ABC 6 in receivership after ads slide

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The parent company of WLNE-TV ABC 6 filed for receivership, the state’s version of bankruptcy, in Rhode Island Superior Court on Thursday, Eyewitness News has learned.

Global Broadcasting of Southern New England LLC, which owns the station, asked for court protection to restructure and reorganize its finances, Allan M. Shine, the company’s attorney, said in a statement. The station has been hit hard by a decline in advertising revenue caused by the recession.

Matthew McGowan, a Providence attorney, has been appointed WLNE’s receiver, and has been authorized to continue operating the station. It's “business as usual” at Channel 6 right now and programming will not be interrupted, Shine said.

“With the past several years’ downturn in the U.S. economy, as well as in the Rhode Island economy, Channel 6, like virtually all television and other media businesses, has experienced a decline in revenues,” Shine said in a statement. “This business downturn has put unexpected severe pressure on its ability to service its secured debt.”

By appointing McGowan as the station’s receiver, ABC 6 will be able to protect its 88 employees and remain on the air, he said. The station had roughly 100 workers three years ago, according to published reports at the time. Its headquarters is on Orms Street in Providence.

WLNE’s advertising revenue fell 8.9 percent to $8.2 million in 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to market research firm BIA Financial Network Inc. The station has long struggled in the Nielsen ratings.

Global Broadcasting purchased WLNE in 2007 from a California company, Freedom Communications Inc., for $14 million. Freedom had owned the station since 1983. (WPRI-TV is owned by Providence-based LIN Media, while WJAR-TV is owned by Media General Inc. of Virginia.)

Global Broadcasting was co-founded in 2007 by Robinson Ewert and Kevin O’Brien, two local media executives, to purchase the station. Ewert left the company last year.

WLNE’s history dates back to 1963, when it went on the air as WTEV-TV and an ABC affiliate. It was a CBS affiliate from 1977 to 1995, before switching back to ABC. Its call letters switched from WTEV to WLNE in 1980. The station also operates a channel on Cox Communications Inc.’s cable system.