The origins of Graham Media can be traced to 1944, when
The Washington Post began its broadcasting activities with its purchase of
WINX radio in
Washington, D.C. Four years later the newspaper's parent firm, the Washington Post Company, announced its intention to acquire controlling interest in a rival station,
WTOP radio from
CBS. The two firms formed a joint venture known as
WTOP Incorporated, with the
Post holding 55 percent and CBS maintaining the balance (45 percent). The
Post sold wholly owned WINX but retained its FM adjunct WINX-FM, which became the original WTOP-FM when the sales became final in 1949. In 1950 WTOP Inc. purchased WOIC, Washington's CBS television affiliate, and changed that station's call letters to WTOP-TV. This
Post-CBS joint venture is the direct predecessor of Graham Media Group. CBS was forced by the
Federal Communications Commission to sell its remaining interest in WTOP Inc. in 1954. The
Post then merged its Washington stations with recently purchased WMBR-AM-TV in
Jacksonville, Florida and changed the company's name to
Post Stations, Inc. WMBR radio was later sold off (it is now
WQOP); the
Post then changed WMBR-TV's calls to
WJXT. The company was rechristened as
Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc. after the
Post acquired
Newsweek magazine in 1961. From 1961 to 1962, Post-Newsweek held 46% ownership with
KOGO,
KOGO-FM and
KOGO-TV in
San Diego with the investment firm of Fox, Wells & Rogers owning 54%. Post-Newsweek declined to acquire full ownership of the stations and the venture ended when the outlets were sold to the broadcasting division of
Time-Life in 1962. Post-Newsweek made its first purchase in 1969, with the acquisitions of
WCKY radio in
Cincinnati and WLBW-TV in
Miami; the TV outlet was renamed
WPLG after the former
Washington Post publisher
Philip Graham, who committed suicide in 1963. WTOP-FM in Washington was donated to
Howard University in 1971 and became
WHUR-FM soon after. In 1974, the company added WTIC-TV in
Hartford, Connecticut, changing its calls to
WFSB upon taking over. In the wake of a panic swap of WTOP-TV (now
WUSA) to the (
Detroit)
Evening News Association for its WWJ-TV (now WDIV) in 1978, followed by the sale of both radio stations later in the year, the
Post decided to spin off their broadcasting interests into a company of its own. The Post-Newsweek name itself would later spread to the
Post-owned cable operations (now known as
Cable One and a company identical in structure to Post-Newsweek Stations). During the 1970s and 1980s, the stations tended to have vaguely similar on-air looks, along with the common slogan "The One & Only Channel/TV (number)"; some of the stations continue to use this or a variant as a slogan. In 1992, Post-Newsweek bought the now-defunct Detroit regional sports station
PASS Sports from former
Detroit Tigers owner and
Domino's Pizza founder
Tom Monaghan. On April 22, 1994, the
Texas stations of
H&C Communications,
KPRC-TV in
Houston and
KSAT-TV in
San Antonio were acquired. Around the time, Post-Newsweek Television, the production unit of the station sold the rights of
Inside Washington to
Gannett. Three years later, the company traded WFSB to
Meredith Corporation in exchange for WCPX-TV in
Orlando, Florida. In keeping with tradition of renaming stations after notable people within the Post family, WCPX became
WKMG-TV in honor of
Katharine Graham. Post-Newsweek nearly expanded to seven stations in 2008, when it offered to purchase NBC-
owned WTVJ, creating a
duopoly with WPLG. The sale was cancelled however, due to lack of FCC approval and poor economic conditions at that time, along with local reaction against media consolidation.
2013–present: The post-Post-Newsweek era The Post-Newsweek Stations group was not involved in the sales of
Newsweek to
Sidney Harman in August 2010, and of the
Washington Post to
Jeff Bezos in October 2013, after which the Washington Post Company was renamed Graham Holdings Company. Graham's station group continued to operate under the Post-Newsweek name until July 28, 2014, when it was announced that it would be renamed
Graham Media Group. In March 2014, Graham announced that it would sell WPLG to
Berkshire Hathaway, in exchange for a large majority of Berkshire Hathaway's shares in Graham Holdings. Berkshire Hathaway and its chairman,
Warren Buffett, had been longtime stockholders in the company. The acquisition closed on June 30, 2014; Berkshire Hathaway entered into agreements with Graham to continue providing WPLG with the station group's centralized services following the sale. On May 27, 2016, Graham announced that as part of the acquisition of
Media General by
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, it would acquire Nexstar's
The CW affiliate
WCWJ in Jacksonville (forming Graham's first-ever duopoly, with
WJXT) and Media General's NBC affiliate
WSLS-TV in
Roanoke, Virginia, in divestitures tied to the sale. == Stations ==