Outlet profile

WLOS (Sinclair Broadcast Group)

U.S. right

Owned bySinclair Broadcast Group (publicly traded; majority control held by the Smith family)

FundingPrimarily advertising (local, national, and political spot sales) and retransmission consent fees paid by cable and satellite providers; retransmission fees accounted for roughly 50% of Sinclair's 2025 revenue

On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

WLOS-TV signed on in September 1954 as Asheville's second television station, originally operated by Skyway Broadcasting Corporation. Ownership passed through Wometco Enterprises and then Anchor Media before landing at River City Broadcasting, which merged with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996–1997. Sinclair, founded in Maryland by Julian Sinclair Smith and long controlled by his descendants, has grown into one of the country's largest local broadcast groups by acquiring stations across the country. The company became a subject of national controversy for distributing mandatory 'must-run' editorial segments that critics characterized as conservative propaganda, including a widely shared 2018 compilation of anchors reading an identical script about 'fake news.' Sinclair has historically directed the vast majority of its political donations—roughly 80 percent—to Republican candidates. During the first Trump administration, Sinclair's coverage was notably favorable, and that pattern has continued in the second term: in 2025 the company dropped Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its stations after Kimmel commented on the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and in July 2026 Sinclair-owned ABC and NBC affiliates broadcast a Trump primetime address. Media analysts and watchdog groups rate Sinclair's editorial product as right-leaning with mixed factual reliability.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-19; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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