Miami Radio: Listeners, Staffers Fume Over Latino Media Network Plans

Promising boycotts, protests and strikes, Cuban exile leaders expressed their fear that two Miami stations, Radio Mambí and WQBA — which have traditionally advocated for Cuba’s freedom — would be silenced after being bought by Latino Media Network, a media company run by “social activists with a left-wing progressive political agenda,” reports The Miami Herald. 

TelevisaUnivision, Inc. reached an agreement to sell 18 stations, including Radio Mambí and WQBA, in different cities, to Latino Media Network (LMN), founded by Stephanie Valencia, who worked in the White House as a special assistant to the president and as director of public engagement under the Barack Obama administration, and Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked in the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns. 

The newly created LMN, which has managed to raise $80 million for its startup, also has funds from the investment firm Lakestar Finance LLC, associated with liberal-leaning billionaire George Soros. 

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, on behalf of 35 exile organizations, called a meeting in Little Havana, to express its concern about the “silencing and the marginalization of radio stations that have historically been the voices of support for Cuba’s freedom,” according to a letter delivered to the media.

 The group of exiled leaders that included Sylvia Iriondo, from M.A.R. for Cuba, Rafael Montalvo, president of Brigade 2506, and businesswoman Irina Vilariño, who ran for a congressional seat, expressed their rejection of any form of censorship against the radio stations and the conservative views.  

“We remain united to defend and safeguard the rights of the Cuban people and to express their suffering in public spaces,” said Iriondo, reading the letter from the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which indicates that they will resort to “legal and legitimate resources available in this nation, including boycotts, strikes, and protests.” 

The event featured speeches by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, state Sen. Ileana García, state Rep. Tom Fabricio and Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo, who recalled the community service provided by the stations and the updated information on the situation of political prisoners, the Ladies in White and opponents on the island. 

George Soros

In her speech, Núñez said that she grew up listening to Radio Mambí, which became a benchmark in her political education. 

 “Since I was a little girl, my dad insisted on turning on the radio every morning on the way to school. I used to tell him, ‘Daddy, why do I have to listen to this again?’ and he ignored me, and it’s good that he didn’t because today my 23-year-old daughter, since she was a child, has also been listening to those radio programs,” she said. For Núñez, the sale of the radio stations could have an impact on the access that young people have to historical information on the human rights violations committed in Cuba.

The lieutenant governor assured that George Soros would be financing LMN and the purchase of the radio stations and criticized the origin of the funds. “We cannot let a harmful activist billionaire, who has a history of financing radical causes and candidates, buy our stations, which have been the voice of our exile,” said Núñez. 

Bovo pointed out that Radio Mambí has opened the doors to Democrats, independents and Republicans, “as long as they carry the freedom of Cuba on their agenda.” 

Meanwhile, Breitbart is reporting TelevisaUnivisión, which owns Radio Mambí, is reportedly facing so much employee disgust from the sale that the conglomerate is offering key Radio Mambí personalities $120,000 bonuses (half paid once the Federal Communications Commission approves the sale, half once the leftist group takes over) to stay at the network.