It may have come off the auction block at almost double the price it was originally selling for, but former volunteers and associates of St. Louis independent radio station KDHX are urging a federal bankruptcy judge to give a community-led restructuring plan a chance.
The filing, submitted to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, challenges the outcome of a May 31 auction conducted via Zoom, where Christian radio operator Gateway Creative Broadcasting, which runs Joy FM and Boost Radio in St. Louis, emerged as the leading bidder with an $8.5 million offer.
Gateway had outbid Educational Media Foundation’s K-LOVE Inc., which earlier proposed a $4.35 million purchase of KDHX.
The group behind the objection, the League of Volunteer Enthusiasts of KDHX, contends that the auction “was only a procedural auction. It was not a sale. The sale must still be approved by the Court, hence this critical objection.” They are asking the court to deny the sale motion and instead allow time for a local, nonprofit alternative to be considered.
The objection claims that Double Helix Corporation, the nonprofit licensee of KDHX, violated Missouri law in its internal vote to authorize the sale, rendering the process invalid. More broadly, the volunteers argue that any sale of the station’s assets to a religious broadcaster like Gateway would contradict KDHX’s founding principles.
“It is impossible for any offer to purchase KDHX’s FM license and tower to be the best offer, even if it is the highest,” they argue, “because any such sale will violate KDHX’s essential purpose as a non-profit community radio station.”
The group has proposed a delay of 90 days to allow a coalition of “civic, business, music, arts, volunteer, and donor representatives” to present what it describes as a fully funded alternative. According to the filing, “The Coalition is well on the way to its funding goals.” The goal is to return KDHX to its original mission of public service through independent media and charitable programming.
“There is no need to rush this sale pursuant to US law,” the volunteers wrote. They maintain that a court-approved delay would offer a path to restoring the station’s community trust and programming model, one they believe has been compromised amid financial struggles and internal turmoil.
