Twin brothers in Toledo, Ohio were born into a rich media family that owns Block Communications. Family members have been fighting for power and riches from the company their parents started. So now Gray Television, which owns WAVE3 in Louisville, is buying Block Communications, which owns WDRB and WBKI. That means Louisville will see a merger of assets from all three stations and the inevitable RIF (reduction in force).
Good luck to all involved.
Terry Meiners discusses the similarities between the Toledo family fighting with the 1980s squabbles among Louisville's Bingham family who owned The Courier-Journal, Louisville Times, WHAS11, and WHAS & WAMZ Radio.
The Bingham nepo babies fought over money and power until the patriarch sold all of the Louisville media properties for over $450 million in 1986.
Good luck to all involved.
Terry Meiners discusses the similarities between the Toledo family fighting with the 1980s squabbles among Louisville's Bingham family who owned The Courier-Journal, Louisville Times, WHAS11, and WHAS & WAMZ Radio.
The Bingham nepo babies fought over money and power until the patriarch sold all of the Louisville media properties for over $450 million in 1986.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Media news here Locally, the merger or buyout of one
TV station or a pair of TV stations by Gray.
Gray owns Wave three. Block Communications in Toledo owns WDRB
and WBKI, but Block the company is selling all of
its TV assets to Gray Television, which owns over one
(00:24):
hundred stations somewhere. A lot of people around here are like,
what happens next, Well, we don't really know yet. We
don't know, you know, if that's not going to reduce
the signals, but it'll be. You know, in this building
where we are, there are eight radio signals that come
out of here. So we're operating a country station, a
sports station of this thing. You know, that's how that works.
(00:47):
And so we'll just see what the Gray Television folks
decide they're going to do with how they're going to
use the assets of both of those. But it's fascinating
on many fronts. And just like the Binghams who own
this station back in the eighty they owned it from
one hundred years ago. This radio station has been on
the air one hundred and three years and then TV
(01:10):
came on, like in nineteen fifty. The Bingham kids, the
NEPO babies started arguing in the eighties, I want a
more important role on the board. One of them sitting
there knitting at the board meetings. It's like what. Then
they started squabbling, I want my money's and then next
(01:31):
thing you know, they blew up the whole deal. It
was the Courier Journal, WHS TV and WHS Radio and
w A MZ radio and Standard Reviewer that printed like
Sunday magazines print, you know, color printing and so forth,
and then all that all those assets had to be
(01:52):
sold separately, and it's like whoah who. So that's what
happened here. Now the family in Toledo, well, this twin brothers,
I think one was the CEO, then the other one
was in this move here there whatever, you can read
all about it. I have a Twitter thread on there
with various articles connected to the squabbling that's gone on
(02:14):
in Toledo. And so finally I guess they're just like
sell them great television's buying.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I was under the impression the broadcast to the SEC regulations,
they changed a lot, but I was under the impression
that a company could only own one TV station per market.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But that's not the case, is it. No, it's different now.
And you'll recall the nineteen nineties, the Telecommunications Act came along.
Remember this radio station and WAMZ were in the WHASTV building.
Telecommunications Act comes along and like I'm going to say,
nineteen ninety five, ninety six somewhere in there, which allowed
(02:52):
radio companies to own more signals. It may have changed
the dynamics for TV at that time too. I don't
really recall that, but suddenly our two stations HS and
AMZ became eight stations, eight signals because there was some
trading going on between different companies here. Hey, we'll give
you one oh seven or whatever. Remember we had one
oh three point nine or whatever, you know, and then
(03:15):
we traded and we had one oh whatever, and then
all that just sort of blew up. It was because
too many stations were dying on the vine. TV's going
through a lot of that too, and so it's just
a changing media landscape, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
All.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Let's talk about Stephen Colbert. Oh, how good dare they was?
