About
www.greatermedia.com
Greater Media, Inc. is the parent company of 19 AM and FM radio stations located in the Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey markets. In addition, the company owns a modern printing plant and a group of weekly newspapers in central New Jersey, as well as several telecommunications towers located throughout the United States
- Status
- Private Company
- Founded
- 1956
Company History
Greater Media, Inc., headquartered in Braintree Massachusetts, has operated a broad-based combination of successful media and communications companies for nearly half a century. The company’s current operations include one of America’s leading radio station groups, a major community newspaper publishing complex, and a developing communications tower business.
The company traces it origin to 1956, when its founders purchased their first radio stations, WESO AM and FM in Southbridge, Mass. From a single small town operator, Greater Media has continued to grow and today ranks as one of America’s top radio groups with 19 AM and FM radio stations in Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey.
In addition to its current radio markets, at one time the company’s radio operations included stations in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Long Island, N.Y. The 1996 Telecommunications Act, which increased the number of stations that a company could own in a particular market, was the catalyst for an important redeployment of the company’s radio assets. In response to this legislation, the company made a critical strategic decision to concentrate its radio assets in select markets.
In a period of less than six months in 1997, the company reconfigured its radio division through a series of station exchanges. When these transactions were completed, the company had bolstered its Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia clusters, while exiting the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. markets. Subsequent acquisitions expanded the company’s presence in the New Jersey market.
Greater Media expanded its communications horizons beyond radio in 1962 with the purchase of the Middlesex County, N.J., weekly newspapers known today as the Sentinel and the Suburban. In the years that have followed, the company’s newspaper publishing operations have expanded to include twelve weekly suburban publications in the Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean County areas of central New Jersey, with a combined circulation of over 300,000.
The success of Greater Media Newspapers is attributable to its outstanding coverage of local news and events in the communities in which it operates, and the superior advertising results that it delivers for the businesses within these communities. The company’s publications and employees have garnered over 200 awards for excellence in journalism, photography, sales and advertising over the past ten years alone.
At one time, the company owned large cable television systems in Philadelphia and in central and western Massachusetts.
Under the leadership of President and Chief Executive Officer Peter H. Smyth, management continues to pursue and evaluate opportunities for adding to the company’s roster of quality, well-run media and communications properties.