Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peopl ...

community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in

multiple languages Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

. The company was founded as Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. (MRBI) in 1982 with an initial business in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

radio broadcasting industry. To this day, it remains the largest Asian American owned media group in the U.S.

Air America controversy

In 2004, two weeks after Air America Radio's debut, it was pulled off the Multicultural radio stations in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

markets due to a contract dispute. Air America alleged that Multicultural sold time on their

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

station to both AAR and another party, and claimed that was why they stopped payment on checks due Multicultural while AAR investigated. Multicultural noted that Air America bounced a check and claimed they were owed in excess of $1 million. Air America Radio filed a complaint in

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

, charging

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other par ...

and was briefly granted an injunction to restore the network on WNTD in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on WNTD was April 30. The New York Supreme Court ultimately concluded that the injunction was improvidently entered and that Air America Radio's court action was without merit, dismissing Air America's complaint and awarding over $250,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to Multicultural. According to a subsequent lawsuit filed by Multicultural, Air America Radio never paid the sums ordered by the court.

Radio stations by state

Source for list:

California

* KALI-FM - Santa Ana * KALI (AM) -

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...

* KAZN -

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

* KAHZ -

''(at

Pomona Pomona may refer to: Places Argentina * Pomona, Río Negro Australia * Pomona, Queensland, Australia, a town in the Shire of Noosa * Pomona, New South Wales, Australia Belize * Pomona, Belize, a municipality in Stann Creek District Mexico ...

)'' * KMRB -

KBLA KBLA (1580 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Santa Monica, California, KBLA serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, through licensee Multicultural Radio Broadcas ...

KFSG KFSG (1690 kHz) is an AM radio station broadcasting a Brokered programming format featuring Spanish Religious and Multilingual shows. KFSG is licensed to Roseville, California and serves the Sacramento metropolitan area. The station is owned ...

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

KLIB KLIB (1110 AM) is a radio station that broadcasts from Roseville, California, and serves Sacramento. The station broadcasts to the Asian community, and is owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. The transmitter's broadcast power is 5,000 watt ...

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

* KATD - Pittsburg/

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

''(satellite of KIQI 1010)'' * KEST -

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

* KIQI -

* KSJX - San Jose/

Florida

* WNMA -

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

* WEXY -

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

* WJCC -

Maryland

* WLXE - Rockville * WFBR -

Glen Burnie Glen Burnie is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population of Glen Burnie was 67,639 at the 2010 census. History In 1812, Elias Glenn, a ...

Massachusetts

* WAZN - Watertown *

WLYN WLYN is a brokered time ethnic radio station in the Boston market. The station is licensed to Lynn, Massachusetts, and is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting. Its programming is broadcast on 1360 kHz on the AM band. WLYN had broadcast in A ...

Lynn Lynn may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lynn (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Lynn (surname) * The Lynns, a 1990s American country music duo consisting of twin sisters Peggy and Patsy Lynn * Lynn ( ...

New Jersey

* WHWH -

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

* WPAT -

Paterson Paterson may refer to: People * Paterson (surname) * Paterson (given name) Places Australia *Paterson, New South Wales *Paterson River, New South Wales * Division of Paterson, an electoral district in New South Wales *Paterson, Queensland, a lo ...

(NYC) * WWRU -

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark, New Jersey, Newark.

(NYC)

New York

* WKDM -

* WZRC -

Pennsylvania

* WTTM -

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Texas

* KDFT - Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex ''(at

Ferris Ferris may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Ferris (name), a list of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Ferris MC, stage name of German rapper Sascha Reimann (born 1973) * Ferris Bueller, ...

)'' * KMNY - Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex ''(at Hurst)'' *

KCHN KCHN (1050 AM) is a Houston, Texas, area radio station, licensed to Brookshire, Texas serving mostly Asian listeners with broadcasts in a mix of Indian, Chinese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Pakistani languages. Sports programming includes coverage ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

Washington

* KXPA -

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

* KARI - Blaine * KVRI - Blaine ''(studios in

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...

, serving

Metro Vancouver The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as one of the 28 ...

)''

Television

On September 26, 2006, Multicultural Broadcasting made an agreement with The E. W. Scripps Company to buy five of Scripps'

Shop At Home The Shop at Home Network (more commonly known as just Shop at Home, Shop at Home TV, SATH) was a television network in the United States. Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006, Shop at Home (SATH NASDAQ) was a public company which ...

Jewelry Television Jewelry Television is an American television network specializing in the sale of jewelry for both men and women. On-air and online, the network is mainly branded by its jtv initials in lower-case letters. It has an estimated reach of more than ...

affiliated broadcast television stations for $170 million. Sales were final on KCNS (

), WOAC (

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes ...

; now WRLM), WRAY-TV ( Raleigh/ Durham, North Carolina) on December 20, 2006, followed by WMFP (

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

) and WSAH ( Bridgeport, Connecticut). Prior to that, the five stations switched to a 24-hour infomercial format. The Sunbelt Television-owned KHIZ (now KILM) (

Barstow, California Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Located in the Inland Empire region of California, the population was 25,415 at the 2020 census. Barstow is an important crossroads for the In ...

) has been absorbed into Multicultural's portfolio upon FCC approval, however, it remained an affiliate of

SonLife Broadcasting Network Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostalism, Pentecostal televangelism, televangelist, southern gospel, gospel music recording artist, pianist, and Christian author. His television ministry, which began in 1971, an ...

. On November 5, 2008; Multicultural Broadcasting has suffered financial defaults of $135 million in loans and the company has headed into a trust under the care and feeding of Lee W. Shubert for the purposes of selling off assets and paying off their creditors. Stations included KCNS, WMFP, WOAC, and WRAY-TV.Multicultural group going into breakup mode
-
Radio/Television Business Report
' (released November 5, 2008) WOAC was the first to be picked up on June 24, 2009 by

Tri-State Christian Television Tri-State Christian Television, Inc., doing business as TCT Network and TCT Ministries, is a religious television network in the United States. The network was founded in May 1977 by Garth Coonce and his wife, Tina Coonce. TCT Network includes t ...

, through Radiant Life Ministries. WRAY-TV was sold in October 2009. In January 2011, KCNS, WMFP, and WSAH were sold to NRJ TV, LLC. KILM was the only remaining TV station in the Multicultural group until 2018 when

Ion Media Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations grou ...

purchased it and converted it to an

Ion Life Ion Plus is an American free linear television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company that formerly operated as a broadcast television network until February 28, 2021. The network originally launched in 200 ...

affiliate. In 2012 Arthur Liu sold its headquarters at 449 Broadway, relocating executive offices and studios to 40 Exchange Place in the Financial district.

References

External links

* {{Multicultural Broadcasting Television networks in the United States Radio broadcasting companies of the United States Companies based in New York City