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Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley Jr., was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW (AM). Most of its broadcast properties adopted call signs in which the first three letters were WLW.

During World War II, the company built the Bethany Relay Station in Butler County, Ohio's Union Township, one mile west of its transmitter for WLW, for the Office of War Information. It operated as many as five shortwave stations, using the callsigns WLWK, WLWL, WLWO, WLWR and WLWS. It operated the facility for the government until 1963.

In 1945, the Crosley interests were purchased by Aviation Corporation. The radio and appliance manufacturing arm changed its name to Avco, but the broadcast operations continued to operate under the Crosley name, until they were changed to Avco in 1968.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Crosley (or Avco) operated is own small television network in which programs were produced at one its stations and broadcast on the other Crosley stations in the midwest, and occasionally by non-Crosley stations as well. Since all of the Crosley television stations in Ohio were affiliated with NBC(with the exception of WLWI in Indianapolis,Indiana affiliated with ABC), the Crosley programming fit into the NBC network program schedule, and some programs were even picked up for broadcast by the entire NBC network, such as Midwestern Hayride and Breakfast Party. Other programs originated on the Crosley (or Avco) network included The Paul Dixon Show and The Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club, later hosted by Bob Braun. The Phil Donahue Show started in 1967 originating from WLWD in Dayton, Ohio. The Jerry Springer Show also started from WLWT in Cincinnati, by then owned by Multimedia, Inc., and was distributed nationwide by its syndication division, Multimedia Entertainment, which had formerly been owned by Avco (as Avco Embassy Program Sales).

In 1968 Avco, which had just purchased Embassy Pictures, consolidated its television operations into Avco Embassy Television.

Beginning in 1975, Avco sold all of its broadcasting holdings. In 1975, they sold WLWC-TV Columbus, WLWI-TV Indianapolis, WOAI-AM/FM/TV San Antonio, and WWDC-AM/FM Washington D.C.; in 1976, they sold WLW-AM and WLWT-TV Cincinnati, WLWD-TV Dayton, and their Avco Embassy Television and Avco Embassy Program Sales divisions; in 1977, they sold KYA-AM/FM San Francisco and WRTH-AM Wood River-St. Louis.

The closest thing to a "successor" to Avco Broadcasting was Multimedia, Inc., to whom Avco sold flagship TV station WLWT, as well as Avco Embassy Television and Avco Embassy Program Sales in 1976. In December 1995, Gannett (who, coincidentally, owned former Crosley station WXIA-TV Atlanta) acquired Multimedia, Inc., while the respective syndication division was acquired by MCA Universal. By 1997 all of the original Crosley radio and television properties had been sold off by its successor companies.

Broadcast outlets operated by Crosley Broadcasting or its successor Avco included:

• WLW: 700 kHz in Cincinnati, Ohio
• WINS: 1010 kHz in New York, New York from 1946 to 1953
• WSAI: 1360 kHz in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1928 to 1945
• WOAI: 1200 kHz in San Antonio, Texas

• WLWA: 101.1 MHz in Cincinnati, Ohio
• WLWB: 97.5 MHz in Dayton, Ohio
• WLWF: 96.3 MHz in Columbus, Ohio — Now WLVQ
• WLWS: 96.5 MHz in Hamilton, Ohio — Now WYGY
• WOAI: 102.5 MHz in San Antonio, Texas

All are currently NBC affiliates (though WLWA/WXIA and WLWI/WTHR were ABC affiliates when they were owned by Crosley/Avco).

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Years Owned	Current Owner
9.	Atlanta	WLTV/WLWA 2/8/11 (now WXIA 11)	1951-62	Gannett Company
25.	Indianapolis	WLWI 13 (now WTHR)	1957-74	Dispatch Broadcast Group
32.	Columbus	WLWC 3/4 (now WCMH 4)	1949-76	Media General
33.	Cincinnati	WLWT 4/5	1948-76	Hearst-Argyle
37.	San Antonio	WOAI-TV 4	1965-75	Clear Channel
58.	Dayton	WLWD 5/2 (now WDTN 2)	1947-76	LIN TV