Fake Mr. Haney is a Rhodes Scholar playing the part of a hayseed. He knows God didn't create the FCCThe last court case having to do with the Audacy bankruptcy is over:
The Audacy Chapter 11 Reorganization Officially Comes To An End In Court.
Just a little more than a year after Audacy went into bankruptcy court with a plan to rework its debt and emerge as a more financially stable company, the lastwww.insideradio.com
So technically the financial and legal part of the process is over. The new FCC commissioner wants to revisit the deal because he doesn't like one of the investors. He wants to blow it up and add more expense to the process.
Here's a quote from Louisiana Senator Kennedy:
I didn't know that God created the FCC. They must have a different kind of education in Louisiana. This is the same guy who wants to destroy public broadcasting.
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Audacy Bankruptcy Goes To FCC
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
That's what happened to Cumulus. They actually did both. They went public and sold out to Blackstone. So when the stock started to tank, they fired the founder Lew Dickey and brought in a bankruptcy specialist to get their money back. (that's the short version)
Beasley is the current family company that went public, and they're teetering on the edge as we speak. If they fall, we can expect all the Beasleys to have the same fate as Field.
I didn't last long in a family company. I knew that the only way to get ahead was to be a member of the family, and I didn't want to marry in.
I really need to remember this line for the future.
If anything, people should be laughing their butts off at Soros for setting his money on fire doing this. That whole group of stations looks to be totally unsalable and probably should be all shuttered at some point.
There's a lot more where that came from. Some people view his investment in Audacy in the same way. But it's something that boomer billionaires seem to enjoy doing. Jeff Bezos torched a lot of his personal money buying the Washington Post.
Mort Zuckerman, David D. Smith and Patrick Soon-Shiong all come to mind as well. But sheer money from one person can't subsidize a print newspaper, it only delays the inevitable.
LMN. Titanic. Deck chairs. Rearrange: Latino Media Network Implements Regional Leadership Structure
Even eliminating the print versions doesn't help. Local newspapers thrived largely because of limited competition. Most cities had only one or two daily newspapers, with few if any out-of-town alternatives available at the grocery store or newsstand. Taking the whole operation online reduces any newspaper to just one in millions of online sources of information, opinion, propaganda or outright disinformation on most of the topics those newspapers cover. So the papers' once-loyal readership drifts away.
He has an odd sense of humor. I've seen that in numerous interviews he has done.
Where I'm thinking "what did he say?"
Just saying, Mr. Soros is too old to be considered a "Boomer"
Born in 1930. Considering the vast amount of information (and misinformation) out there about his activities as a boy in the 1940s, it's hard to believe anyone could regard him as a boomer.
There were several factors at play, in my opinion. Some newspapers lost sight of what their readers were interested in, instead running long, multi-part series designed to win regional journalism awards, but otherwise of little interest to a general readership and too long for a quick read in the morning. Then there was what Craigslist did to classified ads, not to mention eBay or other specialty sites. Classifieds were easy money and took up pages and pages and pages of agate type in newspapers. When was the last time you saw a newspaper with more than a page or two of classified ads, not counting legal notices? Newspapers also bought into the "information wants to be free" mantra of the newly commercialized Internet, thinking that giving away product would bring in readers. This was before the concepts of surveilling computer traffic for commercial purposes were fully developed (and, when it was, only a few big tech players benefited). The general ethos of the time was memorably satirized in the "Underpants Gnomes" episode of South Park.
Journalism schools may not have been politically conservative places, but they were extremely conservative with respect to how the profession was practiced. If medical schools ran the way journalism schools did, doctors would still be using leeches. Some j-schools have finally woken up but I question whether their graduates are being prepared for a very uncertain future. I hear things from my Mizzou contacts that make me wonder.
I agree. None of those helped newspapers. I always found odd that USA Today ran "fast takes" that newspapers laughed at only to find the readers loved the fast takes, and they were wildly successful. Almost none of the local newspapers made any effort to duplicate that approach despite finding out that it worked. Also, don't forget that a few newspaper companies merged for very high cash flow multiples right before the Great Recession. The multibillion-dollar merger with Knight Ridder was what put McClatchey into bankruptcy and enabled the private equity companies to get their tentacles further embedded in their operation.
Working in the education field myself, I think most of us would tell you that academia is probably 3-5 years behind the business world. That's been true pretty much forever. If I'm being completely honest, the IT courses I took at the community college on the side when I worked my telecommunications job were far better than the ones I had at the university. They were taught by IT pros who worked at businesses in the area, not research professors who didn't want to teach. Plus, class sizes were way smaller. Medical schools being in the thick of the industry and competing mostly with other nonprofits may make them an exception, but you won't find many colleges and universities at the forefront of most disciplines. Most companies, however, are aware of that and have a system for onboarding new graduates. For media, that used to be what the small town newspapers and small market radio and TV stations did.
