W?T?F? Owner Of 3 KC Radio Stations Will Begin Daily Broadcasts Of Russian Propaganda (Sputnik)
A Kansas City area radio station can broadcast Russian state-owned media programming, the type that U.S. intelligence called a “propaganda machine,” for six hours a day through a lease agreement struck by a local radio operator.
RM Broadcasting LLC, a Florida-based company that has agreements to broadcast the Russian state media program Radio Sputnik, reached a deal on Jan. 1 to lease air time through Alpine Broadcasting Corp. in Liberty. Alpine Broadcasting Corp. broadcasts on three frequencies in the Kansas City area: KCXL 1140 AM, 102.9 FM and 104.7 FM. The lease agreement lets RM Broadcasting air its programming from 6 to 9 a.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. seven days a week. KCXL’s website, which says that it’s the radio station that will “tell you the things that the liberal media wont (sic) tell you,” lists Radio Sputnik in its morning programming.
A 2017 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that evaluated Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election described Sputnik as “another government-funded outlet producing pro-Kremlin radio and online content in a variety of languages for international audiences.”
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RM Broadcasting is run in Florida by a man named Arnold Ferolito. He disputed the government’s assessment of Radio Sputnik. “Ninety percent of the programming is generated right here in the United States,” Ferolito told The Star in an interview. RM Broadcasting in 2019 was ordered by a federal judge to register as a foreign agent under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires political agents in the U.S. acting on a foreign government’s behalf to disclose their relationships, finances and activities. Ferolito took exception to the government’s requirement to register as a foreign agent. “I just sell air time that’s all I do,” Ferolito said. “The government put a gun to my head and forced me to sign.”
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https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article239359868.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
That said, this will become a favored outlet for Trump and his campaign - bet on it.
WZHF is a news-formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Capitol Heights, Maryland, serving the Washington, D.C. area. A non-commercial station owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, WZHF broadcasts the Russian Radio Sputnik network full time.
The station went on air on April 7, 1947 as WEAM, licensed to Arlington, Virginia and founded by J. Maynard Magruder. Throughout its history, WZHF has had a variety of formats including top 40, rock, R&B, big band, country, and health. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station broadcast local college basketball games from American University, Georgetown, and George Washington. As WMZQ, the station was owned by Viacom and played classic country from 1984 to 1987 before fully simulcasting WMZQ-FM, its sister station that played contemporary country music, from 1987 to 1996.
Beginning in 1999, WZHF had a variety of ethnic formats, with programming primarily in Spanish and various Asian languages. In 2011, WZHF began broadcasting English-language Voice of Russia programming. After resuming a Spanish-language format around 2015, WZHF began broadcasting Radio Sputnik, the successor of Voice of Russia, in November 2017. Due to Radio Sputnik being an official Russian state broadcaster, WZHF registered with the federal government as a foreign agent in 2019.
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Radio Sputnik and FARA registration
On November 25, 2017, WZHF began broadcasting Radio Sputnik, the Russian government's international, English-language broadcast network. WZHF fully simulcasts Radio Sputnik, aside from the hourly station identification.
In October 2018, in a legal case at Florida's federal court, RM Broadcasting LLC of Jupiter Florida sued the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) over the requirement it should register as a Russian agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). In May 2019, Judge Robin Rosenberg, ruled that the station must register as an agent of the Russian government. Payments made to the station's owners by Rossíya Segódnya make it an agent of the Russian broadcasting organization, according to the ruling. The Justice Department, in a statement, said American citizens "have a right to know if a foreign flag waves behind speech broadcast in the United States."
RM Broadcasting, LLC registered as a foreign agent with the DOJ on June 21, 2019. In DOJ filings, the Florida-based company acknowledged that they were paid $1,427,016.29, from November 24, 2017 to June 2019, by the "Federal State Unitary Enterprise International Information Agency". Rossiya Segodnya is the owner of Radio Sputnik, itself an arm of the Russian government.
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About "Multicultural Broadcasting":
Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the Asian American community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in multiple languages.
The company was founded as Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. (MRBI) in 1982 with an initial business in United States radio broadcasting industry. To this day, it remains the largest Asian American owned media group in the U.S.
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So, are RM and Multicultural affiliated?? Kinda looks that way...
