ELKRIDGE, MD.: Patrick Communications has scheduled an auction for the assets of Equity Media Holdings of Little Rock, Ark. The media brokerage has scheduled the sale of Equity’s 19 full-power and 85 low-power TV stations for Thursday, April 16.
The broadcast 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.
