Origins The company arose from the ashes of the
DuMont Television Network, the world's first commercial
television network. DuMont had been in economic trouble throughout its existence, and was seriously undermined when
ABC accepted a buyout offer from
United Paramount Theaters in 1953. The ABC-UPT deal gave ABC the resources to operate a national television service along the lines of
CBS and
NBC. DuMont officials quickly realized the ABC-UPT deal put their network on life support, and agreed in principle to merge with ABC. However, it was forced to back out of the deal when minority owner
Paramount Pictures raised antitrust concerns. UPT had only spun off from Paramount four years earlier, and there were still doubts about whether the two companies were really separate. By 1955, DuMont realized it could not compete against the other three networks and decided to wind down its operations. Soon after DuMont formally shut down network service in 1956, the parent firm
DuMont Laboratories spun off the network's two remaining
owned and operated stations,
WABD in New York City and
WTTG in Washington, D.C., to shareholders as the
DuMont Broadcasting Corporation. The company's headquarters were co-located with WABD in the former DuMont Tele-Centre (which was later renamed the Metromedia Telecenter) in New York. In 1957, DuMont Broadcasting purchased two New York area radio stations, WNEW (now
WBBR) and WHFI (later
WNEW-FM and WWFS), and later that year changed its name to the
Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation to distance itself from its former parent company. The following year, Paramount sold its shares in Metropolitan Broadcasting to Washington-based investor
John Kluge, enough to give Kluge controlling interest. Kluge installed himself as chairman, and later increased his holdings to 75 percent. WABD's
call letters were later changed to WNEW-TV to match its new radio sisters.
Expansion ) in
Minneapolis, which included the corporate logo for Metromedia; this logo was also used by
KTTV in Los Angeles,
WXIX in Cincinnati, and
WTTG in Washington D.C. Metropolitan Broadcasting's first acquisitions included
WHK-AM-
FM in
Cleveland (in 1958); the Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising firm (in 1959); and
KOVR in
Stockton, California,
Benedict Gimbel Jr.-owned WIP-
AM-
FM in
Philadelphia, WTVH-TV (now
WHOI) in
Peoria, Illinois, and WTVP television (now
WAND) in
Decatur, Illinois (all in 1960). In 1961 Metropolitan purchased KMBC-
AM-
TV in
Kansas City, Missouri. Later that year the company's name was changed to
Metromedia; the Metropolitan Broadcasting name was retained for its broadcasting division until 1967. In separate 1963 deals the company expanded into
Los Angeles, buying first
KTTV and later
KLAC and the original KLAC-FM (now
KIIS-FM). The company would later engineer a swap of FM facilities; the second KLAC-FM (later
KMET and now
KTWV) was established in 1965. Metromedia also entered the realm of live entertainment by purchasing the
Ice Capades (in 1963) and the
Harlem Globetrotters (in 1967). Later in the decade Metromedia opened a television production center in Los Angeles, known as
Metromedia Square, which served as the studio facility for numerous network programs. Metromedia also owned a TV production and distribution company called
Metromedia Producers Corporation (MPC), established in 1968 from
Wolper Productions. The MPC unit was originally
Wolper Television Sales, before Wolper split from Metromedia in 1968 as a result of an aborted merger attempt with
Transamerica. MPC produced and syndicated various programs and TV movies, most notably the
game show Truth or Consequences and the 1972-86 version of
The Merv Griffin Show. In 1972, Metromedia acquired
WCHF in
Chicago,
WOMC in
Detroit,
WTCN-TV in
Minneapolis, and
WXIX-TV in
Cincinnati in separate deals. In 1976, it teamed up with
MTM Enterprises to launch a first-run syndicated variety show. Metromedia entered the
record business in 1969 with the launch of the
Metromedia Records label, whose biggest-selling artist was
Bobby Sherman. The label was also notable as having issued the first two studio albums of
Peter Allen,
Peter Allen (1971) and
Tenterfield Saddler (1972). The label was closed in 1974. Allen's
Tenterfield Saddler, the title song of which has become an
Australian standard, was acquired and reissued by
A&M Records in 1978. In 1976, similar to the more successful
SFM Holiday Network of syndicated stations launched two years later, Metromedia teamed up with
Ogilvy and Mather for a proposed linking of independent TV stations termed
MetroNet. The proposed programming would consist of several Sunday night family dramas, on weeknights a half-hour serial and a gothic series similar to
Dark Shadows, and on Saturdays a variety program hosted by
Charo. The plans for MetroNet failed when advertisers balked at Metromedia's advertising rate, which was only slightly lower than the Big Three's and low national coverage, leaving for another similar operation,
Operation Prime Time. In 1978, Metromedia acquired stations
KRLD in
Dallas and
KRIV-TV in
Houston. In 1979, Metromedia Producers Corporation had also reached a deal with
Bob Stewart Productions for an exclusive co-producing agreement. In 1982, Metromedia made its biggest broadcasting purchase when it acquired
WCVB-TV in
Boston for $220 million, which at the time was the largest amount ever spent on a single television station property. Two years later, John Kluge bought out Metromedia's shareholders and took the company private. Also around this time, Metromedia attempted to bring to the air a national newscast for independent stations (much as the rival
Tribune Company had created
Independent Network News in 1980), planned for launch in the fall of 1983. Unlike
INN, the program was planned to be offered as a hybrid, hour-long local/national newscast, fed to affiliates by satellite as a headlines block and three other segments, which could be aired by local stations in whatever order the stations deemed alongside locally produced news content. Also as part of this plan, Metromedia established full news departments for
KRIV in Houston and what was then
KRLD-TV in Dallas (another news department was planned for
WFLD in Chicago, but that department ultimately didn't launch until 1987, after the Murdoch buyout). Metromedia attempted to hire
Charles Kuralt away from
CBS News to serve as anchor. Kuralt chose to stay to with CBS;
John Hart was also considered as an anchor, but ultimately the planned newscast never came to fruition. In 1985, it made an attempt to revive the comedy
Oh, Madeline as
The Madeline Kahn Show for first-run syndication, but the deal never came to fruition.
