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Private company

Barrington Broadcasting

Logo: w:Barrington Broadcasting, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American broadcast television corporation (2003–2013)

Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC was an American mass media and broadcasting company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It owned television stations primarily in middle and small-sized media markets. Barrington owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four television stations, with the potential to reach about 3.4 percent of households in the U.S. It was owned by Pilot Group, a private equity firm.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

May 2003Founded1
  • Industrymass media1
  • HeadquartersSchaumburg1

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Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC was an American mass media and broadcasting company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It owned television stations primarily in middle and small-sized media markets. Barrington owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four television stations, with the potential to reach about 3.4 percent of households in the U.S. It was owned by Pilot Group, a private equity firm.2

The story

Barrington Broadcasting was established in May 2003 by a team of former executives from Benedek Broadcasting. Following Benedek's bankruptcy and subsequent divestiture of all television assets in 2002, K. James Yager, the former President, along with Senior Vice-Presidents Chris Cornelius, Keith Bland, and Mary Flodin, formed a company for medium and small market broadcasting.

The company began operations in January 2004 with its purchases of former Benedek stations WHOI-TV (Peoria, Illinois) and KHQA-TV (Hannibal, Missouri/Quincy, Illinois) along with WEYI-TV in Vienna Township, Michigan. Barrington grew slowly at first, adding five more stations between 2004 and early 2006. A major expansion took place on March 27, 2006, when Raycom Media agreed to sell twelve of its network-affiliated TV stations to Barrington for $262 million. The sale was completed on August 11. In recent years, Barrington had been at the forefront of integrating social media and the internet into their on-air content.

In late 2012, it was announced that Pilot Group had put Barrington up for sale and that both Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group were in final talks to acquire the full regiment of stations. On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell its stations to Sinclair. The sale was granted FCC approval on November 18. The transaction was formally consummated on November 25.

From Wikipedia’s article on Barrington Broadcasting, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. Nov 25, 2013Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. May 2003Founded Founded1

Sources

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