Wow, we sure went from “there were no hearings” and it’s all “made up crap” to “anyone who dares to ask any questions regarding a 40% sale of a major communications company to a bulti-billionaire with possible ties to Chinese money is guilty of tyranny” very fast.
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Jimmy Failla to replace Mark Levin on WPHT
- Thread starter wadio
- Start date
You started it with this:
Let's review: There were no hearings "as we speak." There are no "national security interests." There are no "possible ties to Chinese money." In fact, commissioner Carr himself said this:
But when government uses its power to stop or slow down a simple bankruptcy plan approval strictly over the political party of one investor, that is tyranny. It would be the same if the government had attempted to stop the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk. There is no basis for any of it. None.
You have to remember that I posted that at about 9 PM last night when Congress was out of session however from what I’ve read, future hearings are a possibility meaning that the issue is ongoing “as we speak.” We’ll have to wait and see whether such hearings (tyrannical or otherwise) come to fruition.
Since you brought up Twitter, the Justice Department, FTC, and SEC were involved in that transaction. In fact, the SEC continues to investigate Elon to this day. Is that tyrannical as well?
As far as Chinese money is concerned, I hadn’t heard anything about that until you brought it up in a previous post.
Please respond because “atthestars” has his finger on the “like” button.
Other parts of the government are looking into Audacy as well. That is part of the normal process. The State Department specifically is doing a Foreign Ownership review that I mentioned earlier. It's ongoing and wasn't affected by the bankruptcy approval. There's a difference between the normal regulatory process and a group of republicans making a bunch of claims about someone for no other reason than because he's a democrat.
Congress adjourned on September 27 so members could go back to their districts. According to Speaker Johnson, Congress will remain out of session until after the election.
I was kidding and if you read the context, I fully explained my comment. There is no Chinese money.
How convenient for Congress. And yes, I picked up on the Chinese money sarcasm. I was being sarcastic when I added it back into the conversation.
Agreed, there is (probably) no Chinese money involved here.
I agree. Other than that I enjoy him.
So why the investment? Big upside? I don't think so. Unless he plans to make changes, for whatever reason, what's the point?
He's buying it as an investment. I'll bet he has not even spent enough time on the details to know what the programming is.
He bought hundreds of millions in debt, and is not going to mess with profitable stations. His advisors, if they even discuss programming, will have found out that attempts at liberal or progressive talk have not worked, even in very Blue states.
Example: If Mars, the candy and snack company, is sold, the buyer is not going to change the colors of the M&Ms because they don't like yellow.
He bought a company out of bankruptcy because, without the huge debt, it is very profitable. He got it at a great price because nobody else is buying "big radio". Even if the business is on a decline, the ROI is so high he can consider it as if it were an oil company that will eventually run dry but which has such huge oil depletion allowances that the annual yield is in the 15% to 20% range!
The smart part of the Audacy bankruptcy is taking the company private. That way they're not putting stock on the open market. So the investment remains intact and won't be degraded by a falling stock price. They can afford to do that because Soros bought the debt. In that way, it's good for everyone.
But aren't there better investments? There must be another motive.
He's of an age that grew up with radio. So he has an affinity for it, has lots of money, and wants to see it survive.
There are some other people around his age who are taking their wealth and putting it in traditional media. Perhaps he's spoken with Warren Buffett, who just bought a big chunk of Paramount Global, owner of CBS. A few years ago, John Malone was looking very carefully at iHeart.
The other big investor in Audacy is Manoj Bhargava, founder of 5-hour ENERGY and owner of Bridge Media Networks.
5-Hour Energy Founder Expands Media Holdings Including Audacy & Cumulus Stakes
Manoj Bhargava's Bridge Media Networks has announced a series of media acquisitions including stakes in Audacy and Cumulus Media. Bhargava,
radioinsight.com
He also owns a big part of Cumulus. There have been rumors that he'd like to merge the two.
Related:
www.cotton.senate.gov
Cotton to Rosenworcel: Rushed Approval of Soros Fund Management-Audacy Deal Raises Questions | U.S. Senator Cotton of Arkansas
Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to Federal Communications...
www.cotton.senate.gov
He has the name of the fund wrong. As I've said, it was not "rushed." They worked on it for six months, which is normal. The FCC's Media Bureau received the application in March, looked into all aspects of the deal, and passed it on with a recommendation to approve. To say it happened in 48 hours is a lie. The foreign ownership aspect is still under review. So this whole letter is a pack of lies designed to rile up the base.
The process has been done in full view with detailed reporting in the media, and discussed at length here. His letter has nothing to do with broadcasting.
No, there mustn’t. There is not an ulterior motive to every single thing. And it sure as heck isn’t buying up a giant portfolio to get at one little sliver of it to make it some imaginary “other” thing.
“Better investments” is irrelevant. This one was available. It makes business sense to his company. As have many other investments. Some will yield more cash than others. Some may be bad choices in the end. Such is business and hindsight. It’s just business, not politics. There’s a whole big world beyond whatever people want to conjure up.
Except if Elon Musk buys it.
Yeah, that is true. Much more problematic than one investment among many for Soros’s company, but such is the way it goes.
No it isn’t a joke.
The purchase will affect more than “165 million monthly listeners on Audacy – a network that includes conservative programming like Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Erick Erickson.”
What do YOU think the reason is ?
Or do you like more Hispanic /religious programming ? AM is a disaster.
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