Top Sacramento nonprofit media organizations file dueling lawsuits over transmission tower
The two largest Sacramento nonprofit broadcasting institutions escalated their dispute to determine the true owner of a transmission tower by filing dueling lawsuits.
The legal battle arose after Capital Public Radio’s Endowment board, a nonprofit separate from the radio station, donated the tower used by CapRadio to PBS KVIE on the heels of a proposition to merge the two media organizations. Those plans never materialized as Sacramento State President Luke Wood previously expressed interest to keep the station as the university’s auxiliary.
But the university has denied the endowment’s authority to donate the tower because it wasn’t theirs to give, university spokesman Brian Blomster said previously.
At stake is a tower the endowment said requires at least $35,000 in repairs, which could affect the radio station’s broadcasting abilities due to CapRadio’s “mismanagement,” court documents say.
Attorneys for the TV station said they were “thrust into the position of having to actually maintain the Tower, a task for which (the endowment) was not staffed or designated for, as well as (the endowment’s) concern for the overall health and welfare of public broadcasting in the greater Sacramento region...”
KVIE has said in its court documents that CapRadio can continue to use the tower while the TV station owns it.
CapRadio rebuffed any notion the tower’s apparent deterioration has affected the station’s ability to broadcast news because the station’s weekly audience has increased over the past year.
“This is a non-issue for KVIE or the endowment because neither of them own the tower,” Chris Bruno, CapRadio’s chief marketing and revenue officer, said in an email Friday. CapRadio’s attorney Bruce A. Scheidt did not answer questions and sent inquiries to Bruno.
The endowment has previously said it allowed CapRadio to use the tower without charge and the radio station collected third-party rent of about $126,000 per year. CapRadio’s attorneys noted Ch. 6 sought instead to collect rents from users if the TV station secured ownership.
Both the Ch. 6 and the radio station outlined documents in their separate complaints tracing the lineage of organizations which eventually evolved to become CapRadio and the endowment.
The TV station asserted a nonprofit named Tower 91 held the tower’s keys but that a 2011 audit found Tower 91 an unauthorized auxiliary of Sac State, and recommended its dissolution. Tower 91 eventually became the Capital Public Radio Endowment, Inc. which then assumed all of Tower 91’s assets, rights and property, KVIE said in court documents.
CapRadio said Tower 91 leased the property in 1990 to an entity that eventually became CapRadio.
An exhibit attached to CapRadio’s court documents stated Tower 91 leased the tower to KXPR/KXJZ, Inc. eventually known as CapRadio, according to court documents. The terms of the lease lasted 10 years and expired in 2000, the documents said.
KVIE’s attorney Shawn Moore did not comment on the legitimacy of the 1990 lease and referred inquiries to David Lowe, the Ch. 6’s president and general manager. There is no “binding lease agreement” with CapRadio and the endowment, Moore and attorneys said in their legal filing.
A court date has been scheduled for Dec. 12, 2025, according to online court records.
Last ditch lawsuit efforts
KVIE and CapRadio framed their lawsuits as last ditch efforts each were forced to file after the organizations could not reach a consensus. KVIE filed its complaint first, and CapRadio filed a countersuit, which was filed on the same day in late October.
In court documents, Ch. 6’s attorneys said the radio station “demanded that KVIE comply with its demand to immediately transfer ownership of the Tower ... or (CapRadio) would proceed with litigation to seek judicial enforcement of its demands.”
After The Sacramento Bee reached out to CapRadio for comment about the tower, the radio station sent a letter to members stating CapRadio had “no choice” but to file a claim countering KVIE’s allegations. The radio station resorted to legal action after making “considerable efforts” to engage with Ch. 6 in hopes to arrive at an “amicable resolution.”
“However, I’m disheartened to share that those efforts proved futile after KVIE ended conversations and good-faith discussions, choosing instead to file a lawsuit in October against CapRadio,” according to the letter signed by Interim President and General Manager Frank Maranzino and sent to listeners Friday.
Lowe declined to comment on the letter.
It’s unclear how the tower will fulfill Ch. 6’s needs. Lowe, when asked, said “the donor intended for KVIE to be the caretaker of the property and KVIE intends to preserve the donor’s intent” and declined to comment further.
The endowment proposed merging CapRadio with KVIE after an audit released last year detailed the station could become insolvent. The findings were preceded by a 12% layoffs and programming cuts.
A separate audit released in August found an unnamed person, called “Subject #1” was linked to at least $460,800 in payments “without corresponding evidence of expense reports and/or receipts.” The Bee and CapRadio’s reporters determined that Subject #1 was Jun Reina, the station’s former general manager.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said previously deputies were investigating “financial improprieties” at the station.
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 2:02 PM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Chris Bruno’s title. He is the chief marketing and revenue officer at CapRadio.
