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Equity Media Holdings

 
Wikipedia: Equity Media Holdings
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Equity Media Holdings
Type Public (NASDAQ: EMDAQ)
Fate Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Founded 1998
Founder(s) Gregory W. Fess, Larry E. Morton
Headquarters Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Key people John E. Oxendine (President, CEO); Gregory W. Fess (COO, SVP); Neal Ardman (VP TVOps)
Industry Broadcasting
Services TV Stations
Subsidiaries CASH, Equity Broadcasting
Website emdaholdings.com

Equity Media Holdings was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, which is now used for its broadcast station subisdary. The company had a focus on Hispanic and Asian American communities in large markets while owning a combination of English-language network affiliates in medium and small markets.

In late 2005, Equity launched the Retro Television Network (RTN for short), a programming service with a lineup of "classic" shows from the 1950s-1980s which currently airs in part or full in numerous markets (controversially replacing UPN in one). Equity sold RTN to Luken Communications in June 2008.

On December 8, 2008, Equity filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.[1] As a result of this, they auctioned off their stations on April 16, 2009.[2]. Many stations were sold to broadcast companies such as Daystar Television Network.

Contents

Financial troubles

In the company's annual report for 2007, released on April 2, 2008, Equity said that the company is in default on its credit lines, and that if it cannot find additional financing it "will need to cease all or a portion of its operations, seek protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws and regulations, engage in a restructuring or undertake a combination of these and other actions." An earlier indication of Equity's troubles came one month previous, when its board of directors appointed its chairman, Henry Luken, to replace Equity founder Larry Morton as president and CEO.[3] Morton remained the chair, president and CEO of Retro Television Network.

Additionally, the Retro Television Network was sold to Luken's company, Luken Communications, on June 25, 2008.[4]. Luken Communications continued to operate RTN out of Little Rock, Arkansas as a client of Equity's C.A.S.H. system.

In June 2008, Equity instituted a companywide suspension of news programs.[5]

In November 2008, Equity began attempts to sell all of its TV stations[6] and cut most of the company's top management[7] in a move which Chief Restructuring Officer Paul Brissette believed could allow the company a chance to avoid bankruptcy.

Equity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 8, 2008 after the company defaulted on a loan worth $41.5 million.[1] One of its creditors, Silver Point Finance, soon filed to change the bankruptcy from a voluntary Chapter 11 to an involuntary Chapter 7 in an attempt to foreclose on Equity assets, as they felt that there was no way Equity can reorganize under Chapter 11, nor do they have enough funds to cover payroll.[8]

Silver Point ended its attempts to push the company directly into liquidation on December 23, in return for the appointment of Kim D. Kelly, a new Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) who would exert near-total control to run the company and handle decisions on the sale of the individual stations.[9]

Trading in Equity Media Holdings Corporation (EMDA.Q) common stock, units, and warrants were suspended on December 18, 2008; NASDAQ announced on January 15, 2009 that the Equity-related securities are to be de-listed permanently.[10]

The sale of Equity's flagship Little Rock TV station KWBF (now Nexstar Broadcasting Group's KARZ-TV) closed at the end of January 2009; similarly-named RTN radio station KWBF-FM had also been sold (to Flinn Broadcasting Corporation) and has been silent since November 2008. Equity had also unexpectedly terminated a deal with the Southland Conference to carry Central Arkansas University basketball games on KKYK-DT, effective January 14, 2009.[11].

Silver Point extended a $58 million "debtor in protection" loan on February 2, 2009 to keep Equity on-air under chief restructuring officer Kim D. Kelly, but at a hefty interest rate premium: 8% above the current London Interbank Offered Rate. The chief restructuring officer will not be answerable in any way to Equity's board.[12]

On April 10, 2009, Equity announced an auction of all its stations to occur on April 16 in Dallas.[2] About 60 stations (counting repeater transmitters) were sold (pending FCC approval) at a total of $21.3 million.

