Business news with words deal+sale+thomas. 3 news.

Providence Equity Partners Inc. may back out of a $1.2 billion agreement to acquire Clear Channel Communications' 56 television stations. Providence is the financial backer for Newport Television, a company formed by former Wichita television executive Sandy DiPasquale. Newport is operating out of Wichita offices pending its planned December move to Kansas City. DiPasquale is recuperating from an illness and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His son, Michael, didn't return calls to the Wichita office. Other company officials declined comment. Providence may not close the deal on the terms agreed upon in April, San Antonio-based Clear Channel said Nov. 9 in a regulatory filing. The sale outcome doesn't threaten Clear Channel's pending $19.5 billion takeover by Thomas H. Lee Partners Inc. and Bain Capital LLC, the company said.

A last-ditch attempt to save Wild West World has begun, with real estate agents mounting a final bid to find an amusement park operator to buy the failed theme park's buildings and land. Grant and Bradley Tidemann, commercial agents with J.P. Weigand in Wichita who represent the bankruptcy estate, think there's a park operator out there willing to bring new rides to Park City and try it again. Any deal wouldn't include the collection of largely used rides park founder Thomas Etheredge assembled, with most already earmarked for sale. Etheredge closed Wild West World on July 9, and the park filed for bankruptcy protection the same day. "The first step is to sell the land for its highest and best use, which we think is an amusement park," Bradley Tidemann said.

Thomas Etheredge's 2006 business losses ultimately broke a logjam and led to Wednesday's closing on the sale of the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper. New owners Greg and JW Johnson assumed ownership Wednesday and will hit the ground running: R.W. Hampton, the 2006 Academy of Western Artists male vocalist of the year, will headline opening weekend Nov. 16 and 17. The deal had been stalled for more than two months by $325,000 in state and federal income tax liens filed against former owners Thomas and Cheryl Etheredge, specifically for unpaid 2005 income taxes. Greg Johnson said Wednesday that he revitalized the talks by paying for the completion of Etheredge's 2005 and 2006 income taxes. And other sources close to the case confirmed that Etheredge's 2006 business losses -- despite annual profits in excess of $1 million at the Prairie Rose, according to bankruptcy court documents -- were substantial enough to, as Johnson put it, "get the IRS off our backs."