferson-Pilot. Ceased operations in 1986.

Lincoln Financial Sports

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LFS SEC sideline reporter Dave Baker

Lincoln Financial Sports, originally Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions (later Jefferson Pilot Sports), produced and syndicated college sports events of the Southeastern Conference, and co-produced Atlantic Coast Conference sporting events with Raycom Sports. It also produced telecasts of pre-season games of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, and in the 1980s, syndicated coverage of the NASCAR Winston Cup races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial Group announced the sale of this division to Raycom Media. The group would later operate under the Raycom Sports banner as of January 1, 2008.[5]

References

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  1. ^ BT Memories-Jefferson Productions
  2. ^ "Raycom Grabs Lincoln Financial Stations". Broadcasting Cable. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  3. ^ "Raycom Media Completes Lincoln Financial Stations Acquisition". Broadcasting & Cable. 2 April 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Entercom swallows Lincoln Financial Media". Denver Post. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  5. ^ "Lincoln Financial Group Announces Sale of Television, Sports, and Charlotte Radio Properties". Lincoln Financial Group. 2007-11-12. Archived from the original on 2007-12-15. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
[edit]
Preceded by Syndication Rightsholder to Southeastern Conference football and men's basketball
2006-2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Syndication Rightsholder to Atlantic Coast Conference football
2006-2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Syndication Rights Holder to the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball
2006-2007
(co-produced with Raycom Sports) 		Succeeded by
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