Super Bowl Update

Well, Roberts Broadcasting can follow the rules after all.  (Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are.)

As required, the company has filed a Notification of Suspension of Operations and Request for Silent STA (Special Temporary Authority) with the FCC regarding WAZE-LP and its other translators.  This form is used to let the Commission know when and for what reason a station goes off the air.

Interestingly, Steven Roberts ― one of the stations' owners ― states on the form that WAZE has "temporarily" ceased operations because of the company's bankruptcy proceedings.  However, it appears that the receiving equipment at the stations' transmitter site was removed when the stations were taken off the air last Thursday, which would indicate that the cessation is anything but temporary.

And, as noted in a previous story, WAZE's licenses are set to expire on Aug. 1.  As mentioned, no renewals for WAZE-LP, WJPS-LP or WIKY-LP were filed within the application window that all other stations used last year, which would indicate that things here are at an end.

Stay tuned ...

UPDATE, 2:50 p.m. FRIDAY:  I've sought comment from both the Roberts Companies (the St. Louis-based owners of WAZE) as well as the CW network. At this time, neither entity has replied.

UPDATE, 7:35 p.m.:  An anonymous reader left the following comment regarding the very slim possibility of a new owner purchasing what remains of WAZE:

A new owner is all but impossible for several reasons:

1. Any sale would likely have to be approved by the bankruptcy judge overseeing the Roberts' case. This takes some time.
2. The FCC would have to approve the transfer before April 1 in order to allow the new owner to immediately file for a license renewal.
3. A license renewal is extremely uncertain, considering these stations are required by their licenses to air 3 hours per week of programming produced in Evansville, a requirement they have not met for many years.

All of the above makes sense to me.

PREVIOUSLY ― It appears the end is at hand for WAZE-TV.

Earlier today, without explanation, the Evansville CW affiliate's last remaining over-the-air operations ― its low-power stations WJPS-LP (ch. 4), WIKY-LP (ch. 5) and WAZE-LP (ch. 17) ― were shut down by Roberts' contract engineer.

The station has also gone dark on cable and satellite systems across the area.

The Roberts Broadcasting-owned stations, along with their sister stations in St. Louis, Columbia, S.C. and Jackson, Miss., have languished in bankruptcy protection for well over a year with no resolution in sight.  When the other Evansville-market TV stations applied for new Federal Communications Commission broadcast licenses last year, Roberts did not do so, which means that the licenses for channels 4, 5 and 17 are scheduled to expire Aug. 1.

WAZE's former main station, licensed to Madisonville, Ky. ― which was reduced to an 1,100-watt "temporary" digital operation after the 2009 analog shutdown ― was itself shuttered by the FCC in 2011 after Roberts failed to build-out its planned full-power operation within the required timeframe.

UPDATE #2, WEDNESDAY 3:15 p.m.:  The latest word on the sale of WRBJ is that the judge in the Roberts Broadcasting bankruptcy case - presumably Judge Barry Schermer, who was handling the case at last check - will have to approve the deal.  That's in addition to the usual FCC scrutiny that station sales receive.

UPDATE, 12:45 p.m.:  According to today's roundup of station sales at TVNewsCheck, TBN is paying $1.5 million for WRBJ. Of course, WRBJ has been fully built-out and is a digital operation, unlike WAZE, which is analog-only and consists - for legal purposes, anyway - of three low-power stations (channels 4, 5 and 17).

PREVIOUSLY: It's been months since we've heard anything from Roberts Broadcasting, the bankrupt St. Louis-based owner of WAZE-LP, Evansville's CW affiliate, but that changed Tuesday morning with a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the company is selling its Jackson, Miss. station, WRBJ-TV, to California-based Trinity Christian Center, which is better known as Trinity Broadcasting Network or TBN.

WRBJ, the newspaper reports, will drop CW programming in favor of TBN's Christian fare, although it's not immediately apparent when that will happen.  It's also not known how much TBN is paying for the station.

Like its sister stations in St. Louis, Evansville and Columbia, S.C., WRBJ has been a big money loser for Roberts Broadcasting; when it filed bankruptcy around this time last year, the owners listed that the station had $1.23 million in debts and a mere $174,000 in assets.  It's been reported that WRBJ has lost as much as $30,000 a month for the past several months.

Media Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based firm specializing in media transactions, handled WRBJ's sale and is also in charge of trying to sell WAZE and Roberts' Columbia station, WZRB.  No word yet on if any deals are in the offing for those.

Michael and Steven Roberts, the St. Louis media/hotel/property development moguls who own CW affiliate WAZE-TV in Evansville, have solved one of their myriad financial crises.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported late Wednesday that the brothers have reached an agreement with Bank of America, which sued them in April for $34 million, the balance of a defaulted loan for renovations to their hotels outside the St. Louis area.

As part of the agreement, the Roberts' six hotels in Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Shreveport, La.; Spartanburg, S.C; and Tampa are to be sold by year's end. The proceeds from the sales will go to Bank of America.  Thomas DeWoskin, attorney for the Roberts brothers, says B of A will recoup more of its money in this fashion ... and when all is said and done and the money's counted up, the bank is expected to drop the suit.

At least that's what the defendants expect.

“The Roberts certainly hope so (that the suit will be dropped),” DeWoskin told the newspaper. “I think everybody would feel better if this was resolved.”

Interestingly, this development comes just days after the Roberts' hotel and property companies made Black Enterprise's list of the top 100 African-American-owned businesses in the nation (Roberts Properties was ranked 36th, the hotel group 40th).  As the Post-Dispatch points out, however, after the six hotels up for grabs are gone, the hotel group will likely be much lower on next year's list.

Next up on the Roberts' plate: What to do with their bankrupt TV operation and several of their other languishing properties, at least one of which (a hotel in St. Louis) is in receivership because of another lawsuit.

The four Roberts Broadcasting TV stations have been in the protection of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eastern Missouri since late last year, and a reorganization plan was supposed to be submitted several months ago.  There was some talk from DeWoskin earlier this year that the stations would be sold (and rumors of a potential buyer for WAZE have even surfaced), but nothing further has come along.

At least not yet.