Supporters of community radio station KDHX 88.1 FM will ask a judge on Monday to deny station leaders’ motion to complete a speedy sale of its broadcast license and instead allow 90 days for station supporters to submit a reorganization plan that would preserve KDHX’s place on the FM dial.
Station supporters have drawn up a budget and business plan for a relaunched incarnation of KDHX as an over-the-air radio station, forecasting an initial annual budget of just under $1 million, a few hundred thousands dollars less than it had been two years ago.
Supporters have raised $550,000 toward the effort, they said, with $450,000 coming in since April 1.
“The momentum [of the fundraising] is astonishing,” said Linda Martinez, a retired lawyer who has served as Missouri’s head of economic development, a deputy mayor of St. Louis under Lyda Krewson and president of Circus Flora.
“If the judge will give us the go-ahead to say that this should be a reorganization plan and not a liquidation," Martinez added, "I think the momentum will grow even faster.”
Martinez is one of several professionals in related fields who are new to the “Save KDHX” cause and now are lending their expertise to hammer out plans that Martinez said would prepare station supporters to take over operations of KDHX and return to live programming.
Their efforts as the Coalition for KDHX include recruiting members for a potentially reconstituted board, approaching businesses about future underwriting and drafting a new program schedule that includes veteran DJs who left the station under duress and newer ones who began shows in recent years.
Gene Dobbs Bradford, former leader of Jazz St. Louis, is leading fundraising efforts. Dobbs Bradford successfully led a $10 million capital campaign in 2013 that allowed Jazz St. Louis to expand and revamp its performance space, bar and spaces for educational programming.
KDHX supporters stated in the court filing that they will pay off the station’s creditors within 30 days of the court’s final approval of a reorganization plan. They promised to have funds available at that time for immediate operating expenses and necessary repairs at KDHX’s Grand Center studios.
KDHX leaders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, after halting live broadcasts in favor of recorded content in February. KDHX has a total debt of about $2 million. Gateway Media Foundation, a small network of Christian stations that owns JOY 99.1 FM locally, entered the high bid of $8.75 million for the station in a public auction last week.
Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States will decide if that proposed sale is the best way to satisfy the station’s creditors. The Monday hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
“It is impossible for any offer” by an outside group to buy KDHX’s broadcast license “to be the best offer, even if it is the highest, because any such sale will violate [KDHX’s] essential purpose as a non-profit community radio station,” station supporters argued in a court filing submitted on Wednesday.
KDHX leaders have said that the station’s financial issues are long-running and intractable, and that a sale of its broadcast license and other assets is the only way to pay off the station’s debt.
“If the sale is approved and our plan moves forward,” KDHX board President Gary Pierson said in a statement after last week’s auction, “many unique community voices will once again be sharing their musical inspirations on the St. Louis airwaves for years to come.”
The sale agreement includes a provision that KDHX will continue as an online and digital radio station, with Gateway Creative Broadcasting providing an HD signal for KDHX to use.
The sale price could fund a digital-only KDHX for five or more years, said Robert Eggman of Carmody MacDonald, the station’s bankruptcy attorney.
Double Helix Corp., the nonprofit entity that operates KDHX, would remain in control of a digital-only KDHX and have discretion over the funds from the station sale.
“I'm not the person who's going to decide what that looks like. It's going to be decided by other people in the future,” Pierson said about KDHX’s possible future incarnation as a web and digital station during an April Zoom call with reporters.
“It’s not going to be all decided by this board or this staff. It’s also not going to be decided solely by the people who chose to attack us and tear us down,” Pierson added.
