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George Soros, Of All People

Rusty Bridges

Rusty Bridges

What talks louder than Bauerle and Bellavia's right wing rants and bleating? George Soros' money. From the pages of Inside Radio, this regarding Audacy's climb from under the weight of debt service and failed leadership at the very top to a potentially controlling interest held by billionaire and liberal patron, George Soros

Under the [bankruptcy reorganization] plan approved Tuesday, Feb. 20, Audacy will erase roughly $1.6 billion of debt, an 80% reduction, from $1.9 billion to approximately $350 million. The company says trade and other unsecured creditors will not be impaired.
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Approval of the plan sets the stage for George Soros’ fund to become the largest shareholder of the reorganized radio and podcast company. The liberal billionaire investor earlier bought $415 million of Audacy's debt, assuming anywhere from 40% to more than half of the estimated $745 million of senior debt, out of the $1.9 billion owed by Audacy. Other large debt holders include hedge fund HG Vora Capital Management, SI Capital Commercial Finance, and PGIM.
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Under Audacy’s plan, existing shareholders are expected to be wiped out, while high-ranking creditors like Soros would be repaid with stock in the restructured company in a debt-for-equity swap.
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So, for the 27 people who ready this board, the question: What influence, if any, will George Soros exert on the numerous right wing warblers who have long populated Fraudacy's AM airwaves across America. Speculation from insiders about the workings of the Buffalo properties ranges from none-at-all to a complete overhaul of who-says-what-and-the-way-it's-said. Three radio pros, one a former large market program director, speculate that Soros may impose a type of "corporate Fairness Doctrine" upon all talk show hosts, requiring them to offer both sides of an issue, especially as the issues may relate to the forthcoming November election. Yet, one of the radio pros believes that Soros doesn't much care what's being said, as long as the radio stations generate positive cash flow and he makes his investment back.

This will be one to watch, especially in Buffalo, where WBEN has long charted its course as a MAGA refuge. Time will tell, and the clock begins running in 3... 2...
 
Rusty Bridges said:
So, for the 27 people who ready this board, the question: What influence, if any, will George Soros exert on the numerous right wing warblers who have long populated Fraudacy's AM airwaves across America.
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As I mentioned in the other thread, the fact is that Audacy owns over 230 radio stations, and only 28 of them are news/talk. He didn't spend all that money because of 28 stations.

That is an important fact in this discussion. Soros invests in things he believes in. One of his funds gave the Latino Media Network $80 million to purchase a bunch of Univision AM stations. Why? He believes in minority ownership of the media. He wants to help make that happen. That sale closed a year ago. He hasn't done anything to the programming on those stations. Why? Because he's not in station management. He's in the money business.

My theory here is that he sees a short term upside to the stock. When Cumulus came out of bankruptcy and issued stock, it enjoyed a 20% increase during it's first month. Do the math, and you can see why this could be a good idea.
 
TheBigA said:
That is an important fact in this discussion. Soros invests in things he believes in. One of his funds gave the Latino Media Network $80 million to purchase a bunch of Univision AM stations. That sale closed a year ago. He hasn't done anything to the programming on those stations. Why? Because he's not in station management. He's in the money business.
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And LMN has not done anything significant with the programming on all of the stations they bought.

They must be burning through cash!

The biggest announcement was about carrying an LA sports team's play by play on one of the Las Vegas stations, and even then it appears that this may be an HD-2 deal!
 
TheBigA said:
As I mentioned in the other thread, the fact is that Audacy owns over 230 radio stations, and only 28 of them are news/talk. He didn't spend all that money because of 28 stations.

That is an important fact in this discussion. Soros invests in things he believes in. One of his funds gave the Latino Media Network $80 million to purchase a bunch of Univision AM stations. Why? He believes in minority ownership of the media. He wants to help make that happen. That sale closed a year ago. He hasn't done anything to the programming on those stations. Why? Because he's not in station management. He's in the money business.

My theory here is that he sees a short term upside to the stock. When Cumulus came out of bankruptcy and issued stock, it enjoyed a 20% increase during it's first month. Do the math, and you can see why this could be a good idea.
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He's also 93 years old. He may be looking backwards at the glory days of Radio. Even if he wanted to change the content on those 28 Talk stations, it would be futile. No one on the Left or even independents would bother to listen. The horse left that barn long ago.

Soros has money to burn. Maybe he just wants to make some MAGA folks sweat for fun...
 
The news here is that the bankruptcy plan was approved by the court yesterday, and moves on to the FCC:

www.insideradio.com

After Bankruptcy Court OK, Audacy’s Reorganization Plan Heads To FCC.

It has been a fast trek through bankruptcy court for Audacy. Just over six weeks after beginning prepackaged chapter 11 proceedings, radio’s second largest group on Tuesday won court approval
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

We'll see if conservative congressmen oppose the Soros investment, the way they did two years ago when he invested in LMN.
 
Any businessman could care less if his investment jives with his political leanings. A business person invests to make money. Anyone who would think otherwise is not in business.
 
