On Monday, the FCC approved the reorganization plan for Audacy that included major backing from foreign billionaire George Soros. Nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin railed against the move by the FCC. During The Mark Levin Show on Monday, Levin argued that the commission circumvented its own rules and guidelines to push the acquisition through.
“This is their idea of free speech. This is their idea of radio. And this is a direct attack on conservative talk radio. So where is everybody?! Well, I’ll take the point as usual, and I don’t mind,” Levin said.
“As of this morning, the FCC voted three to two — all the Democrats — to hand him 220 radio stations and one of the biggest accumulation of radio stations ever,” said Levin. “But there’s many problems with this. Number one, George Soros is using over 25% investment from foreign investors. These are American radio stations. Number two, the FCC has slashed and sped up the process before the election to try and hand him those stations by circumventing the national security review process, when you have more than 25% invested by foreign entities.
“This has never happened before. It’s getting almost no attention … The Democrats have just handed George Soros — their biggest sugar daddy, an ideological leftist — 220 American radio stations with all this foreign investment. How the hell does he get away with this?”
Levin also said he believes that his exit from Audacy’s news/talk station 1210 WPHT in Philadelphia — his hometown — was directly tied to the investment from the fund backed by Soros and not due to his ratings performance.
“I work with Westwood One, which is a very upright company. They got notice about two weeks ago that WPHT, the old WCAU– I’m from Philadelphia — it is a huge station with a huge reach … ‘Oh, well, we’re gonna drop your show. Your last show is on October 5th.’ We just looked at our ratings. I’m tied with the highest number on the station. So obviously, that was ideologically driven,” said Levin.
Sources close to the situation at 1210 WPHT pushed back on the assertion from Levin, claiming that, in fact, his daypart was the lowest performing on the station. Additionally, the source told Barrett Media that the station informed Westwood One that it would not be renewing Levin’s contract with the station in July, more than three months before Soros’ involvement with the company was made official. The Mark Levin Show remains on the air in four other Audacy markets, and 1210 WPHT is the only station in the company that has dropped his program.
Levin continued by arguing that he’s not bringing the issue up for his own personal gain, but rather for the entire conservative news/talk and radio industry.
“I’m not just pleading for myself. (Soros is) taking 220 stations that have Dan Bongino, Glenn Beck, Charlie Kirk, and I could go on and on and on. The idea is that this is supposed to be a public license with a public interest. You know, you got all these billionaires and conglomerates to buy these stations and so forth. They have to meet requirements, basic requirements, that they’re doing a public service. It can’t treat these stations as their own little puppy dogs, and they can’t treat them as their own little ideological basis. This is an attack on free speech.”
Last month, 1210 WPHT announced it was adding Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla in the 7-10 PM timeslot previously occupied by The Mark Levin Show.
