Industry Radio Headquarters Clemmons Type of business Privately owned | Website Official website Founded 1997 | |
Genre Radio broadcasting company Area served Winchester, Virginia
Fredericksburg, Virginia Key people Allen B. Shaw (President/CEO) Total assets 4 FM stations
2 AM stations | ||
Centennial Broadcasting is a small market radio broadcasting company based in Clemmons, North Carolina. The company is led by President and CEO Allen B. Shaw. Shaw began his career in 1959, at the age of 15, at radio station WRWB in Kissimmee, Florida.
Contents
1997-2000
Centennial purchased Las Vegas-based KJUL from American General Media for an undisclosed sum on May 13, 1997. Two months later, on July 22, 1997, the company bought another Las Vegas station, KSTJ, also for an undisclosed amount. In March 1998, Sinclair Broadcast Group sold three New Orleans-based stations to the company for $16 million. The stations included two FMs, WRNO-FM and KMEZ, and one AM, WBYU. In April of the same year, Centennial purchased Las Vegas station KKLZ from Apogee Companies for $21 million. The company sold all six of its stations to Beasley Broadcast Group in late 2000 for $113.5 Million.
2004-Present
The company would re-enter the radio business, this time in Virginia, with the purchase of Lynchburg, Virginia-area stations WZZI (then at 101.5) and WZZU from Travis Media, LLC on August 31, 2004 for $4.146 million. In 2005, the company purchased WLNI from 3 Daughters Media for $4.4 million. Centennial filed suit on 3 Daughters Media and owner Gary Burns in 2006 for violating a five-year non-compete agreement. The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled 3 Daughters Media "could not operate a station with a Talk format until the five-year non-compete" had ended on August 4, 2006. Burns appealed to United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which upheld the previous court's ruling. In March 2005, Cumulus Media sold WBWR and translator W247AD-FM to Centennial for $1.9 million. The deal closed in April of the same year.
On May 17, 2007, Centennial announced it was buying WINC, WINC-FM, WWRT, and WWRE in Winchester and WBQB and WFVA in Fredericksburg from Mid-Atlantic Network, Inc. for $36 million. Later reports had the price of the sale at $35.972 million. Shaw, commenting in a Winchester Star interview on the sale, said he had been considering buying the stations for several months. The sale closed in August 2007.
In April 2008, the company agreed to purchase four stations from Univision Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico for $24 million. The sale included stations KIOT, KJFA, KKRG, and KKSS. For unknown reasons, the sale was never completed and the stations remain owned by Univision.
On February 1, 2011, WVMP was sold to CityWorks Community Broadcasting, LLC for $500,000. Centennial sold WZZU and WZZI (now on 106.9), then airing an Active Rock format, to WVJT, LLC. for $523,000 on August 27, 2012. Mel Wheeler, Inc. purchased W247AD-FM from Centennial for $75,000 on April 4, 2012. A year later, Centennial sold WLNI to Mel Wheeler, Inc. on January 12, 2013 for $1.025 million. That sale was delayed due to a "petition to deny" filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Gary Burns, owner of 3 Daughters Media, contented the sale would give Mel Wheeler, Inc. control of too many stations in one market. The FCC disagreed and denied the "petition to deny" in August 2013.
Stations
Centennial Broadcasting owns and operates six stations in two different markets in Northern Virginia.