TheBigA said:
We'll see if conservative congressmen oppose the Soros investment, the way they did two years ago when he invested in LMN.
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The only opposition was a totally ridiculous set of press releases and conferences about what would happen to WAQI, the to-the-right-of-Atila-the-Hun voice of ancient Cuban anti-Castro (Hint, gang: Castro is dead) militants on 8th Street in Miami.

There are a whole handful of extreme anti-Cuban AM stations in Miami. The people from WAQI just moved "next door" and kept up with their rants.

Move on folks. Nothing to see. Same "show" has been running since WFAB started around 1961 or 1962.
 
This is silly.

It's not as though Audacy makes very much of its income on political talk to begin with.

It's a tremendously potent player in all-news radio and in sports talk, and in a bunch of music formats, but most of its limited portfolio of political talkers are either in smaller markets like Buffalo, or are third-tier players like WPHT in Philly.

Map it against swing states and there's even less at play: aside from WPHT and some of the talk on KDKA, what's left? KXNT in Vegas? Fringe coverage into Wisconsin on WCCO?

If I were Soros and I actually wanted to try to spend money to put my political spin on radio, why would I do it with Audacy when all of Salem is pretty much right there for the taking at a much lower price? And with more stations in swing states to boot?
 
Rusty Bridges said:
What talks louder than Bauerle and Bellavia's right wing rants and bleating? George Soros' money. From the pages of Inside Radio, this regarding Audacy's climb from under the weight of debt service and failed leadership at the very top to a potentially controlling interest held by billionaire and liberal patron, George Soros






So, for the 27 people who ready this board, the question: What influence, if any, will George Soros exert on the numerous right wing warblers who have long populated Fraudacy's AM airwaves across America. Speculation from insiders about the workings of the Buffalo properties ranges from none-at-all to a complete overhaul of who-says-what-and-the-way-it's-said. Three radio pros, one a former large market program director, speculate that Soros may impose a type of "corporate Fairness Doctrine" upon all talk show hosts, requiring them to offer both sides of an issue, especially as the issues may relate to the forthcoming November election. Yet, one of the radio pros believes that Soros doesn't much care what's being said, as long as the radio stations generate positive cash flow and he makes his investment back.

This will be one to watch, especially in Buffalo, where WBEN has long charted its course as a MAGA refuge. Time will tell, and the clock begins running in 3... 2...
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I doubt MAGA/Fox boogeyman sCaRy GeOrGe SoRoS will interfere on that level. Bauerle will A) Never mention it, or B) use it as a recurring tool in his they're-out-to-get-me arsenal. Special snow shoes and spying-trees not included.
 
Marchant26 said:
Any thoughts on the future of Audacy Buffalo or is it too early to tell
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Once all the paperwork and approvals are done, there may be some evaluation of stations or markets that don't contribute much but which consume upper management time better dedicated to other tasks.

Buffalo, with a dearth of FMs and too many AMs would be the poster child for such evaluations.
 
Bauerle is a bright guy. He's probably had a discussion or two with Wenger about "what's gonna happen when." It's the normal course of activity when a radio station is sold or goes through a bankruptcy, especially one as large as Audacy's proceeding. There are a lot of unanswered questions that get answered in their proper time on a need-to-know basis, and the men and women in the trenches aren't in the first, second or third ring of need-to-know. It's quite likely the thought of Soros essentially owning Audacy deeply nettles Bauerle's from time to time, but he soldiers on content to know that he's getting a check and his traded-out endorsement benefits are still in order.
 
Jim Heaney of Investigative Post had some thoughts on Soros' buying of Audacy in the weekly newsletter the company sends out via e-mail. It should be posted to their website tomorrow; as part of it, he also mentions the fact that WBEN has lost a LOT of its audience in the past few years(from 13.3 and being #1 in June 2020 to 5.3 and 8th place last December).
 
ckg279 said:
Jim Heaney of Investigative Post had some thoughts on Soros' buying of Audacy in the weekly newsletter the company sends out via e-mail. It should be posted to their website tomorrow; as part of it, he also mentions the fact that WBEN has lost a LOT of its audience in the past few years(from 13.3 and being #1 in June 2020 to 5.3 and 8th place last December).
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The WBEN audience is literally dying off. There are no new listeners taking the place of the old angry White dudes when they croak. No attempt was ever made to change the on air content even when they tried the FM simulcast. That turned into a debacle and corporate gave up.

Audacy may likely dump all the Buffalo stations after the bankruptcy plays out. The cluster has only 1 full signal FM...
 
ckg279 said:
Jim Heaney of Investigative Post had some thoughts on Soros' buying of Audacy
Click to expand...

I go back to what I said earlier in this thread. Audacy owns 230 radio stations, and only 28 of them are news/talk. The primary business of Soros, and the way he became rich, is to buy low and sell high. HIs fund believes there's a profit to be made in buying this debt. This is not a decision being made to force a political ideology on a small number of radio stations. Soros is an old rich guy who still sees value in radio. There aren't a lot of people like him.

That being said, I look forward to reading Jim's report. The bottom line is that someone has to own and invest in radio. There are also foreign investors looking at US radio companies right now. The FCC has been open to foreign ownership, and we already have one US radio company owned by a Mexican company. So that's the bigger question moving forward.
 
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