KGEZ owner files for bankruptcy

KGEZ radio station owner John Stokes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.

Stokes filed the paperwork Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte. The filings also cover his two unregistered corporations, Z-600 Inc. and Skyline Broadcasting, court documents said.

He then filed notifications of the bankruptcy action in Flathead County District Court and the Montana Supreme Court, where he is appealing a jury's $3.8 million defamation judgment against him.

Last September, a Flathead County District Court jury found that Stokes, who is also a radio host on his station, made malicious false statements over the air against neighboring businessmen Davar and Todd Gardner.

"We were expecting [the bankruptcy filing]. It's another step in his legal maneuvers," Todd Gardner said Monday.

Stokes could not be reached for comment Monday.

Under Chapter 11, the business or person in debt can reorganize their debt payments to satisfy creditors that it could not otherwise pay.

A bankruptcy judge and creditors must approve such a plan for it to become valid. Meanwhile, debt-collecting efforts, including litigation, are put on hold.

The jury had ordered Stokes to pay $1.8 million in actual damages and $2 million in punitive damages to the Gardners for slamming them with malicious false accusations on his daily talk show.

The jury also ruled that Stokes, Z-600 Inc. and Skyline Broadcasting are all the same entity and liable jointly for the $3.8 million in damages. During the trial, the Gardners' attorney argued that Stokes routinely plays a shell game with the defunct corporations, saying he is an officer or he is not an officer, depending on what is convenient for him at a specific time.

That defamation trial was a spin-off from a 2001-05 legal dispute between Stokes and the Gardners that had loose ends dangling until 2007.

KGEZ has two radio towers on 32 acres of easements on a 160-acre site, of which Doug Anderson and the Gardners each own segments. The Gardners own a recreational-vehicle store and an auction barn near KGEZ on U.S. 93 South.

Stokes had claimed his easements essentially gave him an ownership right over the entire 160 acres. The Gardners and Anderson disputed that in court and prevailed in 2005.

Stokes had criticized and accused the Gardners of wrongdoing for almost eight years during his morning talk radio show. The Gardners won their defamation lawsuit against Stokes for three broadcast statements he made in 2007.

During the trial's punitive stage, Stokes said he could not pay $3.8 million and he would have to go out of business if required to do so.

Last year, Stokes advertised selling the entire radio station, including its 6.65-acre site, for $4 million. However, Fred Leistiko, the city's airport director, told the Kalispell City Council in November that the station's appraised value is $650,000.

The city government has been unsuccessfully trying to persuade Stokes to move KGEZ's two 325-foot radio towers to Lakeside to remove them from the airport's airspace. The city has offered to pay the entire moving and set-up bill, which is estimated at $500,000.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com