Receiver plans auction for WLNE-TV, working with 6 bidders

In a process that the receiver hopes to wrap up within 60 days, plans are in the works to finalize the sale of WLNE-TV ABC6 by establishing a stalking-horse bid and auction to obtain fair-market value for the 43-year-old television station that serves Rhode Island and the nearby New Bedford area.
Matthew McGowan, an attorney with the Providence firm of Salter McGowan Sylvia & Leonard Inc. and the court-appointed receiver for the station, told Providence Business News last week that he has received offers from six “strong bidders,” most of whom have local connections to the Rhode Island area.
McGowan declined to discuss the bids in detail due to confidentiality reasons, but confirmed that one bid is from a local group and “almost all the others have local connections,” he said. “The principals may not be local, but they have some local connections.”
Joseph R. Paolino Jr., former mayor of Providence from April 1984 to January 1991 and a prominent real estate owner and developer in Rhode Island, confirmed that he is “part of a group that put in a proposal for it [Channel 6],” but declined to provide further details.
Angus Davis, a local technology entrepreneur who has been cited in published reports as a potential buyer, is no longer interested in acquiring the television station, he told PBN in an e-mail.
Meanwhile, WLNE-TV remains in operation as usual on Orms Street in Providence with approximately 80 employees, although it has been in receivership since July due largely to reduced advertising revenue, station representatives said at the time.
Steve Doerr remains as vice president and general manager, although B.J. Finnell departed as news director in October and has been replaced by Dan Fabrizio.
“Business is good, morale is high and we are moving right along,” Doerr said of current operations.
McGowan explained that he is working with the six bidders to finalize their offers. On Jan. 31, he was scheduled to seek Superior Court approval of an overall sale process, which eventually would include designation of a stalking horse bid and auction. “We are close to choosing who the stalking-horse offerer would be,” he said.
McGowan will designate the best bid as the stalking horse, both for the price offered and the nature of the deal proposed. This leading bid then sets the benchmark for an auction when other bidders can compete to match or exceed its terms.
He rejected the notion that an auction for a television station is unusual, saying such auctions happen all the time in receivership cases. Thirty-day public notice will be given before the auction is held, McGowan noted, and he intends to have the sale wrapped up within 60 days.
He confirmed that no asking price has been set for the television station. The sale process he proposes “will reveal the fair market value of the station,” McGowan said, “and we will get fair market value.” He has no special factors in mind for the ideal bidder, except to say that he would “like to see a financially strong buyer and we believe there are a number of them out there.”
Plans are to keep the television station open and “everyone working and, at least short-term, to keep the station in Providence,” McGowan said. “It could stay in Providence long-term, but that depends on the buyer.”
Owner Global Broadcasting of Southeastern New England Inc. was founded in 2007 by Kevin O’Brien and a partner (who has since left) specifically to purchase WLNE-TV, paying a reported $14 million to Freedom Communications Inc. in California, which had owned the station since 1983. O’Brien could not be reached for comment last week.
Providence lawyer Allan M. Shine, attorney for WLNE-TV, declined comment, referring questions to McGowan. Representatives of CobbCorp LLC in New York City, exclusive broker for the WLNE-TV transaction, could not be reached for comment. •