Hoak Media

Hoak Media Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	Broadcasting
Founded	2003
Defunct	2015
Fate	Acquired by Gray Television; remaining assets sold to American Spirit Media
Headquarters	Dallas , United States
Products	Television stations

Hoak Media Corporation was a broadcasting company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It owned a total of eighteen television stations, mainly serving small to mid-sized markets throughout the Great Plains region and Colorado.

History

Established in August 2003, Hoak Media began its operations.

On November 20, 2013, Gray Television revealed its intention to purchase Hoak Media along with Parker Broadcasting. However, this acquisition excluded KREX (and its satellite stations), KFQX, WMBB, and KAUZ-TV due to regulatory ownership limits within certain markets. Initially, some stations were planned to be transferred to Excalibur Broadcasting, with Gray managing them through local marketing agreements. By December 19, the stations KREX and WMBB were sold to Nexstar Media Group, while KFQX was transferred to Mission Broadcasting.

The transaction was finalized on June 13, 2014. In response to updated FCC rules concerning joint sales agreements, some stations discontinued their broadcasts and shifted their programming to subchannels operated by Gray-owned outlets. These inactive stations were subsequently sold to minority proprietors.

On August 10, 2015, Hoak declared the sale of its last remaining station, KAUZ-TV, to American Spirit Media, a Charlotte-based firm led by Thomas B. Henson. Raycom Media took over station operations under a shared services agreement following its acquisition of Drewry Communications, which had overseen KAUZ-TV since 2009. This sale concluded on December 1, 2015, effectively marking the end of Hoak Media.

Former stations

• Stations are organized alphabetically by state and city of license.

Stations formerly owned by Hoak Media

Media market	State	Station	Acquisition Year	Divestiture Year	Additional Information
Glenwood Springs	Colorado	KREG-TV	2003	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Grand Junction		KFQX	2003	2014
		KREX-TV	2003	2014
		KGJT-CD	2003	2014
Montrose		KREY	2003	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Panama City	Florida	WMBB	2008	2014
Alexandria	Louisiana	KALB-TV	2008	2014
		KAQY	2008	2014
Monroe		KNOE-TV	2007	2014
Hastings	Nebraska	KHAS-TV	2005	2014
North Platte		KNOP-TV	2005	2014
		K11TW	2005	2014
Bismarck	North Dakota	KFYR-TV	2007	2014
Dickinson		KQCD-TV	2007	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Fargo		KVLY-TV	2007	2014
		KXJB-TV	2007	2014
Minot		KMOT	2007	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Williston		KUMV-TV	2007	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Aberdeen	South Dakota	KABY-TV	2007	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Pierre		KPRY-TV	2007	2014	Template:Efn-ua
Sioux Falls		KSFY-TV	2007	2014
Wichita Falls	Texas	KAUZ-TV	2003	2015

Carriage Dispute with Dish Network

On June 5, 2012, Dish Network ceased carrying all Hoak Broadcasting stations due to an inability to reach a new carriage agreement. The conflict primarily involved Dish's "Hopper" digital video recorder and its commercial-skipping function known as AutoHop, which was met with resistance from leading U.S. television networks. The senior vice president of programming at Dish criticized Hoak's stance, stating it ignored viewers' preferences for controlling their viewing experience.