September 2012

After nearly four years, Tribune Company has the bankruptcy finish line in sight, with just one more major hurdle ahead -- getting the OK from the federal government to shift its broadcast licenses to new owners.

The Chicago company wants to keep its media empire, including 24 local TV outlets, one radio station, a national cable station and 12 newspapers, intact for now because that's part of the bankruptcy plan that won court approval earlier this year. Even though Tribune may sell assets later, when it can negotiate those sales without court oversight, keeping them together is key to exiting bankruptcy soon. Dissident creditors seeking to throw Tribune off that course lost their latest battle last week when they were unable to post a $1.5 billion bond. Still, the effort to preserve Tribune's current license arrangement could thrust it from one legal battle into another. The company owns a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in five markets despite FCC rules that bar such cross-ownership. Its holdings include the Chicago Tribune, WGN-TV/Channel 9 and WGN-AM/720. Tribune must win FCC approval to transfer waivers as well as the licenses. The hitch is that the waivers were issued to Tribune at a time when the commission was more likely to grant them. Commissions with a Democratic majority, which is the case now, have opposed a concentration of ownership in a single market, even though Republican majorities have allowed them.