Sheridan Broadcasting Corp. Padlocks Doors On AURN In Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Citing non-payment for services provided its subsidiary SHERIDAN BROADCASTING NETWORK (SBN) dating back several months, and the resulting inability to pay rent, SHERIDAN BROADCASTING CO. has locked the third floor offices of its former partner AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORK (AURN), reports the PITTSBURGH COURIER.

According to the COURIER story, a memo was sent to employees SEPTEMBER 14th, “Accordingly, effective at 9p this evening, all access to the third floor is terminated. The termination will remain effective until further notice.”

This affects 6-AURN employees and SHERIDAN BROADCASTING CORP. employees for; SHERIDAN BROADCASTING NETWORK (SBN),  SHERIDAN GOSPEL NETWORK, and SHERIDAN PRODUCTION SERVICES.

The current situation apparently is related to a court judgment back in MAY when ACCESS. 1 COMMUNICATIONS completed the acquisition of AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS (AURN) in the settlement of its breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against its former partner SHERIDAN BROADCASTING NETWORKS, INC.  (NET NEWS 5/17).

SHERIDAN BROADCASTING CORP. (privately owned by the DAVENPORT family)  owns SHERIDAN BROADCAST NETWORK and The SHERIDAN GOSPEL NETWORK; the GOSPEL NETWORK is an affiliate of AURN.

AURN Pres./Programming Operations & Affiliations JERRY LOPES told ALL ACCESS, “This entire new arrangement between SHERIDAN BROADCAST CORP. and AURN is still in transition and there are going to be bumps in the road until we can determine the true realistic value of SHERIDAN’s services to AURN.  We are committed to negotiating a true and fair price to AURN.”

SHERIDAN BROADCAST CORP. Special Counsel/Pres. Radio Division RON DAVENPORT Jr. told ALL ACCESS, We--SHERIDAN BROADCAST CORP. (SBC) padlocked the door to the office they occupied on the 3rd floor of the space we lease. The other two-thirds of those on the floor provided services to AURN and they are affected too. There originally was a partnership with the NATIONAL BLACK NETWORK (NBN), a subsidiary of ACCESS. 1--which came under the of the control of GUGGENHEIM CAPITOL PARTNERS in 2013. Even under the new ACCESS 1 arrangement,  SBN kept providing service to AURN--they have not paid SBC which includes SHERIDAN BROADCASTING NETWORK (SBN) services. So that's why we stopped providing the services of News, Sports, Entertainment programming, production, engineering etc.  In other words, they have not paid the rent or for the services we provide.”

“SBC is on the lease and AURN is not, they are a sub-tenant, we are not providing any services to AURN until further notice.”

You can read the COURIER story here.

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