Nationwide Communications Inc. was a media subsidiary of the Nationwide Insurance Company, which operated from 1946 until 1997. Based in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, Nationwide Communications owned and operated a variety of radio and television stations across the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 until it sold off all its radio stations to Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

-based Jacor

Jacor

Jacor Communications was a media corporation which owned a large number of radio stations in the United States. Inside the radio industry, Jacor was seen as one of the most competitive broadcast companies in history. Jacor's re-image in 1996 created the slogan "The Noise You Can't Ignore".Jacor was...

 for a reported $620 million, and its television stations to Young Broadcasting

Young Broadcasting

New Young Broadcasting Holding Co, Inc. is an owner of 14 television stations in 11 United States media markets. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgrowth of the ad representation/invest firm Adam Young, Inc. which was founded in 1944 by Adam Young and is...

. The service division was spun off and became Nationwide Communications Services L.L.C. in 1998.

In 1946, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation first got into broadcasting through a radio service for farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

s on WRFD, Columbus, Ohio, an AM radio

AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...

 station. The Ohio Farm Bureau was dedicated to serving farmers in Ohio, but as its other pursuits (chiefly the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company) were increasingly made available to non-farmers, the Farm Bureau spun off these ventures into a separate corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

. WRFD continued to serve farmers, and indeed, still carries farm programming today under the ownership of Salem Media of Ohio. However, other Farm Bureau stations—most notably WRFD-FM, now known as WNCI

WNCI

WNCI is a radio station in Columbus, Ohio. Its official print brand identifier is WNCI 97.9 in a purple oval, while the station is known on-air as 97.9 WNCI...

—were transferred to this umbrella corporation, known today as the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company & Affiliated Companies

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company & Affiliated Companies is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus...

. The group of stations became known as Nationwide Communications, after its parent company.

Nationwide Communications owned four television stations. Its first purchase in 1965 was WATE-TV

WATE-TV

WATE-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Eastern Tennessee licensed to Knoxville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 6 as well as Comcast and Knology...

, Channel 6, Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

. The company's second purchase was WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV

WRIC-TV

WRIC-TV, virtual channel 8 , is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Richmond, Virginia market. It is owned by Young Broadcasting. The station is licensed to nearby Petersburg, while its studios are just off the Powhite Parkway extension in the Arboretum office park in western...

, Channel 8, Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

 in 1968, its third station was WBAY-TV

WBAY-TV

WBAY-TV is the ABC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, broadcasting on UHF digital channel 23 from a transmitter located in the town of Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and master control based in its building in downtown Green Bay...

, Channel 2, Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...

, purchased in 1974, and its fourth station purchase was KITN (now WFTC

WFTC

WFTC, channel 29, is a MyNetworkTV owned and operated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area...

) in Minneapolis in 1985. Three of the four stations were ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 affiliates (WXEX-TV switched from NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 to ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 in 1965, WATE-TV

WATE-TV

WATE-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Eastern Tennessee licensed to Knoxville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 6 as well as Comcast and Knology...

 switched from NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 to ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 in 1979, and WBAY-TV

WBAY-TV

WBAY-TV is the ABC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, broadcasting on UHF digital channel 23 from a transmitter located in the town of Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and master control based in its building in downtown Green Bay...

 switched from CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 to ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 in 1992); the fourth (KITN/WFTC) was an independent and later a Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate while under Nationwide's stewardship. Nationwide Communications sold all three of its ABC-affiliated television stations in 1993 to Young Broadcasting

Young Broadcasting

New Young Broadcasting Holding Co, Inc. is an owner of 14 television stations in 11 United States media markets. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgrowth of the ad representation/invest firm Adam Young, Inc. which was founded in 1944 by Adam Young and is...

, a subsidiary of Adam Young, Incorporated, a TV station advertising representation firm; WFTC was sold to Clear Channel Communications

Clear Channel Communications

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...

 the next year.

Before ceasing operations, Nationwide Communications was the 16th largest radio group in the United States and operated 17 stations in 8 different markets. At the time the company ceased operations, Nationwide Communications owned KEGL and KDMX in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, KHMX and KTBZ-FM

KTBZ-FM

KTBZ-FM, also known as 94.5 The Buzz, is an alternative rock radio station licensed to Houston, Texas with studios located in Houston at 2000 West Loop South, Suite 300, and with transmitter facilities located in Missouri City, Texas.- History :...

 in Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, KMJZ

KZJK

KZJK is a radio station broadcasting the adult hits "Jack FM" format in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region of Minnesota. The current format took to the air on the morning of April 21, 2005, following more than four years of a 1980s-centered playlist...

 and KSGS

KTNF

KTNF is a radio station licensed to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The station brands itself as "The Voice of Minnesota," and offers a combination of locally produced and nationally syndicated progressive talk programming.In the summer of 2004,...

 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, KGLQ

KMXP

KMXP is a commercial hot adult contemporary music radio station in Phoenix, Arizona, broadcasting on 96.9 FM.On-air deejays include: Mathew Blades, AJ Frey, Ron Geronimo, Bryan Allen, Amy Kelly, Stephani Young, and Phil Steiner.-KMXP HD2:...

 and KZZP

KZZP

KZZP, 104.7 KISS-FM, is a Top 40 radio outlet serving the Phoenix, Arizona area. The Clear Channel Communications station broadcasts at 104.7 MHz with an Effective radiated power of 100 kW and is licensed in Mesa, Arizona. Due to its 100 kW tower located atop South Mountain, the station can...

 in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, KMCG

KUSS

KOGO-FM is a news/talk radio station licensed to Carlsbad, California, simulcasting KOGO 600 AM San Diego. KOGO-FM is one of the seven San Diego stations owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications.-History:...

 and KXGL

KMYI

KMYI is a commercial radio station in San Diego, California, broadcasting on 94.1 FM and in HD Radio. KMYI airs a hot adult contemporary music format branded as "Star 94.1".-History:...

 in San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, WPOC

WPOC

WPOC is a radio station in Baltimore, Maryland, broadcasting a country music format focusing on newer artists and signature songs of the 1990s...

 in Baltimore, Maryland, WMMS

WMMS

WMMS — branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, widely recognized as one of the most influential rock stations in America throughout much of the history of FM broadcasting...

, WGAR

WGAR-FM

WGAR-FM — branded 99.5 WGAR — is a commercial radio station in Cleveland, Ohio with a country music format. Studios are located at 6200 Oak Tree Boulevard off of Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio along with other local Clear Channel stations, and its transmitter is located in Parma.- WGAR:The...

, and WMJI

WMJI

WMJI — branded Majic 105.7 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting a classic hits format. The station serves Cleveland, Akron and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio....

 in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, and WFII

WTPG

WYTS is a radio station in Columbus, Ohio owned by Clear Channel Communications. They are the Columbus affiliate for Fox Sports Radio, along with being Columbus' affiliate for The Jim Rome Show...

, WCOL, and WNCI

WNCI

WNCI is a radio station in Columbus, Ohio. Its official print brand identifier is WNCI 97.9 in a purple oval, while the station is known on-air as 97.9 WNCI...

 in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

.