WBZ cuts Leveille, Cuddy, Dyett, poss. Desmarais

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 19:20:45 -0500, "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net> said:

> WBZ "itself" is not a legal entity.

Although it could be, and many broadcasting companies are structured
that way.  I don't know why CBS's lawyers and accountants haven't
drawn them along that route.

Many licenses are owned by an LLC whose members are an LP and a C
corporation which are both in turn owned by another LLC which is owned
by the main parent corporation, sometimes with two or three more
levels of indirection.  This apparently allows them to avoid taxation
in those states which tax all of a foreign corporation's income
regardless of source, and of course it also makes station sales
simpler if all the assets are already conveniently grouped in one
corporation.  However, in these cases, there is usually a
cross-guarantee structure where each subsidiary guarantees the debts
of the others and of the parent company.  (You can learn a lot by
reading FCC ownership filings.)

-GAWollman