Sacramento judge denies KVIE motion challenging CapRadio’s tower license

A Sacramento Superior Court judge denied a motion by PBS KVIE to dismiss Capital Public Radio’s claim of an “irrevocable license” it uses to access a transmission tower as the legal dispute between the two public media institutions to determine the tower’s true owner continues.

The legal dispute arose after CapRadio’s Endowment, a nonprofit which is separate from the station, donated the tower to PBS Channel 6 (KVIE) last year. The endowment’s board in April 2024 had requested Sacramento State, which holds the station’s licenses, to sell them to KVIE as a financial crisis struck the NPR-affiliate, but that plan never came to fruition.

Both entities filed complaints in court in October seeking to determine who owns the tower, used to broadcast news on 90.9 FM, located in Elverta.

“Justice and equity require (Capital Public Radio’s) continued access to the Tower via the Elverta Property,” the radio station wrote in its court documents.

The judge’s ruling on Tuesday did not address who owns the tower. KVIE’s motion sought to dismiss CapRadio’s attempts to show it has a “irrevocable license,” which allows it to access the tower and the land.

“The determination is yet another welcomed affirmation of the facts surrounding CapRadio’s long-time ownership, operation and maintenance of our primary public service news broadcasting tower,” Chris Bruno, CapRadio’s chief marketing and revenue officer, said in a statement on Wednesday.

KVIE General Manager David Lowe said facts will show the endowment owned the tower in 2013.

“It’s important to reiterate that KVIE has never interfered with CPR broadcasting from the tower and has no intent to do so,” he said Tuesday. “KVIE simply seeks clarity who owns the tower.”

The case, to determine the tower’s true owner, involves sifting through decades old leases and following the lineage of separate organizations that eventually became either CapRadio or the Endowment, according to court documents.

But, in a welcome sign for the radio station, the judge relied heavily on a 1990 lease, according to the ruling. CapRadio has said the document shows the property was leased to an organization which eventually became the radio station.

KVIE has said a nonprofit named Tower 91, which held the tower’s property rights, eventually became Capital Public Radio Endowment, Inc., which donated the tower.

The television station had also sought earlier this year to “appoint a receiver to protect the Tower while litigation is pending in order to ensure that it is preserved for the public benefit.”

KVIE’s attorneys alleged CapRadio was not maintaining the tower’s upkeep. The radio station said it is spending money to maintain the tower and allocated money in its budget.

A judge ruled against KVIE’s motion in May.

Bruno, in Wednesday’s statement, said both institutions should “put this needless legal dispute behind us” to serve the community as public media faces threats to its funding.