Judge affirms own ruling in Kansas State rights dispute

MANHATTAN, KANSAS - A judge upheld his own ruling and made it permanent Thursday, clearing the way for two competing broadcasts of Kansas State football games this fall. <br> <br> The school signed a contract with Wichita-based Mid-America Ag Network last December, giving it exclusive rights to broadcast Wildcats games for five years. <br> <br> But WIBW, whose agreement with Kansas State expired in June, claimed it had the right to continue broadcasting games. <br> <br> In a hearing sought by the university, the Topeka station cited a 1969 agreement between the school and WIBW&#39;s former parent company, Stauffer Communications Incorporated. Under that agreement, WIBW, now owned by Morris Communications of Augusta, Georgia, shares its 580 AM frequency with KKSU, Kansas State&#39;s student station. <br> <br> In April, District Judge David Stutzman issued a temporary injunction upholding that agreement -- one of the last of its kind in the nation -- and forcing the university to comply with it. <br> <br> The agreement, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, detailed the time-share agreement between WIBW and the school. <br> <br> It requires WIBW to grant KKSU 15 extra minutes per day on the shared frequency, in exchange for air time on game days and a promise to broadcast Kansas State football games. <br> <br> Morris argued -- and Stutzman agreed -- that the arrangement supersedes any exclusive contracts the school might offer. Stutzman found that the 15-minute time block constituted a form of payment for non-exclusive broadcast rights. <br> <br> The contract with the Mid-America Ag Network was worth six million dollars over five years. WIBW had offered a final bid of about $600,000 a year, roughly double what the station had been paying on a five-year deal signed in 1997.