WSAH is not going to be mistaken for a pillar of the New York City Nielsen DMA, but it is in it from its license city of Bridgeport CT. The station, part of the ill-fated group buy made by Multicultural Broadcasting, is going to the highest bidder, with brokerage Kalil and Co. handling the arrangements.
Multicultural bought five stations from E.W. Scripps at exactly the wrong time, paying $170M in 2006, just in time for challenging business conditions to prevent any hope for profitability.
The deal went into default, and the stations have been sold off at a fraction of what Multicultural paid for them by receiver Lee Shubert, with the help of Kalil.
KCNS in the San Francisco DMA brought $15M and WMFP in the Boston DMA brought $5M in Kalil-brokered deals. The buyer for those stations, NRJ TV, recently struck again with an unrelated $13.5M deal for WTVE Reading PA in the Philadelphia market.
Earlier station sales from the Multicultural group included WOAC Cleveland for $7M and WRAY Raleigh-Durham for $4M.
As for WSAH, at this point in the proceeding, according to Kalil, the debtors have moved to acquire the station from the trust headed by Shubert, but is opening the process to higher offers.
Kalil says that step one for interested parties is to identify themselves, agree to confidentiality conditions and prove financial wherewithal to consummate the acquisition of the station – the deadline for that is 10/28/11.
After that, bids are due 11/7/11, submitted to Counsel to the Debtors Landis Rath & Cobb LLP, 919 Market St., Wilmington DE 19899. Faxes can be sent to 302-467-4450 and emails to [email protected]; or to the attention of Frank Higny at Kalil and Co., 6363 North Swan Rd. #200, Tucson AZ 85718; fax 520-322-0584, or email to [email protected].
The court intends to hold a hearing on the process 11/16/11.
