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Thursday, May 5, 2011

5 Atlantic Broadcasting Stations Sell For $4 million

Successful bidder not named

Five Atlantic City, NJ radio stations were sold at auction Wednesday, but the successful bidder is not being named, the bankrupt company’s attorney said.

According to a  story by Elaine Rose at pressofatlanticcity.com, the details will be revealed this afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, in front of Judge Judith Wizmur, when the sale is presented to the court for approval, said Michael Viscount, an attorney with Fox Rothschild in Atlantic City. The bidding was conducted at the Atlantic City office of Fox Rothschild, which represents Atlantic Broadcasting.

The stations were sold for $4.2 million, a document filed with the court Wednesday evening shows.

Atlantic Broadcasting filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Dec. 20, after it accumulated about $8 million in debt, court documents show. In the filing, CEO John Caracciolo blamed the stations’ financial woes on the recession, poor performance by previous management and theft.

Former general manager Brett DeNafo was arrested in October and charged with stealing $175,000 from the company, an accusation his attorney called “110 percent bogus.” The case is still pending and has not yet been presented to a grand jury, said Madelaine Vitale, a spokeswoman for Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel, on Wednesday.

Atlantic Broadcasting owns news-talk station WOND-AM 1400, Spanish station WBSS-AM 1490, classic hits station WTKU-FM 98.3, Top 40 station WTAA-FM 102.7 and classic rock station WMGM-FM 103.7. All of the stations except WTAA were part of what was known as the “Green Group,” headquartered on Route 9 in Linwood.

The main owners of Atlantic Broadcasting formed a new company, Boardwalk Radio of Syosset, N.Y., to be the “stalking horse” in the bidding process and set a minimum bid of $3 million. Four other parties submitted qualified bids by last week’s deadline.

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