FCC Allows Soros-Backed Group To Buy Up Hispanic Radio Stations In America

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled in favor of a far-left organization affiliated with leftist billionaire George Soros. The federal agency gave the go-ahead last week to purchase Spanish-language radio stations across the country, including Radio Mambi, a conservative outlet in Miami, from Televisa Univision for $60 million.

The station has strong ties to the city’s sizable Cuban exile community, which tends to lean right and helped propel Republicans to major election victory earlier this month, including Governor Ron DeSantis. After the deal is completed, the station, which broadcasts anti-Communist views, will be controlled by liberals, according to Fox News Digital.

Latino Media Network, which is partially financed by an investment group affiliated with Soros Fund Management, is controlled by Jess Morales Rocketto, a former Hillary for America and AFL-CIO employee, and former Obama White House staffer Stephanie Valencia. The FCC rejected a petition to block the proposed sale.

“We have reviewed the applications and find that Univision is qualified to assign, and LMN is qualified to hold, the licenses for the stations,” FCC Audio Division chief Albert Shuldiner wrote in a decision announced on Monday and originally reported by Inside Radio.

The Soros-linked group is also vying for control of Spanish-language stations in a number of other major markets, including New York, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. A number of conservatives, particularly right-wing Hispanics, have slammed the sale, accusing it of an attempt to control information available to Spanish-speaking voters.

“Radio Mambi staffers have been furious for months, and some of the station’s biggest stars walked away before the FCC even paved way for the deal to happen. Conservative host Lourdes Ubieta quit in July, saying she would never accept a paycheck from anyone connected to Soros,” Fox News Digital reported.

“America is a free country. Even an avowed global socialist with a clear radical political agenda can buy our media outlets to silence their opposition,” Ubieta told the outlet.

She also mentioned that Soros has gone down this path before.

“It’s also a country where we can leave such a workplace, start our own radio station at Radio Libre, and beat the pants off that socialist in the ratings,” Ubieta said. “George Soros tried talk radio once before with Radio America and failed miserably. And today, Miami market ratings show he’s on his way to defeat again, even before he gets started.”

Audacy’s new Radio Libre 790 debuted in September, far ahead of Soros’ takeover of Radio Mambi, providing a conservative alternative to Miami’s Spanish-speaking population. Nelson Rubio, Dania Alexandrino, and Ubieta are all former Radio Mambi hosts. Fox News Digital reported that the station carries “content from upstart Americano Media.”

For months, Jorge Bonilla, the Latino director of the conservative Media Research Center, has been critical of Soros’ planned acquisition of the radio stations. He sees it as an attempt to acquire control of narratives with blocs of voters in large metropolitan areas.

“With the last significant roadblock removed, the Soros-backed Latino Media Network can finalize its purchase of the Univision stations, neuter or kill anti-communist bastion Radio Mambi, and attempt to exert influence upon the 2024 election across the nation’s top Hispanic markets, which include such places as the Rio Grande Valley (McAllen, TX) and Las Vegas,” Bonilla wrote.

“The establishment of ‘Radio Soros’ as a trusted purveyor of information is critical to the next stage of The Great Spanish-Language Disinformation War we’ve seen unfold over the past few years,” he added.

He also went over the specifics of the eventual arrangement that resulted in Soros’ success in acquiring the stations.

“There was nominal opposition to the deal, which the FCC promptly shot down. That is, in part, because the best time to kill this deal was in 2017- when the incoming Republican Congress had the power to do so under the Congressional Review Act,” Bonilla noted. “Recall that it was under cover of the Obama-Trump transition that the FCC approved a sweeping rule change that enabled Univision to increase its foreign ownership stake from 25 to 49 percent.”