Vancouver: The independent six-member board approved by the crtc to run Vancouver station ckvu at arm’s length from owner CanWest Global includes one former CanWest officer and two current CanWest minority shareholders.

CanWest failed to sell ckvu by the end of 2000 as mandated by the regulator as part of its approval of CanWest’s application to acquire Vancouver/Victoria stations bctv and chek and other WIC Western International Communications assets last year. With no purchaser in the offing, though, ckvu was assigned to Winnipeg-based trustee Bud Sherman, a former vice-chair of the crtc, last month.

‘Part of my job,’ says Sherman, ‘is to ensure the asset is beyond the reach of manipulation or pressure from CanWest.’

However, joining Toronto lawyer Albert Gnat, former wic chief Doug Holtby and Calgary consultant Jock Osler on the new ckvu board are Donald Brinton of Vancouver, and Seymour Epstein and Paul Morton of Toronto.

Brinton is a retired CanWest executive and Epstein and Morton each have a minority stake in CanWest.

Their initial meeting as a board was Jan. 18 and it will be their job to operate the station and direct ckvu gm Don Wright and other senior managers.

‘I’m not a party to the board’s activities or determinations,’ says Sherman.

When questioned about the close ties of some board members to CanWest Global, Sherman says only: ‘This is the board that was cleared and approved by the crtc.’

Sherman says there is no time limit on the trusteeship and that the process of evaluating bidders has only just begun.

CIBC World Markets in Toronto is collecting the firm bids and less firm inquiries, which may number as many as 15 to date, says Sherman. ‘It’s a long process to go through,’ he admits.

Holtby, contacted in Vancouver before the first meeting, says it’s too early to say how the station will be run and declined to speculate how the transition away from CanWest might evolve.

Station manager Wright says ckvu continues to operate as a Global affiliate, most visibly in its branding and its daily supper-hour news show called Global News. As an affiliate, he adds, the station runs programming secured by CanWest Global. ckvu’s 150 employees, meanwhile, have been told that it’s ‘business as usual.’

Wright confirmed, however, that the Global affiliation will shift to bctv/chek this fall and doesn’t know what will happen after that. ‘We have not considered other options,’ he says.

Should ckvu sit in limbo for a long period, the station could be set adrift.

Even the crtc is unsure what to do.

According to crtc spokesman Denis Carmel, the commission has never been in a position to force the sale of a station.

Some extremes being considered by the commission and its lawyers are whether the crtc could own the station or whether it might go dark. More likely, the crtc will exercise its authority to force a sale to the highest bidder, even if that bid is much less than CanWest’s asking price.

Because of the uncertainty about how it will fit into the local market or even what kind of programming it will air, ckvu’s asking price has been the subject of wild speculation – somewhere between a bargain-basement low of $15 million to a high of $140 million. More conservative observers peg the value at somewhere around $80 million.

Well-capitalized companies like The Jim Pattison Group have decided against bids because of the competitive disadvantage of operating an independent station in securing programming and booking advertising.

Craig Broadcasting, Rogers Communications and CHUM Ltd. are expected to be leading bidders. Other potential bidders include Alliance Atlantis Communications. *

-www.canwestglobal.com