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RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS  
RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS

5.              RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS

 

Transactions with our controlling shareholders. David, Frederick, J. Duncan and Robert Smith (collectively, the controlling shareholders) are brothers and hold substantially all of the Class B Common Stock and some of our Class A Common Stock.  We engaged in the following transactions with them and/or entities in which they have substantial interests.

 

Leases.  Certain assets used by us and our operating subsidiaries are leased from Cunningham Communications Inc., Keyser Investment Group, Gerstell Development Limited Partnership and Beaver Dam, LLC (entities owned by the controlling shareholders).  Lease payments made to these entities were $1.5 million and $1.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

 

Charter Aircraft.  From time to time, we charter aircraft owned by certain controlling shareholders.  We incurred $0.3 million and less than $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

 

Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation.  As of March 31, 2014, Cunningham was the owner-operator and FCC licensee of:

WNUV-TV Baltimore, Maryland; WRGT-TV Dayton, Ohio; WVAH-TV Charleston, West Virginia; WTAT-TV Charleston, South

Carolina; WMYA-TV Anderson, South Carolina; WTTE-TV Columbus, Ohio; WDBB-TV Birmingham, Alabama; WBSF-TV Flint, Michigan; and WGTU-TV/WGTQ-TV Traverse City/Cadillac, Michigan (collectively, the Cunningham Stations) and WYZZ Peoria/Bloomington, IL.

 

During the first quarter of 2013, the estate of Carolyn C. Smith, a parent of our controlling shareholders, distributed all of the non-voting stock owned by the estate to our controlling shareholders, and a portion was repurchased by Cunningham for $1.7 million in the aggregate.  As of March 31, 2014, our controlling shareholders own approximately 4.4% of the total capital stock of Cunningham, none of which have voting rights.  The remaining amount of non-voting stock is owned by trusts established for the benefit of the children of our controlling shareholders.  The estate of Mrs. Smith currently owns all of the voting stock.  The sale of the voting stock by the estate to an unrelated party is pending approval of the FCC.  We have options from the trusts, which grant us the right to acquire, subject to applicable FCC rules and regulations, 100% of the voting and nonvoting stock of Cunningham. We also have options from each of Cunningham’s subsidiaries, which are the FCC licensees of the Cunningham stations, which grant us the right to acquire, and grant Cunningham the right to require us to acquire, subject to applicable FCC rules and regulations, 100% of the capital stock or the assets of Cunningham’s individual subsidiaries.

 

In addition to the option agreements, certain of our stations provide programming, sales and managerial services pursuant to LMAs to seven of their stations: WNUV-TV, WRGT-TV, WVAH-TV, WTAT-TV, WMYA-TV, WTTE-TV, and WDBB-TV (collectively, the Cunningham LMA Stations). Each of these LMAs has a current term that expires on July 1, 2016 and there are three additional 5- year renewal terms remaining with final expiration on July 1, 2031. Effective November 5, 2009, we entered into amendments and/or restatements of the following agreements between Cunningham and us: (i) the LMAs, (ii) option agreements to acquire Cunningham stock and (iii) certain acquisition or merger agreements relating to the Cunningham LMA Stations.

 

Pursuant to the terms of the LMAs, options and other agreements, beginning on January 1, 2010 and ending on July 1, 2012, we were obligated to pay Cunningham the sum of approximately $29.1 million in 10 quarterly installments of $2.75 million and one quarterly payment of approximately $1.6 million, which amounts were used to pay down Cunningham’s bank credit facility and which amounts were credited toward the purchase price for each Cunningham station. An additional $1.2 million was paid on July 1, 2012 and another installment of $2.75 million was paid on October 1, 2012 as an additional LMA fee and was used to pay off the remaining balance of Cunningham’s bank credit facility. The aggregate purchase price of the television stations, which was originally $78.5 million pursuant to certain acquisition or merger agreements subject to 6% annual increases, was decreased by each payment made by us to Cunningham, through 2012, up to $29.1 million in the aggregate, pursuant to the foregoing transactions with Cunningham as such payments were made. Beginning on January 1, 2013, we are obligated to pay Cunningham an annual LMA fee for the television stations equal to the greater of (i) 3% of each station’s annual net broadcast revenue and (ii) $5.0 million, of which a portion of this fee will be credited toward the purchase price to the extent of the annual 6% increase. The remaining purchase price as of March 31, 2014 was approximately $57.1 million. Additionally, we reimburse Cunningham for 100% of its operating costs.

