ELKRIDGE, MD.: The bidding for Equity Media’s broadcast assets ended yesterday, and most of the company’s 19 full-power and 85 low-power TV stations received winning bids, according to a report in Radio Business. Bids ranged from around $50,000 up to $1.5 million, B&C’s Michael Malone reported.
RB said the winning bids came to more than $21 million, with Daystar buying around 12 stations for $7.4 million. Some properties were not sold. (Story continues after Sponsored Link.)
Patrick Communications of Elkridge handled the auction in the wake of Equity’s bankruptcy. The Little Rock, Ark., media company declared bankruptcy late last year after defaulting on a $41.5 million loan from Silver Point Finance LLC of Greenwich, Conn. It also owed more than $1 million to CBS for programming on its Retro Television Network, and around $580,000 to Intelsat, among other creditors.
The broadcaster’s Chapter 11 filing was initially challenged by Silver Point, which countersued to have the company forced to file involuntary Chapter 7, giving it less leeway to protect assets. The motion was abandoned when Equity appointed a restructuring officer to sell the TV stations.
The company had already divested RTN to it the former CEO, Henry Luken, for $18.5 million. Luken earlier bought five Florida TV stations from the company for $8 million. Equity’s flagship station, KWBF in Little Rock, was sold to Nexstar Broadcasting in January.
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