Local First Media Completes $1.28M Alaska Radio Sale
Local First Media Completes $1.28M Alaska Radio Sale to Alaska First Media
ElevenFlo Research
July 20, 202612 min readUpdated September 8, 2026
Local First Media Group's Alaska radio cluster changed hands on March 29, 2026, when FTI Consulting Canada Inc., acting as Alberta-appointed receiver, closed the sale of the stations to Alaska First Media Inc. for $1,280,797.59. The transaction ran not through a debtor-led chapter 11 but through chapter 15, the cross-border tool the receiver used to import a Canadian receivership into the United States. The U.S. petitions were filed on May 13, 2025 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Texarkana Division), under lead case number 25-41368, and they sought recognition of the Alberta proceeding rather than a fresh reorganization.
Because FTI was recognized as the debtors' foreign representative, the receiver — not management — controlled the U.S. assets, used U.S. cash collateral, and steered the radio stations toward a sale already negotiated under the supervision of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta. The foreign representative asked the Texas court to recognize and enforce the Canadian Approval and Vesting Order approving that sale, while the City and Borough of Juneau objected that the transaction was an insider deal that should not extinguish its municipal tax claims free and clear.
Local First Media Group, Inc. (jointly administered with BTC USA Holdings Management, Inc. and affiliated radio entities)
Court
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Texas (Texarkana Division)
Case Number
25-41368
Petition Date
May 13, 2025
Recognition Date
July 8, 2025
Judge
Hon. Brenda T. Rhoades
Foreign Representative
FTI Consulting Canada Inc. (Alberta receiver)
Sale Order
February 20, 2026
Sale Closing
March 29, 2026
Case Snapshot
Chapter 15 Recognition of the Alberta Receivership
The U.S. filings were not conventional operating petitions. FTI Consulting Canada Inc., appointed receiver over the Local First Media Group entities by the Court of King's Bench of Alberta, filed a Receiver's Verified Petition seeking chapter 15 recognition so it could enforce the Alberta receivership order against the group's U.S. assets and use U.S. cash collateral while it stabilized and sold the business. The chapter 15 petitions themselves were filed on May 13, 2025, with FTI seeking recognition of the Canadian receivership as a foreign main proceeding.
The debtors owned and operated U.S. radio stations and the related FCC licenses, real estate, equipment, contracts, accounts receivable, and intellectual property, with stations in Alaska and Texas and operations tied to Arkansas. The verified petition identified Frontier Media LLC as the primary operating entity and listed approximately 40 employees across the group. Local owners told the Juneau Empire that station operations were unaffected by the filing, which reported that KINY's parent had entered chapter 15.
The cross-border structure drew early trade attention because the U.S. company had been placed into receivership in Canada before the chapter 15 case began. The Texas court entered a joint administration order on June 16, 2025, consolidating the affiliated debtor cases for procedural purposes under the lead Local First Media Group case.
ATB Financial Defaults and the Path to Receivership
The petition traces the collapse to defaults under loan documents held by ATB Financial, the group's primary secured lender. As of February 5, 2025, the debtors allegedly owed ATB about $8,205,843.77, plus interest and costs. A second tranche of secured debt sat behind ATB: 7032749 Canada Inc., as administrative agent for subordinated lenders, represented additional secured obligations of Cdn $2,461,350 and $405,000.
The defaults were not sudden. The verified petition describes covenant and payment defaults emerging by late 2023, followed by notices of default in August 2024 and December 2024, and then ATB's enforcement demands on January 16, 2025. The borrowers agreed in forbearance arrangements to a monitor and then to a consent receivership structure before the Alberta court acted, an out-of-court runway that ATB documented in its February 10, 2025 brief supporting the receivership application.
On February 21, 2025, the Court of King's Bench of Alberta appointed FTI Consulting Canada Inc. as receiver over the Local First Media Group entities. The verified petition then sought to have that Canadian proceeding recognized in the United States as a foreign main proceeding.
