Court Awards BroadcastAmerica Assets to SurferNETWORK

SurferNETWORK.com announced that it was awarded the radio assets of BroadcastAmerica.com, a Portland, Maine Internet radio webcaster, in an auction conducted as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.

The amount of the winning auction was not released.

Originally, SurferNETWORK and BroadcastAmerica signed a deal to merge, but that deal essentially fell through. Since neither company was able to raise more than the initial $1 million loaned to BroadcastAmerica by a SurferNETWORK investor, BroadcastAmerica filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2000. In December, BroadcastAmerica laid off all of its employees and its communication providers shut down services to BroadcastAmerica's 300 streaming radio stations.

Just a week ago, GlobalMedia.com sold its radio contracts and related assets to SurferNETWORK.com for $1 million in cash plus 1 million shares of SurferNETWORK.com restricted common stock, for an initial purchase price estimated at $2.25 million. GlobalMedia recently refocused its business strategy away from Internet radio and will focus on video.

Gordon Bridge, chairman and CEO of SurferNETWORK, said in a statement: "We are creating the global leader in streaming radio via the Net. The combined radio assets of BroadcastAmerica, GlobalMedia and SurferNETWORK bring together our highly innovative player, ad replacement and listening-experience technology, along with the broad range of interesting content and listeners needed to form a very large online consumer franchise for advertising."

Prior to filing for Chapter 11, BroadcastAmerica had approximately 750 radio stations under contract, 300 of them streaming.

SurferNETWORK.com now says it has more than 10 percent of all the radio stations in the U.S. under contract, with deals with some independent radio stations.