1985-86 divestitures On May 4, 1985, Kluge announced the sale of Metromedia's television stations, and Metromedia Producers Corp., to
News Corporation (owned by Australian newspaper publisher
Rupert Murdoch) and
20th Century Fox Film Corporation (owned jointly by Murdoch and
Marvin Davis) for $3.5 billion. With the exception of WCVB-TV (which was subsequently sold to the
Hearst Corporation), all of the former Metromedia stations formed the nucleus of the
Fox Broadcasting Company (which began operations on October 9, 1986), while MPC was folded into
20th Century Fox Television. The transactions became official on March 6, 1986. Because of these transactions, and the fact that Metromedia was originally spun off from the DuMont Television Network, radio personality
Clarke Ingram has suggested that the Fox network is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont. Kluge also sold Metromedia's outdoor advertising firm, the Harlem Globetrotters, and the Ice Capades in 1985, its cellular phone and yellow pages divisions to the
Southwestern Bell Corporation (now known as the second incarnation of AT&T, due to SBC's acquisition of
AT&T Corporation in 2005) under the leadership of Zane Barnes, Robert G. Pope, and J.B. Ellis. They also spun off the radio stations into a separate company (which took on the Metropolitan Broadcasting name) before they were sold to various other owners by the early 1990s.
Legal battles In retaliation for a lawsuit brought by
Paul Winchell, who sought the rights to his children's television program
Winchell-Mahoney Time, which was produced at KTTV in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, it is believed that KTTV management
destroyed the program's video tapes. In 1989 Winchell was awarded nearly $18 million as compensation for Metromedia's capricious behavior. In 1983,
Christine Craft, a former evening news co-anchor at KMBC-TV in Kansas City, sued Metromedia on claims of fraud and
sexual discrimination. After spending eight months at KMBC-TV in 1981, she was demoted to reporting assignment after a
focus group study claimed Craft was "too old, too unattractive and not deferential to men" in the eyes of viewers. Craft declined the reassignment and subsequently resigned from the station. Craft initially won her case, though she lost on appeal at the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Ownership of film studios On May 22, 1986, Metromedia acquired a 6.5% stake in
Orion Pictures Corporation; a movie and television production studio. By December, the stake in Orion's ownership was increased from 9.3% to 12.6% and on April 12, 1988, to 44.1% On May 20, 1988, Metromedia acquired
Sumner Redstone's share for $78 million, holding a majority stake in Orion Pictures worth nearly 67%. In 1995, Kluge merged Orion, MCEG Sterling Entertainment (producer of the ''
Look Who's Talking'' series), the holding company Actava, and Metromedia into a new Metromedia International Group. In November 1995, Metromedia announced that it would acquire
Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA) for $32 million, followed by
The Samuel Goldwyn Company for $115 million in February 1996. On April 11, 1997, Metromedia sold Orion/Goldwyn and MPCA to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for $573 million and was closed on July 10 of the same year. In 1998, MPCA broke apart from MGM becoming independent again.
Activities following film sale Following the sale of the film business to MGM, Metromedia still owned
Metromedia Restaurant Group (which it had renamed from S&A Restaurant Group, which was acquired from
Grand Metropolitan) in 1990 as well as Metromedia Fiber Network. The latter went bankrupt a few years later and became
AboveNet, while the former went bankrupt in 2008. Metromedia International operated subscription television operators (
Kosmos-TV,
Alma TV, Ala TV,
Kamalak TV) and private radio stations in Eastern Europe and CIS countries; by 2006 following the sale of most assets, it bought
Magticom in
Georgia to ease financial burden from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Most assets were joint-ventures with government-linked companies. Its
Kazakh operations were put in a state of limbo in 2002 due to regulatory issues. ==Typeface==