“ Our thesis is that local news and sports are the most durable types of programming ”
CHRIS RIPLEY PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER , SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
Del Parks , a veteran of the company and its President of Technology , explains how the founder started Sinclair . Julian Smith and a small group of shareholders had formed a broadcast trade school in 1958 ( Commercial Radio Institute , known as CRI ), the same year that he applied to build an FM radio station . Smith saw that FM radio had better quality and better signal propagation to cover markets than AM radio .
“ Julian Smith started this company with an FM radio station , which he built in 1964 ,” says Parks . It was a big gamble . “ In the
United States , in the 1960s , AM radio was king , even more so than TV .”
“ The FM station was broadcasting in stereo when stereo pretty much didn ' t exist ,” says Parks . “ So , he built the equipment himself including consoles and multiple accessories . He was also running the technology school , which is where I met him . I started at the school in 1970 while he was building the TV station . So , some of the students pitched in and helped him build it .”
The company then built its Baltimore studio and another one in Pittsburgh in 1976 , then another one in Columbus , Ohio in the 1980s . Acquisition of key stations and television groups throughout the country followed , as Sinclair grew to gain its status as a Fortune 500 company in 2021 .
Five years ago , the company entered the sports broadcasting market , acquiring Tennis Channel . In 2019 , the group established itself as the major regional sports program provider when it acquired the Fox Sports regional sports networks , which it rebranded as “ Bally Sports .” As the largest regional sports broadcaster in the United States , Bally
100 May 2022