Cliff Dumas and Bryan Woodruff’s BTC USA Holdings has entered Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection following the company going into receivership in Canada earlier this year.
The company, which had been operating as Local First Media Group, purchased Frontier Media LLC’s stations in Texarkana AR/TX and Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka AK in October 2022 for $1.3 million and agreed to purchase J&J Broadcasting’s five stations in northern Michigan in November 2022 for the same price but never closed on that deal.
BTC USA Holdings went into receivership in Canada in February after defaulting on a loan from ATB Financial for $8,155,974.17 Canadian as of January 14. The Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection is for foreign companies seeking court protections to prevent other stakeholders from commencing or continuing actions in American courts that could interfere the case in Canada. The receivership in Canada is equivalent to a Chapter 7 liquidation in the US.
The Alaskan operations have reverted to operating under the Frontier Media banner, while Texarkana is back under the Texarkana Media Center brand. Colin ‘Col’ Taylor, who previously served as President/COO of the company and previously was GM in Texarkana under Frontier Media ownership told their KTFS-FM that he is in the process of acquiring the company.
Dumas, who owned 80% of BTC USA Holdings, previously hosted mornings at stations including KUZZ Bakersfield, KRST Albuquerque and KSON San Diego as well as KHAM Hamilton and CISS-FM Toronto in his native Canada. He also was co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Pattison Media’s Everything Podcasts division and a member of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