Recognition Order and Cash Collateral Authority
Judge Brenda T. Rhoades entered the recognition and cash collateral order on July 8, 2025. The order recognized the Canadian receivership as a foreign main proceeding, granted comity to the Alberta receivership order, and recognized FTI as the foreign representative and exclusive U.S. representative of the debtors.
The same order entrusted administration and realization of the U.S. assets to the receiver, authorizing FTI to operate the business, intervene in U.S. litigation, and use U.S. cash collateral to pay operating costs while the sale process ran.
For adequate protection, the recognition order granted secured creditors holding liens on cash collateral replacement liens on the debtors' U.S. assets, effective nunc pro tunc to the May 13, 2025 petition date, to guard against any diminution in value from the use of cash collateral. The order also stayed actions against the debtors and the receiver, preserved the receiver's immunity, and waived any bond requirement.
Alaska Sale to Alaska First Media
The defining later-case event was the sale of the Alaska station package. On January 13, 2026, the foreign representative filed a sale motion asking the Texas court to recognize and enforce the Canadian Approval and Vesting Order, approve the sale of the Alaska assets to Alaska First Media Inc., and authorize the assumption and assignment of selected contracts and leases. The buyer is tied to broadcaster Cliff Dumas, who reacquired the Alaska holdings from the receiver as a stalking-horse bidder. The principal behind the purchase was represented by Vartabedian Katz Hester & Haynes in connection with the proposed acquisition of the radio assets free and clear of liens.
The sale motion set the stalking-horse purchase price at $1,280,797.59, backed by a $15,000 good-faith deposit. It defined the Alaska assets broadly to include FCC licenses, Alaska real property, tangible personal property, station records and call letters, assumed contracts, accounts receivable, and intellectual property. The Alaska sellers identified in the asset purchase agreement were BTC USA Holdings Management, Inc., Frontier Media LLC, and Alaska Broadcast Communications Inc.
The stalking-horse structure shifted defined operating liabilities to the buyer. Under the sale motion and APA, Alaska First Media would assume liabilities tied to operation of the Alaska assets from and after the July 8, 2025 recognition date, and Alaska employment-related liabilities from and after the February 10, 2025 receivership date, while cure costs for assumed contracts were to be paid by the buyer. The bid deadline was December 9, 2025, and because no competing bids were received for the Alaska assets, no auction was held.
The Canadian leg moved in parallel. On January 26, 2026, the Alberta court entered the Approval and Vesting Order, which the foreign representative noticed in the U.S. case on January 27, 2026 — the order the Texas court was being asked to recognize and enforce.
Juneau Tax Objection and Free-and-Clear Findings
The principal U.S. objection to the sale came from the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska. Its February 17, 2026 objection argued that the proposed free-and-clear findings could not impair Juneau's rights to collect municipal sales and use taxes, penalties, interest, and lease-related obligations, and that any assumption and assignment of Juneau contracts or leases required full cure.
Juneau also challenged the arm's-length character of the transaction. It argued that the debtor and the stalking-horse bidder were effectively the same party, and it pointed to a prior confession of judgment over unremitted sales taxes that, in its view, had to be satisfied before any sale or transfer of the Alaska assets. The objection framed the deal as an insider sale that should not pass through bankruptcy with a clean title.
The sale order, entered three days later, overruled the remaining objections and reservations of rights on the merits with prejudice. Beyond disposing of the Juneau objection, the order recognized and gave effect to the Canadian Approval and Vesting Order, approved the sale of the Alaska assets to Alaska First Media, and approved the assumption and assignment of the designated contracts. It did carve out specific non-assumed matters, including a paragraph preserving ASCAP's licensing rights and making clear the order did not compel ASCAP to license the buyer or force the buyer to assume the debtor's unpaid ASCAP amounts.
The sale order gave the buyer broad purchaser protections. The Alaska assets transferred free and clear of encumbrances except the assumed liabilities and Alaska employment-related liabilities, Alaska First Media was not to be treated as a successor, and the order waived the ordinary 14-day stay so the sale became effective immediately on entry. Liens and other encumbrances would instead attach to the sale proceeds with the same priority they held against the assets, while the foreign representative was authorized to use proceeds to satisfy senior encumbrances or closing costs.
