[6] In 1978 Sillerman and disc jockey Bruce Morrow bought two radio stations in upstate New York for $1.875 million.
They acquired additional radio and TV stations, including WALL and WKGL (Middletown, New York); WJJB; (Hyde Park, New York); WHMP (Northampton, Massachusetts); WLOM (Orleans, Massachusetts); WRAN (Randolph, New Jersey); WPLR (New Haven, Connecticut) and the television station WATL (Atlanta).
[10] Leading CKX, Inc., Sillerman bought majority rights to Graceland, the Elvis Presley estate;[11] as well as the assets of Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, whose assets include TV hit American Idol and managed clients including football player David Beckham.
[12] In May 2009, Credit Suisse filed a request for summary judgment in New York State Supreme Court, alleging Sillerman had failed to pay the outstanding balance due under a credit agreement with Flag Luxury Properties LLC and that Sillerman defaulted on a series of payments due since April 2008, totaling $21.4 million.
In a July 2009 interview with the New York Post Sillerman admitted failure, stating with reference to the Flag project: "I'm not very knowledgeable about real estate.
[13] The first product the company produced was called "Viggle", released in January 2012, which used a mobile app as its primary interface.
The app will also display the social media activity for other shows at the same time, along with what rewards are available for changing the channel to competing programs.
The suit alleges that Sillerman in emails promised a joint partnership in which the plaintiffs would receive 2.5 million "founders shares" of SFX, which never materialized.
[34] From 1993 Sillerman served as the Chancellor of the Southampton College of Long Island University, replacing Angier Biddle Duke.
Sillerman took the job on two conditions: that the college scrap ill-defined programs and focus on marine science and creative writing and that he be allowed to handle publicity.
In that spirit, he named Kermit the Frog as the 1996 commencement speaker: 31 newspapers picked up the story, a free marketing bonanza that raised the college's profile and drew hundreds of new admissions.
[35] In 2000, Sillerman donated a $15 million gift through the Tomorrow Foundation to extend the library and for marine science scholarships.