KTAQ Ch 47 (Dallas/Fort Worth) Bankruptcy

[TexasTom]

Somehow, this one doesn't seem to have generated a discussion here as the KLDT Ch 55 bankrutpcy has, but for those who are interested, KTAQ Ch 47 has been sold through bankruptcy court.

The buyer (for $9 million) is the primary creditor for the station, Platinum Equity LLC. They will hold the license under the name KTAQ of Dallas LLC

For more details, go here: http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/26372.html

No word on what kind of programming will run on KTAQ after the sale is consummated.

But it's interesting to note that we currently have three television stations in the DFW market that are working their way through bankrtupcy: KDAF Ch 33, KTAQ Ch 47, and KLDT Ch 55. KDAF, of course, is part of the Tribune bankruptcy, and it is likely that little will change at the station once Tribune comes out of bankruptcy. KLDT is slated for Spanish programming, but the sale has been delayed due to allegations of excessive foreign control of the proposed licensee. And as for KTAQ...well, we'll see what (if anything) happens with it -- I doubt that we'll see a full fledged independent station come out of it, and it may be that the new ownership will just lease the airtime back to Mike Simon's PromiseLand Network. As a private equity group, I'm guessing that they don't have much interest in running a TV station.

 

[arnoldevns]

Sorry to see anyone in bad shape. I'm not terribly surprised. I suspect giving to these religious broadcasters is considerably lower than it was a few years ago.

 

[JHBrandt]

This may explain PromiseLand's otherwise baffling simulcast on KVFW/38.2. I'd bet the cost to lease an LPTV subchannel is much less than the cost of operating full-power KTAQ. The coverage area is much smaller but it probably still includes a large majority of their viewers. So it gives PromiseLand an outlet in case KTAQ's new owners take the station in a different direction.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Private equity groups do own stations - Newport is owned by Providence Equity Partners, and the Four Points stations are owned by Cerberus IIRC (though they are farmed out to Nexstar, which owns less than half of the stations it runs!). MCG Capital Management also owns KFVE-9 (unlike WCIX, they didn't bother to change their calls) and has some sort of stake in the whole KFVE+KGMB+KHNL Hawaii News Now cluster-ick (the other half is Raycom, whom I despise for one reason: their graphics hub of horrors (I think they're still there), which happens to be 2 hours south of me (which raises this question: WHY do they still own KOLD TV? It and KCBD are the only two stations Raycom owns that are really far west of the Mississippi (besides the Hawai'i cluster)). Raycom hubbed design before most everybody else, though.)