Lawyers for Mission Broadcasting have sent a letter to Adell Broadcasting demanding that Adell immediately return a $250,000 deposit that was part of the payment for Mission’s purchase of WADL, which was terminated last month.
In response, Adell said their were inaccuracies in the letter from Mission. Adell also raised a conflict-of-interest issue because Mission’s law firm, Wiley Rein, has also represented Adell for years.
“In fact, Wiley sent an invoice yesterday for legal work it recently performed for Adell Broadcasting. As such, Wiley has a conflict with respect to this matter,” said Robert Huth Jr. of KIrk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti, who described himself in the response letter as Adell’s litigation counsel.
“Once new counsel is available to represent Mission Broadcasting, I will review the facts raised in your June 13, 2024, correspondence,” Huth wrote to Mission. “Until then, Adell Broadcasting is raising this conflict issue and requests that the Wiley firm refrain from any further involvement in this matter.”
Mission said it had no comment on the situation. The lawyer for Mission did not return a call requesting a comment.
Kevin Adell, founder and CEO of Adell Broadcasting, told Broadcasting+Cable he has no intention of returning Mission’s deposit.
Adell said that he spent considerable time and money trying to consummate the $75 million sale of WADL to Mission, which works with Nexstar Media Group and would have turned WADL into an affiliate of Nexstar’s The CW network.
Nexstar is also a Wiley client.
Adell reiterated that he might take legal action against Mission as a result of the inability to close Mission’s purchase of WADL. Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry Sook will be included in the suit as an agent for Mission, Adell said.
The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale of WADL to Mission, but imposed conditions. Those conditions would have prevented Mission from letting Nexstar run the station under local marketing and management agreements as Mission and Nexstar had planned.
The FCC had previously ordered Mission to sell WPIX New York, which Nexstar runs and programs under management and marketing agreements.
The FCC said that those agreements gave Nexstar “de facto” control over WPIX and that controlling WPIX put Nexstar over the limit for how many stations one company can own.
Adell claimed that Mission and Nexstar misrepresented the FCC’s investigation into the WPIX purchase, insisting it was no big deal and would not impact closing the purchase of WADL.
He added that Nexstar still needs to find a station to carry The CW’s programming in Detroit come September, when its current affiliation agreement with WMYD, owned by the E.W. Scripps Co., expires.
In its letter to Kevin Adell and Adell Broadcasting chief financial officer Ralph Lameti, Mission’s attorney said failing to return the deposit “constitutes an unjustifiable and bad-faith breach of the Purchase Agreement, and will subject Adell and both of you personally to significant liability in any litigation to recover the Deposit.”
The letter also says that Mission received an email from Lameti saying Adell is “intentionally withholding ‘sign off on the escrow termination.’ ”
Lameti said that the funds would be sent to a North Carolina court on June 28, the letter from Mission states.
The deposit money has been held in escrow in North Carolina.
"In the event the Deposit is subjected to North Carolina court proceedings, Mission will seek to hold Adell responsible for all costs and expenses incurred to recover the Deposit — including attorneys’ fees,” the letter said.
The letter concluded, “We hope we can resolve this matter without resort to litigation.”
