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WQED receives two bids to buy WQEX
Dimitri Vassilaros is a Tribune-Review editorial page editor. He can be reached at dvassilaros@tribweb.com or 412-380-5637. He also blogs at KDKA
Miles declined to identify the prospective buyers or the specific bids. A buyer will not be picked until after the New Year's holiday, he said.
"Each (offer) is intriguing, but we are not ready to move yet," Miles said.
WQED has been trying to sell WQEX since 1996, when it petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to change the station's license to commercial from educational. The FCC approved the request earlier this year.
WQED plans to use the proceeds from a WQEX sale to pay off approximately $9 million in debt, convert WQED-Channel 13 to digital broadcasting, make other capital improvements to the station and finance more local programming. The two stations have simulcast PBS and educational programming for the past five years.
Pittsburgh native Diane Sutter, president of ShootingStar Broadcasting of California, signed an agreement in September 2000 to buy WQEX for $20 million. WQED and Sutter canceled the agreement last month, after WQED rejected giving her an eighth deadline extension to complete the deal.
Since then, WQED has received 11 inquiries and the two bids, Miles said. Sutter isn't one of the bidders, although she said last month she still hoped to complete a deal for WQEX.
Miles said ShootingStar has not been in contact with WQED officials. "I have not talked with her," he said. "She has not stepped up with anything new. … We will know at the end of the process if the Sutter deal falling through was a blessing in disguise."
Sutter declined to comment yesterday.
Miles plans to meet with WQED's board of directors to discuss the two offers.
"I will go over the process with due diligence," he said. "We want to make sure we have done the things the board would expect me to do."
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