Milton Grant | |
|---|---|
 Grant, c. 1980s | |
| Born | May 13, 1923 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 28, 2007 (aged 83) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Notable work | The Milt Grant Show (1956–1961) |
Milton Grant (May 13, 1923 – April 28, 2007) was an American disc jockey and owner of television stations. Born in New York City, it was in Washington, D.C., where he made his mark as a disc jockey at radio stations WINX and WOL. Beginning in the early 1950s, he began appearing on Washington television station WTTG. From 1956 to 1961, he hosted the six-time-a-week The Milt Grant Show on WTTG; it was Washington's primary teen dance show on TV and made him a Washington icon of the period. When WTTG abruptly canceled the show in 1961, Grant continued to host programs on a "Teen Network" of four regional radio stations.
In the 1960s, Grant shifted from being an on-air personality to a behind-the-scenes figure. He organized the Capital Broadcasting Company, which built Washington independent WDCA. Grant owned the station until 1969 and continued as its general manager until January 1980, when he resigned to pursue applying for and building his own station in the city. That never occurred, but Grant aligned with Sidney Shlenker and other investors to launch two independent stations in Texas in the early 1980s: KTXA in Fort Worth and KTXH in Houston. These stations were where Grant perfected his launch strategy for new stations to come on "full-grown", freely spending on syndicated programming and promotion. They were sold to Gulf Broadcasting in 1984.
Grant then started a second station group, Grant Broadcasting System (GBS), which built WBFS-TV in Miami, launched WGBS-TV in Philadelphia, and relaunched WGBO-TV in Chicago. Grant used the same strategy in these markets, and while particularly the Miami and Philadelphia outlets saw success, the prices paid for syndicated shows and a flat advertising market left the company overextended. In December 1986, GBS filed for bankruptcy protection; Grant lost control of the stations, which were transferred to a group of GBS bondholders operating as Combined Broadcasting.
In 1990, Grant returned to broadcast station ownership with the purchase of bankrupt WZDX, a Fox affiliate serving Huntsville, Alabama. The new company—known variously as Grant Communications or Grant Broadcasting System II—later acquired stations in Virginia, New York, Iowa, and Wisconsin, broadcasting Fox, The CW, and MyNetworkTV. After Grant's death in 2007, his family sold the stations to Nexstar Broadcasting Group and affiliated companies in 2014.