Fiktiv USA - Hubbard Broadcasting

Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, and New Mexico, plus recent acquisitions in the West Palm Beach, Florida area, but the flagship stations are KSTP radio, KSTP-FM and KSTP-TV, which serve the Twin Cities region of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

KSTP has its origins in the Twin Cities radio station WAMD ("Where All Minneapolis Dances"), which started broadcasting live dance music from a local ballroom on February 13, 1925 with Stanley E. Hubbard as owner and station director. It was the first radio station to be completely supported by income generated by advertisements.

In 1928, WAMD merged with KFOY (Kind Friends of Yours) radio (first broadcast: March 12, 1924) in St. Paul to become KSTP, which was advertised as being operated by the National Battery Broadcasting Co. Hubbard became the merged station's general manager, and bought controlling interest in 1941. Ten years later, in 1938, Hubbard bought the first television camera available from RCA. Following the television blackout brought on by World War II, KSTP started television broadcasts in 1948.

KSTP is still Hubbard's flagship, although there are now three different stations that carry that name. KSTP-AM broadcasts a news/talk radio format, and KSTP-FM broadcasts adult contemporary music; KSTP-TV is affiliated with ABC.

After the Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules about television station ownership, Hubbard bought a second television station in the Twin Cities. Originally affiliated with the Home Shopping Network when it started operations in 1994, KVBM was bought by Hubbard and became general-entertainment independent station KSTC-TV in 2000. It has been used as an alternate outlet for ABC network programming when KSTP-TV is broadcasting coverage of Vikings football games or other special shows, including severe-weather coverage.

Aside from terrestrial broadcast stations, other current ventures include the film network ReelzChannel (launched in 2006), the arts network Ovation, and the Hubbard Radio Network, which is used to distribute KSTP's local talk shows to subscribing radio stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The cable channels are run through subsidiary company Hubbard Media Group.

In 1981, Hubbard Broadcasting started U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB), and later was instrumental in the development and launching of the first digital satellite system for television in 1994. The new satellite could deliver 175 channels to a (at the time) tiny, 18 inch dish. USSB's development partner, Hughes Electronics (a General Motors subsidiary), launched their own subscription satellite service called DirecTV. The two services did not compete against each other (they carried different channels), and were often marketed together to subscribers by retailers and in advertisements until DirecTV's 1998 acquisition of USSB.

Hubbard was also instrumental in the development of mobile satellite news vehicles. In 1983, Hubbard-owned Conus Communications and Florida-based Hubcom built the first Satellite News Gathering (SNG) mobile vehicle which allowed for much easier live news coverage for network and local television news operations.

Hubbard Broadcasting also operated a 24 Hour News station titled All News Channel which featured longtime KSTP anchor Stan Turner. The news channel lasted from 1991 until it folded in September 2002.

Hubbard Broadcasting also owned the now-closed Bound to be Read bookstores in St. Paul, Albuquerque, and Key Largo.

As of October 2007, it is engaged in a fevered battle with NABET union repping employees of WNYT in Albany, New York.

On January 19, 2011, it was announced that Hubbard will purchase 17 radio stations in Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidiary Bonneville International for $505 million. The sale closed on April 29, 2011.

On February 25, 2013, Hubbard announced that it would purchase MyNetworkTV station WNYA to form a duopoly with WNYT, pending FCC approval. No financial details were announced.

On July 16, 2013, Hubbard announced that it had agreed to purchase 10 stations from Ohio-based Sandusky Radio for $85.5 million.

Hubbard announced on November 13, 2014 that it would purchase the sixteen stations owned by Omni Broadcasting. The Omni stations are all located in central and northern Minnesota.

On September 26, 2018, Hubbard announced that it agreed to purchase six stations owned by Alpha Media in West Palm Beach Florida. The stations include Urban AC 102.3 WMBX, Country 103.1 WIRK, Adult Contemporary 107.9 WEAT, Hot Adult Contemporary 97.9 WRMF, News/Talk 850 WFTL and Sports/Talk 640 WMEN. The purchase price was disclosed on November 14, 2018 for $88 Million.

Hubbard Broadcasting took over production of Country Top 40 in January 2020 after the death of the program's founder Bob Kingsley. Fitz, a mononymous host with several syndicated country radio programs to his credit, took over as the program's host.

