Luken files for Chapter 11.

[CircleSeven 1945]

Here we go again.

 

ArkansasBusiness posted this morning that on Sunday, Luken Communications filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. This comes after last Friday's civil verdict ruling, awarding a bankruptcy trustee of former Equity Media Holdings creditors $47.4 million to, after a jury found that the transfer of Retro Television Network (formerly known as RTN, then RTV) from Equity to former Equity's CEO Henry Luken for $18.5M, according to that trustee "was a constructively fraudulent transfer".

 

And if Luken or what I call it "Equity II" goes under, The stations will become speculator-bate real quick.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

Do they actually own any stations? or will it be a case of a lot of subchannels open?

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

Do they actually own any stations? or will it be a case of a lot of subchannels open?

 

They own several Low-power stations, through its Digital Networks subsidiary. One is their flagship in Chattanooga, WOOT-CD. Many of those LPs use to be owned by TBN.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

Here we go again.

 

ArkansasBusiness posted this morning that on Sunday, Luken Communications filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. This comes after last Friday's civil verdict ruling, awarding a bankruptcy trustee of former Equity Media Holdings creditors $47.4 million to, after a jury found that the transfer of Retro Television Network (formerly known as RTN, then RTV) from Equity to former Equity's CEO Henry Luken for $18.5M, according to that trustee "was a constructively fraudulent transfer".

 

And if Luken or what I call it "Equity II" goes under, The stations will become speculator-bate real quick.

 

 

Do you guys think that Sinclair is going to buy these stations?

 

(heh...sorry. I had to. )

[sanewsguy 509]

 

Do you guys think that Sinclair is going to buy these stations?

 

(heh...sorry. I had to. )

 

The stations, no. But they might be a good buyer for all of the digital multicast networks. That way, they can replace the current networks on their stations with the new networks they own. It would be a lot cheaper and would make Sinclair a content creator (aside from local news an ROH wrestling). Sinclair would be stupid not to make a bid for the networks.

 

But as "CircleSeven" notes, the stations are nothing more than "spectrum speculator" bait. Besides, why would Sinclair want a bunch of low-power stations anyway?

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

The stations, no. But they might be a good buyer for all of the digital multicast networks. That way, they can replace the current networks on their stations with the new networks they own. It would be a lot cheaper and would make Sinclair a content creator (aside from local news an ROH wrestling). Sinclair would be stupid not to make a bid for the networks.

 

But as "CircleSeven" notes, the stations are nothing more than "spectrum speculator" bait. Besides, why would Sinclair want a bunch of low-power stations anyway?

 

I know, I was just trying to make a joke about the ridiculous speculations that are sometimes made on here. Need to work on my humor a little more.

 

That being said, I'm not sure what kind of prospective buyer would want something like this. My guess is it would end up with a religious broadcaster because they aren't too picky about the signals they buy.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

 

Do you guys think that Sinclair is going to buy these stations?

 

(heh...sorry. I had to. )

 

Doubtful. I think they might be going dark or community ownership if anything.

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

Here we go again.

 

ArkansasBusiness posted this morning that on Sunday, Luken Communications filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. This comes after last Friday's civil verdict ruling, awarding a bankruptcy trustee of former Equity Media Holdings creditors $47.4 million to, after a jury found that the transfer of Retro Television Network (formerly known as RTN, then RTV) from Equity to former Equity's CEO Henry Luken for $18.5M, according to that trustee "was a constructively fraudulent transfer".

 

And if Luken or what I call it "Equity II" goes under, The stations will become speculator-bate real quick.

 

apparently that transaction 6 or 7 years ago didn't work very well because they were committing "fraudulent transfers" and/or station transfers???? Okay, how did this even happen in the first place and all I know is that Equity Media Holdings back in 2008 filed a Chapter 11 reorganization and then the creditors forced it into a Chapter 7 Liquidation and then the Company went under and it's stock removed from the stock exchange and went defunct.

 

I know, I was just trying to make a joke about the ridiculous speculations that are sometimes made on here. Need to work on my humor a little more.

 

That being said, I'm not sure what kind of prospective buyer would want something like this. My guess is it would end up with a religious broadcaster because they aren't too picky about the signals they buy.

 

All I know is that there are two choices to this method for the former religious stations: DayStar Television Network, (yes the Marcus Lamb tryst/sex tape scandal network) or TBN (better known in my head as The Blasphemy Network , Overstimulated and Crying Jan Crouch Network and finally... The Trinity "megaa**motherload" needs money Brodacasting Network! LOL!

[tvweatherman 0]

What do you guys honestly think will happen to affiliates for RTV?

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

What do you guys honestly think will happen to affiliates for RTV?

