Capital Cities/ABC Inc. origins trace back in 1946, when Hyman Rosenblum (1911–1996), a local Albany businessman, and several investors, including future Congressman Leo William O'Brien and local advertising executive Harry L. Goldman decided to bid for a new radio station license in Albany.

[2] During the 1960s, Capital Cities' holdings grew with the separate 1961 purchases of WPAT-AM-FM in Paterson, New Jersey, and WKBW radio and WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York;[5] and of the Goodwill Stations, which included WJR-AM-FM in Detroit, WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, and WSAZ-AM-TV in Huntington, West Virginia (serving the Charleston capital region), in 1964.

[6] CapCities entered the Los Angeles market in 1966 with its purchase of KPOL (later KZLA and now the present-day KMPC) and KPOL-FM (later KZLA-FM and now KLLI).

[citation needed] The Kansas City (Missouri) Star was acquired in 1977, and the following year CapCities bought Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

[citation needed] In 1977, the company was a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit by the owners of Buffalo-based TV stations against the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission over that country's simultaneous substitution rules.

From 1978 to 1985, just before it bought ABC, Capital Cities Communications produced a series of family specials distributed through its syndicated unit.

Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett helped to finance the deal in exchange for a 25 percent share in the combined company.

[29] The newly merged company, known as Capital Cities/ABC[2] (or CapCities/ABC), was forced to sell off some stations due to FCC ownership limits.

[30] Of the former Capital Cities television stations, the new company opted to keep the outlets in Philadelphia, Houston, Durham, and Fresno.

WTNH would have been sold in any event due to a significant signal overlap with ABC flagship WABC-TV in New York City.

The merged company could have been forced to sell off WPVI as well due to a large Grade B signal overlap with WABC-TV.

Citing CBS' ownership of television stations in New York City (WCBS-TV) and Philadelphia (at the time WCAU-TV) under grandfathered status, Capital Cities/ABC requested, and was granted a permanent waiver from the FCC allowing it to keep WPVI-TV.

Capital Cities/ABC retained ABC's radio and television combinations in New York City (WABC, WABC-TV and WPLJ), Los Angeles (KABC, KABC-TV and KLOS), Chicago (WLS, WLS-FM and WLS-TV), and San Francisco (KGO and KGO-TV), along with WMAL and WRQX-FM in Washington, D.C.; CapCities' aforementioned television outlets and the Detroit, Providence, Marietta and Fort Worth radio stations; Fairchild Publications; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star; and other broadcasting and publishing properties.

[44] In 1994, CC/ABC agreed to a $200 million seven-year television production joint venture with the original DreamWorks live-action studio.