American Urban Radio Network personnel were able to return to their offices after being locked out by the company’s partner Sheridan Broadcasting Company for five days.
Common Pleas Judge Christine Ward issued a temporary injunction ordering Sheridan to reopen the doors Sept. 19 and ordered the parties to reconvene in her chambers two days later.
As reported earlier in the New Pittsburgh Courier online edition, Sheridan locked the doors to its broadcasting facilities Sept. 14, citing non-payment for services provided to AURN by its subsidiary Sheridan Broadcasting Network dating back several months and the resulting inability to pay rent.
But in addition to the AURN personnel, Sheridan also locked out its own news, sports and entertainment staff—who create the content Sheridan’s subsidiary, Sheridan Broadcasting Network, sells to AURN for broadcast.
On Sept. 16, Sheridan paid half of the back-due rent and agreed to pay the balance within 30 days, said Ron Davenport Jr., special counsel and president of SBC’s radio division, who also confirmed Sheridan had complied with the court order.
But AURN President for Programming Operations and Affiliations Jerry Lopes, said while his people are back in the office, the Sheridan people are not. The only content currently going out is gospel programming, which was also shut down for a long enough time to have cost the network at least two stations.
[pullquote]“I called Ron and offered to pay the balance of the rent as a show of good faith to get things moving, he said no—not until we get paid,” said Lopes. “I emailed Ron Sr. (who founded the company in 1971) and told him competitors are taking gospel stations away—and they won’t be coming back. He said he didn’t care.”[/pullquote]
Davenport Jr. said he locked out AURN because it has not been paying for news and entertainment services SBN provides since April. He blamed indifference by the $250 billion hedge fund Guggenheim Capital which owns AURN’s parent company Access 1 Communications.
“So now we’re dealing with this goliath that doesn’t care about jobs, news, sports, services or people. They just care about money,” he said. “And we are suffering because they don’t want to do anything other than put us out of business.”
Lopes said Davenport Jr.’s explanation for it is not accurate.
“This has nothing to do with Guggenheim,” he said. “We reimburse Sheridan for services monthly—the money never made it to the intended parties. We learned a few months back that we owed a year’s worth of health and welfare payments to the unions.
They (Sheridan) invoiced us—we paid them—but the money never made it to the parties they said they were paying.”
One of those parties, Lopes said, is the landlord, who hasn’t been paid since February.
“SBC employees were shut out too; the news people, the gospel network—and they employ them,” he said. “They are jeopardizing our future, because we aren’t delivering services to our affiliates, and they’ve impacted their own people—it’s mind boggling.”
Lopes said this all stems from a protracted legal battle that, in May, cost Davenport Jr. and his father, Ron Davenport Sr., their 51 percent controlling interest in AURN. The untangling of assets accumulated since the Davenport Sr. founded Sheridan in 1971 is an ongoing, convoluted process.
Of this latest impasse, Lopes said he expects a rapid solution, because as Davenport Jr. acknowledged, AURN is the only entity buying SBC services.
“We’re in transition and there are bumps along the road,” said Lopes. “This is one of them It’s a significant one, but it’s nothing we won’t overcome. It’s just unfortunate because this move doesn’t resolve anything—they have no revenue stream. I’m it.”
“This just seems like anger to me. It’s reckless,” he said. “It’s biting the hand that feeds you—how’s that working for you?”
Davenport Jr. said his attorneys were not even present for the injunction hearing, which is highly irregular—but they will be there for the hearing on making the injunction permanent. He also confirmed that he has instructed the news, sports and entertainment staff to stay home until further notice.
“We have to talk to AURN about about what we’re owed, and whether we will continue providing services going forward, and if so, how much we’ll be paid,” he said.
“It costs money to provide this stuff. Yes, AURN is the sole outlet for our service—but that’s because it’s the only one we’ve used for 20 years.”
The injunction hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m., Sept. 21, in Ward’s chambers.
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