 

We made payments to Cunningham under these LMAs and other agreements with the Cunningham LMA Stations of $4.5 million, and $1.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. For the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, Cunningham LMA Stations provided us with approximately $27.2 million, and $24.6 million, respectively, of total revenue. The financial statements for Cunningham are included in our consolidated financial statements for all periods presented.

 

In November 2013, concurrent with our acquisition of the Barrington stations, Cunningham acquired the license related assets of WBSF-TV and WGTU-TV/WGTQ-TV, which was funded by bank debt, for which we have provided a guarantee. We provide certain non-programming related sales, operational and administrative services to these stations pursuant to certain outsourcing agreements. The agreements for WBSF-TV and WGTU-TV/WGTQ-TV expire in November 2021 and August 2015, respectively, and each have renewal provisions for successive eight year periods. Under these arrangements, we earned $0.8 million from the services we perform for these stations for the three months ended March 31, 2014. As we consolidate the licensees as VIEs, the amounts we earn under the arrangements are eliminated in consolidation and the gross revenues of the stations are reported within our consolidated statement of operations. For the three months ended March 31, 2014, our consolidated revenues include $1.5 million related to these stations.

 

Also, concurrent with the Barrington acquisition, we also sold our station, WYZZ (FOX) in Peoria, IL, which currently receives non-programming related sales, operational and administrative services from Nexstar Broadcasting pursuant to certain outsourcing agreements, to Cunningham for $22 million. Although we have no continuing involvement in the operations of this station, because Cunningham is a consolidated VIE and we have a purchase plan option to acquire these assets from Cunningham, the assets of WYZZ were not derecognized and the transaction was accounted for a transaction between parties under common control, therefore no gain or loss was recognized in the consolidated statement of operations upon sale to Cunningham.

 

During October 2013, we purchased the outstanding membership interests of KDBC-TV from Cunningham for $21.2 million, plus a working capital adjustment of $0.2 million. See Other Acquisitions within Note 2. Acquisitions, for further information.

 

Atlantic Automotive.  We sold advertising time to and purchased vehicles and related vehicle services from Atlantic Automotive Corporation (Atlantic Automotive), a holding company that owns automobile dealerships and an automobile leasing company.  David D. Smith, our President and Chief Executive Officer, has a controlling interest in, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Atlantic Automotive. We received payments for advertising time totaling less than $0.1 million for both the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013. We paid $0.4 million for vehicles and related vehicle services from Atlantic Automotive for the three months ended March 31, 2013. No payments were made for the three months ended March 31, 2014. Additionally, in August 2011, Atlantic Automotive entered into an office lease agreement with Towson City Center, LLC (Towson City Center), a subsidiary of one of our real estate ventures, and began occupying the space in June 2012.  Atlantic Automotive paid $0.3 million and $0.2 million in rent during the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

 

Leased property by real estate ventures. Certain of our real estate ventures have entered into leases with entities owned by David Smith to lease restaurant space. There are leases for three restaurants in a building owned by one of our consolidated real estate ventures in Baltimore, MD.  Total rent received under these leases was $0.1 million and less than $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. There is also one lease for a restaurant in a building owned by one of our real estate ventures, accounted for under the equity method, in Towson, MD. We received under this lease $0.1 million for the three months ending March 31, 2014. No payments related to this property were received for the three months ended March 31, 2013.

 

Thomas & Libowitz P.A.  Steven A. Thomas, a partner and founder of Thomas & Libowitz, P.A. (Thomas & Libowitz), a law firm providing legal services to us on an ongoing basis, is the son of a former member of the Board of Directors, Basil A. Thomas. Mr. Thomas resigned from Board of Directors effective September 2013. We paid fees of $0.4 million to Thomas & Libowitz for the three months ended March 31, 2013.