Soros Seeking to Expand Audio Empire

(FABRICE COFFRINI/Getty Images)

A management fund created by billionaire liberal George Soros is set to add to its burgeoning audio empire after it acquired in February a controlling interest in bankrupt Audacy, the second-largest radio company in the U.S. behind iHeart Media.

Soros Fund Management, which is now controlled by Soros’ nonprofit Open Society Foundations, has also privately discussed acquiring other major radio companies that are struggling, such as the publicly traded Cumulus Media, Semafor reported Sunday, citing three people who have been involved in discussions with Soros executives.

The acquisition of Audacy gives Soros Fund Management 230 radio stations nationwide — including New York’s WFAN and 1010 WINS, as well as Los Angeles-based KROQ, per bankruptcy filings, the New York Post reported Tuesday, adding the fund also took on roughly $400 million of Audacy’s debt.

The fund’s lead media investor, Michael Del Nin, met with a number of major figures in digital media and audio during the last year, including the podcast company Project Brazen, Semafor reported. It has also considered several potential companies for acquisition, including Pushkin Industries, the podcast company from Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, and Lemonada, the network best known for its “Wiser Than Me” show hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Another podcast industry insider told Semafor that Lemonada is amid a formal process to find a buyer but that some potential suitors have balked at its high asking price.

In 2022, Soros invested an undisclosed amount in Crooked Media, the liberal podcast network behind the popular “Pod Save America.”

But Soros’ desire to build an audio empire could be hampered by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restrictions that limit the number of radio stations an entity can own.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., on Monday called on FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to investigate Soros’ purchase of Audacy, the Daily Caller reported Tuesday.

“I believe this sale is the latest in a series of moves by a partisan, progressive billionaire to consolidate control over the media and flood hundreds of radio stations with far-left ideology and propaganda,” Langworthy wrote in a letter to Rosenworcel, according to the Daily Caller. “Furthermore, I believe that what we could lose in the process is the unique lifeline that local radio brings through both local connection and diversity of thought that have been so important to Americans, particularly in recent years.”