Just Desserts
And tasty if you enjoy the discomfort of your enemies.
The Pensacola News Journal reported that WEAR-TV’s owner warns of possible Ch. 11 filing
The Owner of WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., has warned it may be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it struggles with continued declines in advertising spending and a hefty debt load.
Channel 3 is the oldest television station on the tip of the Panhandle and should never have been sold to media company in Maryland. They were a charter member of the emergency communications system set up to keep people informed during hurricanes, and that really requires local control.
Sinclair’s problem is the same as Clear Channel and every other media outlet – everything was mortgaged, everything was reduced to a minimum to maximize the money available to make the loan payments and still have a profit. Any downturn was a death sentence because they didn’t have any cash reserves and there was nothing left to cut except media outlets. The problem with selling individual outlets is that they need them all to cover their loan payments and the outlets are probably “underwater” on their individual loans. Without all of the debt, the outlets are probably profitable, especially if they aren’t making payments to Sinclair for dubious “programming”.
A bankruptcy judge may decide that they filed under the wrong Chapter.