 

In some markets, we'll see Me-TV upgrade to better stations. Cox still has RTV on a subchannel in Seattle while a rimshot owned by spectrum speculator OTA Broadcasting is the Me-TV station. In other markets, Cozi may make some inroads.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

In some markets, we'll see Me-TV upgrade to better stations. Cox still has RTV on a subchannel in Seattle while a rimshot owned by spectrum speculator OTA Broadcasting is the Me-TV station. In other markets, Cozi may make some inroads.

 

Cox can do better dropping Retro TV in favor of Me-TV so the OTA folks in Seattle proper can see Me-TV. KVOS won't be on for long after auction, so they might as well kindly hand in the affiliation to one of the Seattle proper stations that won't be prong to hand in their TV station.

[tvweatherman 0]

 

In some markets, we'll see Me-TV upgrade to better stations. Cox still has RTV on a subchannel in Seattle while a rimshot owned by spectrum speculator OTA Broadcasting is the Me-TV station. In other markets, Cozi may make some inroads.

 

Do you think RTV will be going bye bye?

[tyrannical bastard 3487]

 

Do you think RTV will be going bye bye?

 

Yes....RTV and most of the other Luken Networks are doomed.

 

Most of the damage was done back in 2011 when they lost the NBCUniversal rights which dramatically altered their programming lineup. Soon after, several major groups including Media General and Cox dumped RTV for other subchannels, mostly for MeTV and Antenna TV. These channels also were able to pick and choose the NBCUniversal shows that had dominated RTV's lineup.

 

The biggest problem with Luken and their networks is their poor execution...which dates back to the Equity era. The financial problems, coupled with programming rights tied to only one major supplier were severe enough to alienate viewers and customers. I used to watch RTV until it's 2011 loss of programming...and lost any and all reason to watch soon after (our affiliate was gone by that fall as well...replaced with MeTV)

 

Weigel and Tribune have taken an idea and done it WAY better, plus they invested in programming, promotion and execution. This is why both MeTV and Antenna TV are thriving and why RetroTV could soon be a thing of the past...

[sanewsguy 509]

I really think Sinclair should buy the digi-nets. Makes tons of sense. They can replace Me-TV on whatever stations have them with RTV, The Country Network with TNN, etc.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

Yes....RTV and most of the other Luken Networks are doomed.

 

Most of the damage was done back in 2011 when they lost the NBCUniversal rights which dramatically altered their programming lineup. Soon after, several major groups including Media General and Cox dumped RTV for other subchannels, mostly for MeTV and Antenna TV. These channels also were able to pick and choose the NBCUniversal shows that had dominated RTV's lineup.

 

The biggest problem with Luken and their networks is their poor execution...which dates back to the Equity era. The financial problems, coupled with programming rights tied to only one major supplier were severe enough to alienate viewers and customers. I used to watch RTV until it's 2011 loss of programming...and lost any and all reason to watch soon after (our affiliate was gone by that fall as well...replaced with MeTV)

 

Weigel and Tribune have taken an idea and done it WAY better, plus they invested in programming, promotion and execution. This is why both MeTV and Antenna TV are thriving and why RetroTV could soon be a thing of the past...

 

And if you think he's lying, look at this YT vids with the collages of promos from Me-TV, including its

. And you see why Me-TV has thrived all these years? Antenna TV as well. Promotion is Key. I don't think I'd ever seen RTV promote anything, maybe a couple of things but you don't even see those regularly.

 

WPVN-CD, which is the RTV affiliate hear is Chicago, just a few months ago, move its antenna to the Trump Tower. Before that, their signal was like in the west suburbs, no one in the immediate part of the city saw RTV when it launched a couple of years prior. And this was before they lost that NBC Library. The New TNN is a complete joke. It's nothing like its original cable channel. The new TNN & ZUUS Country should merge together. TUFF TV ain't nothing. No other major station have MyFamilyTV or PBJ. I mean who names a network after a childish-loving sandwich? And Luken wanted an RTV2? Maybe Henry Luken should wave the white flag and close shop now and save all the further misery later.

[tyrannical bastard 3487]

I was a part of when my old station launched RTV and later MeTV. When RTV launched in Fall of 08 (this was under Equity), they actually attempted to promote their shows. Soon after, Equity gave up running RTV and Luken had to cobble the network back together again. Any promotion went away aside from legal IDs and a 10 second bumper identifying RTV.

 

The one pro that Luken had (until the end of the NBCU deal) was the ability to have a customized schedule. While they were similar, it came in handy when a particular show was already airing on another staton, this actually happened because another station was already airing Magnum PI at the time, but later dropped it, allowing RTV to put it on the schedule. However, this centralized setup was a nightmare for the production and traffic departments, already fresh off of layoffs, had another channel we had to send commercials and promos to. The only way to get spots to them was to fedex them beta tapes. They didn't even have an FTP setup yet (and neither did we at the time).

