You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Appellate court rejects attempt to overturn sale of WCAL

By Steve Blodgett
December 30, 2009

A Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling filed Dec. 29, 2009, effectively ended a legal challenge by opponents of the sale of WCAL to Minnesota Public Radio in 2004. The appeals court upheld a district court’s finding that opponents had waited too long in bringing suit and seeking redress.

In February 2009 a Rice County District Court judge rejected a lawsuit brought by a group called SaveWCAL that attempted to overturn the sale and bar St. Olaf from using any of the proceeds from the transaction. Judge Bernard Borene ruled that SaveWCAL had no real legal standing to bring such a suit in the first place, that too much time had passed in any case, and that the substance of the complaint had no merit. In doing so, Judge Borene rejected SaveWCAL’s arguments that St. Olaf and MPR had acted improperly in arranging the sale and that St. Olaf had violated a charitable trust that supposedly had been created by listener donations to operate the station, concluding that no such trust existed.

For media coverage of the Minnesota Court of Appeals verdict, see the Star Tribune story.

Contact Steve Blodgett at 507-786-3316 or blodgett@stolaf.edu.