By Dan Adams

It’s not something you hear much these days, a small “mom and pop” company whose goal is to buy distressed TV stations in America’s smallest markets and pump life back into them by rebuilding their news department simply “because local matters.” 

But in 2013, that’s exactly what Brian and Patricia Lane decided they wanted to do when they bought their first TV station, WMDT, 47ABC Salisbury, MD (market #131).

Now, 12 years later, the Lane’s Marquee Broadcasting has grown to 23-stations, the latest acquisitions being KIEM and KVIQ, the NBC and CBS stations in Eureka (market #196). Gene Steinberg, Chief Operating Officer for the privately owned company, told Off Camera that the Lanes, with backgrounds in law, had always been interested in local TV and were troubled seeing how large corporations were abandoning small markets.  “They felt that stations in small markets still have strong local news viewership, but were being forgotten.  They wanted to make sure that small market stations continued to serve their viewers and not become a news desert.”

Since taking over the Eureka duopoly nearly a year ago, Marquee has done what it did in other markets like Cheyenne, Wyoming (market #193) and Zanesville, Ohio (market #203).  The Lanes invested significantly, hiring two additional reporters, expanding weekend news coverage, and building a contemporary set that will debut on January 5. 

But Patricia Lane says their involvement goes beyond beefed up news coverage.  “In small markets, we are actually part of the community.  We are very involved with the local animal shelters and animal rescue.  We are also working with the foster care system and offering jobs to the youth who are in that system showing them that there is hope.”

In Eureka, they are also working with the local Indian reservations.  Patricia Lane said, “Our goal is to get journalists from the reservation to provide better coverage because, again, they are an important part of our local community.”

Ross Rowley, station manager, news director, and 5:00 PM anchor says “Redwood News” as it is called is now the only truly local TV news operation in the Eureka market, as Sinclair owned competitor KAEF (ABC) outsourced much of its news to its sister station, KRCR-TV in Redding.  “Local, local, local is what it’s all about for us,” Rowley said.  “We see local radio, newspapers, and even our competition scaling back coverage in our part of the state. We’re actually building up our coverage.”  Rowley, who has been with the station for 15 years and a half dozen owners added that for the first time, “We have owners who visit us.  We know who they are.  And they know us.  We like them because they honestly care, spending their own money to build up our local coverage.  Previous owners were happy to reduce staff, throw on CNN feed pieces, and think they were serving our area.  Not anymore.”

A starter market, Redwood News hires graduates from the journalism department at nearby Humboldt State University.  Some of those young reporters take part in the NATAS mentoring program which links them up with veteran broadcast journalists from San Francisco and Sacramento, helping hone their story telling skills.

COO Steinberg, who has extensive TV experience in large and small markets said joining Marquee four years ago and rebuilding small stations like KIEM/KVIQ in Eureka has been a refreshing flashback to what TV was decades ago before deregulation allowed large corporations to amass huge broadcast portfolios and concentrate solely on profits.   “The big guys still own the large and medium markets and don’t even want small market stations anymore, but we do, not as investments but to truly serve communities the way they used to be served.”  He added that once they buy a station, the Lanes keep the station.  “A board meeting with Marquee consists of Brian and Patricia sitting around the dinner table and wondering what small market they can help next.”

As Patricia Lane put it, “Unlike large markets which have to serve a broad area, these small stations we have are part of the neighborhood.  If on my deathbed I can look back and say we helped turn lives around, then I will know we’ve made a difference.”

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