Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
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Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley Jr., was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW (AM). Most of its broadcast properties adopted call signs in which the first three letters were WLW.
During World War II, the company built the Bethany Relay Station in Butler County, Ohio's Union Township, one mile west of its transmitter for WLW, for the Office of War Information. It operated as many as five shortwave stations, using the callsigns WLWK, WLWL, WLWO, WLWR and WLWS. It operated the facility for the government until 1963.
In 1945, the Crosley interests were purchased by Aviation Company. The radio and appliance manufacturing arm changed its name to Avco, but the broadcast operations continued to operate under the Crosley name, until they were changed to Avco in the 1960s.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Crosley (or Avco) operated is own small television network in which programs were produced at one its stations and broadcast on the other Crosley stations in the midwest, and occasionally by non-Crosley stations as well. Since all of the Crosley television stations in Ohio were affiliated with NBC, the Crosley programming fit into the NBC network program schedule, and some programs were even picked up for broadcast by the entire NBC network, such as Midwestern Hayride and Breakfast Party. Other programs originated on the Crosley (or Avco) network included The Paul Dixon Show and The Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club, later hosted by Bob Braun. The Phil Donahue Show started in 1967 originating from WLWD in Dayton, Ohio. The Jerry Springer Show also started from WLWT in Cincinnati on the syndicated remnants of the network then owned by Multimedia, Inc.
In 1968 Avco, which had just purchased Embassy Pictures, consolidated its television operations into Avco Embassy Television, which became Multimedia Entertainment in 1976. In December 1995, Gannett acquired Multimedia, Inc. By 1997 all of the original Crosley radio and television properties had been sold off by its successor companies.
Broadcast outlets operated by Crosley Broadcasting or its successor Avco included:
AM Radio Stations
- WLW: 700 kHz in Cincinnati, Ohio
- WINS: 1010 kHz in New York, New York from 1946 to 1953
- WSAI: 1360 kHz in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1928 to 1945
- WOAI: 1200 kHz in San Antonio, Texas
FM Radio Stations
- WLWA: 101.1 MHz in Cincinnati, Ohio
- WLWB: 97.5 MHz in Dayton, Ohio
- WLWF: 96.3 MHz in Columbus, Ohio — Now WLVQ
- WLWS: 96.5 MHz in Hamilton, Ohio — Now WYGY
- WOAI: 102.5 MHz in San Antonio, Texas
Television Stations
- All are currently NBC affiliates (though WLWA/WXIA and WLWI/WTHR were ABC affiliates when they were owned by Crosley/Avco).
| Current DMA# | Market | Station | Years Owned | Current Owner |
| 9. | Atlanta | WLTV/WLWA 2/8/11 (now WXIA 11) | 1951-62 | Gannett Company |
| 25. | Indianapolis | WLWI 13 (now WTHR) | 1957-74 | Dispatch Broadcast Group |
| 32. | Columbus | WLWC 3/4 (now WCMH 4) | 1949-76 | Media General |
| 34. | Cincinnati | WLWT 4/5 | 1948-76 | Hearst-Argyle |
| 37. | San Antonio | WOAI-TV 4 | 1965-75 | Clear Channel |
| 59. | Dayton | WLWD 5/2 (now WDTN 2) | 1947-76 | LIN TV |
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