Alan Brill To Sell 22 Newspapers

By: Angus Shaw, Associated Press Writer (AP) Brill Media has filed a bankruptcy plan under which it would sell about a dozen radio stations and 22 newspapers to pay off $147.6 million in debt.

Under the plan filed Monday in U.S. District Court, creditors could also have Evansville businessman Alan Brill, the company's owner, sell some of his personal assets, said Elliott Levin, an attorney for the company. (The company is not connected to the Steven Brill operation that published Brill's Content.)

The assets include radio stations WSTO-FM and WVJS-AM in Owensboro, Ky., and WSOX-FM in Red Lion, Pa., according to court documents. Brill Media operates 13 radio stations, including WBKR-FM, WKDQ-FM, and WOMI-AM in the Evansville area.

It also owns the Morning Sun, a daily newspaper in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and 25 other newspapers and buyers guides in Michigan. The company employs about 340 people at its newspapers and about 165 at its radio stations, court records said.

The company went into bankruptcy in January when it failed to make a $6.3 million interest payment on debt. A group of creditors headed by TCW, a Los Angeles mutual fund firm, filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, seeking to have the company's assets placed under its control.

But Brill Media reached an agreement with creditors in February to change the bankruptcy to a Chapter 11 filing, which allows a company to continue operating as it works out a plan to pay creditors.