Great American Broadcasting
1973-1999 Logo
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| Corporation | |
| Industry | television and radio network |
| Fate | Acquired by Clear Channel Communications |
| Successor | iHeartMedia |
| Founded | 1939 |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Cincinnati, Ohio |
The Taft Broadcasting Company (also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated), was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The company is rooted in the family of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. In 1879, William Howard's brother, Charles Phelps Taft, purchased two afternoon newspapers in Cincinnati, The Times and The Cincinnati Daily Star, merging them into the Cincinnati Times-Star in 1880. It was during the tenure of the merged paper's second publisher, Hulbert Taft Sr., son of Charles and William Howard's half-brother, Peter Rawson Taft II, that the newspaper also became involved in broadcasting.
The company was the owner of such major media and entertainment properties as Hanna-Barbera Productions, Worldvision Enterprises, Ruby-Spears Productions, KECO Entertainment and many television and radio stations. It also owned 50% of CIC Video's Australian operations, CIC-Taft Home Video.
The company went through a huge reorganization period starting in the late 1980s with its acquisition by Carl Lindner, Jr. to become Great American Broadcasting. Shortly after filing for bankruptcy in 1993, it became Citicasters and was in 1999, acquired by Clear Channel Communications, which was renamed iHeartMedia in 2014. Taft — as Citicasters — is still incorporated as a holding company within iHeartMedia.
The Taft family's involvement in broadcasting began in 1939 as Radio Cincinnati, Inc., when the Cincinnati Times-Star purchased WKRC radio from CBS.
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Wikipedia