Can Texas Stop Soros From Taking Over Conservative Radio?

By Daniel Greenfield @ Sultan Knish Blog 

Mornings in Northeastern Pennsylvania start on WILK-FM with ‘The Bob Cordaro Show’ described as “convincingly conservative, lovingly logical, proudly and passionately patriotic and reliably right”. And then eventually other conservatives, including Ben Shapiro, come on the air.

But that may be about to change.

WILK is one of a number of Pennsylvania stations owned by Audacy (five in Philadelphia alone), the second largest radio broadcaster in America and it, along with over 200 radio stations across the country, is about to fall into the hands of George Soros in time for the 2024 election..

After Audacy was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Soros Fund Management bought hundreds of millions of its debt for 50 cents on the dollar and under a bankruptcy agreement will become its largest shareholder with a potential impact on much of the country and its politics.

Audacy claims to be able to reach 200 million people across the range of its properties which include sports, music and talk radio stations, as well as a large digital platform, and while Audacy is not an inherently conservative company, it owns a number of talk radio stations and the talk radio format caters to commuters, early risers and working people which is to say conservatives. And the Soros takeover will give one of the biggest funders of leftist extremism control over not only conservative talk radio stations but those that are, like WILK, in swing states. That includes two other stations in Pennsylvania and many others across the country.

While business is business and the Hungarian immigrant made a fortune as a shrewd investor, radio is not a booming market and there is a pattern here that goes back to 2022 when Soros took over Radio Mambi, a conservative Hispanic radio station in Florida, as part of a network that would give him access to a third of Hispanics in the country.

Some radio hosts left Radio Mambi in protest and formed Radio Americano. Radio Americano, the country’s first conservative Hispanic radio network, formed a partnership with Audacy leasing one of its radio stations. Having taken over Radio Mambi, Soros will now be in a position to also cripple Radio Americano with a significant impact on the upcoming election.

When Republicans take over Democrat radio stations, Democrats don’t take it lying down.

When Caracol 1260 AM, a Latino radio station, was being sold in 2021 to a group that included a conservative Hispanic figure, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a Democrat organization, sounded alarm bells and urged the FCC to block the sale.

“To win in 2022 this must stop!” former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell had argued.

The sale fell through and the Democrats won in 2022.

When Soros first came after Radio Mambi, some Republican legislators, including Sen. Tom Cotton, Sen. Marco Rubio, and others turned to the FCC, warning that, “far-left ideologues are attempting to consolidate and expand their control over the media, so they can flood the airwaves with propaganda” and asking the federal agency to step in and take action.

That did not happen and nor should anyone expect the FCC to stop Soros now, but the company filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas. And while the NRA and Trump already discovered the dangerous powers that state prosecutors have over organizations doing business or even registered in a blue state, there’s no reason the reverse can’t be true.

Audacy’s rapid bankruptcy deal that will make Soros into the company’s biggest shareholder can be examined by state officials including regulators and prosecutors like Attorney General Ken Paxton. Audacy’s reach includes Texas where it has at least one conservative talk radio station, KJCE which, along with local talent, broadcasts Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch and Frontlines of Freedom, and local officials can determine whether the bankruptcy deal and the subsequent Soros takeover will impact the Texas market and viewpoint diversity.

Instead of a rapid bankruptcy followed by a fast takeover, Texas state officials have a duty to thoroughly scrutinize the parameters of the agreement, its local impact and any issues that may arise from the new role of the Soros organization and what its management role may be.

Part of the agreement involves the appointment of a new board of directors. At Radio Mambi, the Soros people brought in Democratic Party operatives in a leadership role. Does Soros have similar plans for Audacy? Who will be on the proposed board of directors? Did George Soros personally play any role in the move by the Soros Management Fund?

The company has signaled that major cuts will be as part of its reorganization. Will those cuts be politically neutral or will they single out conservative employees and the conservative side of the business? Will this reorganization which is officially meant to deal with the debt load really be used as cover for a purge of the political opposition by a major funder of the ruling party.

These are worrisome questions.

When NPR radio stations began turning into conservative talk radio, the media and Democrat legislators quickly mobilized to fight against the transformation. The question is whether Republicans intend to allow George Soros to crush conservative radio without a fight.

Republicans have various tools that they can use to challenge the Soros takeover. While Audacy reached a deal with a “supermajority” of its debt holders, it’s not truly universal. Some debt holders have already filed objections and while the matter is before a judge in a progressive part of the state, Texas officials do have some options that they can explore.

Radio is the voice of the nation. Monopolies have silenced conservatives across much of the mainstream media even as dot coms have driven them out of social media platforms, but the radio dial is still a place where a twist or a push of a button still offers the sound of freedom.

But for how much longer?  

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation. Thank you for reading.