GE acquisition of Radio Unica from MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting

[oceanpoetry]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040330/305171_1.html

<snip>
GE Commercial Finance's Global Media & Communications unit announced today that it arranged the provision of $185 million in senior secured financing for the acquisition of Radio Unica's radio station assets by MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc. (MRBI). The GE Commercial Finance unit was the sole lead arranger and administrative agent for the financing, which closed in February
<snip>

This is huge! Please get this story out to everyone you know! The writing is on the wall - from this acquisition it is clear to me that GE is interfering with the freedom of speech via the airwaves by shutting down the Chicago and LA broadcast of AAR. Of course GE would have a vested interested in stopping the liberal station. This is scary!

[codegreen]

1. those bastards! AAR needs to start building its own stations, pronto!

[oceanpoetry]

2. agreed!

and I think AAR should publicize this as much as possible - as they take up the legal battle to get these stations back on the air.

[TruShade]

3. Don't discount Arthur Liu...

The owner of Mulitcultural is the father of Taiwan Rock & Roll and owns over 50 stations in the U.S.

[oceanpoetry]

4. according to the article

the company was recently going through bankruptcy and was acquired by GE - unless that is more part of the backroom deals going on.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Thanks for the info

[punpirate]

6. So far, no indication that the Chicago and LA stations...

... which are the current bone of contention between Multicultural and Air America are involved in this deal.

The beef, as far as I can tell, is still between Arthur Liu and Air America, not Radio Unica and Air America.

If, of course, the Chi and LA operations were delivered to GE in February as part of the deal, that's quite another matter.

[oceanpoetry]

7. the issue as I understand it ...

Liu was collecting money from *both* AAR and Radio Unica, AAR put a hold on their payment when they realized Liu was double-dipping ...it is even possible that Radio Unica (backed by GE) put a huge offer on the table to replace AAR broadcast.

on edit: coincidentally the article came out 3/30, the day before AAR began broadcasting nationwide.

[punpirate]

8. Is there a source indicating that...

... the two stations in LA and Chicago were part of the deal with GE for Radio Unica? If so, that would be a marvelous find....

[MetaTrope]

9. Isn't the story saying that GE

provided the loan which Liu used to buy Unica? In other words, GE isn't the direct owner? Of course, that doesn't mean they couldn't put pressure on Liu to padlock the doors.

[oceanpoetry]

10. yes, that's correct

It is Radio Unica that had a bankruptcy filing and was acquired by MRBI with financial backing on GE. It is Radio Unica that is now broadcasting in LA on 1580AM instead of AAR - this whole thing is shady! I am interpreting this as MRBI was paid off by GE to take AAR off the air.