Retro Television Network

Equity Media had been paid to provide centralcasting services for RTN after that network was sold to Luken Communications for $25 million in June 2008. Equity had held an option to re-purchase RTN from Luken; that option expired unexercised on December 24, 2008.[13]

On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity and Luken Communications, the owners of RTN, interrupted the programming on many RTN affiliates[14] with Luken alleging that Equity had left many obligations to RTN's creditors, including programming suppliers, unpaid. As a result, Luken restored a national RTN feed from its headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, via SES Americom-owned satellite AMC 9 (83.0°W), with individual feeds to non-Equity-owned affiliates following on a piecemeal basis. Equity owned or operated stations lost RTN affiliation immediately, though Luken vowed to find new affiliates for RTN in those areas.[15] A message displayed on-screen by Equity's stations in place of RTN gave Henry Luken's cell number as a contact number for viewers.[16] As a result of this dispute, Luken pulled out of a deal to buy Equity's southwest Florida stations.

As of January 7, 2009, various Equity-owned or operated stations were broadcasting classic movies (or in some cases, Retro Jams) in place of RTN's content;[17]. Around January 21, some of these stations began to carry This TV, a new subchannel network owned by MGM and Weigel Broadcasting.[18]

Digital transition issues

In mid-December 2008, Equity filed notice with the Federal Communications Commission that more than a dozen of its individual analogue-only full service stations would not be able to acquire equipment for digital TV transition without court approval, and these recently-constructed full-power stations would therefore go dark at the end of digital transition (originally scheduled for February 17, 2009; since extended to June 12, 2009). Stations with existing digital broadcasts or low-power broadcasting stations on channels 2 - 51 would not be affected.

Equity has requested that the FCC extend the expiry dates of digital construction permits for these stations, a possible means of retaining the affected licenses until a buyer can be found.

Full-service stations scheduled to go dark at the end of digital transition include:

Affected stations sold to Daystar:

Affected stations sold to Max Media, then closed down:

Affected station sold to Pinnacle Media:

Affected station sold to Tyler Media:

Affected station sold to Valley Bank, and then Fusion Communications:

* While KLMN had already applied to reduce its analogue signal power to 50 kW,[32] the license remained that of a full service station. Its new owners therefore would've had to convert it to digital to continue broadcasting after 6/12/2009.

Equity's situation is unique due to its rapid and recent expansion. Many of its full-service stations were built during the last few years of digital transition and are in the position of needing to flash-cut to digital in 2009 or cease operation. Established full-service broadcasters (who signed on before the start of transition) had (with rare exception) been required to operate existing digital simulcasts on another channel for several years and digital equipment is therefore already in place.

C.A.S.H. system

A trait unique to Equity Media Holdings is their usage of a centralized group-wide hub (called by Equity the Central Automated Satellite Hub, or C.A.S.H, system) where all production, programming, and master control is handled from a facility adjacent to the company's headquarters. Though such hubbing is done on regional scales for many groups, no other company has done it to the scale and magnitude of Equity and C.A.S.H.

Various C.A.S.H. stations are available free-to-air throughout North America on Ku band via Galaxy 18 (123°W) [33] or on C band via Galaxy 3C (95°W).[34] The feeds are in a format which can be fed directly to a terrestrial television transmitter with no further studio processing.

Former logo as Equity Broadcasting

Satellite transponder space is rented from Intelsat, which claims as of December 2008 to be owed over $580,000.

Stations

Under the protection of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Equity Media Holdings sold most of these TV stations at an auction in Dallas on April 16, 2009 for a total of $21.3 million.[35] Other stations were sold at later dates or are still looking for a buyer.

1These stations were RTN affiliates until the dispute between Equity and Luken in January 2009

Univision Stations

This TV Stations1

TeleFutura Stations

MyNetworkTV Stations

Fox Stations

Independent Stations1

Other Stations

Expansion

Acquisition of two New York-area stations by Equity Media were pending in 2008 but were not completed:

The following construction permits had been issued to Equity before its 2008 bankruptcy filing; the status of any station construction or acquisition plans is uncertain given the current financial situation

