A Virginia radio company that was paid millions of dollars to broadcast Chinese Communist Party propaganda says it has cut ties with China after it came under scrutiny, including for a $100,000 small business loan it received during the pandemic.
Brian Lane, co-owner of the Potomac Radio Group, told the Washington Examiner this week the station is changing its programming format and will no longer do Beijing’s bidding.
“We are no longer carrying Chinese content,” Lane said. “We are changing to a time brokerage station that will carry various programming, including Spanish programming.”
A registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act by Potomac in December said the “foreign principal” for Potomac was the China Global Television Network, which is under the control of the CCP’s Publicity Department. Potomac owns WCRW AM 1190, which is heard in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. The company admitted it had been paid close to $4.4 million by CGTN and CCP-affiliated China Radio International from 2019 to 2021.
CHINA’S RARE EARTH METAL MONOPOLY IS A THREAT TO THE US
But a new FARA filing submitted last week revealed Potomac had ended its relationship with CGTN. The company also contended it had not received payments from China in the past six months but added: “CHINA GLOBAL TELEVISION NETWORK (CGTN): The registrants expects final payment.”
Lane did not answer questions about those expected payments.
A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner last month SBA has had fraud experts undertake a post-forgiveness review of the small business loan and referred the controversy to the SBA inspector general to investigate.
Potomac’s WCRW launched The Bridge podcast in August 2020, co-hosted by Chicago-based John St. Augustine and CRI’s Zhou Heyang. Episodes of the podcast have featured St. Augustine and Zhou praising China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, while St. Augustine repeatedly attacked the U.S. response and said he does not care where COVID-19 originated.
St. Augustine has been a producer for Dr. Oz, while Beijing-based Zhou is a prominent Chinese state media host.
In a December 2020 episode titled “The Angry American,” St. Augustine ranted about America’s response to the virus.
“I’m not a fan of the American people today,” he said, complaining about U.S. policies toward COVID-19 as Zhou touted China’s policies. “I’m embarrassed. It shouldn’t be this way. We’re doing this to ourselves now — no matter how this happened, how it started.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Avoiding swearing, St. Augustine added: “I don’t give a shirt where [COVID-19] came from. I don’t care where it started.”
The podcast appeared to be the AM radio station’s main endeavor — a promotion for it encompassed the entire homepage of the station’s website. The podcast did 366 daily episodes from August 2020 through August 2021. The podcast was still featured on the AM radio station’s website as recently as late December, according to a web archive, prior to being removed. The entire WCRW website now appears to have been deleted.
