Wometco Enterprises

Over the years the company built up the largest chain of movie theaters in South Florida, and adopted the portmanteau name of Wometco sometime in the 1950s.

Wometco purchased a majority interest in WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin in June 1957,[2] but sold its shares less than a year later to Lee Enterprises, in April 1958.

[3] Also in 1958 the firm purchased controlling interest of WLOS-AM-FM-TV in Asheville, North Carolina, and KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Washington was added in 1961.

[11] Bereft of any guidance by the elder Wolfson, the family and company board sold Wometco to merchant bank Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) on September 21, 1983, in a $1 billion (USD) leveraged buyout.

[16] Plans were immediately announced by KKR-appointed management to sell off the theaters and non-broadcasting entertainment properties[17] which were seen as financial underperformers.

[16] The bulk of these assets were acquired by Wometco chief operating officer Arthur Hertz on April 29, 1985, while the bottling operations—one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the nation[16]—were sold separately.

[22][23] WWHT/WSNL adopted a music video format as "U68" following the closure of WHT,[24] and the two stations were sold to Home Shopping Network as part of a larger, three-station deal worth $46 million.