Born in New York City, it was in Washington, D.C., where he made his mark as a disc jockey at radio stations WINX and WOL.

When WTTG abruptly canceled the show in 1961, Grant continued to host programs on a "Teen Network" of four regional radio stations.

That never occurred, but Grant aligned with Sidney Shlenker and other investors to launch two independent stations in Texas in the early 1980s: KTXA in Fort Worth and KTXH in Houston.

In 1990, Grant returned to broadcast station ownership with the purchase of bankrupt WZDX, a Fox affiliate serving Huntsville, Alabama.

[13] High-profile stars of the day, such as Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, Ike & Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Bob Hope, Connie Francis, and Fabian were guests on the show during its run.

[2][14][1] In addition to hosting the show, Grant was also the producer and sold advertising for such brands as Pepsi, Motorola, and Briggs ice cream; the kids on the program often knew the sponsors well.

[19][4] Punch also released the regional hit "The Bug" by Jerry Dallman and the Knightcaps—also with a songwriting credit from Grant, though he only bought into the song[2]—which was later featured in the soundtrack to the 1988 film Hairspray.

The move disappointed Grant, baffled media experts, and led high schoolers to picket The Washington Post, hoping to draw attention to their cause.

In 1990, when he returned to Washington for a National Archives screening of the only surviving footage of the program, he told the assembled crowd, "It was a very important time of my life.

"[14] Grant would later note the importance of his disc jockey years in his career as a television station owner: "I learned about the audiences and how to influence them so they respond to what you ask them to do.

"[24] During Grant's management tenure at channel 20, the station cemented itself as the second independent in Washington, behind WTTG, with a counterprogramming approach to program scheduling.

[2] While that application was adjudicated, Grant joined a consortium led by Sidney Shlenker that was building two new independent stations in Texas.

In contrast to the other two hybrid startups that "merely appeared", Ed Bark of The Dallas Morning News wrote that KTXA had "burst into living rooms like a world-champion encyclopedia salesman", with nearly ubiquitous billboards, high-profile programming, and an emphasis on weekend movies.

[42] Grant declared the first month of KTXH—similarly fueled by high-profile programming and a plan to spend $250,000 on advertising in just two months—a success, fulfilling his goal of signing on a "full-grown TV station".

[50] However, other Miami stations, having already seen the Grant strategy at work in Dallas and Houston, also made aggressive program and advertising purchases, slightly blunting the impact of the full-grown approach.

[51] The station was anchored by two major sports attractions—Villanova Wildcats men's basketball and Philadelphia Flyers hockey[52][53]—and made expensive syndicated program purchases.

[52] Toward the end of the year, Grant acquired WFBN in Joliet, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, which relaunched as WGBO-TV at the start of 1986.

[55][56] The crowded Chicago independent market greeted the relaunched "Super 66" with defensive increases in their own promotional budgets.

He rarely came into his office before noon and was known to hold business meetings well past midnight, a practice he attributed to reducing the amount of telephone interruptions he received.

[71] GBS and TVX Broadcast Group—with the stations Grant built in Washington, Fort Worth, and Houston in its portfolio[71]—were cited by Television Engineering editor Peter Caranicas and Variety writer John Lippman as among the highest-profile economic failures in late 1980s independent television,[73][74] with Kagan telling The New York Times in 1988 that GBS's failure burst the independent stations bubble.

[71] More than a year later, Grant partnered with Citicorp to purchase WZDX, the Fox affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, out of bankruptcy, marking his return to station ownership.

[76][77][78] The next year, Grant agreed to purchase a second Fox affiliate that had only recently emerged from its own bankruptcy: KLJB-TV in Davenport, Iowa.

In Burlington, Iowa, south of Davenport, KJMH had closed after losing its Fox affiliation in 1994; it was purchased by Grant in 1995 and returned to air in March 1996 as a simulcaster of KLJB-TV.

[93] Milton Grant died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 28, 2007; he had reportedly been suffering from cancer, though The Post could not obtain a confirmation of his death from his privately held company.

[1] He was survived by three children and four grandchildren; his son, Thomas Grant II, became the company's vice president, and corporate programming director Drew Pfeiffer was elevated to CEO.

Due to FCC ownership regulations, one of the stations—KLJB—was spun off to Marshall Broadcasting Group, with Nexstar handling much of its operations through a shared services agreement.