KMRI 1550 Is For Sale

[David]

Actually it's only the station license that's for sale, since the tower collapsed in the March 2020 Salt Lake City earthquake. A $75K opening bid for the chance to buy a stand alone AM license and re-build the station? I'll pass.

radioink.com/2020/07/02/looking-for-a-station-in-utah/?fbclid=IwAR0q8wd2U2nKK_Vi_Aar-ktgWUzH89i2igywWG1ICW9iigfdsfiNup8jViY

EDIT: I forgot to add that Morgan Skinner of Rockwell Media Services has petitioned the FCC to deny involuntary transfer of control to Jacob Hibbert, the court appointed receiver. As near as I can tell from researching KMRI's public information file, the FCC already transferred control of KMRI to Mr. Hibbard on May 1st. Sounds like the pending sale of the station's assets has the potential to get ugly.

licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=95084

[CAwasinNJ]

The transfer of control was filed April 17, approved April 28 and subsequently notified and accepted as consummated. It was more than a month later that Vicente/Skinner filed the Petition to Deny with the FCC and a request for a rehearing with the Court. Those filings were more than a month and a half after we were already talking about it here. Basically Vicente says he didn't know what was going on. That's not at all a surprise to me which is probably why I saw that the petition had been filed and noted that I should write about it but never got around to it. My bad. As far as whether the Court filing will go anywhere, I don't have a clue. I'm not even sure how to look up what the Court response was, if any. I think you might have to pay to see the files. Anyone know?

As for the sale itself, $75,000 is lower than the prices that were floating around for 1230 and 1320 which both needed massive tower work too. The receiver really wants to recover what's owed and that could affect the price that's accepted in either direction. I'm more curious about who might bid. You don't think it could be Vic Michael again do you? Anyway, maybe we should have a watch party....

[David]

If I understand the Radio Ink article correctly, the receiver has already received a $75 K opening bid for the station license. My first thought when I read the article was that the opening bid was probably from Vic Michael. He seems to specialize in buying distressed stations to rebuild and sell. He's already done that with the two stations in the Salt Lake market that he bought from Cumulus, so he probably has a good idea of what it would cost to rebuild KMRI's tower.

[amanuensis]

As I understand it, before a bankruptcy auction, the trustee often seeks out a bidder to establish a floor for the auction, so that the thing being auctioned doesn't go for a song. This is a stalking-horse bidder. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking_horse_offer The stalking-horse bidder is willing to do this because the trustee promised to pay the bidder a fee if the stalking-horse gets outbid. Thus winning even if he loses. I would not at all be surprised if the bidder is Vic.

[CAwasinNJ]

This isn't a bankruptcy but they might do something similar.

[oldiesfunhouse]

If Mr. Michael gets it, maybe we'll have a KRKY simulcast in Salt lake, at least for a short while. That's a good station. I listen to it on the internet sometimes.

[David]

Some additional information on the auction of KMRI. No application for assignment of license has been filed with the FCC yet.

www.rbr.com/slc-ams-license-auction-affirmed/

[CAwasinNJ]

David, that article was dated July 1.

[David]

Jul 23, 2020 14:34:10 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

David, that article was dated July 1.

I'm aware of that, but since the article contains additional information that wasn't in the Radio Ink article, I thought it was worth sharing.

[CAwasinNJ]

And this just in....dit-dit-ditdit

The petitions to deny David mentioned at the top were "returned as procedurally defective pursuant to rule section 73.3584(e)."

That section says:
(e) Untimely Petitions to Deny, as well as other pleadings in the nature of a Petition to Deny, and any other pleadings or supplements which do not lie as a matter of law or are otherwise procedurally defective, are subject to return by the FCC's staff without consideration.

That's all the information there is.  If anything did or is happening on the Court side there may be a new filing from that but this one is done.  Still no new application for transfer of control and a quick look around didn't show any results of the auction.

[meagen]

Morgan Skinner's protest was dismissed as untimely and I am sure your right, any one who gets near that is in for a lot of drama and turmoil  Vincente has a lawyer and I am not sure why SKinner is filing things at the FCC on his behalf/

Skinner is NOT a lawyer but tries to act as such  I was involved in a case against him unfortunately and he claims to be registered by the DC bar but a non voting member.