Stephen Coleber. Well, it's a different dynamic. Johnny Carson had
forty million viewers. Stephen Colbert has two million. You can't
make the same amount of money with one twentieth of
the audience. There's so much more that goes on in
terms of streaming, entertainment product that's out there that other
(03:55):
people have splintered a lot of the things that go on.
That's just part of reality and you have to accept
that and move on. So this is just some of
the shifting sands. The tectonic plates of media are just
moving again, and it's going on. It's not just unique
to here. It's going on across America, so there are
different things going on. There have been rumors about stations
joining together here in the past and people saying, well,
(04:19):
maybe it'll just be one TV news source for everybody,
and so we'll see how it works. I mean, whastv
uses on your side? Isn't that their phrase?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
They are on our side?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yet? Yes? There are they? I mean are they always
and the other? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I remember the spirit of Wave Country.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh that's a long time ago. No, it's first Alert now.
I think that's the phrase that gets used by that
company in other markets. So could that become the titular
name of the next feat? I don't know, but you know,
if you say that we're on your side, you're not
on everybody's side. Some gets drunk and drives a car
(05:01):
off a cliff, you're not on his side. I do
take things literally.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
What was that thirty two alive? They were alive? Oh,
that's right, Action News, all kinds of good ones.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yes, But there's more consolidation of ownership that's just going
on around America. So we'll just watch to see what
happens with the various management overseers as they move along.
But yeah, you know, I went to my son's graduation
Western earlier this year, and I noticed when I was
sitting there at the red light at the bottom of
(05:35):
the hill, they are the hilltoppers. When I was at
the bottom of the hills looking over at the TV station,
that's odd. I saw their call letters and it said
CBS and ABC, and I'm like, how's that work? Exactly? Well,
that's what's happening here. It's a duopoly, that's the word.
So again, there's more of this stuff moving around America,
and we'll just see what comes out of And I
(05:56):
just wish everybody well. Loved the media, the media universe
in general, and I love people from all the different
stations here in town. Some this fingers crossed for everybody. Yeah,
I do too. There's a lot of good people working.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
You see the streets every day, reporters, editors, assignment managers, salespeople.
So you hope that they, you know, survived this change,
whatever it may be.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
As far as the Binghams went, they took their money,
they took their pile of money, and then went their
separate ways and really didn't talk that much more. But
let me tell you something. I used to make fun
of Sally Bingham on here in my early days on
this station. I was Sally's voice, and Sally Bingham, you know.
And then I called and I would talk to my
own voice. And then she her husband sent me a
(06:39):
bag of cow dung. And then years later I read
some other book and something other. Anyway, some claim she
was making back then was correct. So I sent her
an email in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Albuquerque, somewhere wherever
she lives. I said, you know what, you were right.
(06:59):
I apologized for saying such and such here twenty five
years ago or whatever it was. She sent me an
email right back. He goes, hey, let's have a drink
sometime next time. I've been good for her. But yeah,
that family squabble stuff is serious. Oh yeah, yeah, you know,
and that's that's that's what I guess. Put these two
signals here in Louisville on the up on the bargain table.
(07:23):
They're on the cutout table. But you know, there's a
lot of good folks that work at these stations, so
we just wish them all well, it's the best thing
you can do, all right. Also, today is August first,
and that means there was a momentous, not broadcast but
cable moment that came. I was working with Ron Clay
early in my career at w LRS, and we were
(07:46):
on TV every morning on the cable channel. It was
Store Communications at that time here in Loeuis. Will you
remember that, mind? I do? I do have that box
on top of your TV. Yep. We were hilarious because
on the radio we would do our radio sketches and
then we play music, and then there were two cameras
in the studio to watch us do our radio show.
It was just like a morning just look in and
(08:07):
see it. Don Imus ripped us off later. We did
that long before anybody else. And we would then play
to the cameras while the music was on the radio station, huh.
