Schurz Communications, Inc. is an American broadband media group and cloud services provider based in South Bend, Indiana. It previously owned newspapers and television stations.

History The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the South Bend Tribune. Over the years, the company grew through the acquisition of other newspapers, media outlets, radio and television stations, digital companies, broadband operations and cloud services provider. The expanding company was renamed Schurz Communications Inc. in 1976, when the newspapers division and the TV/broadcast division were split into separate entities.

Schurz Communications announced on September 14, 2015, that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including the Rushmore Media Company stations, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Gray subsequently announced on October 1 that it would sell the KOTA-TV license to Legacy Broadcasting for $1, a deal that also includes the license for satellite station KHSD-TV and the station's subchannel affiliations with MeTV and This TV; a month later, on November 2, Gray announced that HomeSlice Media Group would acquire the Rushmore Media Company radio stations for $2.2 million, reuniting them with KBHB and KKLS, which Schurz had sold to HomeSlice in 2014 as part of its acquisition of KOTA-TV. Following the completion of these sales, Gray will retain KOTA-TV's ABC affiliation and transfer it to its existing television station in Rapid City, KEVN-TV; it will also retain KOTA-TV satellite stations KDUH-TV and KSGW-TV and convert them to satellites of KNOP-TV in North Platte, Nebraska and KCWY-DT in Casper, Wyoming (both NBC affiliates), respectively.

In March 2015, the company sold the Imperial Valley Press newspaper based in El Centro, California.

In September 2016, The American News and Farm Forum, owned by Schurz, acquired The Public Opinion newspaper in Watertown, South Dakota from United Communications.

In February 2018, the company acquired the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Online Tech. The compliant hybrid cloud provider serves nearly 500 clients across the Midwest with its network of seven data centers and full suite of hybrid cloud services. In December of that year, Online Tech acquired the assets and products of IT provider Neverfail. The acquisition includes Neverfail's five cloud nodes and assets in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

In January 2019, Schurz sold its publishing division and all its newspapers to GateHouse Media for $30 million. This included 20 regional papers and several special publications in Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. GateHouse later bought the Gannett newspaper chain, and the expanded network of newspapers adopted the Gannett name.GateHouse Scoops Up 20 Local Newspapers In $30M Schurz Communications Deal, MediaPost, January 30, 2019, Retrieved February 17, 2019.

In March 2019, Schurz Communications bought the city-owned local broadband company Burlington Telecom of Burlington, Vermont for a total of $30.8 million.

Rushmore Media Company Rushmore Media Company, Inc. was a small radio broadcasting subsidiary, which owned and operated four radio stations and one television station in the Black Hills region of western South Dakota. The main offices and stations' studios are located at 660 Flormann St., Rapid City, South Dakota 57701.

Rushmore Media Company's group consisted of:

KRCS FM 93.1 "Today's Hottest Music" KKMK FM 93.9 "93.9 The Mix, The Black Hills Best Mix." KOUT FM 98.7 "The Black Hills' Favorite Country" KFXS FM 100.3 "Classic Rock 100.3 The Fox" KHME channel 3 (ABC) (formerly KOTA-TV, "KOTA Territory") KDUH-TV channel 4 Scottsbluff, Nebraska (satellite of KHME) KQME channel 11 Lead, South Dakota (satellite of KHME) KSGW-TV channel 12 Sheridan, Wyoming (satellite of KHME)

Current properties

Broadband systems Antietam Broadband - Hagerstown, Maryland Burlington Telecom - Burlington, Vermont Hiawatha Broadband - Winona, Minnesota Long Lines Broadband - Sergeant Bluff, Iowa Orbitel Communications - Maricopa, Arizona

Cloud Managed Services Otava - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Former properties Newspapers Imperial Valley Press - El Centro, California Times Mail - Bedford, Indiana Southside Times - Beech Grove, Indiana The Herald-Times - Bloomington, Indiana The Hoosier Topics - Cloverdale, Indiana Fishers Weekly - Fishers, Indiana Reporter-Times - Martinsville, Indiana Mooresville-Decatur Times - Mooresville, Indiana Noblesville Daily Times - Noblesville, Indiana South Bend Tribune - South Bend, Indiana Evening World - Spencer, Indiana The Advocate-Messenger - Danville, Kentucky The Jessamine Journal - Nicholasville, Kentucky The Interior Journal - Stanford, Kentucky The Winchester Sun - Winchester, Kentucky The Herald-Mail - Hagerstown, Maryland Charlevoix Courier - Charlevoix, Michigan Gaylord Herald Times - Gaylord, Michigan Petoskey News-Review - Petoskey, Michigan Daily American - Somerset, Pennsylvania The American News - Aberdeen, South Dakota The Public Opinion - Watertown, South Dakota

Stations Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license. Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station built and signed on by Schurz.

+ Stations owned by Schurz Communications Media market State Station Purchased Sold Notes Anchorage Alaska KTUU-TV 2008 2016 Augusta Georgia WAGT 1980 2016 Lafayette Indiana WASK 1991 2016 WASK-FM 1995 2016 WKHY 2005 2016 WKOA 1991 2016 WXXB 2005 2016 South Bend WNSN 1962 2016 WSBT 1922 2016 WSBT-TV ** 1952 2016 WZOC 2012 2016 Ensign Kansas KBSD-DT 2006 2016 Goodland KBSL-DT 2006 2016 Hays KBSH-DT 2006 2016 Hutchinson–Wichita KDCU-DT 2008 2016 KSCW-DT 2007 2016 KWCH-DT 2006 2016 Benton Harbor Michigan WHFB-FM 2012 2016 Springfield Missouri K15CZ-D 2002 2016 KSPR 2007 2017 KYTV 1987 2016 Scottsbluff Nebraska KDUH-TV 2014 2016 Lead South Dakota KHSD-TV 2014 2016 Rapid City KFXS 2006 2016 KKLS 2006 2014 KKMK 2006 2016 KOTA-TV 2014 2016 KOUT 2006 2016 Sturgis KBHB 2006 2014 KRCS 2006 2016 Sheridan Wyoming KSGW-TV 2014 2016 Roanoke–Lynchburg Virginia WDBJ 1969 2016

See also Schurz Communications, Incorporated v. Federal Communications Commission and United States of America

References

External links