Other Properties

Liabilities

As of December 2008, key liabilities appear to be:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Larson, Erik (December 8, 2008). "Equity Media, U.S. TV Station Owner, Seeks Bankruptcy". Bloomberg News. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=home&sid=aDVf83geoJ3c. Retrieved December 9, 2008. 
  2. ^ a b http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/195976-Equity_Media_Sets_Auction_For_Stations.php?rssid=20065
  3. ^ RTN PARENT EQUITY MEDIA IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE, Harry A. Jessell, TVNEWSDAY, Apr 3 2008
  4. ^ Marich, Robert (2008-06-26). "Equity Media Sells RTN to Ease Crunch". Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6573488.html. Retrieved 2008-06-28. 
  5. ^ Manthey, Toby (2008-06-14). "Equity ends newscasts; N.Y. station buy teeters". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/228628/. Retrieved 2008-06-19. 
  6. ^ Equity Media unloading TV stations, TOBY MANTHEY, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 4, 2008
  7. ^ Clock's Ticking for Brissette at Equity, Price Colman, TVNEWSDAY, Oct 29 2008
  8. ^ Arkansas Business: "Creditor Files to Liquidate Equity Media, Claims Company Cannot Meet Payroll Obligations", 12/10/2008.
  9. ^ Equity Media dispute resolved, Radio Business Report, December 23, 2008
  10. ^ Delisting of Securities of Equity Media Holdings Corporation From The NASDAQ Stock Market: Globe NewsWire, MSNBC, Jan 15, 2009
  11. ^ http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/249737/
  12. ^ Equity Media Lands $58 Million Loan, Mark Hengel, Arkansas Business, February 2, 2009
  13. ^ http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/EQUITYMEDIA/0x0xS1144204-08-48304/1327012/filing.pdf
  14. ^ What’s Wrong with MyTV?
  15. ^ TV Newsday: "Financial Dispute Disrupts RTN Diginet", 1/5/2009.
  16. ^ Equity's Management Cause of Downfall, Former CEO Asserts, Mark Hengel, Arkansas Business, February 2, 2009
  17. ^ Classic reruns dropped from local station, Buffalo News, Jan 7, 2009
  18. ^ WNGS becomes affiliate, Buffalo News, Jan 23, 2009
  19. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285136&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=86201
  20. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285174&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=69694
  21. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285127&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=78921
  22. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285268&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=78314
  23. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285267&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81594
  24. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285347&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=9088
  25. ^ WNYI (Univisión) FCC DTV status report, indicating station will go dark in Feb '09
  26. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285145&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81438
  27. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285167&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81331
  28. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285150&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81348
  29. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1284873&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81593
  30. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285248&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=86532
  31. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1285345&Service=TV&Form_id=387&Facility_id=81595
  32. ^ TV stations pay high price for digital conversion, RICHARD ECKE, Great Falls Tribune, February 1, 2009
  33. ^ Galaxy 18 at 123.0°W - LyngSat
  34. ^ Galaxy 3C at 95.0°W - LyngSat
  35. ^ http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/04/17/daily.11/
  36. ^ a b http://ir.emdaholdings.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=260358

External links

v • d • e
Equity Media Holdings Corporation (defunct)
Former Corporate Staff

Henry G. Luken (Former President and CEO) | Gregory W. Fess | Max W. Hoopern | James H. Hearnsberger | Lori E. Withrow | Glenn Charlesworth | Emilia Chastain | Robert B. Becker | Larry E. Morton | Aaron K. Rothberg | Douglas P. Krile
Television stations

MyNetworkTV Affiliates: KPBI
Telefutura Network Affiliates: KAMT5
Univision Network Affiliates: KEYU5
Former Retro Jams stations1: KIMG6
Former RTN stations2: KEGS | KRRI4
Other Stations: KUOK-CA
Other Properties

1Retro Jams was replaced in 2008 by Retro Television Network or other programming on most Equity stations. Equity lost its RTN affiliations in 2009; subsequent affiliation is unknown.
2These affiliations were ended on January 4, 2009 due to a dispute with Luken Communications.
3Equity owned the Arena Football 1 franchise outright.
4This station is being sold to NGEN Solutions pending FCC approval.
5These stations are being sold to Drewry Communications Group pending FCC approval.
6This station is being sold to Ronald Ulloa pending FCC approval.
Website: emdaholdings.com

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