Updated on June 13, 2022
It’s long served Southern California as an unaffiliated UHF TV station with syndicated fare including Family Guy, Mom and Seinfeld alongside 7pm and 7:30pm weeknight broadcasts of local news produced by KABC-7 in Los Angeles.
Since April 2006, it has been owned by Bert Ellis, who at the time partnered with the owners of the Anaheim Ducks — Henry and Susan Samueli — in acquiring the station from Golden Orange Broadcasting for $149.5 million.
Now, Ellis is spinning the station to a religious broadcasting organization for nearly 73% less than what his Ellis Communications paid for it some 16 years ago. The broker: Kalil & Co.
The station being sold is KDOC-56, which uses digital Channel 12, on the VHF band, from a tower site on Mt. Wilson.
The buyer is Radiant Life Ministries, the Illinois-based broadcast ministry led by Garth Coonce.
With Joe Chautin III of Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin serving as the buyer’s legal counsel, Radiant Life agreed to purchase KDOC for $41 million.
That’s a striking change in valuation from Spring 2006, and represents a value that is more than $100 million lower than what Ellis and the Samuelis bought KDOC for.
Or, $33.4 million less depending on your viewpoint. How so? Ellis participated in the FCC’s cash-for-spectrum Broadcast Incentive Auction, and this shifted KDOC from UHF to a high-VHF facility. The action gave Ellis $66.65 million.
A $2.2 million escrow deposit is being held at Truist Bank.
The APA notes that KDOC enjoys MVPD coverage across the DMA, as has been the case for decades.
Kalil & Co. represented Ellis in the transaction.
At present, KDOC is operated via an LMA by Titan TV Broadcast Group, a sister entity of Ellis Communications. Bert Ellis holds the title of Chairman/CEO of KDOC.
Based in Atlanta, Ellis previously founded and served as CEO of Act III Broadcasting, a company that operated between 1986 and 1995 that saw Norman Lear as a controlling investor. It was sold for a half-billion dollars to ABRY Partners/Sullivan Broadcasting. For Bert Ellis, building Ellis Communications would come next. At its peak, it owned 13 TV stations, two radio stations and Raycom Sports, now within the Gray Television family. The KDOC purchase marked Ellis’ return to TV station ownership, after the prior Ellis Communications assets were sold.
Ellis was also a founding investor and board member in WebMD.
While the $107.65 million from the incentive auction and the sale of KDOC is still millions below the price Ellis purchased the station for, a broker who wished to retain anonymity tells RBR+TVBR KDOC is generating “significant” cash flow. “The worst-case scenario is that Ellis broke even on the investment,” the broker says. “Ellis has wanted to sell for a few years now; we did some high-level due diligence on the station in 2020.”
The broker adds that ATSC 3.0 increased the valuation of KDOC. But, the pandemic, a slower-than-anticipated ATSC 3.0 rollout in Southern California, and an uncertain economy caused an adjustment.
What’s next for KDOC, which boasts some nine digital multicast channels including Comet, MeTV, Charge! and Local Now? A change of its DT1 programming is certain, with Radiant Life Ministries’ TCT Network taking the primary broadcast channel.