Hubbard-owned stations:
Television stations
Austin - Rochester, MN - Mason City, Iowa
KAAL 6 (36) ABC

Duluth, Minnesota - Superior, Wisconsin
WDIO-DT 10 (10) ABC

Hibbing, Minnesota
WIRT-DT (satellite of WDIO-DT) 13 (13) ABC

St. Paul - Minneapolis, Minnesota
KSTP-TV 5 (35) ABC
KSTC-TV 45 (45) Independent

Alexandria, Minnesota
KSAX (semi-satellite of KSTP-TV) 42 (42) ABC

Redwood Falls, Minnesota
KRWF (semi-satellite of KSTP-TV) 43 (27) ABC

Albuquerque - Santa Fe, New Mexico
KOB 4 (26) NBC

Farmington, New Mexico
KOBF (satellite of KOB) 12 (12) NBC

Silver City, New Mexico
KOBG-TV (satellite of KOB) 6 (12) NBC

Roswell, New Mexico
KOBR (satellite of KOB) 8 (8) NBC

Albany - Schenectady - Troy, New York
WNYT 13 (12) NBC
WNYA (licensed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts) 51 (13) MyNetworkTV

Rochester, New York
WHEC-TV 10 (10) NBC

Radio stations
Phoenix
KDUS-1060 Sports radio
KAZG-1440 Oldies
KDKB-93.3 Alternative rock
KUPD-97.9 Active rock
KSLX-FM-100.7 Classic rock
KNAI-860 Regional Mexican

Los Angeles
KKLQ-100.3 Classic rock

Washington, D.C.
WBQH-1050 Regional Mexican
WFED-1500 Federal news/talk
WWFD-820 Freeform
WTOP-FM-103.5 News
WTLP-103.9 (simulcasts WTOP-FM) News
WWWT-FM-107.7 (simulcasts WTOP-FM) News

Idaho Falls - Pocatello
KEII-690 (simulcasts KNBL) News/Talk
KNBL-1260 News/Talk
KLCE-97.3 Adult contemporary
KCVI-101.5 Active rock
KFTZ-103.3 Contemporary hit radio
KTHK-105.5 Country

Chicago
WDRV-97.1 Classic rock
WWDV-96.9 (simulcasts WDRV) Classic rock
WSHE-FM-100.3 Adult contemporary
WTMX-101.9 Hot adult contemporary

Alexandria, Minnesota
KULO-94.3 Oldies
KIKV-FM-100.7 Country

Bemidji, Minnesota
KBUN-1450 Sports radio
KKZY-95.5 Adult contemporary
KLLZ-FM-99.1 Classic rock
KBHP-101.1 Country
KBUN-FM-104.5 Sports radio

Brainerd-Baxter, Minnesota
KVBR-1340 Business news/talk
KLIZ-1380 Sports radio
KBLB-93.3 Country
KUAL-FM-103.5 Oldies/Classic hits
WJJY-FM-106.7 Adult contemporary
KLIZ-FM-107.5 Classic rock

Minneapolis - Saint Paul
KSTP-1500 News/Talk
KSTP-FM-94.5 Hot adult contemporary
KSKN-107.1 Sports radio
WIXK-1590 Country

Wadena-Staples, Minnesota
KWAD-920 Classic country
KNSP-1430 Sports radio
KKWS-105.9 Country

St. Louis
KPNT-105.7 Alternative
KSHE-94.7 Mainstream Rock
WARH-106.5 Adult hits
WIL-FM-92.3 Country
WXOS-101.1 Sports radio
WIL-1430 Oldies

St. George
KDXU 890 News/Talk
KHKR 1210 Sports radio
KREC 98.1 Adult contemporary
KIYK 106.1 (simulcasts KCIN) Country
KCIN 94.1 Country

Seattle
KIXI-880 Adult standards
KKNW-1150 News
KQMV-92.5 Contemporary hit radio
KNUC-98.9 Country
KRWM-106.9 Adult contemporary

West Palm Beach
WMEN-640 Sports radio
WFTL-850 News/Talk
WRMF-97.9 Adult Top 40

Cable channels (through Hubbard Media Group division)
Ovation (purchased August 2006; co-owned with Bob and Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company)
Reelz (launched September 2006)