Lilly Broadcasting
Lilly Broadcasting logo
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| private Limited liability company | |
| Industry | TV broadcasting |
| Subsidiaries | SJL Broadcasting |
Lilly Broadcasting, LLC is a privately owned American broadcasting company owned and operated by the Lilly Brothers’ Brian Lilly and Kevin Lilly. The company was founded in September 1999 with the purchase of WENY-TV (ABC) and WENY-FM & AM radio. In 2002, Kevin Lilly purchased WSEE-TV (CBS) in Erie, Pennsylvania and have since added the CBS and The CW affiliates in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and ABC in the Virgin Islands.
Brian and Kevin Lilly are the sons of George Lilly, whose SJL Broadcast Management (also previously known as the Montecito Broadcast Group) was founded in 1984 and based in Montecito, California. SJL owns WICU-TV in Erie and the two Companies purchased 3 TV stations from Gateway Communications in 2000, and four stations from Emmis Communications in 2005.
Lilly Broadcasting most recently with Sankety Advisors purchased KITV (ABC) in Hawaii.
WJRT-TV was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989. In 1991, a SJL affiliated partnership, Media Communications Partners Limited Partnership, purchased WTVG.
In 1995, SJL sold WJRT-TV and WTVG to ABC due to the possibility of WXYZ-TV changing its affiliation to CBS as part of a large swath of television network affiliation changes occurring at the time.
On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its remaining stations except WICU (KHON-TV, KOIN, KSNW and KSNT) to New Vision Television, ending the partnership between SJL and The Blackstone Group. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval of this sale in late-October of that year, and ownership was officially transferred on November 1.
On March 1, 2009, the last station formally owned by SJL, WICU, transferred its copyrights to Lilly Broadcasting when it merged its news operations with crosstown sister station WSEE-TV. Though SJL still technically exists (and still ostensibly owns WICU), its visible operations have now been subsumed by Lilly Broadcasting.
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