When the networks went to satellite delivery, that paved the way for more television stations to set up in Wyoming, starting with channel 14 in Casper.

1981 - KCWY [14] in Casper. Started by local business owners it was sold to Great Western (and later  Stauffer ....Benedek) and became the hub station for a state network.  They chose CBS as that was first network on satellite, leaving K2 with ABC/NBC which they had to microwave from Denver Lookout Mountain. The remote operations from TV 14 in Casper included KOWY [5] Lander and KWWY [13] Rock Springs.

Meanwhile, Hi Ho being a casino owner would not be deemed acceptable by the FCC to own and program television stations in the public interest.  Therefore his expansion was done under a blanket of various corporate names, this also protected him from technically exceeding the FCC limit of stations owned.  Among the more famous were Heart of Wyoming, Casper Channel 20, Mark III, 1st National, WyoMedia....  The channel 10 owned in Riverton was intended to give him access to ABC network programming to feed his KXWY [20] in Casper and 1983 KLWY [27] in Cheyenne.  However ABC initially balked at having these UHF affiliates, but eventually relented and KTWO became NBC by default. In 1996 KNFR [11] in Rawlins was added to the fold. All of the original equipment used in KXWY came from a New Jersey leasing company and had been previously used at Hi Ho's casino there. This was the time that Wyoming uranium industry was collapsing and I had one of my former mining engineers take a job at channel 20. That worked out for a couple of months and then they stopped paying, hoping he would continue to work for "free".  This appeared to have happened several times to others as well, and the Wyoming Department of Unemployment got a court order to shut down Casper Channel 20 for non-payment of employer contributions.  Meanwhile, it was soon back on the air, as KFNB, this time owned by WyoMedia.  Wyoming DU went after them as being essentially the SAME company with different name, and was able to secure both back taxes and increased their premium rate. 

KLWY Cheyenne seemed to have escaped foreclosure because it didn't have employees.  Mark Nalbone sold this station to WyoMedia for $100,000 in 1991 although it is not clear how he managed to own it in the first place as it was previous held by Orlando FL lawyer A. J. Stanton [Heart of Wyoming was a Florida corporation], with Pete Seiler general manager, and went defunct for legal purposes the exact same day as Hi Ho Broadcasting, March 3, 1989.  Pete at the same time was also GM at channel 20 in Casper [another Stanton holding]. Just before the foreclosure in Casper, Pete became GM of KYMA full power NBC affiliate station in Yuma Arizona. Just a year later James E. Rogers, 98% owner of Sunbelt Communications ended his 24 year career as practicing Las Vegas attorney and purchased the station for only $60,000.  (probably worth $12 million at the time).  This appears to be another marriage of the Las Vegas and Atlantic City casino interests.  James now owns Wyoming TV stations KCWY 13 Casper, KSWY 7 Sheridan, KJWY 2 Jackson, KCHY 13 Cheyenne and translators in Laramie and Riverton, all NBC. Pete has moved on to South Carolina.

Mark Nalbone has become defacto operator of the stations in Wyoming that are not Sunbelt, although he was quick to point out to the Casper Star Tribune he personally is NOT an officer or owner of WyoMedia. This dispite that for the ownership reports filed with the FCC in 1999 and 2001 he has signed as Secretary/Treasurer and was the only signature for WyoMedia Corporation. He must have got the boot in 2003 at exactly the same time as Mark III Media was created, because the Secretary/Treasurer for WyoMedia is now Antoinette [Toni] Lattea, with Ann Koda sitting as a Director with Marvin P. Gussman. Marvin has put his family in the TV business, with daughter Cheryl Kaupp owning KTWO of Wyoming.  Mark III Media is Mark Nalbone, Julie Jaffe and Jennifer Lechter.  Jennifer also works as real estate manager for Marvin Engineering. If you can figure this all out, please inform Alan Aronowitz at the FCC.

Marvin's day job is running Marvin Engineering Co., Inc. which recently received a $5.6 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide for LAU-117 (V3) launchers used with AGM-65 Maverick precision attack missiles. This effort support foreign military sales to Chile, Poland, Taiwan, and Oman, all of whom fly F-16s. And you thought the mafia only had tommy guns.

Marvin took over WyoMedia from [Gerald] MarK Friedman about the same time that this occured-

--------

Los Angeles Business Journal, June 11, 1990 by Chip Jacobs

Scheme to evade federal income taxes costs local defense subcontractor a $1 million fine

An Inglewood-based defense subcontractor was fined $1 million late last month for evading roughly $2 million in federal taxes through an elaborate siphoning scheme, the Justice Department announced.

Marvin Engineering Co., a medium-sized machine shop that produced bomb ejection racks for Rockwell International's B-I Bomber program, pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion in a Los Angeles Federal Court May 25. Gerald M. Friedman, the company's executive vice president and co-owner, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $200,000 for his role in masterminding the diversion of funds.

"This was an ingenious plot, no question about it," said Attorney George W. Newhouse, who handled the case for the Justice Department. "It took an alert government official to figure it out."

Friedman's chicanery occured between 1982 and 1986, when he used some of Marvin Engineering's corporate funds to pay all the production and sales expenses of Wimbledon Industries, an exercise bicycle firm that he and a business partner owned. The exercyles, marketed under the trade name Heartmate, were manufactured on Marvin's premises.

The $3.7 million generated by the exercycles was never reported on Marvin Engineering's tax returns, nor on returns filed by Wimbledon and its owners. Instead, the money was used to help pay off $7 million in personal loans from Bank of America that benefited Friedman and Marvin Gussman the companies' principal owners.

"All of the revenues made by Wimbledon was kept off everyone's books," Newhouse said. "Those funds were used to pay down a corporate line of credit that Gussman and Friedman took out personal reasons."

Newhouse said Friedman used some of that money to buy expensive jewelry and provide financial support for his mother.

The conviction was the result of a two-year probe by the Internal Revenue Service. Documents filed during the sentencing hearing showed Marvin Engineering's payment of income taxes increased 500 percent after it learned in May 1986 of the pending federal grand jury investigation.

Gussman, who owns 55 percent of Marvin Engineering, was not charged by the government. The company, which employs 250 people, is still operating. Company officials did not return telephone calls.

COPYRIGHT 1990 CBJ, L.P.

--------

So that is how the purchase of television stations is financed.  By the way, Marvin forgave his friend for stealing from the company, and made him his California Corporate Agent for Marvin Engineering, a position that he currently holds.  While he is permanently off the WyoMedia board as the FCC takes a dim view of station ownership by known felons. Friedman is now legally half owner of Marvin Engineering, having up his share in 2003, after serving the jail time.

Before being taken over by Mark, KTWO had its own share of expansion.  By 1985 it was on many translators across the state, including Jackson and Sheridan and in 1987 put KKTU [33] into Cheyenne. At the time Cheyenne was a battleground for Casper/Riverton, Denver and Rapid City DMA television stations. 

In the June 4, 2004 Casper Star Tribune is a diagram of Casper television cross ownerships. Santa and Easter Bunny are code names for east coast and west coast mafia.  Kearney pretty much got everything right, although there have been some changes since then.