After the CXR Radio LLC divestiture trust sought a one year extension to its requirement to divest CHR “Power 95.3” WPYO Maitland/Orlando and Alternative “97X” 97.1 WSUN Holiday/Tampa FL by December 17, 2021, Spanish Broadcasting Systems has filed comments against the extension alleging that CXR Radio has been negotiating in bad faith for the sale of WPYO.

SBS states that since August it has made multiple offers for WPYO. The first on August 30 was rejected three days later by CXR trustee Elliot Evers stating that despite the upcoming 12/17 deadline, “we believe it is in [Cox Media Group’s] best interest to continue to hold the station off the market until such time as improvement in performance justifies a significantly higher price than what SBS had offered”. On September 28, SBS made a higher offer for WPYO along with an independent appraisal valuing the station at $6 million which was rejected noting “your proposal falls well below the level at which we think the station will eventually sell.” A third offer was made on November 3 in excess of the $6 million appraisal, but CXR countered “at a price several million dollars above the highest valuation accorded to the station.”

The SBS letter states that CXR intends to begin a “meaningful marketing process” for its trust stations in early 2022, alleging that the trustee has completely ignored its obligations over the past two years stating that “CXR may not legitimately defer the sale of WPYO until it receives ‘what would have been’ a marketplace offer before the pandemic, or a price for which the station ‘likely will be able to sell’ once the market fully recovers to 2019 levels (if ever it does). Moreover, CXR is obligated to sell the station at the maximum price ‘reasonably attainable,’ not necessarily what it might consider WPYO’s ‘full market value’ to be under the most ideal of conditions.”

The full argument, including the independent appraisal commissioned by SBS, can be found here.