Contract Assignments and the Zero-Dollar Cure Schedule
The Alaska sale was structured to assign a slate of station operating contracts to the buyer with no cure payments. The original cure notice was served on January 13, 2026 alongside the sale motion, and a supplemental cure notice followed on March 24, 2026 adding one contract. That supplement added the tower lease with TowerCo VI, LLC — successor in interest to SWI Funds Tower Holdings, LLC — as an "Added Contract" with a cure amount of $0.00, and recorded that TowerCo did not object to the assumption and assignment. Counterparties had 21 days from service to object to the proposed assumption, cure amount, or adequate assurance of future performance.
The foreign representative filed the final list of assumed and assigned contracts on June 5, 2026, consolidating the initial and supplemental cure notices. Every contract on the list carried a cure amount of $0. The schedule covered station programming, audio-network, ratings, sports-broadcast, and tower agreements, with counterparties including AIIR Systems (Playout One), Local Radio Networks, Kraken Audio Network, ABC News Radio, Seattle Seahawks Radio, Gray Media, Inc., Education Media Foundation, Kantar Media/CMR, the Seattle Mariners, and TowerCo VI, LLC.
A corrected final list filed the same day dropped Premier Networks from the schedule that the original list had included, leaving the assigned-contract set otherwise intact at $0 cure across every counterparty.
After the March 29, 2026 closing, the case moved into post-closing administration of cure costs and the assumed-contract schedule through mid-2026. No final decree, dismissal, or distribution order has been entered; the U.S. chapter 15 case remains in a post-sale wind-down posture while the receiver completes realization of the estate.
Key Timeline
Date
Event
Feb 21, 2025
Alberta Court of King's Bench appoints FTI Consulting Canada Inc. as receiver
May 13, 2025
Chapter 15 petitions filed in the Eastern District of Texas
Jun 16, 2025
Joint administration order entered
Jul 8, 2025
Recognition and cash collateral order entered
Dec 9, 2025
Bid deadline passes with no competing bids for the Alaska assets
Jan 13, 2026
Alaska sale motion and initial cure notice filed
Jan 26, 2026
Canadian Approval and Vesting Order entered (noticed in U.S. Jan 27)
Feb 17, 2026
City and Borough of Juneau files sale objection
Feb 20, 2026
U.S. sale order entered approving sale to Alaska First Media
Mar 24, 2026
Supplemental cure notice adds TowerCo VI tower lease at $0 cure
Mar 29, 2026
Alaska asset sale closes
Jun 5, 2026
Final and corrected assumed-contract lists filed, all cure amounts $0
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Local First Media Group file chapter 15 instead of chapter 11?
The U.S. entities were already under an Alberta receivership when the cases began. Chapter 15 let FTI Consulting Canada Inc., the court-appointed receiver, obtain U.S. recognition of that Canadian proceeding, enforce the Alberta order against U.S. assets, and use U.S. cash collateral — without running a separate, debtor-led reorganization.
Who controlled the U.S. radio assets during the case?
The July 8, 2025 recognition order recognized FTI as the foreign representative and exclusive U.S. representative of the debtors and entrusted administration of the U.S. assets to the receiver, including authority to operate the stations and use cash collateral.
What did Alaska First Media buy, and for how much?
Alaska First Media Inc., tied to broadcaster Cliff Dumas, bought the Alaska station package — FCC licenses, real property, equipment, contracts, receivables, and intellectual property — for a stalking-horse price of $1,280,797.59. No competing bids were received, so no auction was held, and the sale closed on March 29, 2026.
What happened to the City and Borough of Juneau's objection?
Juneau objected on tax-collection, cure, and insider-sale grounds, but the February 20, 2026 sale order overruled the remaining objections on the merits with prejudice while carving out preserved ASCAP licensing rights.
This article was researched and written with AI assistance, using court filings, public records, and news sources. AI-generated content can contain errors. Verify all information against primary sources before relying on it. This is not legal or financial advice. Read our full disclaimer.
