Yesterday on the Culture Club, I posted prominent Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod layman and attorney Robert Duesenberg’s first letter to LCMS president Gerald Kieschnick and board chairman Donald Muchow about Omaha lawyer-politician-lobbyist-MoSyn board member-paid counsel-spokesman Kermit Brashear. As noted, the response to his missive and the questions it contain has been a resounding silence.

On October 28, Duesenberg wrote them again - with more questions. He looks at the tax returns for buyer Joy FM and raises serious doubts that its parent, Gateway Creative Broadcasting, can possibly meet its financial obligations.

Here’s the first money quote: “If ever there was a contract and circumstances pointing to buyer nonperformance, this contract for the sale of KFUO-FM is it.”

Here’s the second: “To destroy the station by its sale, to cancel the goodwill it has generated over eight-five years of operations, under terms that, on their face, cannot reasonably be anticipated to be performed, is insane, and an offense to the many members of the public and cultural institutions who have sustained KFUO over time.”

Dear Revs. Kieschnick and Muchow,

So much for openness! As my letter of 14 October remains unanswered and unacknowledged, the purpose here is to add a few questions to those set forth in that letter for your consideration.

The reputed buyer of Radio Station KFUO FM is Gateway Creative Broadcasting, Inc. As a qualified charity under the federal Internal Revenue Code, it is obligated to file an annual Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. I have their Form 990 for their fiscal years ending May 31, 2008 and 2009. A review raises serious questions about the financial capacity of the buyer to perform the reported terms of the sale contract and adds to concerns expressed in my earlier letter about whether there was proper exercise of authority by the Synod Board of Directors in respect to the contract of sale, its authorization and execution.

The contract for the sale of KFUO FM is reported to provide for Gateway to pay principal and interest over ten years totaling, according to Mr. Brashear, $26 million, payable, according to Ms Sarah Bryan Miller of the Post Dispatch, who spoke with Mr. Brashear, $150,000 immediately, $1.35 million at closing, an interest factor of $1.5 million in the fourth year, and a final balloon payment that, given the afore stated sums, would amount to somewhere around $23,000,000.

Now let’s look at the Form 990s. First, I’ll be happy to provide you a copy of each year’s return if you do not have one or both. Let me know. In the year ending May 31, 2008 (the 2007 return) Gateway had gross receipts of $1.5 million against expenses of $1.6 million for a deficit for the year of $107,468. It had net assets at the end of the year of $350,838. In the year ending May 31, 2009, the deficit expanded to $172,249, and net assets at year end declined to $178,249. If ever there was a contract and circumstances pointing to buyer nonperformance, this contract for the sale of KFUO-FM is it.

Radio Station KFUO-FM is a valuable Synod asset. It is a profitable asset. For the twenty years ending January 31, 2008, it produced for KFUO AM and FM a surplus, using Synod’s term, of over $2.8 million. To destroy the station by its sale, to cancel the goodwill it has generated over eight-five years of operations, under terms that, on their face, cannot reasonably be anticipated to be performed, is insane, and an offense to the many members of the public and cultural institutions who have sustained KFUO over time.

If I am wrong in the figures reviewed for these comments, they call for an explanation, an explanation that everyone in the LCMS has a right to know. (Yes, I know of the split of KFUO FM and AM revenues between Synod and the Synod Foundation. That is not an explanation.) If the foregoing is correct, or even substantially accurate, the facts point to a very questionable contract and course of proceedings leading to it.

I would be pleased to have my understandings modified. Unfortunately, inquiries, and not just mine, are stonewalled or ignored. But, I will try once more: Would you, please:

1. Answer the questions set forth in my letter of October 14?

2. Give me a written, supported response challenging or correcting any statement set forth in this letter.

3. Provide me a copy of the contract for the sale of radio station KFUO FM.

4. Provide me a copy of the (Board of Directors) resolutions(s) with respect to authorizing the contract of sale, its negotiation and execution, and ratifying or confirming its execution, terms and conditions.

Duesenberg goes on to raise an intriguing possibility concerning how Brashear’s bills are being paid; more on that later.

For more on Kermit Brashear, and links to earlier Culture Club posts, see here; to write to the LCMS’s board of directors, one address will do it all: bod@lcms.org. To voice your concerns to the FCC, which has to approve the sale, send a letter to Federal Communications Commission, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20554. You can get answers to questions about the process by calling the FCC’s National Call Center, toll free, at 1-888-Call FCC (1-888-225-5322). The commenting period ends November 30.

We’ll let you know if Duesenberg gets a response to his letters.