Officials Pull Plug On Channel 58’S Transmitter

Channel 58’s signal turned to snow Friday morning, and new management at the local station said it will remain off the air for a few weeks.

That means that several Seattle Mariner baseball games won’t be seen in Kootenai County, where the station also appeared on cable channel 21.

Idaho Public Broadcasting officials shut the transmitter down Friday morning. The move also coincides with the station’s original ownership, headed by Southern Californian David Derryberry, retaking control of the facilities in Coeur d’Alene.

Idaho Broadcast Network LLC took control of Channel 58 away from Derryberry in February 1995.

The investors who made up the company thought they had made a deal with Derryberry to buy the station and its Federal Communications Commission license.

Derryberry claims that the investors forged his name on a bill of sale, effectively stealing the station.

Regardless, the license remained in Derryberry’s name, making Idaho Broadcast Networks’ running of the station illegal under FCC law.

A week after forming, Idaho Broadcast Network filed for bankruptcy. The case has dragged on since February, but on Aug. 23 Judge Alfred Hagan dismissed it. Since the Idaho Broadcast Network partners didn’t own the license, the bulk of the station equipment or the transmitter, there was nothing left to reorganize through bankruptcy law.

When the case dissolved, so did a restraining order filed by the partners of Idaho Broadcast Network that prevented Derryberry from having anything to do with the station.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PENNANT FEVER Fans of the Seattle Mariners, seen in Kootenai County on Channel 58, are going to be temporarily out of the playoff race, but the station hopes to turn the transmitter back on before the season ends.