I’ve been to WTVP’s studio at State and Water streets downtown. It’s not an attractive building on the outside, but the digital television equipment and studio space inside is enviable. I’d love to work on their video editing suite. But the building and equipment came with a hefty price tag: $10.3 million.

I heard a rumor a few months ago (August) that WTVP was defaulting on their benefit loans to pay for all that fabulous new equipment and space. My requests for information from WTVP went unanswered, so I dropped it.

Tonight, however, Journal Star columnist Steve Tarter is reporting that WTVP is indeed in default and now owes Bank of America the balance of the loan — $6.9 million:

While the 2001 bond agreement originally gave the station 22 years to pay back the bonds, WTVP was found in technical default in 2005 after failing to raise a specific number of pledges and pledge money, items covered in bond covenants…. Now WTVP faces a deadline of Jan. 15 to restructure the bank agreement….

Here’s a little second-hand conjecture: I heard from someone that part of the reason they are in default is because WTVP had originally hoped to make more money in production work (using their studios and resources to shoot and edit commercials for other businesses), but their prices were so high that prospective clients chose the more affordable professional production services of WEEK-TV. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it sounded plausible to me.

In any case, it certainly looks like they misjudged how much equipment and building space they could afford, and now they’re in trouble. I hope the station doesn’t go black, because I enjoy public television — both the network programs and local shows. Best of luck to them.