Kevin O’Brien still hasn’t given up on winning back control of ABC 6.

O’Brien’s attorney, Americo Scungio, has informed the Rhode Island Supreme Court his client will appeal the March 22 sale of WLNE-TV in a court auction, judiciary spokesman Craig Berke told WPRI.com.

Scungio did not respond to a phone message left on Monday.

Citadel Communications of Bronxville, N.Y., took over management of WLNE on Sunday after buying the station on auction in a deal valued at $5.8 million, including $4 million in cash. The FCC still must approve the transfer of WLNE’s license to Citadel.

At the time, Associate Justice Michael Silverstein denied an objection by O’Brien, who argued its court-appointed receiver Matthew McGowan was not seeking nearly enough money in exchange for the station. He said WLNE earned a profit in 2010, and argued that its positive cash flow should allow the receiver to continue operating the station while seeking more for it.

O’Brien paid $14 million in 2007 to buy ABC 6 from Freedom Communications. He asked Silverstein to place the station in receivership last summer, saying in a court filing WLNE was “insolvent and unable to meet its obligations as they come due.”

The notice of appeal is the only information about the appeal on file right now, Berke said. A transcript of the Superior Court proceedings has been ordered, and that must be completed before the high court’s clerk can add the case to its docket, he said.

(photo: Ted Nesi/WPRI)

A Superior Court judge approved the sale of insolvent WLNE-TV ABC 6 for $4 million in cash Tuesday to Citadel Communications Co. Ltd., a small New York broadcaster founded by a former chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The total value of the deal is more than $5.8 million because WLNE will retain cash, receivables and other assets in addition to receiving $4 million in cash from Bronxville, N.Y.-based Citadel, its court-appointed receiver Matthew McGowan said.

Citadel and ABC already have an affiliation agreement in place that is just awaiting the two parties’ signatures, ABC’s attorney Jennifer Doran said. The Disney-owned network effectively blocked three competing bids. Sovereign Bank, WLNE’s biggest creditor, also supported the sale to Citadel.

Citadel owns four TV stations in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, three of them ABC affiliates and the fourth a CBS affiliate, founder and CEO Phil Lombardo told WPRI.com last month. The company is not related to radio giant Citadel Broadcasting, which owns WPRO-AM and other local stations. Lombardo, who was in court Tuesday, said he is also an investor in a 24-hour cable news station in Sarasota, Fla.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” Lombardo told reporters after the hearing before departing for a celebratory lunch at Hemenway’s Restaurant. “We now need to formulate our plans to make the station very successful.”

Lombardo said he planned to “refocus” WLNE’s newscasts and make it the first high-definition station in the Providence-New Bedford market. Layoffs are “possible” but it’s too early to say whether they will be required, he said. “We’re going to evaluate every person in the station,” he said.

Associate Justice Michael Silverstein denied an objection by ABC 6′s previous owner, Kevin O’Brien, who argued McGowan was not obtaining enough money for the station. O’Brien paid $14 million in 2007 to buy WLNE from Freedom Communications.

A total of 54 investor groups expressed interest in buying ABC 6, about 12 of which were “very interested” and received a term sheet, but only four submitted formal offers, McGowan said.

The four were Citadel; former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino’s group, which bid $2.2 million; former WPRO-AM general manager Mitch Dolan’s Brine Broadcasting, which bid $4.2 million; and Tim McDonald’s Liberty Investors Group, which bid $4.3 million, McGowan said.

ABC’s network officials negotiated with all four bidders but declined to approve any group except Citadel as a potential affiliate, both sides’ lawyers said in court. McGowan said he could not support a buyer who did not meet ABC”s approval. ”They’re asking me to take a huge risk here” if he did, McGowan said.

WLNE began paying ABC for network programming at the beginning of this year, and Citadel’s Lombardo said he does not oppose that so long as the affiliate payments are reasonable. He also said Citadel planned to “put its armor on” and negotiate new retransmission payments with cable and satellite companies like Cox Communications, Verizon Communications and DirecTV.

Citadel will formally take over management of the station on April 25 under a local marketing agreement, or LMA, just days before the key May ratings period begins. Lombardo said he hopes the FCC will approve Citadel as WLNE’s new licensee by the end of June.

ABC 6 General Manager Steve Doerr, who joined the station in October 2007, and Chief Engineer Jim Brown will remain in place at least until Citadel receives formal FCC approval.

ABC 6 has struggled since it came on the air as WTEV-TV in 1963. “The only way to fix the station is to work hard, be consistent, be patient,” and thereby win the trust of viewers and advertisers, Lombardo said.

This post has been updated and expanded since it was first published.

(photo: Ted Nesi/WPRI)

Phil Lombardo

There is “no way” the New York company that’s emerged as the top bidder for WLNE-TV ABC 6 would close the station’s newsroom to save money if it takes over the channel, the firm’s founder and CEO told me this morning.

“We are very committed to news,” Citadel Communications Co. Ltd. CEO Phil Lombardo said in a phone interview with WPRI.com. ”All of our properties are very committed to news.”

Matthew McGowan, ABC 6′s court-appointed receiver, revealed Thursday that Bronxville, N.Y.-based Citadel is the “stalking-horse” bidder for the station. Other potential buyers have until March 18 to submit their own offers, and the new owner will be selected March 22, WLNE said.

Lombardo confirmed that Citadel has offered to pay $4 million for ABC 6. That’s 70% less than the $14 million that Kevin O’Brien’s Global Broadcasting of Southern New England paid to buy WLNE from Freedom Communications in 2007.

Citadel owns four TV stations in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, three of them ABC affiliates and the fourth a CBS affiliate, Lombardo said. The company is not related to radio giant Citadel Broadcasting, which owns WPRO-AM and other local stations.

“I think Providence is a great market,” Lombardo said. “It’s a state capital, and I think that we can take that facility and make it into a very competitive and good citizen of the community.”

ABC 6 has struggled financially for years. Its revenue from advertising and other sources fell from $15.1 million in 2000 to $5.9 million in 2009, according to BIA Financial Network Inc., a Virginia research firm. But Lombardo said he was confident his team can turn it around.

“I know the station has had problems in the past and that doesn’t deter me at all,” he said. “I think that the way we operate can make it a very successful entity and a good citizen of the community.”

Lombardo also said Citadel would move quickly to convert WLNE-TV to a high-definition signal, which no station in Providence has done yet. “We’ll be the first ones,” he declared.

While WLNE isn’t located near Citadel’s other TV stations, Providence and Bronxville are not too far from each other, Lombardo pointed out. “That’s part of the attraction – I can be there in no time at all,” he said.

Lombardo is a former joint board chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters, according to his biography. He said he founded Citadel in 1982 with a cluster of East Coast stations. Those were later sold and the Midwest stations were picked up.

Disclosure: My employer obviously has a vested interest in the future of the Providence television market.

Update: Looks like Citadel made a much smaller acquisition recently. RBR.com reports the company paid about $150,000 for W48CN, a low-power station in Sarasota, Fla., last month.

(photo: National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation)