West Virginia Media Holdings

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West Virginia Media Holdings is a media chain in West Virginia. It owns television stations in each of the four main media markets in the state, as well as a weekly newspaper.

The group owns WOWK in Huntington, West Virginia, WVNS-TV in Beckley, West Virginia, and WTRF in Wheeling, West Virginia, which are all affiliated with the CBS network, and WBOY in Clarksburg, West Virginia which is affiliated with NBC. It also owns the State Journal weekly newspaper.

The group was founded in 2001. The idea was to share reporting among the four stations and thus cover the state in a unique way. This has been hampered because the largest two media markets have substantial populations living in other states, the news of those states being mostly ignored by the stations. The group's news coverage is unable to reach the eastern part of the state, which receives its television from Washington, DC. The group has also come under fire for its choices regarding on-air personnel and for changing the sets, logos, and graphics of smaller stations to mirror those of WOWK, the Charleston-Huntington member station, thus robbing the smaller stations of their individual identity. The group attempted to buy the Charleston Daily Mail daily newspaper, but was not successful.

The largest private investor in the company is Bray Cary. Cary was formerly an executive with NASCAR, and was responsible for its television contract, and was also involved in syndication of college basketball games. The company was, however, forced to reveal that the bulk of its funding came from the endowment of West Virginia University and that many state political figures that the stations covered were also investors in the company.

WBOY the NBC affiliate in Clarksburg, WV is the only station that leads its DMA (designated market area) in the Nielsen ratings.

[edit] External links

• Company website