ST. LOUIS 鈥� Endangered community radio station KDHX admitted for the first time in court documents filed Friday that it is contemplating a sale of its assets.
And if a proposed loan is approved, a nationwide network of Christian radio stations could share control of the station鈥檚 budget, according to local bankruptcy attorney Tal Sant.
KDHX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. Chapter 11 allows a company to stay in business while it tries to work with its creditors to pay back all or some of its debt.
K-LOVE & Air1 Foundation, a Franklin, Tennessee-based network of evangelical Christian radio stations, has offered to make a Debtor-in-Possession loan of up to $500,000 to keep the foundering station on the air until it can be sold or defaults on the loan.
The annual interest rate of 12% would be waived if K-LOVE buys the station.
People are also reading…
K-LOVE lists 589 stations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. It owns seven stations in both Missouri and Illinois, but none reaches the St. Louis region.
KDHX owes around $700,000 to its 20 biggest unsecured creditors, according to a filing made Tuesday. Of that sum, $120,000 is a construction loan made by a resident of Lake Ozark and $79,000 is to AHC Consulting, a St. Louis public relations firm.
Several current and former paid staff members of the station are owed past salaries, and other creditors include lenders, a credit card company, attorneys, accountants and the like.
If the loan is permitted by the court, K-LOVE and the bankruptcy attorneys for KDHX would be paid back before any of those creditors.
Two organizations hold liens on the station鈥檚 building, the Kenneth Kranzberg Revocable Trust and 3526 Washington LLC. As secured creditors, they would be able to keep the building, according to the motion.
A spokesman for KDHX did not immediately return a request for comment.
The loan from K-LOVE would come in two parts, $150,000 when an interim order comes for its approval and up to $350,000 more when an approval is made final.
Last month, a group of former disc jockeys and other volunteers at the station made an informal offer to take control of the station for $200,000, if the management and board of directors agreed to leave. The station management rejected the offer.
The listener-supported station has been in financial freefall since it fired 10 DJs at the same time in September 2023.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of images each week; here's a glimpse at the week of March 2, 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