And then we'd come back and then they'd have the
radio broadcast feed to go with it. But we were
doing little sketches, and you could be a little edgier
because you were on cable. So we had fun, and
a lot of people will still bring that up to
(08:28):
me now. We used to sit there and eat breakfast
and watch you guys. It was hilarious. And then in
nineteen eighty one, I guess it is probably in July
of nineteen eighty one, they said, dudes, we got to
pull the plug on your morning shows. Like why. They said, well,
they're starting something new on MTV excuse me, on the
(08:50):
cable channel called MTV. It's gonna be music videos. And
we're like, that'll never work with the radio show thrived
And here I sat forty four years later. What goes
(09:14):
around comes around. They said, video killed the radio star
with their first song, I Ain't dead yet.
Media news here Locally, the merger or buyout of one
TV station or a pair of TV stations by Gray.
Gray owns Wave three. Block Communications in Toledo owns WDRB
and WBKI, but Block the company is selling all of
its TV assets to Gray Television, which owns over one
(00:24):
hundred stations somewhere. A lot of people around here are like,
what happens next, Well, we don't really know yet. We
don't know, you know, if that's not going to reduce
the signals, but it'll be. You know, in this building
where we are, there are eight radio signals that come
out of here. So we're operating a country station, a
sports station of this thing. You know, that's how that works.
(00:47):
And so we'll just see what the Gray Television folks
decide they're going to do with how they're going to
use the assets of both of those. But it's fascinating
on many fronts. And just like the Binghams who own
this station back in the eighty they owned it from
one hundred years ago. This radio station has been on
the air one hundred and three years and then TV
(01:10):
came on, like in nineteen fifty. The Bingham kids, the
NEPO babies started arguing in the eighties, I want a
more important role on the board. One of them sitting
there knitting at the board meetings. It's like what. Then
they started squabbling, I want my money's and then next
(01:31):
thing you know, they blew up the whole deal. It
was the Courier Journal, WHS TV and WHS Radio and
w A MZ radio and Standard Reviewer that printed like
Sunday magazines print, you know, color printing and so forth,
and then all that all those assets had to be
(01:52):
sold separately, and it's like whoah who. So that's what
happened here. Now the family in Toledo, well, this twin brothers,
I think one was the CEO, then the other one
was in this move here there whatever, you can read
all about it. I have a Twitter thread on there
with various articles connected to the squabbling that's gone on
(02:14):
in Toledo. And so finally I guess they're just like
sell them great television's buying.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I was under the impression the broadcast to the SEC regulations,
they changed a lot, but I was under the impression
that a company could only own one TV station per market.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But that's not the case, is it. No, it's different now.
And you'll recall the nineteen nineties, the Telecommunications Act came along.
Remember this radio station and WAMZ were in the WHASTV building.
Telecommunications Act comes along and like I'm going to say,
nineteen ninety five, ninety six somewhere in there, which allowed
(02:52):
radio companies to own more signals. It may have changed
the dynamics for TV at that time too. I don't
really recall that, but suddenly our two stations HS and
AMZ became eight stations, eight signals because there was some
trading going on between different companies here. Hey, we'll give
you one oh seven or whatever. Remember we had one
oh three point nine or whatever, you know, and then
(03:15):
we traded and we had one oh whatever, and then
all that just sort of blew up. It was because
too many stations were dying on the vine. TV's going
through a lot of that too, and so it's just
a changing media landscape, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
All.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Let's talk about Stephen Colbert. Oh, how good dare they was?
Stephen Coleber. Well, it's a different dynamic. Johnny Carson had
forty million viewers. Stephen Colbert has two million. You can't
make the same amount of money with one twentieth of
the audience. There's so much more that goes on in
terms of streaming, entertainment product that's out there that other
(03:55):
people have splintered a lot of the things that go on.
That's just part of reality and you have to accept
that and move on. So this is just some of
the shifting sands. The tectonic plates of media are just
moving again, and it's going on. It's not just unique
to here. It's going on across America, so there are
different things going on. There have been rumors about stations
joining together here in the past and people saying, well,
(04:19):
maybe it'll just be one TV news source for everybody,
and so we'll see how it works. I mean, whastv
uses on your side? Isn't that their phrase?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
They are on our side?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yet? Yes? There are they? I mean are they always
and the other? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I remember the spirit of Wave Country.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh that's a long time ago. No, it's first Alert now.
