Storer Communications

Storer Communications, known from 1927 to 1952 as the Fort Industry Company and from 1952 to 1983 as Storer Broadcasting, was an American media company that owned television and radio stations and cable television systems.

Founded by George Butler Storer and John Harold Ryan as the Fort Industry Oil Company in Toledo, Ohio, the company's focus quickly shifted to radio ownership, particularly in Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia. Fort Industry added television stations to their portfolio, adopted the Storer name in 1952, and eventually owned multiple key affiliates of the CBS television network. Storer also acquired a reputation for selling smaller stations in order to purchase larger ones, particularly after the company reached then-existent ownership limits. The company also owned Northeast Airlines from 1965 to 1972, and the Boston Bruins from 1973 to 1975. A reorientation towards cable television led Storer to divest their radio holdings between 1979 and 1981. While this expansion led to Storer becoming the fourth-largest cable operator in the country, the systems built were expensive and unprofitable in the short-term, and the company suffered substantial losses in the mid-1980s.

In April 1985, a group of activist investors attempted to take over Storer's board of directors and initiate a liquidation. To thwart this, the company agreed to be taken private by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in a leveraged buyout valued at $1.6 billion. Storer was dismantled in the following years under KKR: the cable division was spun off and gradually dissolved into both TCI and Comcast, while the television stations were sold to George N. Gillett Jr. in 1987 and folded into New World Communications in 1993.