LCMS' radio station sold without open bid

KFUO radio station sold for $18 million
By Sarah Bryan Miller
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/06/2009
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will sell its 61-year-old classical music station, KFUO-99.1 FM, to Gateway Creative Broadcasting, the LCMS and Gateway announced today, for $18 million plus $8 million in interest over a 10-year term.
The sale will become final in March, pending the approval of the Federal Communications Commission and transfer of the license...
"...The board reportedly decided it wanted to sell to a Christian organization. However, said the Rev. Dr. Paul Devantier, senior vice president at Concordia Seminary, Brashear refused to acknowledge a Lutheran group which wanted to buy the station and retain the format.
LCMS second vice president Paul W. Maier, a professor of history at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, charged that the board had ignored a petition signed by 41 church leaders, and abandoned its responsibilities. At its August meeting, the board turned over full authority to sell the station to Brashear. No discussions within the Synod were ever held.

...After learning of the sale, Neidorff and Wilkinson issued a statement that said "the entire process leaves many questions unanswered." It also expressed "dismay that Kermit Brashear was not willing to negotiate with the (KFUO) Radio Arts Board or provide us upon our request the terms of any sale."
Opponents of the sale, both within the LCMS and the Friends, said that they were considering appeals to the FCC and legal challenges to the sale.

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Since the AM station depends on support from the FM station, the sale of AM will be a couple of years behind or sooner. No one contacted our BOR about what would happen to the buildings on our property which have been rent free ever since the existence of KFUO. No one has any idea what the cost will be to remove the buildings once AM is sold. No one has made any provision for any kind of monies to be contributed to the St. Louis Seminary for all the free years of rent etc.

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DaRev said:

I find this statement from the above article intersting:

"But he says the church appears to have ignored a community responsibility."

What is the "community responsibility" of the Church? To broadcast classical music, or to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The Church isn't ignoring their "community responsibility" at all. They are attempting to use their assets to better fulfill their true "responsibility".

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The executive director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra calls the pending sale of KFUO "tragic." Fred Bronstein says the LCMS can do what it wants with KFUO, which it owns. But he says the church appears to have ignored a community responsibility.
"This is a station that has been in existence for more than 60 years, it's been an important voice for arts and culture in St. Louis in a city that really cares about arts and culture," Bronstein said. The Symphony has several broadcast agreements with KFUO, including a series of live concerts. Bronstein says officials have started exploring other outlets for those broadcasts.

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