Promoting the channel was left to the station as well, and getting things from the home office was like pulling teeth...

 

Then along comes MeTV....they provide an intranet site chock full of logos, taggable promos, basically any promo they are running available at our disposal to promote the channel. To make things even better, their setup can actually pull spots locally from the same servers that playback on the main channel. No more sending spots to another facility or dubbing extra tapes there too! Add shows that people want to watch, promote them with award-winning promos, sell the local ad time easily, and presto! You have a recipe for success!

[TVIntheDesert 183]

The Equity bankruptcy was the first nail in RTV's coffin. When they scrambled their way to Luken's home base of Chattanooga, their then-GM threw together a proprietary automation system and that never seemed to work right. Series would play out of order, sometimes the same episodes would air the next day or week. Lots of dead air too. Equity's CASH hub was a work of art compared to the Luken system.

 

Then, RTV's GM left the company, took the Classic Media shows with him, and sold those in syndication to RTV's competitors! He now runs a couple small stations in the South affiliated with Cozi TV!

[tyrannical bastard 3487]

 

The Equity bankruptcy was the first nail in RTV's coffin. When they scrambled their way to Luken's home base of Chattanooga, their then-GM threw together a proprietary automation system and that never seemed to work right. Series would play out of order, sometimes the same episodes would air the next day or week. Lots of dead air too. Equity's CASH hub was a work of art compared to the Luken system.

 

Then, RTV's GM left the company, took the Classic Media shows with him, and sold those in syndication to RTV's competitors! He now runs a couple small stations in the South affiliated with Cozi TV!

 

Now that you mention it, I do remember instances of the exact same "Marcus Welby" or "Quincy ME" episodes running day after day!

 

Is this GM you speak of Neal Ardman? I believe he's running one of the stations you speak of (into the ground....that is!)

Example....the guide says "Banacek" is on right now, when "The Lone Ranger" is actually on!

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

Now that you mention it, I do remember instances of the exact same "Marcus Welby" or "Quincy ME" episodes running day after day!

 

Is this GM you speak of Neal Ardman? I believe he's running one of the stations you speak of (into the ground....that is!)

Example....the guide says "Banacek" is on right now, when "The Lone Ranger" is actually on!

 

Correct. He's running stations in Pensacola and Montgomery, the latter he is buying outright. Technical specifications? Neal doesn't need any for his stations (forget about PSIP!). At least he's not doing that "Unreliable Sources" show at this time.

[DirtyHarry 719]

RTV has a history of stiffing their program providers. CBS got stiffed so they lost all the classic CBS sitcoms. Then Universal got stiffed and they lost those shows too. RTV was also cheap when it came to bandwidth and had horrendously crappy picture quality.

 

RTV was a great idea and they were the first to do what they are doing. It's too bad they didn't have the finances or maybe the ethics to get the job done right. They could have had a gold mine right now if they just pay their bills.

[lugnuts6 89]

The BIG question ..what happens to the reborn TNN ???

[channel2 874]

 

And if you think he's lying, look at this YT vids with the collages of promos from Me-TV, including its

. And you see why Me-TV has thrived all these years? Antenna TV as well. Promotion is Key. I don't think I'd ever seen RTV promote anything, maybe a couple of things but you don't even see those regularly.

 

WPVN-CD, which is the RTV affiliate hear is Chicago, just a few months ago, move its antenna to the Trump Tower. Before that, their signal was like in the west suburbs, no one in the immediate part of the city saw RTV when it launched a couple of years prior. And this was before they lost that NBC Library. The New TNN is a complete joke. It's nothing like its original cable channel. The new TNN & ZUUS Country should merge together. TUFF TV ain't nothing. No other major station have MyFamilyTV or PBJ. I mean who names a network after a childish-loving sandwich? And Luken wanted an RTV2? Maybe Henry Luken should wave the white flag and close shop now and save all the further misery later.

 

To be fair, PBJ is partially aimed at children.

 

That network's future is doubtful anyway; Classic Media, its main programming provider, got bought out by DreamWorks Animation last year, and they've been kicking the idea of their own cable channel around for a while.

 

They've also already lost some CM shows to Cozi...

 

RTV's stuck on a low-power station in Denver too. Kinda funny how it's spawned all these imitators now that it's dying.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

To be fair, PBJ is partially aimed at children.

 

That network's future is doubtful anyway; Classic Media, its main programming provider, got bought out by DreamWorks Animation last year, and they've been kicking the idea of their own cable channel around for a while.

 

They've also already lost some CM shows to Cozi...

 

RTV's stuck on a low-power station in Denver too. Kinda funny how it's spawned all these imitators now that it's dying.

 

Also, the fate of the Classic Media shows on those other channels are unknown too, if they decide to end their syndication agreement with Neal Ardman's company (who is distributing the shows to Me-TV, Cozi, Bounce, etc.).