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Taft Broadcasting
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The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was a media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and rooted in the family of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. The former president’s half-brother, Charles Phelps Taft, purchased the Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper in 1879; its later publishers included Charles' son, Hulbert Taft, Sr., and grandson Hulbert Taft, Jr.
The Taft family's involvement in broadcasting began in 1939 with the acquisition of Cincinnati’s WKRC-AM, and eventually spread all over the country to also include Tampa Bay radio and television stations WDAE (1979-1984), WYNF-FM (1980-1985), and WTSP-TV (1984-1996). The company is also notable for having been the owner of such major media and entertainment properties as the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio, independent distributor Worldvision Enterprises, QM Productions, and KECO Entertainment, its theme parks division.
In 1987, following a major restructuring of its operations, Cincinnati-based billionaire Carl Lindner, Jr., became Taft's majority stockholder and renamed the company Great American Broadcasting (also known as Great American Communications) after his Great American Insurance Company.
Great American filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 and re-named itself Citicasters after selling off many of its properties, including Worldvision, the Hanna-Barbera studio, and KECO Entertainment division. In 1996 Citicasters merged with Jacor Communications, which in turn was acquired by Clear Channel in 1999.
Station History
1979 - 1985 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (History)
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