Capital Cities Communications
| Private | |
| Industry | radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, publishing, recording |
| Fate | Acquired by The Walt Disney Company |
| Successor | Disney–ABC Television Group |
| Founded | April 5, 1946 |
| Defunct | September 19, 1996 |
| Headquarters | Albany, New York, New York City |
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Capital Cities Communications (sometimes referred to as "CapCities") was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985. It became Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. Its successor is Disney–ABC Television Group, a unit of The Walt Disney Company, which purchased CapCities in 1996.
Capital Cities' origins traced earlier as 1946, when Hyman Rosenblum (1911–1996), a local Albany businessman, along with several investors including Congressman Leo William O'Brien, decided to formed a radio station. Rosenblum was also instrumental in help co-founding Hudson Valley Community College in Troy several years later. The company was incorporated as Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, on April 5, 1946. when the company received a license for WROW radio in Albany, New York. In October 1953, it opened the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area's second television station, WROW-TV on channel 41. In the late fall of 1954, a group of New York City-based investors, led by legendary radio broadcaster and author Lowell Thomas, bought majority control of Hudson Valley Broadcasting from Rosenblum and associates. Thomas' manager/investing partner, Frank Smith became the President of the company.
In 1956, WROW-TV moved from channel 41 to channel 10 and became WCDA. In 1957, Hudson Valley Broadcasting merged with Durham Broadcasting Enterprises, the owners of WTVD television in Durham, North Carolina. The new company took the name Capital Cities Television Corporation effective November 8, 1957, as both WCDA (now WTEN) and WTVD served the capital regions of their respective states. Capital Cities then began purchasing stations, starting with WPRO-AM-FM-TV in Providence, Rhode Island (another capital city) in 1959.
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