When three of Ed Stolz’s radio stations were placed under receivership involving a $330,000 bill he let lapse, the media mogul thought that by paying off the debt, the assets would be returned to him.
But the radio stations are still under supervision by the Central District of California Eastern Division in Riverside even though Stolz says he paid off the debt plus some $1 million in attorney fees.
“He tried to pay the money and the other side wouldn't accept it,” said Alexander Baker, a Los Angeles J.D. who worked on Stolz’s case. “Finally, he was forced to file a motion to deposit the money with the court, which is what he did in November 2020. He deposited about $1.3 million with the court.”
Baker
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Instead of immediately returning the radio properties to Stolz, the court-appointed receivership has continued with Baker blaming broadcast industry broker and attorney W. Lawrence Patrick who was appointed receiver by the federal court.
“After Ed paid the judgment, it was seven weeks later that Larry Patrick entered into a purchase agreement with this Christian nonprofit called Voice of Christian Youth (VCY) America to sell the three radio stations to them for $6 million,” Baker told the Southern California Record. “Ed doesn’t want the radio stations sold because they are his radio stations and he’s paid the judgment.”
Although the $6 million purchasing agreement has not yet been approved by the court or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Baker said that VCY America has already taken over the programming for KREV-FM in San Francisco, KRCK-FM in Palm Springs, and KFRH-FM in Las Vegas.
"They're running requests for donations where before Ed was playing top 40 music,” he added. “Until this case, the centuries-old Law of Receivership law held that once the debtor pays the judgment, the receivership is over."
A satisfaction of judgment was finally entered in July 2021, but Baker’s petition for a writ of mandamus alleging a clear error of law was recently denied.
“There’s a corrupt conspiracy to keep the radio stations under receivership and to just take possession of Stolz’ radio stations,” Baker alleged.
When reached by telephone, Patrick told the Southern California Record that he has filed 299 pages of documents he claims proves Stolz owes more than $1.3 million.
As the court-appointed receiver, Patrick is responsible for operating the three radio stations.
“Stolz likes to play ‘poor pitiful me I'm wounded here and they're taking these stations away from me’ but I don't think the Court would do that if he had paid all of his bills, but he never did,” Patrick added. “Ed basically just says he doesn’t owe anything when in fact there are leases and contracts. I filed something with the court two months ago where I listed probably 16 to 19 people and companies that are still owed money by Stolz.”
The federal judge presiding over the proceedings, Jesus Bernal, declined to comment but in an Aug. 26 order, he ruled:
"The Court had hoped that upon issuance of this order, Defendants would promptly pay the Receiver and Bellaire. Had Defendants elected to follow that route, the Court could have terminated the Receivership – and returned Mr. Stolz’s radio stations to him – by the end of August. But Defendants chose not to take their lumps, pay their debts, and allow everyone involved to put this torturous case behind them."