Sinclair Broadcast Group

Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest owner of local-television affiliates in the United States, with stations in every major Ohio market. Its business model matters for Ohio's information environment because it strips local newsrooms of editorial autonomy and pipes centrally produced, politically charged segments into what viewers experience as their hometown news.

What it is

A publicly traded broadcaster that grew by acquisition into a national footprint. To exceed federal per-market ownership limits, Sinclair leans on shared-services agreements (SSAs), local-marketing agreements (LMAs), joint-sales agreements (JSAs), and the shell owner Cunningham Broadcasting — arrangements that let one company effectively control multiple "competing" stations in a single market.

Ohio station portfolio

Sinclair owns or operates stations across the state's primary markets:

• Columbus — WSYX (ABC/MyNetworkTV/Fox, owned-and-operated), WTTE (Fox/Roar, held by Cunningham Broadcasting), WWHO (The CW, O&O).
• Cincinnati — WKRC (CBS/The CW, O&O), WSTR (MyNetworkTV, O&O).
• Dayton — WKEF (ABC/Fox, O&O), WRGT (Fox/Roar, held by Cunningham Broadcasting).
• Toledo — WNWO (NBC, O&O).
• Steubenville–Wheeling — WTOV (NBC/Fox, O&O).

Must-run mandates

Sinclair requires affiliates to air corporately drafted segments regardless of local news judgment:

• March 2018 — local anchors nationwide read an identical script denouncing "fake news" and media bias, in language mirroring national political rhetoric.
• 2004 — Sinclair ordered roughly 62 stations in swing states, Ohio among them, to preempt prime time for Stolen Honor, an anti-John Kerry film.
• 2024 — mandatory packages questioning President Biden's fitness, including a D-Day segment scripted around the words "diaper" and "poop."
• Recurring must-runs have carried commentary from former Trump official Boris Epshteyn and a "Terrorism Alert Desk." Where local newsrooms have been gutted, Sinclair fills airtime with The National Desk, a centralized program that replaces local reporting.

Relationships

• One node in the closed loop described on Media, Local News, and Disinformation in Ohio: cable and talk-radio narratives are echoed at night by Sinclair TV must-runs.
• Its consolidation contrasts with the nonprofit replacement layer — Signal Ohio, Ohio Capital Journal — that Ohio's civic-information health increasingly depends on.

Why it matters in 2026

For many Ohioans, local TV is still the most-consumed source of local news. When that channel carries nationalized, scripted political packages instead of local reporting, statewide and national narratives displace the coverage that would hold local officials accountable — with no 2026 media measure to check it.