We’re sure there’s some sort of destiny for the ownership of Destiny Communications, but it will not include owning a television station in Great Falls MT. The station, indy KTGF-DT Great Falls and a related translator, K47DP Lewistown MY, are going to a creditor after Destiny defaulted on its obligations.
Destiny is headed by Darnell Washington. The new licensee of the stations will be R. Gregory Williams’ RGW Investments LLC, which loaned Destiny $2.05M back in November of 2004 when it initially bought the station.
As of June 30, the principal owed on the station was $2,111,500; interest totaled $851,960.62 and was accruing at almost $1K daily, and that figure was growing on a daily basis. We estimate the value of debt forgiveness at this point to be in the neighborhood of $3M.
The station has a truly star-crossed recent history. It was an NBC affiliate when Destiny bought it, but lost that affiliation to a low power station. It switched to Fox, and after a tangled confluence of events entered into a JSA with Equity Media, not knowing that Equity itself was a doomed television owner. The Fox affiliation transferred to an Equity station, and KTGF wound up being an independent in one of the smallest DMAs in the US.
