Content area
Full Text
PLAINVIEW - A widening rift between key board members of WLIW/Channel 21 threatens to derail merger talks between the Plainview-based public broadcasting station and WNET/Channel 13.
Attorneys for the stations were drafting proposed merger contract language this week, and Ch. 21 Chairman Barry Shapiro expressed hopes that a deal could be signed within a month.
But Anne E. Ellis, the board's immediate past chairman, said Ch. 21 lacks independent counsel in its negotiations with Ch. 13 and has hired attorneys at her own expense to review contract language.
Her action directly challenges Shapiro, who recently urged the Ch. 21 board to vote to hire the Los Angeles firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for merger negotiations. The station had long relied on Nixon Peabody for legal advice.
"We don't have independent counsel," Ellis said Wednesday. "That's why I hired counsel. I retained a firm that will help me understand (merger contract wording)."
Ellis, Ch. 21's chairman in 1998-1999, said she opposes any merger between with Ch. 13 because she doubts contract language can guarantee that...