A group of WXEL-TV supporters, including its president and CEO, its chief fundraiser and area education and media executives, have until Dec. 31 to work out a purchase agreement to buy the station from Barry University before the sale is opened to other bidders.
“We’re very optimistic,” said WXEL President and CEO Bernard Henneberg said. “There are people here who want to keep WXEL local. They don’t want us to go away.”
Henneberg said he first approached the university about a management-led acquisition after the state Board of Education agreed in December to grant a controversial lease transfer of the radio station to Classical South Florida. The Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of the license — sold for $3.85 million — in May.
At the time, local supporters objected to the sale, saying it put control of the station in the hands of a media giant and signaled the end of local programming. Classical South Florida is owned by Minnesota-based American Public Media, the nation’s largest operator of public radio stations.
Barry and Classical South Florida, however, argued that CSF was the best choice for the community and believed splitting the licenses gave both the beleaguered radio and television stations the best chance of surviving.
At its June 10 board meeting, Henneberg laid out his plan to trustees and asked for exclusive rights to negotiate and raise $2.5 million to purchase the TV station.
Barry had purchased the station — started 40 years ago to educate local migrant workers — in 1997 when its value had shrunk to $350,000. Over the years, the university pumped $5.3 million into both the radio and television stations before Barry’s trustees decided it no longer fit the school’s mission and started entertaining buyers.
In 2004, New York’s WNET-TV teamed up with the Community Broadcast Foundation as its community-based partner to buy it, but the deal fell through when the FCC failed to consider the license application.
At the time, Barry spokesman Michael Laderman explained, the university “took a little time off” until Classical South Florida surfaced as a suitor for the radio station.
Over the years, potential buyers emerged but never led to a sale.
“We’d had the usual suitors for radio and TV, which included the Radio Broadcast Foundation, Nova and FAU. The School Board of Palm Beach County had shown interest, but it was always for radio and TV and from our end, we didn’t feel there was a suitable suitor for both radio and TV except WNET.”
Ultimately, Laderman said, trustees want the buyer who will secure the station’s future.
“Bernie knows as well as anybody that we’re looking for the best suitor, the best entity on behalf of the community,” Laderman said. “That’s why we chose CSF to oversee the radio. And that’s why we haven’t rushed any of our decisions as to who we’re going to sell the licenses to in the past seven to eight years.”
Henneberg said his group has formed a nonprofit corporation and created a board that so far includes David L. Jaffe, Lynn University’s dean of the College of International Communication; Judith Garcia, head of the Palm Beach County School District’s education network; Dick Robinson, founder and chairman of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting; and philanthropist Barbara Sherry.
They are still assembling the board and launching the capital campaign.
They hope to snare a major gift to offer donors a matching grant. They need to raise at least $2.5 million to purchase the station as well as working capital and money to purchase some equipment.
So far, Henneberg said, no real competitors for the station have stepped forward.
The Community Broadcast Foundation, the group that had teamed up with WNET, “commented they don’t want just the TV. They’ve been quiet,” he said. “A couple of other groups were in contact. They want the license, but they’re special interest groups and we don’t want them to be a part of the board.”
Henneberg said anyone interested in contributing to the capital campaign could contact the station at 737-8000.
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