 The company was formed in 1975 when Joe Allbritton bought controlling interest "The Washington Star" Company, including its television and radio stations–WMAL-AM-FM-TV in Washington; WLVA-AM-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia; and WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina.The Federal Communications Commission required him to sell off either the newspaper or the broadcast properties in Washington as a condition of the purchase.By this time, the FCC had tightened its rules on cross-media ownership, and had all but banned one person from owning newspapers and broadcast properties in the same market while grandfathering existing combinations.