Talk Radio Network Issues ‘S-O-S’

TRN On Life Support

In a dramatic statement warning industry colleagues they could face a similar predicament, conservative talk-radio syndicator Talk Radio Network announced Monday it is cutting back to “basic operating essentials” and suspending operations of its America’s Radio News Network because of alleged antitrust violations and other unfair practices by its distributor, Dial Global, now known as Westwood One. (See original posting, Click Here.)

According to wnd.com, TRN said those practices coupled with Westwood One’s pending merger with radio broadcaster and syndicator Cumulus Media Inc., could lead to curbs in the diversity of viewpoints in the talk-radio world that would pose a “significant risk to free speech.”

Mark Masters

Oregon-based TRN and its CEO, Mark Masters, claimed the conduct of Westwood One has forced TRN’s subsidiaries to “make wrenching internal decisions and to take painful internal actions.”

The highly influential talk-radio syndicator, known for propelling into national prominence radio stars such as Art Bell, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham, filed an antitrust suit against Westwood One, then known as Dial Global, in August 2012. A second amended complaint in April alleged further antitrust violations, unfair competition and breach of contract.

In its announcement today, TRN called the pending merger between Westwood One and Cumulus Media “a dark one for our industry.”

TRN has charged that Westwood One has been “collecting our advertising revenues, but refusing to pay them over to us or to account for them,” forcing TRN companies to “reduce as many operating costs as possible.”

TRN subsidiaries are Talk Radio Network Enterprises LLC, Talk Radio Network Entertainment Inc., Talk Radio Network-FM Inc., National Weekend Radio Syndications Inc. and America’s Radio News Network, or ARNN.

ARNN was forced to shut down its operations at the end of the broadcast day Friday, but TRN said rumors that other programming would be shut down are “unfounded.”

In its complaint, TRN has claimed that Westwood One’s actions have posed “a significant risk to free speech under the First Amendment because it holds the prospect of eliminating or substantially reducing the number of independent talk-radio producers and limiting the news radio broadcasts available.”

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