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 Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counte ...

'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 WNTD (950 AM) is a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by Relevant Radio, Inc. Its has separate day-time (1,000 watts; non-directional) and night-time (5,000 watts; directional) transmitter locations. It is currently one o ...

in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on

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 KALI-FM (106.3 FM) is a Vietnamese language radio station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to serve the community of Santa Ana, California, United States. KALI airs musical and entertainment shows. This station directly ...

- Santa Ana *

KALI (AM) KALI (900 AM) is a radio station licensed to West Covina, California, with transmitter in Chino. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and broadcasts Mandarin Chinese and other ethnic programming. Historically, KALI was KGRB, a bi ...

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 KAZN (1300 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Pasadena, California, KAZN serves the Greater Los Angeles area with a Mandarin Chinese language format. The station was founded in 1948 as KAGH. From 1950 to 1989, ...

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 KAHZ (1600 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Pomona, California, the station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and is a full-time simulcast of KAZN, a Chinese language station licensed in Pasadena. The sta ...

''(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 KATD (990 AM) is a radio station that rebroadcasts San Francisco station KIQI. Licensed to Pittsburg, California, the station serves the Sacramento Valley. The station is currently owned by Multicultural Broadcasting. KATD is partnered with the ...

- Pittsburg/

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

''(satellite of

KIQI KIQI (1010 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and airs a Spanish-language talk radio format. KIQI 1010 AM is simulcast on KATD 990 AM in the Sacramento Valley. Most shows a ...

1010)'' *

KEST KEST (1450 AM) is a brokered time radio station in San Francisco, California. Most of the station's programming is in Asian languages, including Mandarin and Cantonese. It also airs some South Asian, Greek and German programs as well as New A ...

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 ...

KSJX KSJX (1500 AM) is a broadcast radio station licensed to San Jose, California, United States. Owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, the station broadcasts programming in Vietnamese. Founded in 1948 with the call signs KXRX, the station had vari ...

- San Jose/

Florida

WNMA WNMA (1210 AM) is a radio station licensed to Miami Springs, Florida, serving the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. It airs a Spanish-language Christian format known as "Radio Oasis 1210". The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and curr ...

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 WEXY (1520 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an urban contemporary gospel format, with some paid brokered programming on religion, health and other topics. Licensed to Wilton Manors, Florida, United States, the station serves the Fort Laude ...

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 WLXE is a radio station broadcasting on 1600 kHz in the medium wave AM band. Its studios and transmitters are located in Rockville, Maryland, and it serves the Washington metropolitan area. WLXE broadcasts music programming in the Spanish ...

- 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 WAZN (1470 AM) is an ethnic radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market, licensed to Watertown. It is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, and broadcasts Chinese language programming, simulcast from M.R.B.I.'s New York City station. His ...

- 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 WHWH (1350 AM) is a radio station in Princeton, New Jersey, serving Trenton, New Jersey. Established in 1963, the station is owned and operated by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC. History WHWH signed on September 7, 1963. The ...

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 WWRU (1660 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey, broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area. It airs Korean language talk and music shows, with the studios in Manhattan. WWRU broadcasts at 10,000 watts ...

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 WKDM (1380 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and broadcasts on weekdays in Mandarin Chinese. Most shows are brokered programming, where the host pays for the ti ...

WZRC WZRC, known on-air as "AM1480" (), is a radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and airs Cantonese programming. It is one of two Cantonese radio stations serving the New York metropolitan are ...

Pennsylvania

WTTM WTTM (1680 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Latin music and Spanish-language talk format to the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The station has its studios and offices in Philadelphia and its transmitter site in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The ...

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 KDFT (540 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Ferris, Texas and broadcasting to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. It is owned and operated by Multicultural Broadcasting and airs a Spanish-language Christian talk and teaching radio f ...

- 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 KMNY (1360 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Hurst, Texas, and serving the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. It is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language Christian radio format known as "La Voz 1360." K ...

- Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex ''(at

Hurst Hurst may refer to: Places England * Hurst, Berkshire, a village * Hurst, North Yorkshire, a hamlet * Hurst, a settlement within the village of Martock, Somerset * Hurst, West Sussex, a hamlet * Hurst Spit, a shingle spit in Hampshire ** Hur ...

)'' *

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 KXPA (1540 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Bellevue, Washington, and serving the Seattle metropolitan area. It is part of the nationwide Multicultural Radio Broadcasting network, one of 30 stations owned by Arthur Liu, which ca ...

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 Kari or KARI may refer to: Places *Kari, Jhunjhunu, a village in Rajasthan, India * , a village in Mouhoun Province, Burkina Faso *Kari, Tikamgarh, a town in Madhya Pradesh, India *Kari, Iran, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran *Kari-ye Bozorg ("G ...

- Blaine *

KVRI KVRI (branded as Radio India) is a radio station licensed to Blaine, Washington, United States, serving Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with a combined India News/Talk/Music format. It broadcasts on AM frequency 1600 kHz and is under ow ...

- 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 The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

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 KCNS (channel 38) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from ShopHQ. KCNS shares its digital channel with KMTP- ...

(

), 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 WRAY-TV (channel 30) is a religious television station licensed to Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle region as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitte ...

(

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

/ Durham, North Carolina) on December 20, 2006, followed by

WMFP WMFP (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Foxborough, Massachusetts, United States, serving the Boston area and primarily airing paid programming. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Norwell-licensed ShopHQ affiliate WWDP ...

(

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 KILM (channel 64) is a television station licensed to Inglewood, California, United States, broadcasting the Bounce TV network to the Los Angeles area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside S ...

) (

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 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

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