Lincoln Financial Media

Lincoln Financial Media

Former type	Subsidiary
Industry	Broadcasting
Fate	Acquired by Entercom
Predecessor	Jefferson-Pilot Communications
Successor	Entercom
Founded	April 2006
Defunct	July 17, 2015
Owner	Lincoln National Corporation

Lincoln Financial Media was a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owns 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, NC and WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte; WCSC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina and WWBT, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia.

History

The media company began in 1945 as Jefferson Communications, Inc., which later 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 producing 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) for $583 million. The acquisition was completed in April 2008.^{[2] [3]}

On December 8, 2014, Entercom 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

• WBTW-TV – Florence, South Carolina (now owned by Media General)
• WBIG (1470 AM) – Greensboro, North Carolina (signed off)
• WBIG-FM – (102.1 FM) Greensboro, North Carolina (now WJMH)
• WBT and WBT-FM (1110 AM, 99.3 FM) (now owned by Greater Media)
• WLNK (107.9 FM) (now owned by Greater Media)
• WBTV (CBS) – Charlotte, North Carolina (now owned by Raycom Media)
• WWBT (NBC) – Richmond, Virginia (now owned by Raycom)
• WCSC (CBS) – Charleston, South Carolina (now owned by Raycom)
• KNSN (1240 AM) – San Diego, California (now owned by Multi Cultural Broadcasting Inc.)
• WQXI (790 AM) – Atlanta, Georgia (now owned by Entercom)
• WSTR (94.1 FM) – Atlanta (now owned by Entercom)
• KEPN (1600 AM) – Denver, Colorado (now owned by Entercom)
• KQKS (107.5 FM) – Denver (now owned by Entercom)
• KRWZ (950 AM) – Denver (now owned by Entercom)
• KYGO-FM (98.5 FM) – Denver (now owned by Entercom)
• WAXY (AM) (790 AM) – Miami, Florida (now owned by Entercom)
• WAXY-FM (104.3 FM) – Miami (now owned by Entercom)
• WLYF (101.5 FM) – Miami (now owned by Entercom)
• WMXJ (102.7 FM) – Miami (now owned by Entercom)
• KBZT (94.9 FM) – San Diego, California (now owned by Entercom)
• KIFM (98.1 FM) – San Diego (now owned by Entercom)
• KSON (97.3 FM) – San Diego (now owned by Entercom)
• KSOQ-FM (92.1 FM)– San Diego (now owned by Entercom)
• KKFN (104.3 FM) – Denver (now owned by Pike's Peak Trust LLC)

Lincoln Financial Sports

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 now operates under the Raycom Sports banner as of January 1, 2008.^[5]

References

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. 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. Retrieved 2007-11-12.

External links

• Lincoln Financial Media site
• Lincoln Financial Group site