Audacy is currently going through the Foreign Ownership review process. With that as a backdrop, the FCC's Carr announced he intends to "codify" the commission's foreign ownership rules:
www.insideradio.com
He's saying he wants to "streamline" them. My expectation is he wants to shut them down. Radio companies will no longer get a 100% foreign ownership waiver. It sounds from this article like he wants to limit foreign ownership to 5%, which is lower than any of the majors now. The real problem in all this is that public companies really have no idea who owns stock in their companies. Especially when there is institutional ownership.
Bottom line is that Carr is trying to change the foreign ownership rules in order to challenge the Audacy bankruptcy plan.
Carr Pushes To Codify FCC’s Foreign Ownership Rules, Streamline Reviews.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr is pushing to codify foreign ownership rules for broadcasters, aiming to streamline reviews and reduce confusion. Carr says the current system relies too much on unwritten
He's saying he wants to "streamline" them. My expectation is he wants to shut them down. Radio companies will no longer get a 100% foreign ownership waiver. It sounds from this article like he wants to limit foreign ownership to 5%, which is lower than any of the majors now. The real problem in all this is that public companies really have no idea who owns stock in their companies. Especially when there is institutional ownership.
Bottom line is that Carr is trying to change the foreign ownership rules in order to challenge the Audacy bankruptcy plan.
No better way to repulse anyone with deep pockets from wanting to invest in linear media ever again. For want of a cheap political payback, the marketplace gets destroyed.
The Audacy bankruptcy may be Carr's focus but it isn't his only one. I noted the following passages from the story with interest:Audacy is currently going through the Foreign Ownership review process. With that as a backdrop, the FCC's Carr announced he intends to "codify" the commission's foreign ownership rules:
Carr Pushes To Codify FCC’s Foreign Ownership Rules, Streamline Reviews.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr is pushing to codify foreign ownership rules for broadcasters, aiming to streamline reviews and reduce confusion. Carr says the current system relies too much on unwritten
He's saying he wants to "streamline" them. My expectation is he wants to shut them down. Radio companies will no longer get a 100% foreign ownership waiver. It sounds from this article like he wants to limit foreign ownership to 5%, which is lower than any of the majors now. The real problem in all this is that public companies really have no idea who owns stock in their companies. Especially when there is institutional ownership.
Bottom line is that Carr is trying to change the foreign ownership rules in order to challenge the Audacy bankruptcy plan.
"In addition, the NPRM explores how the agency should assess foreign ownership in noncommercial educational and LPFM stations — organizations often structured
around nonprofit boards rather than shareholders. “While to date, there have been relatively few instances of requests for proposed foreign ownership of
NCE and LPFM stations under the Commission’s current foreign ownership rules, we believe it would be beneficial to consider how to incorporate the structures
of these stations into the current rules,” the NPRM says.
The FCC proposes attributing equal voting shares to board members unless formal agreements specify otherwise. It also asks whether such voting arrangements
should be disclosed and if alternative models would better fit nonprofit governance structures.
The NPRM further seeks feedback on how foreign ownership should be treated during competitive NCE and LPFM filing windows, including whether declaratory
ruling petitions must be processed before or after a winning applicant is selected. The Commission raises concerns about the possibility of selecting an
applicant whose foreign ownership ultimately violates legal thresholds."
As far as I know, Audacy doesn't own any non-commercial stations, and, by law, it isn't allowed to own any LPFM stations.
Also, with regard to foreign ownership, I would like to have seen a differentiation between countries; as in, countries not considered friendly to the U.S. should not hold any stock or board membership in private broadcasting entities. Of course, my idea would be that countries such as Russia and China shouldn't be involved in U.S. radio ownership; however I suspect that if the administration took this approach, it would list canada and Australia as unfriendly countries.
What's he hoping for, RT to replace NPR or something?
After hearing Radio Sputnik in Washington D.C., of all damn places. I'm nauseated by the very thought of foreign ownership now. Yes, I know WZHF is leased by the Russians. But still, it's all you need to know about why foreign ownership isn't a good idea..
Foreign ownership doesn't mean they'd be owned by foreign governments. It means owned by foreign people or companies. For example, Bob Dylan's and Bruce Springsteen's music is owned by Sony in Japan. So we already have foreign ownership of our music.
While you are correct as far as you go, there are some countries, including the two I cited in my last comment, where private citizens, if they are wealthy, must follow the government propaganda line, making it very dangerous for us if we allow those private individuals to own a U.S.-based radio or television station.
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