Cincinnati Area Again Broadcast Leader

The Cincinnati area was once considered a major force in broadcasting. The city was home to Avco (nee Crosley) Broadcasting, Scripps Howard and Taft Broadcasting making it a major national and international player in the TV and radio broadcast industry.  It was the home of the first non-commercial public TV station, WCET. North in West Chester the Voice of America operated for more than 50 ears a major transmission facility with the world’s most powerful short wave facility.  The area was also home to several broadcasting companies with extensive radio holdings.  The broadcasting business was once considered to be in Cincinnati’s DNA and it seems that it still is.

Cincinnati is once again making national headlines with the E.W. Scripps Company’s announcement last week.  The locally based Scripps, and Journal Communications Inc. of Milwaukee, have agreed to merge broadcasting operations.  This will make Scripps one of the largest broadcast station group owners in the country with more than 30 TV stations in markets spread throughout the nation.

At a time when the lines between broadcasting and online video services were becoming blurred, Scripps was able to make some significant mid-course corrections in the way they did business.  In the 1990s, the company, which was then invested heavily in daily and weekly newspapers, embarked on a plan to reinvent itself and to include the development of several targeted cable TV program services.  These services now include some of the most watched.  DIY, The Food Network, HGTV and others continue to have robust programming delivered both on cable and online.

About five years ago, Scripps split the company into two new companies.  The cable TV programming holdings were spun off to a new company based in Knoxville leaving the Cincinnati based E. W, Scripps to operate traditional TV stations and newspapers.  Both companies have performed well for audiences and shareholders.  This most recent merger will spin off the Scripps daily and weekly newspapers into a new separate company and allow Scripps to concentrate solely on radio and TV broadcasting.

Scripps has demonstrated innovations within what some feel is old media.  They have incorporated highly visible web content to support their news and entertainment programming which they broadcast on their stations.  By doing so they have merged extraordinary audience reach and easy access to programming made possible by broadcast technology. Using the web they are able to target the rich content and offer interactivity and participation to audiences.  Programs like Let’s Ask America, a production of Scripps stations, incorporate both broadcast and web.

It is good to see a locally based company back in a leadership position within the broadcast industry.