I think that's the phrase that gets used by that
company in other markets. So could that become the titular
name of the next feat? I don't know, but you know,
if you say that we're on your side, you're not
on everybody's side. Some gets drunk and drives a car
(05:01):
off a cliff, you're not on his side. I do
take things literally.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
What was that thirty two alive? They were alive? Oh,
that's right, Action News, all kinds of good ones.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yes, But there's more consolidation of ownership that's just going
on around America. So we'll just watch to see what
happens with the various management overseers as they move along.
But yeah, you know, I went to my son's graduation
Western earlier this year, and I noticed when I was
sitting there at the red light at the bottom of
(05:35):
the hill, they are the hilltoppers. When I was at
the bottom of the hills looking over at the TV station,
that's odd. I saw their call letters and it said
CBS and ABC, and I'm like, how's that work? Exactly? Well,
that's what's happening here. It's a duopoly, that's the word.
So again, there's more of this stuff moving around America,
and we'll just see what comes out of And I
(05:56):
just wish everybody well. Loved the media, the media universe
in general, and I love people from all the different
stations here in town. Some this fingers crossed for everybody. Yeah,
I do too. There's a lot of good people working.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
You see the streets every day, reporters, editors, assignment managers, salespeople.
So you hope that they, you know, survived this change,
whatever it may be.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
As far as the Binghams went, they took their money,
they took their pile of money, and then went their
separate ways and really didn't talk that much more. But
let me tell you something. I used to make fun
of Sally Bingham on here in my early days on
this station. I was Sally's voice, and Sally Bingham, you know.
And then I called and I would talk to my
own voice. And then she her husband sent me a
(06:39):
bag of cow dung. And then years later I read
some other book and something other. Anyway, some claim she
was making back then was correct. So I sent her
an email in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Albuquerque, somewhere wherever
she lives. I said, you know what, you were right.
(06:59):
I apologized for saying such and such here twenty five
years ago or whatever it was. She sent me an
email right back. He goes, hey, let's have a drink
sometime next time. I've been good for her. But yeah,
that family squabble stuff is serious. Oh yeah, yeah, you know,
and that's that's that's what I guess. Put these two
signals here in Louisville on the up on the bargain table.
(07:23):
They're on the cutout table. But you know, there's a
lot of good folks that work at these stations, so
we just wish them all well, it's the best thing
you can do, all right. Also, today is August first,
and that means there was a momentous, not broadcast but
cable moment that came. I was working with Ron Clay
early in my career at w LRS, and we were
(07:46):
on TV every morning on the cable channel. It was
Store Communications at that time here in Loeuis. Will you
remember that, mind? I do? I do have that box
on top of your TV. Yep. We were hilarious because
on the radio we would do our radio sketches and
then we play music, and then there were two cameras
in the studio to watch us do our radio show.
It was just like a morning just look in and
(08:07):
see it. Don Imus ripped us off later. We did
that long before anybody else. And we would then play
to the cameras while the music was on the radio station, huh.
And then we'd come back and then they'd have the
radio broadcast feed to go with it. But we were
doing little sketches, and you could be a little edgier
because you were on cable. So we had fun, and
a lot of people will still bring that up to
(08:28):
me now. We used to sit there and eat breakfast
and watch you guys. It was hilarious. And then in
nineteen eighty one, I guess it is probably in July
of nineteen eighty one, they said, dudes, we got to
pull the plug on your morning shows. Like why. They said, well,
they're starting something new on MTV excuse me, on the
(08:50):
cable channel called MTV. It's gonna be music videos. And
we're like, that'll never work with the radio show thrived
And here I sat forty four years later. What goes
(09:14):
around comes around. They said, video killed the radio star
with their first song, I Ain't dead yet.
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