Appeals court lets sale of WCAL to MPR stand

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has let stand the sale by St. Olaf College of its radio station to Minnesota Public Radio.

The appeals court said Tuesday that a lower court did not abuse its discretion when it ruled against a group of WCAL listeners. The group, SaveWCAL, opposed the 2004 sale of the classical music station to MPR, which turned it into an alternative rock station known as The Current.

SaveWCAL had argued that donors had contributed millions of dollars to support WCAL. And it contended the act of making these donations created a charitable trust that St. Olaf and MPR could not breach, so the sale should be declared void.

But the lower court concluded that WCAL was not a charitable trust, but rather an asset of St. Olaf, and that SaveWCAL had waited too long to try to overturn the sale.