The FCC granted its approval on September 30 to a restructuring and license transfer that will make a Soros-controlled investment firm the majority shareholder in Audacy, allowing the nation’s second-largest radio company to emerge from bankruptcy.
Audacy can now proceed with its plan to restructure its nearly $1.6 billion in debt. Laurel Tree Opportunities Corp., a group with ties to the Soros-backed Fund for Policy Reform, is poised to gain a controlling interest through the reorganization plan’s issuance of new common stock and special warrants. Read NRB’s earlier coverage of the acquisition here.
In its decision, the Commission rejected a petition to deny filed by the Media Research Center (MRC), claiming the group lacked standing to challenge the application. The MRC petition argued that “There is no question that George Soros and his affiliated businesses are looking to control these radio stations to advance their particular brand of activism” and urged the FCC not to create a “special Soros shortcut” that would circumvent their rules and allow the deal to move forward.
“The fact that the FCC is apparently willing to bypass the usual protocols to get this transaction done just weeks before a presidential election seriously undermines the Commission’s credibility and raises warranted questions of whether administrative processes are being manipulated to exert political preference,” commented Troy A. Miller, NRB president & CEO, upon announcement of the FCC’s decision.
The FCC’s decision drew criticism not only from industry groups but also from Republican commissioners Carr and Simington, who dissented from the Commission’s decision and characterized the move as historically unprecedented and lacking procedural integrity.
Carr argued that:
The Commission’s decision today is unprecedented. Never before has the Commission voted to approve the transfer of a broadcast license—let alone the transfer of broadcast licenses for over 200 radio stations across more than 40 markets—without following the requirements and procedures codified in federal law. Not once. And yet the Commission breaks this new ground today without seeking public comment on altering our established regulations, without actually changing the rules on the books, and without seeking the feedback of other federal agencies with relevant equities.
Simington described the Commission’s process as voting on “a skeletal item citing essentially no factual record that was yanked at the last minute from a contemplated 48-hour notice fast-track” and likened the commission’s minuscule public interest assessment as “music of summer evening cricketsong.”
Notably, Simington points out that “a Commission eager to fast-track a billion dollar broadcast media reorganization, disregarding foreign ownership concerns, is the same Commission that has gone back to the well several times to impose and re-impose foreign sponsorship identification rules on our smallest independent broadcast license holders every time they place local church content on the air.” Read NRB’s coverage of the Commission’s 2024 foreign sponsor identification rules here.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability wasted no time in launching an inquiry to the FCC, issuing a document request to Chair Jessica Rosenworcel shortly after the FCC announced its decision. Announcing the investigation, Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) said, “The American people won’t stand for backroom deals designed to silence conservative voices and rig our media landscape in the critical months before election day.”
The acquisition sends an unmistakable signal that traditional radio is anything but obsolete. As Miller commented, “This effort to consolidate left-wing control over a massive portfolio of stations is a testament to the continuing impact of traditional radio and signals a major challenge to the historic marketplace dynamic of conservative radio dominance.”