The bankruptcy proceedings involving Pappas Telecasting, in progress since May, have moved to the next step. Bids are being accepted on 10 stations scattered throughout the US, including one CBS and three Fox affiliates. There are also three affiliated with CW and three more running Pappas’ in-house Hispanic TuVision network. E. Roger Williams is the bankruptcy trustee and Anish M. Aswani of Moelis & Company in Los Angeles is handing due diligence requests. Preliminary bids are due 12/4/08, contested stations will go to auction 12/11/08; and sale approval hearings will be held 12/16/08. Of course, the companies most likely to be interested in this development probably know much of this already – Moelis has identified and qualified 110 firms with potential financial and/or strategic motivations. The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware is the venue of record. For a complete list of stations, see related article, “A vulture’s eye view of Pappas.”
RBR/TVBR observation: We hope we do not find ourselves writing too many more stories of this type. We fear that will not be the case. However, those charged with working through unfortunate situations such as this should do their level best to avoid going this far – there could not possibly be a worse time to try to sell a station.
