Tavis Smiley has been operating KBLA 1580 in Los Angeles since 2021 with the intent to purchase the station. However, it appears that won’t be happening.
According to filings with the FCC, Smiley’s plan to buy the station for nearly $6.9 million by the end of March has fallen through with no extension of the purchase agreement announced.
Hoping to use the station to launch a network of Black talk radio shows, Smiley originally put $1.5 million towards the sale with a slate of high-profile investors like rapper Ice Cube, comedian Bill Maher, and NBA star Mike Conley, among others.
His bid to take over the station, however, has seen opposition from the Ukrainian Congress Committee after the current owners — Multicultural Radio Broadcasting — leased airtime on its Washington, D.C. signal 1390 WZHF to Russian government-supported Radio Sputnik.
The organization aimed to block the sale with a bevy of allegations, including targeting Tavis Smiley specifically for his history of sexual misconduct claims from his time at PBS and his reported inability to pay the $2.8 million he was ordered to pay PBS after he left the network.
Despite the change in the prospective ownership of the KBLA 1580, programming on the station has not changed since the deal to purchase the station has fallen through, according to InsideRadio.
