Expansion
Metropolitan Broadcasting's first acquisitions included WHK-AM-FM in Cleveland (in 1958);[12] the Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising firm[13] (in 1959); and KOVR in Stockton, California, Benedict Gimbel Jr.-owned WIP-AM-FM in Philadelphia, WTVH-TV (now WHOI) in Peoria, Illinois, and WTVP television (now WAND) in Decatur, Illinois (all in 1960).[14][15] In 1961 Metropolitan purchased KMBC-AM-TV in Kansas City, Missouri.[16] Later that year the company's name was changed to Metromedia;[17] the Metropolitan Broadcasting name was retained for its broadcasting division until 1967.[18]
In separate 1963 deals the company expanded into Los Angeles, buying first KTTV and later KLAC and the original KLAC-FM (now KIIS-FM).[19][20] The company would later engineer a swap of FM facilities; the second KLAC-FM (later KMET and now KTWV) was established in 1965.[21] Metromedia also entered the realm of live entertainment by purchasing the Ice Capades (in 1963)[22] and the Harlem Globetrotters (in 1967).[23] Later in the decade Metromedia opened a television production center in Los Angeles, known as Metromedia Square, which served as the studio facility for numerous network programs. Metromedia also owned a TV production and distribution company called Metromedia Producers Corporation (MPC), established in 1968 from Wolper Productions. The MPC unit was originally Wolper Television Sales, before Wolper split from Metromedia in 1968 as a result of an aborted merger attempt with
Metromedia entered the record business in 1969 with the launch of the Metromedia Records label, whose biggest-selling artist was Bobby Sherman. The label was also notable as having issued the first two studio albums of Peter Allen, Peter Allen (1971) and Tenterfield Saddler (1972).[29] The label was closed in 1974. Allen's Tenterfield Saddler, the title song of which has become an Australian standard, was acquired and reissued by A&M Records in 1978.[30]
In 1976, similar to the more successful SFM Holiday Network of syndicated stations launched two years later, Metromedia teamed up with Ogilvy and Mather for a proposed linking of independent TV stations termed MetroNet. The proposed programming would consist of several Sunday night family dramas, on weeknights a half-hour serial and a gothic series similar to Dark Shadows, and on Saturdays a variety program hosted by Charo. The plans for MetroNet failed when advertisers balked at Metromedia's advertising rate, which was only slightly lower than the Big Three's and low national coverage, leaving for another similar operation, Operation Prime Time.[31] In 1978, Metromedia acquired stations KRLD in Dallas and KRIV-TV in Houston.[32] In 1979, Metromedia Producers Corporation had also reached a deal with Bob Stewart Productions for an exclusive co-producing agreement.[33]
In 1982, Metromedia made its biggest broadcasting purchase when it acquired WCVB-TV in Boston for $220 million, which at the time was the largest amount ever spent on a single television station property.[34] Two years later, John Kluge bought out Metromedia's shareholders and took the company private.[35]
Also around this time, Metromedia attempted to bring to the air a national newscast for independent stations (much as the rival Tribune Company had created Independent Network News in 1980), planned for launch in the fall of 1983. Unlike INN, the program was planned to be offered as a hybrid, hour-long local/national newscast, fed to affiliates by satellite as a headlines block and three other segments, which could be aired by local stations in whatever order the stations deemed alongside locally produced news content. Also as part of this plan, Metromedia established full news departments for KRIV in Houston and what was then KRLD-TV in Dallas (another news department was planned for WFLD in Chicago, but that department ultimately didn't launch until 1987, after the Murdoch buyout). Metromedia attempted to hire Charles Kuralt away from CBS News to serve as anchor. Kuralt chose to stay to with CBS; John Hart was also considered as an anchor, but ultimately the planned newscast never came to fruition.[36][37][38][39]
In 1985, it made an attempt to revive the comedy Oh, Madeline as The Madeline Kahn Show for first-run syndication, but the deal never came to fruition.[40]
