A low-power Iowa TV station operated by Bahakel Communications via a Shared Services Agreement with a company that assumed would be its new owner is heading back to the company that intended to sell it due to “problems” it suffered.
Instead, a Georgia LPTV is being assigned.
KGLU-LD in Ottumwa, Iowa, is a station Bahakel runs via an SSA with SagamoreHill Broadcasting.
It’s been assumed SagamoreHill would be the owner of the station for months.
Now, via a Memorandum of Understanding filed with the FCC on Monday (6/17), it is now known that SagamoreHill — and Bahakel — will not have KGLU as part of their future plans.
A prepaid amount of $71,000 is being refunded by the facility’s seller, DTV America Corp.
That is a licensee tied to HC2 Station Group, the entity led by Philip Falcone that is rumored to be having difficulty closing many of the deals it struck in 2018 as part of a plan to gain an upper hand on the data delivery benefits associated with the ATSC 3.0 next-gen broadcast TV standard.
Closing of the KGLU did not occur, DTV says, due to “delays engendered by the problems encountered by the licensee” — DTV America.
In lieu of the refund, SagamoreHill successor Roseland Broadcasting is getting another facility: WDMN-LD 14 in Augusta, Ga.
The memorandum of understanding is dated April 4, signaling that the exchange of WDMN for the Ottumwa property has been completed.
Roseland President is led by Julie Huang. It is based in Little Rock.
Aaron Shainis of Shainis & Peltzman served as the buyer’s legal counsel.
The LPTV deal is the third in three months for Huang.
On March 8 Roseland agreed to purchase W34EC-D in Chattahoochee, Fla., from CTB Spectrum Services LLC. One week later, it agreed to an $80,000 deal that saw it acquire the following properties from Spirit of Prayer Ministries:
- K04RL-D, Amarillo, Texas, FCC Facility ID No. 187582
- K03IT-D, Orange, Texas, FCC Facility ID No. 187584
- K13NY-D, Tyler, Texas, FCC Facility ID No. 187585
- New, Redding, California, FCC Facility ID No. 183127